The Morrow's

MOSCOW

To finish off our travel year we took off in search of sub-zero temperatures and hopefully a white Christmas. Destination: Russia.

Based on the BBC weather forecasts we thought it wouldn't be too cold (around the zero mark). Well that was until day 2 when our guide mentioned that the temperature for the following day would be a maximum of minus 11. We didn't want to ask what the minimum was meant to be.

For those that think Australia has traffic jams then think again. 25km from the airport to the hotel took us 3.5 hours. This is longer then the flight over! It seems that everyone of the 10 million residents has a car.

We met our guide for the next 7 days and headed onto the metro to explore the Red Square and surrounding areas. The metro system (or underground) is almost a tourist attraction in itself. Many of the stations are decorated very ornately with sculptures and murals. Our guide explained that many of them were used as subtle propaganda to promote communism.

Artwork at Novoslobodskaya Station

The Red Square is boarded by the Kremlin (specifically the Lenin Mausoleum), St Basils Cathedral, GUM shopping centre and the Historical Museum. This square has played a major role in politics for much of the last 100 years and now is where many moscovites spend new years eve.

St Basil's has a very ornate exterior but inside is not as big as you would expect. It contains 9 individual chapels and is quite a maze to find your way around.

St Basil's Cathedral

The Kremlin is a huge complex that contains not only government buildings but also 3 cathedrals, a palace and the Armoury. A wander around this took up most of the afternoon and we still didn't see it all. The cathedrals were spectacular but no cameras were permitted inside.

View of Kremlin from Bridge

Soldiers outside the Palace of Congress at the Kremlin

Tsar Bell - pity it was never used

Ice sculpture replica of Tsar Bell

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier with the eternal flame is just outside the walls of the Kremlin and has a changing of the guard every hour.

Eternal flame at the Tomb of Unknown Soldier

During our time in Moscow, one thing we did notice were the number of wedding parties around. It seems the Red Square is quite popular for photos, although this group chose a backdrop of the truckshow. I don't think we will be copying this idea!

Random wedding photo in front of Truck Show. Not our preferred photo location....

During the free time we headed out to Gorky Park. Sadly it was shut but there was ice skating on offer. Rather then construct a rink, they just let a few of the paths ice over.

Ice Skating at Gorky Park

After a bit of walking around we did manage to find the Sculpture Park. 100 rubles entry for tourists, 10 rubles for a local. Our Russian isn't good enough to pass off as a local. The sculptures were a mix of modern sandstone and older statues.

One of the many statues of Lenin
Seeing as the temperature was -9 or so, the Moskva River did ice over a little. Made it interesting to watch these ducks swim over for a peice of bread

Duck walking on Ice
A highlight of the time in Moscow was a visit to the Star City Cosmonaut Training Centre. One of the instructors gave us an insight into the life of a cosmonaut and the training involved. Quite surprising how short most cosmonauts are. They also have a replica of the Mir Space Station.

Claire entering the Space Station

Steve at the controls

Dinner table, bin, plate, cooker, & control panel for exercise equipment

Lastly, we managed to get some snow, unfortunately not enough to play in.