A day without a Guide

Today was warmer again @ 18 deg and patchy blue sky - a perfect day for walking! Cam left for work around 9.30 a.m. and Peter and I had our day planned, mostly by Cam. We followed a walking tour from the Lonely Planet Guide, with a few additions. The garden boulevarde is one of the ring roads around Moscow City and is just a two minute walk from Cam's apartment. The centre of the road used to be the wall around the city but when that was removed (can't remember the year - in the early 1800's by memory) it was planted as a garden with a walking track. It is some 7 to 8 kilometres long. We walked about half way, then diverted to see the Greek Orthodox Church - Christ the Saviour. This church was demolished in Stalin's time in the 1930's but was rebuilt in the mid 1990's. It is beautiful from the outside, but more beautiful on the inside. It was difficult to be just a tourist when so many people were being so reverant. From there we retraced our steps and attempted to follow the Lonely Planet guide but got awfully confused and our attempts to get help from locals was not successful.

Eventually we found our way to a main road, which I recognised one of the buildings on and then a bakery that Cam had pointed out he sometimes bought his lunch. Whew that was lucky as Pete was not too keen on "just walking" with no idea of where we were going. We met Cam for lunch as planned, ahead of time too so that was a bonus.

Our plans for the afternoon were to take a boat trip on the Moscow River. Cam thought that if we walked to the boat wharf we could take in a view of the zoo and The White House. This took us over an hour which was a little longer than we had initially planned. Finally we found the boat wharf and were glad of a seat for the next part of our journey. The trip up the river took over an hour and a half and when we finally saw the Kremlin come into view we knew the next stop we had to get off. Still more walking, through Red Square and around the front of the Kremlin towards Tverskaya which is the main shopping street and Cam's apartment is on this street. As we walked through one of the underpasses (there is too much traffic to allow crossing the road at most intersections) there was a six person string band playing. The accoustics in the underground pass, which also led to the metro, was amazing and they were great to listen too.

Next stop the 24 hour food store just across from the apartment for a few supplies then time to rest for an hour or so before we head out again. Cam has arranged for us to meet up for dinner with some of his kiwi friends, and also Dimitri who came to NZ in February.

Tomorrow we head off to St Petersburg until Saturday, and I am sure there will be more walking and museums and art galleries.