This is our final day on the train and we arrive in Moscow just before 5 pm. I am excited! When I started out my life during the “Cold War”, I never imagined I would end up in Moscow – but it always held an immense attraction. So much has happened during my lifetime. I would never have suspected the breakup of the Soviet Union, and yet, now I have learned, nothing is permanent. Things change, personalities change, and ways of life change. Things never stand still.
It has been an amazing experience so far, seeing this vast country through its changing moods. The beauty of rail travel is that it is reality. You feel the distance; feel the ground you are covering bump by bump. It not like being in a plane where 5 hours later you are on a different continent, thrown into a new culture, and way of life. Train travel takes you into it layer by layer, like making your way through a dark jungle and coming out into a sun lit place on the other side.
So now I’m using Moscow time and it is 9:37 am and we are pulling into Nizhnynovgarod on the Volga River, one of the largest cities we have come to so far. Nothing much on the platform, get out and stretch our legs. Ate breakfast back on the train, porridge with pieces of strawberry. Later we go to the dining car – for an egg and potato and a coffee. Met Gareth Browne who knew the first King of Redonda - our neighbour's father is the current "King of Redonda". Redonda is a small uninhabited island near Antigua. There is quite a story here which I shall elaborate on in a separate email when I get the whole story from Bob on Sunday, August 2 - it's his 79th birthday. Small world! Wandered back to the carriage, and then another 20 minute stop at Vladimir, walk on the platform see Soviet era engine, and back on to the train. Sit and listen to an audio book. Lots of Russians walk on the woodland paths, or swim in their bikinis and bathing suits in the ponds along the side of the railway. The countryside becomes city, and five minutes after the scheduled time we arrive in Moscow.
We pack up our stuff, and sadly leave the train. We are surprised how hot it is. We make our way out of the station. Our Moscow Russian guide, Zoya, has not arrived. There has been a mix up in times. About 45/50 minutes later she arrives. We drive to our hotel “Alfa” which is in the hotel complex on the 1980 Olympic grounds near the Izmailovsky Market. This is a huge hotel, but it's really very nice. There is a concierge on each floor and you check in and out with her. She has all kinds of “stuff” available for sale that you might need, like shampoo, toothpaste, etc.. Quite a neat idea!! But one thing, it doesn’t have is the flasks of hot water that we have become accustomed to throughout the rest of our journey for tea, coffee, noodles, soup, etc.
We had a very quick shower and met back downstairs in an hour and set off with Chris our guide and Jon on the metro to Red Square. The metro is deep, and not quite as quiet and new as in Beijing. But the artwork in the stations is outstanding. According to Fodor’s, the first line opened in 1935 and the earliest stations were built as public palaces. We arrived in Red Square in daylight, and our breath was taken away from us as we entered through the arches by the History Museum at the Resurrection Gate and straight in front of us was the colourful structure of St. Basil’s Cathedral or The Church of the Intercession with its eight colourful onion domes; on our right stretching almost the whole length of the square is the wall of the Kremlin and Lenin’s Mausoleum; on our left the GUM or State Department store built in 1889-1893, a stunning building, all surrounding a cobble stone square where many of us will recall seeing the many military parades of the communist era. It was all an incredible sight and we walked around stunned by the beauty and the significance of the sights before us. In the square, we met two groups of people we had met on the train and in the ger camp, the Intrepid group and the Vodka Train group.
We ate dinner on a side street just off the square and opposite the GUM. By the time we had finished, the buildings in Red Square, including the GUM were lit up with thousands of lights and once again we were drawn back to the square to walk around it and gape at the lights and take more pictures. It was like a fairyland, which, given some of the history of events in the square, seemed like a bit of a juxtaposition.
Eventually, we dragged ourselves away, took a walk through Alexander Gardens in front of the Kremlin, and caught the metro back to the hotel, getting to bed just after midnight.
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