Our Trans-Mongolian Adventure

So we left you on Friday afternoon as we arrived at Moscow Station. Despite the chaos that ensued around the platforms and concourse, we easily found our driver holding up our names and within 15 minutes we were in the Budapest Hotel (great location, big room, bit tired looking and the longest walk from the lift to our room you could imagine).

We decided on a quick reconnaissance mission and within a few minutes had walked by the impressive Bolshoi Ballet and had an overview of Red Square and the Kremlin ahead of us. As we approached Red Square we thought something was amiss as the entrances were blocked off by security and no one was entering. To cut to the chase we discovered that there is an annual week long festival being held in the Square and it appeared that unless you had a ticket for an event then you couldn’t enter. Much disappointment, added to by the fact that we discovered tickets were required for the Kremlin too and that these would not be easy to obtain. As we only had 48 hours in the city it looked as if the two main sights of Moscow were unlikely to be visited.

Anyway Central Moscow was absolutely buzzing with a young, wealthy, after work crowd. We had a good Friday night out, eating at a lively modern restaurant called Tehnikum whilst continuing to ponder on our misfortune (and in the case of the Kremlin poor planning - unusual for us!) regarding Moscow’s Tour highlights. We pretended to ourselves that it didn’t matter and consoled with another glass of wine.

On Saturday morning we had a three hour City Tour booked and were met in reception by Tatiana. Before setting off we told her about our plight and she phoned her office about the potential for Kremlin tickets and drew a blank for the period we were in the City. There was however some light at the end of the Red Square tunnel, which was one of our first ports of call.

Through tight security (a recurring theme across Russia so far) we were able to enter Red Square with Tatiana as we discovered it is only closed for specific events during the festival. The problem was, however, that the whole square was covered in a temporary stadium, stalls, cranes etc so you couldn’t actually view it in any recognisable form as a Square. But we were most definitely in it (tick that box!) and had access to view the main sights on the edge of the Square, including the quintessential, and incredibly impressive, onion-domed Saint Basil’s Cathedral.

Tatiana’s tour was excellent and after Red Square and a few other sights she positioned us on a bridge over the Moskva River from where we had an excellent view of the vast Kremlin complex, home of the Tsars and Russian leaders of various persuasions over centuries. At least we’d seen it from the outside. As we closed the Tour at 1pm Tatiana suggested we had a look at the Kremlin ticket office in case anything could be done, although she said normally the queue was between 60 and 90 minutes to book for days ahead. A stroke of luck meant that due to a Remembrance event being held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the ticket office the area had been closed to the public all morning and had literally just reopened. Tatiana got in a quickly forming queue with us and within 20 minutes we had tickets in our hands for a 2pm same day entry into the Kremlin. We were very lucky and massive thanks go to Tatiana who gave up her personal time to assist us. I think she was more surprised than us that we were going in.

After saying farewell to Tatiana we queued through another laborious security queue but we were inside the walls of the Kremlin and enjoyed the very impressive Armoury Museum (no photos allowed) and then all of the regal and government buildings, including Cathedral Square, which gives the Kremlin its iconic UNESCO World Heritage status.

Somewhat exhausted by a full day on our feet we really enjoyed an hours rest back at the hotel. It was then out for the evening and we had booked a restaurant in another part of town named Chemodan, an old established Russian restaurant which came well recommended. It specialised in serving fare sourced from Siberia. We won’t go into too much detail of what was on offer in respect of meat and fish but we remained fairly safe with venison and polar partridge. It wasn’t cheap but the quality of food and service was immaculate as was the atmospheric dining room.

Of additional interest to us was the table of two couples next to us and the two large black suited, white shirted, bald, unsmiling, mean looking, gentlemen who sat quietly on their own at a table in a dark corner. Janet noticed that these two had earpieces in and after they got the nod from their boss next to us at the end of the evening were standing to attention by the doorway, checking the exit and escorting the couples out to waiting cars. Proper bodyguards and we suspect something that is necessary for quite a few in this part of the world.

After a taxi home we had a brief wander round the area of our hotel where the bars and restaurants were still busy and music was filling the street. We were absolutely worn out though and went to bed feeling we had just about managed to do Moscow justice in the time we’ve had. We’ll give you a summary of the City tomorrow. Sunday morning is packing time and preparation for our first overnight train journey...26 hours to Yekatinerberg.Read more