Moscow's certainly changed since the Cold War!!!

  Moscow, Russia
Sunday, June 5, 2005

Friday 27th May - continued

The terrain to la Coruna is similar, with rolling hills, small farms with stone houses, rat proof granaries. Approaching along the ridge, we can see the town is large and industrial, with a row of high, red striped stacks. One looks like it could be a nuclear power station. The bus station is reasonably close to the centre of town. Buy tickets for tomorrow's bus trip to Bilbao before leaving the station, after holding our place in the queue till the ticket seller turns up. Get the last cards in the pack, the four seats across the back of the bus, for over E160 total for four. Might have been cheaper to hire a car, even at European prices.
It is pretty luxurious travelling as a group of four, when the cost of a taxi isn't much more than four bus tickets, and we arrive in good time, after a lot of threading through narrow streets, at our hotel, in the middle of the peninsular, not far from the old town. As we don't have a lot of time, we are quickly out to look at the town, first heading for the port.
There is a big crowd on the wharf, because the Naval fleet is tied up, and open for inspection. We take photos of it, and in particular, the ski-jump aircraft carrier with Harrier jump jets on deck. There is a particularly flash large cutter in the marina, and a lot of traditional fishing boats in the commercial harbour. The water is surprisingly clean, and there are a lot of large mullet.
We walk to the start of the old town, then look at the large main plaza, and walk down a side street full of restaurants for a good meal. The Gambas a la plancha continue their high quality, at a price. We then head into the old town, which has a number of interesting buildings, but they tend toward the grand, rather than quaint houses on narrow streets. We can see everywhere the sunrooms which cover the facades of buildings.
Back on the main drag, MP and JL suffer the curse of the aging traveller, and are forced to bluff their way to the toilet in a trendy bar, without buying a drink, over the protests of the eagle-eyed loo runner spotter. The way they guard the toilets, you would think there was a E10 water board charge per flush.
We then cut across the peninsular to the beach, which looks pretty good, with a Malecon and flash hotels. There is a temporary viewing stand, and a massive lineup of TV trucks for the possible royal visit on Saturday, but we won't be here for it. Late night noises in the street as the locals find their way home, quite loud on the 7th floor.
Sat 28th May La Coruna-Bilbao
Have breakfast in the recommended breakfast cafe across from the hotel, and into another taxi for a high speed run to the bus station, not because we were running late, just because we could.
MP and JL have another coffee at the bus station cafe, and we are waiting when our 9.30am bus rolls in from Santiago, pretty full. The bus seems to have a loo, which is good, particularly as it is not down the back of the bus with us, but under the floor in the centre, but the seats are pretty close together, particularly as the one in front of DP is right back, with a sleeping occupant. At various stages of the journey she shifts to better seats, and also straightens up the seat in front of her a bit when the occupant is at the loo. Jerry is also finding the back seat pretty oppressive, and shifts when he can.
The route is a combination of motorways and back roads to towns and villages. There are enough loo stops to keep the desperation level down without using the bus loo. We travel through a lot of country similar to that covered on the walk, but the crossover to the coast is down a beautiful deep valley. The coast as seen from the bus is pretty ordinary, with beaches and small headlands


until we get to the "picos" country, which is limestone, and steeper and more interesting. Unfortunately, being high mountains, they are cloud shrouded, and we don't see a lot of them. The hinterland just inland from the coast is green, and pretty, with small stone farmhouses and green fields.
At one of the intermediate stops, there is a large Alsa bus counter, and Jerry and Sharon are able to purchase later tickets for Bilbao-Barcelona, thanks to computerised ticketing.
The town, or suburb just before Bilbao is large, with a large exhibition building, and flash shops, and we think we have arrived, especially as it is now 8pm, our arrival time. This is important, because the bus is continuing on to Irun, but Dianne checks with driver, and we hang in till we get to Termibus, Bilbao.
We get straight into a taxi for the old town, and arrive at our selected Hostal just as it is beginning to rain, and is coming on dark. Not auspicious, particularly when we find it is closed for the weekend, we think because it was having work done.. Others in the list are also full, or not answering their buzzer, so it starts to get a bit desperate, particularly as the streets are full of people. Our first success is a hotel, with one 3/4 bed per room for E80, but decide we aren't this desperate, yet. DP and Sharon do the stair runs to check possibilities. Find a single room for a Swiss peregrino doing the coastal route, who has found the Albergue full, and he gives us his map of possible beds. We find a very nice medium hostal which was full, but they put us onto another possibility around the corner. DP and Sharon took forever to come back, having checked out two, finding one room on the first floor, then two sans bath on the fourth, with a very funny little old senora running it. She had some concern on what sort of companions were involved. DP assured her she was "cansado", tired for 30 years, when she meant to say "casado", married. Do the four-floor climb with the bags, finally get our sets of keys, then head out for a meal in the old town.
They make room for us at the back of a tiny bar, and we settle for typical menus, and some red wine, quite good, but not special. Pretty late, especially for the early rising JJL so walk home in light drizzle, avoiding groups of Saturday night drunks and the odd chunder on the footpath.


