2013 Euro Vacation: Russia

After a very pleasant train trip on the Sapsan (fast) train from St Petersburg, we rolled in exactly on time at Leningradsky Railway Station. After eventually locating the taxi we had booked, we ground our way through heavy traffic to our hotel, which revels in the name Grand Gallery Hotel. It fell some way short of being grand, but did have lots of prints of classical Renaissance art on the walls, so has some claim to the Gallery part of the name. However, the location was good, right near the Belorusskya Metro station, three stops to the Kremlin. Our invitation to have a drink with Mr Putin must have been lost in the mail, so we had to content ourselves with visiting the sights along with all the other tourists. Red Square was filled with a temporary stadium erected for the start of the Winter Olympics Torch parade. However St Basils, The Kremlin and GUM department store were all still open for business. The churches are spectacular outside and in, with every inch of interior wall space covered in colourful icons and frescoes. They have a couple of large cathedrals which were blown up by Stalin in the 1930's (no opiate of the masses for Uncle Joe), then rebuilt in the 1990's after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

St Basil's is every bit as colourful close-up, as in its photos. Inside are several small churches, rather than one big cathedral type space. There are some other spectacular looking churches inside the Kremlin, but as photos are not allowed inside these buildings, you have to take my word for it that their interiors were very sumptuously decorated as well. Our Kremlin tour was conducted by a cute young Russian girl, who made lots of KGB and Putin jokes, so things have certainly loosened up here. The major highlight of the Kremlin tour was seeing inside the Armoury, where the Russian equivalent of the crown jewels are kept. A large collection of Fabergé eggs and other jewellery, incredibly intricate old weapons and armour, Royal clothing, and a stupendous collection of old royal carriages.

The whole of the inner city looks prosperous, as did St Petersburg. Up to date, modern cars, including plenty of expensive ones. Despite the huge, wide streets, traffic jams are common. The Metro is great once you get used to it, but this takes a bit of doing, as all of the signs are in Russian, in Cyrillic script. You need to memorise the look of your destination name and scan the signs for the right platform. We found that many young people speak some English, and are very helpful.

We capped off our touristic day with an excellent dinner at the Café Pushkin. This lively place has an interesting history (which you can Google), and is housed in a fabulous old Russian mansion, only two Metro stops from our hotel. Plenty of foreigners there, lots of business people spending their expense accounts. The atmosphere is, to use a German term, very gemütlich. We had to wait about half an hour for a table, which provided enough time for a couple of tasty Russian beers. Large menu, large wine list, largish prices, but a great night.

Tonight, we're off to another of Moscow's nine main railway stations, this time the Yaroslavsky, to catch the train to Ulaan Baatar (or Ulan Bator if you prefer).