The hotel in Suzdal had numerous hunting trophies including 3 large brown bears – the taxidermist must have had a field day but it was rather off putting for us! We had a long bus journey to Moscow – over 5 hours! The traffic getting into the city was horrendous.
Once bags were in the room we headed out to explore. We made it to Red Square and the outer wall of the Kremlin – this means fort. Looked at the famous St Basil’s but were too late to go inside. We wandered along the riverside with the intention of having a boat ride but were followed by people trying to sell us tickets for the boat so gave up on that idea. There has been a lot of park/garden development since I was last here and it’s turned into a very pleasant area.
The sun was over the yard arm somewhere in the world and the temperature was high so a search for a cold beer began. We went into a place called the ’69 pints’ but beat a hasty retreat when we got an idea  about who might go in there – remember this is Russian and not all persuasions are accepted. Just further down the road we finally enjoyed our beer.
The heat, over 30C, has caused me to get a heat rash on my legs so now I appear to be wearing red socks!
Today we had a tour of the Kremlin but it didn’t go to plan as every street leading to it was closed and there were police everywhere. After an hour’s delay we finally found a way in and as the guide was telling us some of the history a cavalcade of black cars arrived – we were told that Putin was in one of them! Today,22nd June, is Remembrance day – the day in 1941 when Germany invaded the USSR. So Putin was laying a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. No we didn’t see him an according to the guide he was arriving after his workout!
We visited a number of different parts of the Kremlin including the Armoury which is a museum of various artifacts – the is a large display of Faberge eggs. 4 hours later our feet were complaining and we all needed food. We hopped on the metro to a large food market – the fresh produce was amazing.
On our return to the hotel we stopped at the supermarket to get provisions for the four day train trip which we go on tomorrow. There will definitely be no wifi!