Sunday 29 May Bilbao (Spain)
Start fairly early, walking toward the Guggenheim Museum, but sidetracked into a book fair in the cloistered square in the old city. Men breakfast, then walk along the river up to the museum, looking at fish and ducks, and taking photos as we approach the building. Manage to get in the lower level through the groups door, pay our money, E9 each, reduced because the first floor was out of action, check our bag and camera, and split up to look at our own pace. The building is quite spectacular, though pretty rough in the details of the titanium roof cladding, and the unfinished look of the limestone tail on the building. The main ground floor room of the building is closed for installation of additional large rolled steel items to go with the Richard Serra rolled steel serpiente, but we get a sneak peek from the second floor with a tour group whose guide is in the know.
The main exhibits are Aztec artifacts, not bad, but we didn't come to Spain to see them, and some contemporary paintings, which, while priceless, look pretty ordinary. The recorded guide description is suitably florid.
Exit via the front door, and inspect the floral "puppy" flower sculpture, very similar to the one exhibited in front of the MCA building at Circular Quay in Sydney.


Outside, we see some girls jumping and screaming beside a metal booth. Turns out to be an internet video machine, and we spend our E1 to send messages to ourself, for passing on.
We stop at a restaurant/coffee house which is noted in the guide. It is nicely decorated in authentic art deco. DP tries the local pacharan, a red liquor made with aniseed and sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn. All try it, none too impressed.
JL and SL back to the rooms. We ask about internet, and find it along the river. DP stays, MP goes back to the room in the rain without a map to get hardware for uploading the diary. and after a few circuits of the old town, he finds the room, and brings back Jerry. Arrange to meet at a ( or THE) Chinese Restaurant for a surprisingly good, and reasonably priced meal.
Back to the room to pack for a reasonably early start tomorrow.
Monday 30 May Bilbao - Madrid
Having checked out the tram station the day before, Jerry and Sharon head there directly, while MP and DP head up along the river to find the Bizkabus depot mentioned in the guide. See lots of buses, but no stops or depots, so head back into town to find a tram stop. Go through a learning process to find the bank which holds the ticket machine, then validate the ticket at the stop, then ride for about 20 minutes through town to the Termibus Station. Jerry and Sharon have already left, and we have just missed the 9.25 bus, so wait for the 9.55. Still in plenty of time for our check-in, in spite of the false start, due to Murray's love of being EARLY for planes and buses. The route to the airport takes us back through town, to an obvious airport bus stop in Plaza Mayor, to which were directed earlier, but we are happy enough with our tram decision.
The airport is out the road across the Guggenheim bridge, through a tunnel, and not far from town, but the road runs all the way around it, and we are glad we are not in a hurry.
Flight is drama free, and land at Madrid, which seems to not have enough international planes (probably because we're domestic) but we end up in the Metro after a very long walk. Although we are without a guide book, we have written down enough to know we are heading for Sol, and have picked up maps, and information on Metro changes. Encounter a whole lot of steps on the way, and some pretty crowded trains, not to mention the four floor walk-up to the Hostal Adriana, which we'd booked the night before on the internet. Asked if we needed help with the baggage, but Murray's "That would be nice" was not insistent enough to get help. Settled in with a hot shower and a wash before heading out to meet our Travelziners GTG contact, Cova, at the Plaza de Oriente, which we reached via a wander in the general direction, running into a small-field soccer match in the Plaza Mayor. The city looks interesting, both big and small details, and we have a pleasant walk.
At first we think the wrong woman is our contact, but sort it out and go to a nearby bar for a drink and some olives. It is threatening to rain, so we sit under the tent, and look out at the garden. It is a pretty expensive exercise, but pleasant enough. Later we transfer to a restaurant on another plaza, possibly Santa Ana, the other side of our Hostal. We settle for an inside table, and try to do the tapas thing, but seem to end up more with rationes, including a plate of variable, but generally hot green peppers, and a plate of the albondingas, meat balls which JJL enthused about, but we found them ordinary. Cova left us at the Metro, and we took another wander around before bed.


Tuesday 31 May Madrid
Weather is pretty good, so we get out walking early, out along the main streets, taking photos of the major buildings and streetscapes. Our first and only visit to Madrid was in 1976. Walk as far as the Retiro, through the park, past the tank, down to the Crystal Palace,


with interesting trees growing in the water in front, then across to the botanical gardens. Decide not to bother going in, then take a leg south into the ethnic area of Lavapies, which looked like it might be scary after dark, but interesting, with a mix of Latin America, Middle east, and a touch of China. See the Roman ruin-looking Esculas pias de San Fernando, then down to the main road, Ronda de Toledo, and up to the Puerta de Toledo, then along to the monster church, San Francisco el Grande. The church had been re-labelled as a museum so they could charge to go in. DP got a quick look before being pulled up by the ticket seller.
Next we were able to look out over the river valley from the Parqe de las Vistulas, with a fountain to Miro, and a sad little birthday party for a few girls in the rather bare park. We were unable to get in the side door of the Cathedral de Notre Senora de la Almudena, but around the front there is a glass sided walkway to the entry, and a gratis sign. Everyone is ignoring the signs and walking straight in, so we had a look. It was pretty plain compared with a lot, so we had a quick look and headed across to look at the palace, which was open to some people, but not obvious who, or where they got in. Have to do a panorama photo of the palace it is so big. Very formal, not unlike Buckingham Palace.


