Summer Trip 2017: Day 14 - Moscow Day II

Our last full day in Moscow we planned to spend time indoors in the afternoon because rain was in the forecast.  We began the day with breakfast at KFC.  Then we got on the Metro and traveled to the Bolshoi Theater.  The theater was built in the late 18th century and is very beautiful.  Yulia and I once attended an opera there.  This time we just looked at the exterior.  The opera house in Astana seems to be patterned after it in many ways.  There was a fountain outside, and that attracted the kids immediately.

Bolshoi Theater

The kids were immediately glued to this fountain by the Bolshoi.

Another fountain we saw nearby.

After visiting the fountain, we went to Red Square and paid to go through St. Basil's cathedral.  The church is very interesting inside - and quite different.  The highlight of the visit was a group that was singing old Russian hymns on the top floor.  The acoustics were amazing, and they sang very well.  The group was selling cds, so we bought one.

Inside of St. Basil Cathedral

                                                  Men's group singing old church song.

After visiting the cathedral, we walked through the GUM store to take a look at how lovely and elaborate it was.  Then we walked up to Old Arbat street.  The street used to be the area that was full of art.  It was very different from when we were there last time - it was much more commercialized and had much less art.  We wondered if the weather played a factor in that too.  After walking for awhile, the storm that had been threatening really started looking wet.  We saw a shake shack and went in and sat down for lunch. We missed a huge rainstorm while we were eating.  It cleared up after we ate, and we walked from there to the Dom Knigi (House of Books) and spent a few hours browsing there - missing a big rainstorm while we were there.

Arbat Street

Arbat Street

Arbat Street

This was probably the biggest bookstore we've seen, especially in Europe. The kids were in heaven!

Waiting out a storm in the reading corner.

After we waited out the worst of the storm, we walked to the metro and took a train back to our hotel.  We spent a few hours just relaxing and then went over to the same restaurant we'd been to the night before and enjoyed another great meal.  It was a nice calm day in Moscow.

Summer Trip 2017: Day 13 - Moscow

Rain was promised on Friday, our last full day in Moscow, so on Thursday we planned the day so that we could do as much of the outdoor sightseeing as possible.  The first thing we did was to visit Kolomensky Park. This was somewhere that neither Yulia nor I had been before, and we really liked it.  We took the Metro there, and then it was about a 10 minute walk to the park.

The Park was a village, founded in the 12th Century, and which became the home to the royal family, specifically the Rurikovich dynasty, but also later the Romanovs as well. The park itself was free and had nice paths and facilities.  It also has wooden architecture and areas that show how people lived earlier.  We didn't pay to go into those demonstrations.  We just walked through and looked at the gardens and orchards and at the church buildings.  The most famous is the Church of the Ascension of the Lord which was built in the 16th century to celebrate the birth of Ivan Grozny (The Terrible) and is a UNESCO world heritage site.  The church overlooks the Moskva river and is white and very beautiful.

Looking at the beautiful primroses.

Gardens

Papa and the twins and roses.

Gate to the park.

One of the churches, early onion dome architecture.

Bell tower and water tower 

The family minus Mama the photographer.

Church of the Ascension

Observing the view across the river.

The View from the hill.

Lexa resting

Giant Samovar at the cafe within the park.

After we had seen the park, we took the metro to Red Square.  We arrived there at about 12:30 and set up to watch the changing of the guard at the eternal flame which burns for those who died during WWII.  It is my favorite place to go, and we wanted the kids to experience it with a good view.  The uniforms of the soldiers has changed since the last time we were there 5 years ago, but the ceremony was still very touching.

At the eternal flame.

Guards at their posts.

Reading the cities where more than a million people died (Hero Cities)

New guards marching down the  path

Relieved guards making their exit.

Marching

After the changing of the guard, we walked through Red Square and took lots of pictures and saw the sites. After that we went and looked at the fountains at the Okhotniy Ryad shopping center.  We then ate lunch (we had pizza and salads) and then got on the Metro again.

Entrance to Red Square

Family portrait on Red Square - a long tradition.

The renovated GUM department store.

Having Fun!

Lenin's Tomb - We still haven't been inside.

St. Basil's Cathedral.

Kremlin Tower

Past Red Square and toward the Moskva River

Red Square from St. Basil's

Fables in the fountain.

Posing for pictures at the fountain.

