A day for tramping all over Moscow, and we ended up seeing a lot of it. Started off going to Lubyanka (which was also the site of one of the bombs in the Metro last week) in search of the famous KGB headquarters. Found the building all right, its pretty hard to disguise. There are rumours of occasional tours, but anything that the Russians want to hide won't have any signs, and so after walking right around the building and not seeing one sign indicating what the building is, let alone what it was (evidently the same its said), we concluded that we weren't going to find a tour, and headed off for some morning tea instead. Cappaccinos seem to be very expensive in Moscow. We paid 180 roubles which is about AU$7.50. Even McDonalds charges about $5.
Down past the Bolshoi Ballet and the Duma (parliament) to the huge Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, blown up by Stalin for a swimming pool, and rebuilt in the 1990s. Icons and candles everywhere, and very busy with people. You seriously strain your neck trying to look at the paintings on the high domes and roofs.
Walked up past the queue to the Picasso Exhibition at the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, to Arbat Place - a very long pedestrian mall catering for tourists with expensive shops, cheesy souvenirs, and lots of eating places. A long walk down the road to Tolstoy's house and estates, very well preserved. Presumably he wasn't a poor man. The house was luxurious for the time, and the grounds extensive. Down the Moscow River and across to Gorky Park - as big as Hyde Park, but far more commercialised with food, amusement rides, fountains and concert stages, as well as historical gardens. The only thing open in the huge park was a fairy floss vendor (that's cotton candy for you Americans), but they were being serious about removing the ice and snow that remained, with teams of workmen and graders hard at it.
More walking to the nearest metro, and off home. It was really interesting to look at the walking route we took plotted onto Google Maps, courtesy of our GPS unit. You can even see which paths we took in the park its so accurate. We walked for miles, and often in circles!
The web's original travel blog