Further along, look over the Gardens of Sabatini, quite nice formal gardens with clipped maze-like hedges, but no photos as the camera refused to work (and was later operated on by Murray, who got it going again). On to the Templo de Debod, taken from Abu Simbel in Egypt, before the high dam filled. Quite an interesting exhibit, particularly with information on flooding of the area ever since the first dam was put in early in the century.
We then headed through Plaza Espana, unable to take more photos because the camera had packed it in. Walked up Gran Via, then DP enquired at a hotel where we could find a Fresco Restaurant, and walked through the red light district to find it. The restaurant didn't look suitable, and there was no-one in it, so we headed back to Sol, then back to the hotel for a rest.
Left it pretty late to go for tea, and found it raining hard, so ducked into the Museum of Wine restaurant for a set menu for E9 each, a much better deal than last night at about E50. Our internet of choice didn't have an USB port but pointed us to where there might be one. Finally, on the way to the expensive 24 hour internet, find an upstairs one with a hard line, money-up-front deal, E1.60 an hour with USB.
Internetting takes longer than we think, and have to get an extra 15 min. Get back to the hostel about 11.30pm after the office has closed, so we have to assume they can take another night out on the credit card number and expiry. Worries MP, who has difficulty sleeping, after packing. Walking 18.5 kms
Wednesday 1 June Madrid - Moscow
Up before the alarm, pack, and leave a note re payment, and the keys, and down to catch the Metro, with two changes, in the reverse order to when we arrived. DP buys pastries to go with our coke and drinking yoghurt. Another long haul with the bags, but this time we should have had the stairs with us, but a few of the down escalators are out.
It is pretty crowded, but we manage OK, apart from almost getting off early. Check in OK, and hole up in the departure lounge to catch up on diary and eat our breakfast.
Departure is the usual low key affair we have come to expect, no announcement, people just wandering aboard, which is OK if you are not doing something absorbing.
The plane was a pretty old airbus A319, with video screens mounted under the luggage racks, and we were right up against the 1st class partition, so the screen was very hard to see, except in ads. "No me olveides", same bad movie as on the previous long flight. Hard to follow, even though in English. Good weather a lot of the way, with views over the Pyrenees, across France, and possibly Hungary, and on into Russia. Becomes progressively wooded as you go East. Approaching Moscow airport, woods are about half of the landscape. Take a few photos from the air, not too close to the airport for prudence.
Airport is quite modern, no hassles in immigration, even though not processed together. Check that we get stamps in our passports and on the departure card. DP checks with customs while we wait for bags, but no requirement to list palm pilot etc. Go through exit to find our meeter and greeter, but he's not there.
We had done a bit of research on how to go to Russia "backpacker" style with no booked accommodation or transport, but kept coming up against brick walls. The two travel agents in Sydney doing Russian bookings were both insistent that you couldn't get the visa support letter, which is needed to get a visa, unless you had booked accommodation. We'd heard that there were some hostels in Moscow that will give you the letter without having the accommodation booked, but we then read on the Lonely Planet site that the Sydney embassy were aware of this practice, and wouldn't give visas if the support letter was from them. Eventually we decided it was all too hard, and we'd just pay the extortionate rates the travel agencies were charging. They also insisted we'd need transport from the airport to Moscow, so we'd settled on a Volga car for A$80, the cheapest transfer they had.
While MP gets 8000 roubles on the cash card, DP sees our man. Has us wait while he scares up a car. Probably just any car off the taxi rank, but not obviously a taxi. Some sort of Russian mid-size car, certainly not a Zil limo. Take off at high speed, both in the back. Find it hard to see over outsize headrests. MP thinks he can smell exhaust gas, but it is not until we hit traffic and stop do we see smoke rising from the gearbox area. Driver has been smoking, but not like this. The driver looks annoyed, but not unduly alarmed, and we carry on. After a few stops, the smoke seems less (may have stopped burning off the hot exhaust, or something). We were not liking the possibility of being stranded along the flat, unpopulated area, or in the city outskirts, which looks big and unfriendly.
Can't believe it when we finally come to the city proper, and there is the Kremlin, St Basil's, and our hotel, the Rossia, side by side - couldn't get a better position! This was the cheapest hotel in Moscow - we'd paid A$180 per night for an unrenovated room. We let the driver off lightly by getting out of the taxi, rather than have him force or bribe his way through the guarded roadblock outside.
In the lobby, there is a crowd at reception, including a large, bald Dutchman who is complaining to his minders about the lack of an oversize bed. Looked like a basketballer, but there is some sort of international bowling tournament on, and think he is part of that. Finally get to the head of the queue, and processed efficiently by a mid-aged woman from the mixed-age team behind the counter. They take our passports, issue computer cards and breakfast identity cards, and directed to lift to get to our 7th floor room. The hotel is ENORMOUS (apparently was in the Guinness Book of Records for largest hotel in world at one stage). It is big and ugly, definitely from the Soviet era. It has 2900 rooms, and you find your way (or try to, at least) by whether it is in the North, South, East or West. On the 7th floor, we can't find big enough room numbers, but keep walking, past a central lobby on the south side. After walking about 250 metres, numbers restart at 7-317 and we find 7-307. The room doesn't look too bad, in spite of being in the un-renovated wing. The water is hot, and we have a heated towel rail in the bathroom. The pillows are giant heavy sacks, and the covers area sort of sheet sleeping bag with a blanket inside. We have seen these before, possibly in Eastern Europe, and are not particularly impressed, as it is pretty warm. However, when we look out our windows, we ARE impressed. We overlook the river, and can see part of the Kremlin and the gold domes of the Church of Christ the Saviour, as well as lots of other impressive buildings.


