Day 22 - 12/8/11 -Friday

After feeling that the weather gods were against us, after consecutive wet and bleak days, Frig turned on a bright sunny day. This third time lucky presented us with the opportunity to take improved photos in central Moscow, as rarely are those 'postcard' shots taken on grey overcast days. We returned to St. Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin and Red Square, and this time took photos of the tourist attractions, and ourselves, bathed in perfect sunlight.

Feeling that we were relative experts now in the Metro, getting from point A to B no longer represented a scary proposition, and afterwards we welcomed the opportunity to experience more of the underground treasure that are the Moscow Metro system. Having taken the Red, Orange, Light Blue, Dark blue, Brown and Green lines, we almost had a rainbow of experience, although this only represented 6 of the 12 Metro lines. Cinthia was also disappointed we didn't take the Monorail.
Words won't do justice to the train stations, so I won't elaborate too much other than to say they have to be seen to be believed, and I'll be interested to assess whether St. Petersburgs are as good. We managed to visit another 3 or 4 stations that our guide had recomended us to visit, and whilst taking some photos we almost got caught in the swill of criss crossing passengers. Remarkedly, this was at 3pm on a weekday. At peak hour, photo takers are frowned upon and likely to be buffeted from pillar to post.

In a practically perfect tourist day, the highlight was no doubt VDKH park. After being extremely impressed with Gorky park 2 days earlier, we were surprised to find an even better park called VDKH. Simply put, I think this was the nicest park I've ever seen. At 2 x 3 square kms it was approximately the size of Melbourne's CBD, and it contained a somewhat ecclectic mix of activities and features. The combination of natural features, (e.g. Flower arrangements and grassy areas) kid's activities (e.g. a plane, rocket and go carts) and man made features (Fountains and historic buildings). The main theme running through park was Russian achievement, however it was primarily a people place with fantastic monuments and publc space. the sufficiently wide avenues allowed in line skaters, bike riders, a tourist train, etc. all to operate seamlessly with people casually strolling along.

During the evening we attended the All Russian dance show, performed by the Moscow Ballet Company. To say it was superb is an understatement. Quite simply, it was world class, and possibly I should not be surprised given the history and reputation of Russian ballet. It was performed by a large ensomble, went for 2 hours, and even step and movement was virtually in total unison between all dancers. It was a nice final memory of Moscow.

The 11.59 pm train has just departed Moscow on time, and it is now time to sleep, and hopefully wake up to the sound of the train brakes when pulling into the platform at St. Petersburg. We leave Moscow with some very fond memories, and with patriotic music being played over the station speakers.