Moscow Day 1 - Red Square and the Moscow Metro

We arrived in Moscow late on Saturday afternoon. The driver had little English and ignored speed limits all the long way in from Domodedvo airport. Roads excellent though. We are staying at the Renaissance Hotel - very new, and has an Australian manager.



The view from our room in the hotel


We met our guide Rita, who is Latvian. She's excellent. Had a nice dinner in the hotel, but drinks quite expensive. Also met up with Tony and Jenny Georgeson as planned.

With our guide Rita, and tour guide Elena, we did a city tour. Stopped at Red Square, with its Cathedrals and Resurrection Gate, and Lenin's tomb. Also GUM department store takes up one whole long side of this very long square. Think about twice as long as Queen Victoria Building. An amazing place, full of Designer Label Stores. Beautiful building inside.


Resurrection Gate, Red Square




National History Museum


GUM  Department Stores


Continued the tour past a number of famous buildings, statues of famous poets and other writers, the New Maiden Convent where wealthy women were exiled when their husbands tired of them, and also noble born women who were still unmarried at 26 years old.



The new Maiden Convent



After lunch at the Moscow Hard Rock Cafe we had a group tour of the Moscow Metro. It has fantastic architecture, build from the 1930s to 1950s, and had great propaganda value during the Soviet period. It is spotlessly clean, no graffiti, no damage, and trains run every 2-3 minutes.

It was a great experience, but I wouldn't want to get lost there, until I could read Russian Cyrillic Script.