After getting cleaned up, we head straight across to St Basil's Cathedral for a look, and the first of many photos, then down Red Square, past Lenin's tomb and the Kremlin on the left, GUM Department Store on the right, then past the big, red State History museum at the end, and into town proper.
We are looking for food at this stage, but forego the Macdonalds on Tverskaya St, and head on up to the recommended eating street of Kammergersky, but all the restaurants (pectopahs, in rough guess Russian) have outdoor tables, and are top dollar. Further on is the recommended Pelmeshka self-serve, where we nod and point at a variety of hot food items, and get more than we need, for a surprisingly high price of 426 RUR. We kept the bill to analyse it, as there were lots of items on it. Turns out everything on the plate had its own cost (mashed potato and meat charged separately). On the way back, we walked past the Bolshoi Theatre and the flash Metropole Hotel, and through some of the back streets in Kitay-Gorod, the old town, then had a look inside a metro. Bought a bottle of water at a kiosk on an older mall. Walked right through the GUM store, which is very flash indeed, on anyone's standards, with two full height galleries with a semi-circular glass roof and stylish bridges across, and lots of designer labels. Walk back through Red Square for a late bedtime. Between the 2-hour time change from Spain, plus the fact we're approaching the longest day, and it is still light at 11pm, it's hard to go to bed before midnight. Walking 14 kms
Thursday 2 June Moscow
Late start, even though the room is light pretty early. Pack our gear for the day, and head down to Second floor West for our breakfast, but find a French couple looking alarmed and reading a notice which indicates breakfast is off here. The finer print directs us to the restaurant on level 21 North side, and we lead the charge around the hotel to the North side, and up to floor 21. The views from here are great -can see St Basils and right into the Kremlin. Organise window seats, and go to the buffet, but our window seats are taken when we return. Buffet is pretty good, but there are some surprises.
Go to Intourist on the North side to get a train ticket to go to Sudzal tomorrow (we'd booked accommodation there before we left home, but not transport). They can't do it, and refer us to the east side of the building. Told here they don't sell tickets, and directed upstairs, where we see a train picture on the window. Ask for a train ticket to Suzdal, told there is no train, you have to get a bus, but they can't sell us a ticket. Can't work out if there is a change in the rules or what. Just about to walk out in disgust when we remember that there is, indeed, no train to Suzdal, as there is no railway line - you have to go to Vladimir, and get a bus from there (this information was not volunteered to us ). Ask for a ticket to Vladimir, and, bingo! we get a response, and the ticked buying procedure starts. R1260 later, we have two tickets for 12.50pm tomorrow, having quoted our passport numbers from our notes, as the passports are still at reception, and we don't want to walk the 400 metres, or restart the negotiations.
Murray then up to the room while Dianne goes to the lobby to find why our hotel identification card only shows one day when we've paid for two. Had to phone room to get MP to bring down the booking. Told we have to go to Intourist at 2 North to sort it out (around the other side of the hotel, near where we had breakfast!) They have made some error, so we get a new booking number, after doing the 400m return journey to Intourist. Back to the reception to change our identity cards and re-code our magnetic key cards. We thought we had it sorted, but, more later. Our pedometer shows we have done 4 KMS WALKING, and we haven't even left the hotel!!!!
Dianne goes through St Basil for RUR100, while MP takes photos outside.


Can't walk across to Lenin's tomb, as there are barriers right across, and two police at the centre gap who say NYET, so walk through GUM store again,


