You are tired...

We arrived in Moscow at 6 in the morning and our driver (a woman this time) took us to Zenia’s house. On the way we saw the walls of the Kremlin and the churches of Red Square by sunrise. I was in kind of a daze from the overnight train ride and the early start, the idea that we were really Moscow, Russia, the place that has featured so often in news and history seemed quite amazing.

Zenia was our second Russian landlady and we realized that Russian women are an almost irresistible force, Katia in Perm was the norm, not the exception. We walked into the apartment and Zenia said, “You are tired. This is your room. At 9:30 you will get up and I will tell you where you are and what you must do today.”. It was a very nice room too - a large living room with a view out to the boulevard, there was a pull out couch for Nelson and I and in a small bedroom off to the side with another nice window there was a single bed for John and a second bed for us to put our suitcases on. In front of the window in the big room was a table with a couple of chairs, so we had a place to sit and talk or write. It was very nice. And we did what we were told!

At 9:30 we wandered out to Zenia’s kitchen and sat obediently while she explained our location, gave us a map, described in detail how to get on and off the metro (two stops to the Kremlin gates) and told us that the best thing to do was to go to the Kremlin and walk around Red Square. “That will be enough for today”. By the time we left the house we had also booked her services as a tour guide to take us to the Monastery north of town which is the heart and historic center of the Russian Orthodox church. “It will be very interesting for you.” It was, in many ways!

The Kremlin is the old fort at the center of town, not just one building but a whole collection of old and new office buildings and churches. We wandered the tourist route with the Japanese tour groups and went into the Armory where the treasures of the state are displayed -- a bit like the crown jewels of England at the Tower. We also met the two girls from Oxford again - that makes three times: on the train between Beijing and Ulaan Baator, three days later in Ulaan Baator, and now almost two weeks later in Moscow!

We walked around the Kremlin walls to Red Square but it was fenced off for a big concert to be held the next day in celebration of “City Day.” Rats. I paid 20 rubles to pee in a portapotty (these were set up in groups of three to six,, each one had a babushka in charge of cleaning and collecting the fee, so the facilities were not as bad as some I have experienced, but still, 20 rubles!). The next place we went into was GUM, the famous department store and the first thing I saw was the WC - clean, well equipped and modern flushing toilets….for free! Ah, the travails of travel!

John was very tired, so we stopped in a park, got juice, ice cream and beer (no guesses how the refreshments were divided) and sat on the grass in the shadow of the Kremlin walls, watching the people go by.

Supper was at a place called “TGI Fridays” and it was great to have familiar food. A “real” hamburger for John, chicken fajita for me and steak for Nelson. Zenia welcomed us home, sent us to bed, and told us to be up at 8:30 for breakfast.