Was in bed by 10 o’clock last night but didn’t get much sleep. Up at 4 am, suitcase in the hall by 4:20 and the bus was rolling at 5 o’clock! Due to the early hour, traffic was no issue so it took us just about fifty minutes to arrive at Domodedova airport which is located to the southeast of the city center. Check-in, security, and passport control were a breeze and we were at the gate by 6:45. Plenty of time to relax before our 9 am flight to Frankfurt.

Our flight arrived in Frankfurt on time, however we had only an hour and fifteen minutes between flights. Normally this should probably be fine but not today… Our plane was parked on the tarmac and we bussed over to the terminal. We entered the security line at noon for our 12:45 flight. We (Jerry, Doug, Nancy and myself) didn’t make it through in time. Jackie who was using wheelchair assistance and Diana who accompanied her, were able to make it through in time.

Thus began our adventure to find a hotel for the night. It first took awhile to find the hotel phones. We reached the Holiday Inn which said they had rooms available so we headed that direction. On the way we spotted a Sheraton which was onsite which would have been more convenient but they wanted 500 bucks. Onward. It was a little confusing navigating out of the airport so we stopped at McDonald’s for an ice cream. Called the Holiday Inn to confirm location and room availability. Finally made it out of the airport and after a dead end street found are way to the Holiday Inn. They were now sold out…

They suggested the place across the street. In the meantime I was able to secure a room at the Hampton Inn next door. The other hotel was also booked. Turns out there is some convention in the city this week. The Hampton Inn was also booked so we had just the one room for the four of us. Fortunately it had a queen bed Plus a pull out sofa so we could manage.

We went next door to the Holiday Inn for dinner as it was pretty much the only restaurant in walking distance. While we were having drinks, Doug checked if any rooms had become available and they told him to check back after 7. So as we were having dinner it passed seven o’clock and Nancy check on a room and luckily enough a room was available. So in the end we all had comfortable space for the night.

Next step – get out of here tomorrow morning!

After a long day yesterday, I slept in until about eight o’clock. Finally downstairs to breakfast about 8:30 and had a relaxing breakfast prior to our 9:45 departure for the Tretyakov fine art gallery. Again not something that I was particularly looking forward to but it’s on the agenda. In the end it was actually quite enjoyable as there is some amazing artwork. It’s amazing what can be accomplished with brush and paint by a skilled artist.

Two in particular that struck me, though don’t ask me the artist or the names of the works. The first was a painting of a woman on a horse in which the background was green trees and she wore a green scarf blowing in the wind. You could clearly discern the green on green. The second was a winter painting of several women on a street with a puddle in the foreground. From a distance this puddle with their reflection looked like water while close up it appears just as a matte surface. Okay there was a third which featured a bridge consisting of three logs. It was reminiscent of an MC Escher drawing as when viewed from the left the bridge appears to go from lower left to upper right but as you move to the right it appears to orient in the opposite direction.

We returned to the hotel about one o’clock and I’ve been catching up on the last couple days of posts. Finally a nice relaxing afternoon. We meet for a farewell dinner at 7:30 this evening and will get our plans for tomorrow morning. Our flight departs Moscow at 8am so it’s likely to be a very early morning!

It has been a very enlightening trip. I did not really know what to expect of Russia and ended up being surprised by a lot of things. Definitely a worthwhile time!

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” —Mark Twain

I’ve been fighting the beginnings of a cold the last few days and finally took some Tylenol pm last night before bed. For the first time in a week I finally got a good night’s sleep! So good in fact that by the time Jerry came back from breakfast it was 7:20 and I had 25 minutes to get showered, dressed and have my suitcase in the hall… I made it. Then went down and had a relaxing breakfast and headed back to the room to await our 9:15 departure.

First stop of the day was St. Basil’s cathedral. We then strolled across Red Square where we had a view off Lenin’s tomb. Opposite side of the square is the Gum department store (really a shopping mall). We were given a little free time to wander around but I just found a bench and did some people watching.

We then descended into the Moscow Metro for a quick ride around to a few stations to see the architecture. The stations are all located from 60-80 meters below ground and of course served as bomb shelters during WWII and the Cold War. Every station is unique and features different styles of architecture and decor. They are very opulent and were used as a type of propaganda during soviet times to show how well off the country supposedly was.

Then it was on to our hotel, the Grand Marriott, just about a 20 minute walk from the Kremlin. We had about and hour rest period before heading to the WWII memorial museum.

The museum is very impressive and there was a lot of information to be conveyed. Unfortunately we had a museum guide speaking Russian interpreted by our local guide. So it took twice as long to pass along information meaning we only got to see half of the exhibits. As America’s European WWII experience was primarily in Italy, France, and the Low Countries we very rarely are exposed to the soviet experience. The Soviet Union suffered tremendous losses in the early days of the war and the civilian population endured terrible conditions for several years. The numbers involved in the battles along with the losses suffered are staggering. As the saying goes; one death is a tragedy, while millions are merely statistics…

We returned to the hotel about 6 pm and headed out for dinner. We decided on an Italian cafe where I ordered their signature Basiilca pizza. It was described as having smoked meats and cheeses, herbs, capers and red olives. What are red olives you might ask, seems to be a miss translation of cherry tomatoes… they were easily removed! And capers seem to be green onions, while herbs consisted of basil, parsley and dill. Little bit of an odd mix but all in all was really tasty! Then back to the hotel before our tour of Moscow by Night.

Unfortunately it had started to rain and the temperature had dipped so it wasn’t as fun as it potentially could have been. We only got one new view which was an overview of the Kremlin from a pedestrian bridge. We were back to the hotel around 11:30 or so. One very long day!