and out the far end to find the fancy underground mall Okhotny Ryad, to the NW, and the true queue for Lenin. We get some kind of queue jumping offer from a Gypsy type woman, but decline. The mall is pretty glitzy, lots of western brand names, consumer electronics and fashion. Take a photo of the fancy decoration, and walk west to find metro. Decide to give it a go at the Bibliteka Lenin. Found a map on the wall beside the ticket seller, and tried to buy a map before buying a ticket, but with no luck. Decided to photograph the map and memorize the stops and lines required to get to the All Russian Exhibition Centre. We then bought a 10 way ticket for R105, and under instruction from the attendant, used the electronic gates for the first time. Seemed to sort-of work, so we ventured into the station proper, only to find it lacking in maps and totally confusing, as all signs and names were in Cyrillic alphabet only, nothing in Roman letters. An old man with fair English tried to help us, but when we mentioned maps, he seemed to say there weren't any because of terrorism. Thus discouraged, were about to give up when MP noticed a set of maps on the window of a kiosk, with prices on them. Bought the big R10 size with the names still only in Cyrillic, but this was enough for us to take heart, and plunge into the system, as we had two pages from the Lonely Planet guide with the Cyrillic Alphabet, and the Roman letter equivalent, and from this we could laboriously translate station names. Our information is pretty sketchy, as we had bought an Eastern Europe guidebook, which included the Baltic and Moscow and St Petersburg, rather than individual guidebooks, so each place is not in much detail.
Our first task was to find the right line, then the right direction. Find using the colours of each line is a BIG help, and the names less helpful. Worked out we needed the red (1) to its intersection with the yellow after 3 stops, then the yellow (6) line for 5 stops to get to VDNKH, which was supposed to join an independent pink line. Emerging from the station, we find a pink monorail. Are considering our options when we see the titanium spire of the Cosmonautics Museum, which is where we are supposed to be going. We know it is titanium because it is the same colour as the Guggenheim Museum.
Take some photos, then enter the museum. Sign says 50 RUR, ticket seller says 60, but can't really argue, so pay up, check bags, and look at the exhibit. It is pretty good - historic photos of the cosmonauts, on earth, and in space, plus space suits, including some USA suits, and Laika's dog suit, capsules, sputniks, and satellites. Unfortunately, no English language, apart from the manual for the Apollo-Soyuz docking. Outside, walk through a sideshow alley of food, drink, DVD's, clothes stalls, through to the Triumphal arch to the exhibition buildings in regional style. In the Soviet era this was a real showcase, but everything now looks over-done, and buildings are now full of consumer products like electronics, sewing machines etc. Took photos of more gold fountains, spires, domes, then back to get a good R60 kebab and R25 half litre of coke. Finished the former, and left most of the latter on a step when we stopped to interpret our map. Back in the metro, feeling very pleased with ourselves now that we seem to have mastered it, to make our way to Kropotkinskaya, next to the new gold-domed $US360m Church of Christ the Saviour cathedral.
It was open, and the bag control seemed a bit relaxed, so we both went in free to have a look. It was new, with a drum and dome centre supported by 4 barrel vaults, all very plain, except for the paint, picture and text finishes on everything. Resisted taking forbidden photos inside. Found an internal stair to a very extensive basement under, which seemed to be a combination of the sacred and commercial. Went back up the down stairs to the entrance level, around the outside, and found a pedestrian bridge across the river.
From the bridge we can see an amazing nautical sculpture/fountain to the west. It has a giant sailor standing on a square rig ship, on a column incorporating other ships. The whole thing would have been 50 to 100 metres high, in bronze, with a fountain below. Walked up the river to it. Here, we came to a dead end, occupied by a couple who needed a room, so we made our way back toward the hotel, looking for side roads without luck. Saw a couple of tiny churches with interesting domes and finishes.


Took a photo of the very ordinary roof downpipes on even the fanciest buildings.
Have a look in the foyer of the Kempinksi Hotel, one of the five star hotels. The lobby looks much more organised than ours, and the clientelle looks classier. We see a small church in the distance with amazing bright green domes. Walk toward it across wide, cobbled streets, with traffic, managing to stay alive..We walk back to the hotel with a side stop to buy a litre of coke from a stall outside for R60, cheap at twice the price, as we are now up to nearly 20 km walking for the day, and are hot and exhausted.
Rest then write diary while DP prowls the lobby, hoping to find some helpful soul who will confirm the station, and metro stop, as our guidebook information and the tourist office give different locations, and from past experience we know that this is dangerous When the reception is quiet, asks one of the "helpful" reception staff, whose answer is " you should know". MP almost sees the end of the second half of a Hallmark Channel mini-series before going out for a MacDonalds at the underground shopping centre - two Big Mac combos for RUR227, of which the Big Macs were only R90.
Back to the room to pack two daypacks for our expedition to Suzdal, and the main bags for storage.
Friday 3 June Moscow - Vladimir - Suzdal
Up before the alarm at 8.30. Finish packing, then take the big bags to Left luggage on North side. On the way, we stop to get our train tickets to Novgorod from Intourist, and manage to get our stations and Metros confirmed for both train tickets. She gives us a Moscow Official City Guide at the same time, which has a metro map in it (would have been VERY helpful yesterday). Try to go straight downstairs to the left luggage, but the disco area is not open, so have to climb back up one flight of stairs to get down two in the lift.
There is some confusion as to how long we want our bags kept for R100 , but a calendar helps after a written date doesn't register.
As we are at the high rise lift, go up to breakfast at floor 21, but the receptionist can't find our numbers, and refers us back to the lobby on West side. Do the long walk back, where we sort it out, and they phone the restaurant. Back at level 21, she still can't find the number, so phones the lobby, but there is still some problem. She tells us we'll have to go back (that is, another 400 metre walk) At this stage Dianne has had enough, and tells her SHE can sort it out, WE'RE going in to have breakfast! No consequences, we have breakfast, this time beside the view


