Karen, Dennis, Cameron & Megan in Red Square
Karen & Dennis in front of the gardens outside the Kremlin
St. Basil's Cathedral
My Mom and Dad arrived in Moscow the Friday after Kristin and Trey left. So – we were becoming experts at having visitors by this point. After picking them up from the airport (where they had actually arrived 30 minutes early! And before I got there!), we headed back to our place so they could rest up before we went to an early dinner – again at my favorite – Pasta della Mamma. Cameron didn’t arrive from the UK (yes, again – for work this time) until late that night, so he missed our on dinner, but luckily his sweet wife picked up some togo for him.
On Saturday morning, we tried to cook up a “Traditional Moates’ Breakfast,” however, there was no bacon to be found at either of our grocery stores. So – we skipped the bacon and had the eggs and toast instead. We walked down to the Kremlin, where we met our tour guide who took us through the Kremlin (again for me, 1st time for Cameron) and Red Square. It was a great tour! My dad loved the commentary asides from our guide. And I loved seeing it all again from the perspective of another tour guide!
Saturday night we went to Café Margarita – which unfortunately isn’t Mexican, but is called Margarita for the novel, The Master and Margarita, a famous Russian novel based on this area of town, Patriarshy Ponds. It is a great little place (only about 10 tables), and they have live music – 2 fiddles and a piano – each weekend. We had a ball shaking our shakers, and clapping along to the songs. We didn’t really sing along much, as there were several songs in Russian!
On Sunday, we went to a little known area of town and down about 18 stories for our Cold War Tunnel Tour. I have to say – this is probably one of the best tours I have been on here in Russia! These tunnels are at the depth of the Metro (18 stories down – which luckily I got to take the elevator with my mom and Renie!). Stalin had them built in the height of the Cold War so that they could run things in the face of a nuclear attack. There was a propaganda film we watched which was so 180-degrees from the films we saw growing up, it made you think that all Americans were war-mongering bastards. I’m sure the truth (if you can call it truth) is somewhere between the films I grew up with and this film, but it was completely amazing and informative to see things from a different angle.
In fact, the very same day we were on the tour, NBC Nightly News aired a clip about the Tunnels. Here is the link – it begins about 10 seconds after the first story….
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/#25664282
On Monday, my Mom, Dad and I walked down the Boulevard to Christ the Saviour Cathedral. It was a long walk, but a beautiful day. After touring through the museum, we walked back and stopped for lunch along the way.
I sent them off to St. Petersburg on their own on Tuesday, and hoped that everything would go smoothly! Luckily no real snags, and they really enjoyed their St. Pete trip.
Once they arrived back, we took the boat tour through the city – while it was pouring rain, where luckily we were under cover – and enjoyed a quite night where they tasted my new cooking abilities!
On Saturday we went out to Ismailova to shop for all sorts of souvenirs. Although I think I ended up buying more than they did!
We sent them onto Dublin on Sunday, and I’m so glad they had the chance to come and visit us. Like Kristin, I know that travelling to Moscow, Russia was not the top of my Dad's must-see places, however, it turned out he absolutely loved his trip! My Mom – who has experienced a little bit of world travel in the past (Norway), had high expectations from the start!
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