Day 21 - 11/8/11 -Thursday

A rather ridiculous display of smug satisfaction appears on Cinthia's face, as she finishes putting the Mamushkas back together, all 9 are now contained in a diminishing size symetry within the major mamushka. After looking at thousands of Mamushkas.....some Classic style, Snow White and princesses, Obamas and Osamas, even Homer Simpson makes a mamushka appearance.... it was finally time to choose one and be done with it. Mission accomplished, and we now have a Classic style Mamuska to adorn our household.

It is 9.45pm, and the 23rd floor of Cosmos Hotel has a nice view across northern Moscow, including VDKH part, a museum and part dedicated to Russian achievement (primarily space achievement) in the 20th century. The park even has a replica space station, which I'm looking forward to visiting tomorrow. Cosmonaut Craig, you are 10 seconds to lift off!

Today was the official 'tour day' of Moscow, although after sneaking a peak yesterday at the major attractions it was still interesting to hear a detailed history of the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral.... when they were build, why they were built, etc.

Perhaps today's highlight was the rather brief viewing of Lenin's mummified body, within a mausoleum outside the Kremlin.

The wait was about 45 minutes and our guide was nice enough to wait in line whilst we went and watched the Kremlin changing of the guards. This process was not quite as pompus as Buckingham Palace, however we both liked the Russian hig step march method.

When Lenin died in 1924 it was immediately decreed by Stalin that his remains were to be mummified, and he was not to be buried next to his mother in St. Petersburg, which had been his wish. The mummification is quite impressive, as such the man who implemented Communism to the Soviet Union looks like he is sleeping, not dead.

The other highlight (and I type this with trepidation given my vocation) was vising the Metros, which in Moscow, are a destination themselves. Although we saw only 5-6, these Stations where simply amazing, and are often referred to as Moscow's underground palaces. Particularly amusing is the station which has bronze statues, one of which has a soldier and a dog. Whether tradition or superstition, most passengers would stop at this statue and pat the dog's nose. The bronze coloring is now polished silver due to all the pats the dog recieves.

The sheer size of the metro, and the fact that several lines operate under one another, has led to the newest line being quite deep, with many long escalators. When our guide advised us that the escalator at the end of the platform was 126 metres, and the world's longest, Cinthia and I had to have a ride. Whilst fighting off vertigo, we managed to time it at 3 minutes per direction. It seems walking up escalators is not a preferred approach to vertical escalation in Moscow, as we saw only 1 brave girl walking up the long escalators all day.

The later part of the afternoon we decided we no longer needed the guide and spent further time in Arabat Street. It has a nice wide pedestrian mall, interesting buildings, and is a nice place for people to stroll.

Convincing the guide we were fine to make it back to the hotel via the metro was easy once we told her we had completed that challenge yesterday. It can be a little tricky given the Cyrillic alphabet, and a Sydney lady at breakfast admitted to me she was so lost yesterday until a Russian stranger agreed to get her back to the hotel station.

Almost time to hit the hay, and hope that tomorrow greets us with some fine weather!