(see the French couple from yesterday's breakfast trials) MP leaves first, DP later. Pack and check out with no hassles. We have managed to get out of the hotel with only 3kms on the pedometer today!! Outside to walk west before east to find Kitay-Gorod Metro station. On the way, we pass through the sort of commercial area where you can buy staples at a reasonable price.
While we are sorting ourselves out, a young Australian bloke from Beecroft asks if he can help. Explain that we are just sorting out, but he shows us the way, negotiates us through a barrier mishap, and onto the train. Gets out with us. We have some time to spare before our train, and just want to look at some of the fancier metro stations. He tries to help DP select the showpiece underground stations. He talks at length with an attendant, but don't come up with anything special. Decide just to look around one recommended earlier, before getting back on the metro to pick up line 1 (red) to Komsomolskaya station. This is a monster station, with all sorts of signs and passages, and it seems like we will have to find the train station underground. There are steam train logos on signs, and we follow them to what is obviously a ticketing hall, and we can see the open air beyond. Go outside and confirm it is a station, then DP asks at a ticket window, and is directed along and left. We eventually arrive at a train station, with tracks, signs, and our #92 train on a board with the right 12.50 time, but no platform number. Just as we are about to look further,the #4 platform number comes up, and a large crowd moves onto the platform, so we follow, then kill time looking for backpackers, without luck, as we want to check some information in a guidebook.
By now we have worked out the name for carriage, and are ready when #18 comes past. We have to have our tickets checked against our passport, then get on, but can't get into our cabin, as it is locked. When we get moving, after being hassled by everyone passing, the hostess gives it a flick, and it opens. We are sitting with a middle-aged woman who speaks no English, but is friendly, and a 30ish man who speaks enough English to get by. He is involved in building glass plants, and has been to Paris and Brussels. Lives in Nizhny Novgorod, travels home weekends, and will soon have his family in Moscow (seems like this has taken a while to arrange).
Fairly quickly out into green, wooded countryside. Lots of Birch trees, some pines, other species. Lot of water in rivers, fairly fast currents considering how little slope there must be to the sea. Almost no towns. Vladimir is our first stop, and the journey passes quite quickly. Arrive about 4pm. Coming into Vladimir, the rail runs along a big river, with the town on a high bank on the North side. In the railway marshalling yards, there is a good array of ageing railway equipment, including two engines with snow plows mounted in front.
The station is large, but the platflom we use is low level, and we use the retracting stairway built into the exit door. The attendant cleans off the handrails with a cloth before we use them. Real 2nd class service!
We seem to to be the only ones using the bridge over to the station proper. Descend into the ticket hall, check that the train to our train's destination is about to leave, so this must be Vladimir, even though we have not seen a single recognisable sign, even in Cyrillic.
Outside there is a bus stand, but seems to have only long distance buses. There is a Moscow bus stopped there, so we know we can come back this way and possibly get a Moscow bus (this is important, as we haven't booked any return trip).
There are other, rougher looking buses, but we get totally ignored by one driver. See another bus up on a higher lever, so walk around the ramp, and see other buses, and an actual bus stand. See a Suzdal bus at the #9 stand, but work out that people have tickets. We buy some local hot-dog and sausage roll equivalents, and Pepsi for a reasonable price. The snacks are token heated in the microwave, but are surprisingly good, and keep us going till dinner. From in the ticket office we can see that Suzdal buses leave on the hour and half-hour, so decide to have a look at Vladimir before getting a bus. With only our day packs, even though they are pretty full, we are quite mobile, so we set off for the town, using the classic pile of bricks to climb a wall and take a locals dirt shortcut up the hill to the main road.
Vladimir is 178 kms North-east of Moscow, and in it medieval heyday it was Russia's capital. It is now a town of 360,000, and it now has just a few buildings from that era.
Heading South, we can see various churches and Church related buildings on the edge of the escarpment. Walk toward the big one with the gold domes, deciding we don't need to go in, but have a look at a wedding - Friday night is obviously wedding night, as we see about three separate ones. Seems you get dressed up, then come to the park with a supply of grog, which you set up on a table, and have the reception there.
Walk to a good look-out over the river and hinterland, taking a panorama photo which includes the coal fired power station, a satellite town, and the road bridge, probably all strategic items, and forbidden photo targets under the old regime. We read up the literature we have, and figure we have time to fit in the 12th century "Golden Gates", Head for them taking photos of older buildings with intricate brickwork on the way. The Golden Gate is worth the walk,


but we are pretty puffed when we get back to the bus station.
The 6 pm bus has not yet opened its doors, but there are a lot of people with tickets. Inside the ticket-hall we find a big group, not a queue, around the windows, with urgers coming forward to talk to the operator and do business. As it turned out, those close to the window were waiting for information to come through, and told us to come forward and do business. We were given numbered tickets on the 6.30 bus for R26 each. Sat down beside a nut and snack seller, who was selling cupfulls of nuts, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit for surprisingly high prices, say R400 a litre. Business was pretty slow, so he started taking interest in the brochures we were reading. This developed, as it does in these circumstances, into a fractured English/Russian/Sign language conversation. He borrowed our pen and the Roman/Cyrillic comparison chart to explain that his name was Asif, and he probably came from Baku. We were able to recover our stuff, and line up to get in the bus. The milling mob at the door is actually quite orderly, and we get our assigned seats before the bus fills, including standees. While it was waiting in the yard before coming to the stand, the driver was working on the engine. This proved significant later, but we left on time, slowly along the potholed road beside the railway and industrial buildings before hitting the main road, where the speed improved a bit. Passing the power station, the roadside was dominated by the large pipes in racks, trailing loose insulation and rust. This is the centralised heating, supplied using waste heat or steam from the power station, and is a very efficient way of heating in a cold country. It does, however, represent a large infrastructure investment and ongoing maintenance problem. The condition of the piping is typical of infrastructure generally here. Out in the countryside, on the way back to Moscow, we saw kilometers of such piping along the main road to villages and factory complexes.
At the outskirts of town, a big group at a bus station filled the bus, leaving several people out. There seemed to be some sort of merit system working.
Out in the countryside, we proceeded slowly toward Suzdal, shedding people at bus stops, then, suddenly, it was all out! A girl explained in sign that this meant us too, and another empty bus swung round in a U-turn to pick us up. No booked seats on this one, DP gets a back seat, MP left standing. Fortunately, had a few shots of local countryside and small towns


