We stayed last night at the Adagio Hotel on Pluschikha. like the hotel I stayed in at Irkutsk, you wouldn't even know it was there from the street. All you see is a ugly big brown door in a rundown old building. Go inside the door and it gets worse the stairs and lift look very tired. Stepping inside the door to the hotel is a bit like stepping into the Tardis but instead of dimensional change it is clean and new and comfortable. The hotel only has 4 or 5 rooms so its more like a B&B. Anyway, it was just what we needed.
Timothy and I woke around 6AM but Michael slept on until about 7AM when our breakfast was ready. After breakfast, searching the internet and packing. We set off the find Red Square. It was about a 45 minute walk mostly down Arabat Ulitsia which is a pedestrian mall filled with souvenir shops.
Before finding Red Square we came to the Kremlin complex. This is an ancient walled fortress made of red brick. The various museums and churches are well frequented by tour groups with bossy guides that do their best to push the independent tourist out of the way so they can stick to their busy schedule. The independent tourist is left to figure out the ticket requirements, find the luggage deposit and find the museum with little or no signage to assist.
After a false start we opted to go into the Armoury Museum. This meant a 20 minute wait until they would sell us tickets and then another 20 minute wait until the next batch of sheep were allowed in. By now it was noon and we already tired and hungry. Michael had problems firstly settling down and then with being too tied to be bothered looking at the state treasures on display. There is no food available within the Kremlin so we took a brief walk around past the churches but not in any. We took photographs of the canons and saw a platoon of guards march straight at us. Michael and I went one way, Timothy went the other.
Eating was a priority so we dived into the first cafe we found and ordered three slices of mushroom pizza with roasted potatoes and Greek salad. It was just what we needed but it was only an hour before we were hungry again. After lunch we followed around the outside of the Kremlin until we came to Red Square. Without any parade but with a huge concert arena either being erected or dismantled it was not all that impressive. However, halfway down the square is St Basil's Cathedral and that certainly is impressive. Unfortunately, I'd run out of money so we went to a nearby shopping mall to find an ATM. The shopping mall must date back from before the war as three was a photography exhibition showing people clearing up bombing rubble. Anyway its very flash now and houses shops like Prada and Gucci. After getting more money we wandered around with Timothy leading until we came to a cafe where we had cheese and herb pastries and the boys enjoyed kompot, a drink made from boiled fruit and water.
After this it was back to St Basil's. This is a beautiful if unusual Russian orthodox church. We got to see in various rooms around the tower. Michael again found it impossible to settle and just look at where he was. Giggling and running around are not appropriate in a cathedral of any denomination.
We were pretty tired by now so we headed back to the hotel, first by completing the circuit around the Kremlin and then heading into the Metro for a two stop ride that saved about half an hour's walk. Michael was flagging but just made it back. One good thing about having to change plans was that we had booked for two nights at the Adagio. This meant we could leave the bags there all day and come back for a lie down before getting a taxi to the Leningrad station. Michael fell asleep in the taxi poor thing.
We figured out roughly were we had to go and then set about fining a cafe for dinner. This was very difficult as we have too many bags to move around easily. After a while we found somewhere and ate a simple small meal. Then it was back into the station to find our train. That wasn't too hard but it took two goes to find the right carriage. The one we were first directed to just had a series of beds with no walls or doors separating them. After a couple of goes at questioning this a stewardess realised we should be seven carriages further on. Time was getting short by now so it was a dash down the platform loaded down with bags trying to find the right one. Eventually we found carriage nine and got to our cabin. It has four beds that fold up to make seats. There is linen pillows and such h and they brought boxes of "lunch" with snack food in them.
Tomorrow Saint Petersburg.
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