Our last stop of the day was to visit the Izmailovo Souvenir market.  We missed the station and had to go back one - something that's happened to us on that stop a couple of times, but got there at about 4:00 in the afternoon.  We gave each of the girls 600 Rubles (about $10 dollars) to buy souvenirs.  Lina and Nika had earned a bit of extra money by helping the Stice girls with their Russian on the trip.  The girls had a great time looking around and bargaining. Lina got the bargain of the day, buying a ceramic turtle that is also a jewelry box, by talking the seller down from 1800 Rubles to 1000.  She had enough to buy one of those infernal fidget spinners..... so we are not as pleased with the bargaining :)

Lexa bought herself a hat, and Sophie got a snow globe.  They both then bought little metal collapsible cups that had Soviet Military emblems on the base. Nika bought herself a laser engraved crystal.

After our shopping excursion.

Overall it was a fun day.  It started sprinkling as we were leaving, but we were in the Metro and home without getting too wet.  We found a little restaurant across from our hotel: Vareneshnaya.  It had great prices, good Russian food, and a fun atmosphere like an old Soviet apartment.  We liked it so much that we went back for dinner there the next evening.

Waiting for our food.

A lovely meal.

Great Atmosphere. 

On our way home.

Twins having the best time!

Our first day in Moscow was in the books. 

Summer Trip Days 11-12: Travel to Warsaw and on to Moscow

We had purchased our tickets to take the train to Warsaw from Krakow, and so checked out of our hotels about 9:00 and met the Stices on the square in front of the train station.  We were about an hour early, and spent the time sitting and waiting.  The train arrived a few minutes late, and then there was a mad scramble to get everyone on board.

We were in different cars on the train, but all of our family was in one compartment.  There were eight seats, but the six of us were the only ones, so it was pretty comfortable.  The train trip was pretty similar to the journey that we had taken from Prague to Krakow a few days before. We spent most of the time reading books.  The station in Warsaw was underground, and there wasn't an announcement, and we just sat for a few minutes, until a group of young people came to get in our car and we asked them if we were at the station.

Reading while riding on the train to Warsaw

Lina reading on iPad

We exited the station and found the office of the apartment rental company and got our keys.  The Stices were in a different building right next door, but their room wasn't ready yet.  Ours was, so we walked a few blocks and dropped off all our bags.  We walked back to the mall and ate a lunch/dinner at McDonald's.  The next thing we needed to do was to find out where the bus stop was where we could catch the bus to the airport the next morning.  We wandered around a bit, but then found it, and bought tickets for the next morning.

By this time it was about 5:30 p.m., so we walked back to our apartment and just settled in for the evening.  The apartment was a bit spartan - it didn't have full curtains, just gauzy filmy ones, and the beds were not great.  We had bought some groceries to have breakfast the next morning, so we were up early (5:00 a.m.) to eat and get to the bus stop.  It had rained all night, but it had broken.  It started up again when we started walking, so we were quite wet when we got to the bus stop. The bus came right on time and we got to the Chopin Airport as planned.

We flew Baltic Air to Moscow, with a layover in Riga, Latvia.  The plane from Warsaw to Riga was a turbo-prop with high wings, but a nice airplane and a beautiful view of the Baltic Sea as we landed.  We had to go through passport control and wait for about an hour before boarding our plane to Moscow.

Baltic Sea from up high

 We got through passport control and customs okay and were able to get tickets on the train just in time, so we made good time.  We took the metro from the Belarus train station to our hotel.  The hotel was in an area that had three streets named the same thing, and we had to wander a bit and ask directions before we found it.  It turned out that it was very easy and close to the metro station once we knew how to get there.

The hotel wasn't sure we were coming, so they had given one of our rooms to someone else.  We had a two-room set up with a shared bathroom that was supposed to be just for the girls, but we settled into it okay and the girls bucked up and shared two beds and did okay.  We also saved a bit of money.  The hotel was a standalone building - it was older, but had been remodeled and was very nice, and in a good location.  We were out of the center of the city, but not too far, and very close to the metro.

Cool painting at our hotel

We settled in, and then went across the street to a KFC to have dinner.  It had been a long day of travel, and a long couple of days of travel with the day before's trip to Warsaw, so we settled in for the evening.  The kids were happy because they could watch television and understand it (we watch Russian television at home usually anyway).  We were settled in to our last hotel of the trip, and ready to see the sites of Moscow the next day.

Dinner at KFC

Relaxing at the hotel.