with churches before this, so the record was kept.
We could see a whole lot of church spires out to the west of the road, figured this had to be Suzdal, but didn't seem to be getting any closer to it. We turned off the main road on a primitive clover-leaf circular road, past some sort of abandoned factory, with a weird skeleton clock in a tower in front (significant later), and down a long side road into the town. We drove around a fair bit, shedding passengers, but at no stage did we encounter a definite central stop, such as at the market, where our hotel was supposed to be. By the time we were down to the last few passengers, a couple in front asked where we were going. When we said Hotel Sokol, they were surprised, indicated that we had passed it a long while back, but that if we sat tight the driver would leave us there on his way around the loop. We had a grand tour of the extended town, kilometers from our destination at times, but were eventually dropped opposite the market, at a bus stop which we figured would be good for our departure..
We are unable to see a hotel sign, but know we must be near. There is a new yellow building on the corner with a brass nameplate too small to read, but DP recognises Hotel Sokol from its photo in the glossy tour brochure (we'd booked in Australia for A$182 - later see there rack-rate is 2170 roubles, almost half this!) and we approach to read the sign. Check in with a minimum of fuss, straight to the new, clean, but strangely configured room. MP decides to soak his tired feet, turns into a bath, so we are a bit late venturing out to the restaurant in the hotel for a surprisingly good meal of pork and veal steak, beer and vodka for a reasonable R433 before our night walk.
Suzdal, population 12,000 is supposed to be the nicest of the Golden Ring towns, and the guidebooks says "you'll see a traditional Russian town overflowing with old monasteries, convents, churches and intricately decorated wooden cottages (izbas) dotted in green fields". We'd imagined a Cesky Krumlov (Czech Republic) or a Lijiang (China), but it was definitely somewhat less than that.
The town itself is pretty scruffy, but the small, typically five-spired churches are nice. Take photos of most of them,


and across the meandering, slow moving river to the lower town of wooden houses. The sun is setting (it's about 10pm), so most of the photos are in silhouette. Walk south along the riverside street, as far as the Kremlin, through the breached walls, past the log-cabin construction wooden church, with its barge-like base, and out to the end of the ramparts above the river.
There is a lot of bird-life out in the swamps, mainly seagulls, and a swamp full of noisy frogs. The mosquitoes were making their presence felt, so we made our way back past a function in the Cross Hall in the Kremlin, back along the road, past wooden houses with decorated window architraves, decorated gates, and ageing foundations. Most chimneys were insulated with ragged fibre, an indication of the severity of winter, in that you have to insulate your chimney to stop it getting too cold.
Back in town, we walk around the decaying market building, which has two long wings separated by a derelict courtyard. Some of the premises are occupied by bars and stores, but a lot are locked. The youth of the town is hanging around, looking for trouble. A couple of loud cars are about, but we settle in for a good night, once the noisy upstairs neighbours stopped stomping about.
Saturday 4 th June Suzdal - Moscow
Up at about 8.30 to pack and have basic breakfast by 9, and out without our bags to do the town in time to check out at 12. Walk South via the local produce market along the front of the "Trading Arcades" building. Had a look, but unable to support local producers as there were mainly vegetables on offer, and strange ones at that. The offering was so meagre, and the people selling so old and poor, it was quite sad. We cut through some back streets to check out St Lazarus, and some older houses, a smaller church with stark black onion domes, then on to the Monastery of the Deposition, which had a large open arch under the tower, but not much inside the walls except a dilapidated 3 storey building, and people either cutting a very overgrown lawn or harvesting cow feed. Further along, the white Alexandrovsky Convent, with a large tower and smaller church with the usual five domes, this time in grey zinc.
Next came the massive bulk of the Saviour Monastery of St Euthymius, with a brick wall all around it. The southern section has a massive scaffolding on it, much too big for other than a large team, but further on, we see that the wall has been bagged, which doesn't take long. The whole wall is intact, and has been restored, with some recently added buttresses,so we have to walk along the river bank on a rough path, and right around it to get back to the entrance on the south side. We can see through apertures in the wall that a lot of the inside is garden or fallow, but it looks quite interesting from the entrance. We want to just look at the grounds, but can't see this price on the list, so opt for the furthest item, the prison, then get slugged for ground admission anyway, as well as the camera charge. This isn't all bad, as, after the advised "lovely 10 minute bell concert", it started to rain. We were expecting a computer or mechanical program to be running the bells, and were surprised to see an animated figure pulling strings for the small bells, and jumping on levers for the big ones. Like quasimodo on speed. Were surprised to see that it was a real person, not a puppet.
We sat out the rain looking at the prison, now a museum, set up for housing religious dissidents. As prisons go, it looked pretty flash, and had royalty as its star boarders. All the labelling and newspaper cuttings were in Cyrillic Russian, so we couldn't make out much. When we emerged, the rain had almost stopped, so we decided to have a go and walk across the foot bridge to the intercession convent and attached hotel, which we had resisted booking. The cabins looked very log-cabin rustic, but were a long way from town. We sneaked a photo inside before reading the no photo sign, then took photos of the plain, zinc domed church outside. MP was for walking the road, but DP insisted the locals would have a short cut, so followed a bush track back to the other bridge and back to town, via the wooden houses of the poorer lower town.
Back in town, we see an old woman at the bus stop, figure she is waiting for the 11.30 bus, so hurry our checkout to get back and sit beside her. She is still there when we reach the bus stop, figure the bus has not been past yet. After a while we ask her if she is going to Vladimir. We think she says no. Ask if the bus to Vladimir stops here, she also seems to say no. She hops onto a local bus, so we assume we could still be in the right place. Ask a second woman, she says "not here, Vokzal" and indicates a long way off (two waves of the arm). About this time, a bus goes past, and doesn't stop, so we take more notice. Ask if we should take a taxi, she "says" too expensive, says 20 minutes walk. (all this is in very fractured Russian and sign language) We hope we have got it right and set out walking, looking out for likely bus stations without luck. After 10 minutes, see a bus down a side road, walk toward it while at the same time asking a man walking past it. He does the double wave further down the road we were on, so we carried on. Eventually we can see the main road, but no sign of a bus stop. DP asks a couple walking our way, and they also indicate further on, and repeat the word "Vokzal".
About now we start to see a building through the trees. It is the deserted factory we saw on the way in, with the skeleton clock tower out the front, and a long concrete gantry out behind it. We see a bus emerge from behind it and the penny drops! This is the bus station,


which we passed on the way in, but did not stop. It looks totally deserted, but a man walks out behind it. We walk around the back, and suddenly there is a bus, taxis, people. The long concrete gantry is actually a covered walkway servicing the 20 bus bays, most of which haven't ever been used. This area must have been part of a 5 year plan 30 years ago which never came good. We go into the building, which looks very like an abandoned north Canada mine building, find a ticket booth, seats, and people waiting. We get tickets for the 12.30 bus, having just missed the 12 .00, again with seat numbers.
At 12.20 a bus arrives. It looks more like a suburban bus, but we line up. One of the waiting woman leaves the queue, and we are then not surprised when we find it is not our bus, even though the sign on the front says Vladimir (another case of a little knowledge being dangerous). One of our short, mud-runner buses then arrives, and we get in. Risk the wrath of the system by sitting in adjoining seats, even though 13 and 14 are opposite, on the aisle. Get away with it. Bus lasts all the way into Vladimir, but it still takes 45 minutes. When we arrive, the bus stops at the station level, not up at the bus station, and there is a long distance bus at the stand. It has a "Mockba" sign on the window, but we ask anyway, and the driver says yes, then something else. One of the local translates it as "take a seat", so we squeeze down the aisle and find seats. Not the last card in the pack, the back row, but the next- over the wheel on the sunny side.
We settle down, then think of food and toilets. MP is about to make a run for it when the driver starts the bus, so thinks twice, and goes back to the seat. After collecting the money, we leave about 10 minutes later, but we have had such a stroke of good luck with the bus, we don't like to push it. The bus cost R240 for the two of us, compared with R1260 for the train - a pretty good deal.
It takes a while to clear the town, past the landmarks we saw before, then we hit the straight, pretty good road all the way to Moscow. There are minor towns and villages along the road,


factories and workshops. All seem to be centrally supplied with hot water, no matter how far from the power stations. The system is kinder than Spain, and we get a loo stop after only 90 minutes, although the loos weren't all that flash.
There was a lot of woodland, even right into Moscow proper, and we were able to follow our progress right up to the "Mockba 3km" sign. They must measure to the start of the district, as we travelled a long way past this, in increasingly built-up areas, losing any sort of overall view among the high rise residentials, some of which were brightly decorated in the Brazilian style. We were relieved when we saw our first Metro sign, and by the second one, were wondering whether to abandon ship, but hung in to be deposited at the Kursky Vokzal Train and bus station, with its associated Kurskaya metro.
DP is feeling mad with power after this virtuoso performance of punting high and following through, and insists on having a quick look at one of the fancy metro stations on the way home.


We come slightly unstuck when we take an escalator to look for more fancy platforms, and end up out in the street, and have to use two more metro tickets to get home. We go to Kitay Gorod, our local station, called into the supermarket on the way home for bread and Coke. Not sure whether can book in at other reception desks in the North and East sections of the hotel, but decide to try anyway. After retrieving our baggage, book in with a minimum of hassle on the north side, and proceeded straight up to our room on the 7th floor, which is quite near the lift. Had a stiff drink of bacardi with our coke, and tuna rolls, made with the tin of tuna we've carried since Australia.
Game as ever, we are out later to walk up through the town to find the world's biggest MacDonalds at Pushkin square. Have a single combo between us (still coasting on our tuna buns), and listen to the free headphones playing rock music. Walk back past an incredibly ornate building, which turns out to be a fantastic supermarket selling all sorts of high-quality food items. More ornate than most of the churches or museums - right up there with Harrods or DJ's food halls (photo). Most prices were quite reasonable (especially our 20 roubles Super size snicker), but some were outrageous. Home via the internet cafe on Kamergersky to internet for an hour at R60, check out the system for cutting CD's. Seemed surprisingly cheap. Got across the technical questions, but stumped by the concept of "not now, tomorrow", until helped out by an Angliyski speaking customer. Back to our much more convenient room, having racked up 20 km walking in a day that should have been mainly bus and metro travel.