Moscow

Within minutes of arriving in Moscow I was impressed. Getting the metro here is like walking through art galleries, they are marble with huge chandeliers and have grand monuments and mosaics throughout. They are deep underground as they used to double up as bomb shelters and the escalators are very steep, very long and very fast!!! The roads have up to 12 lanes of traffic with bus lanes and parking lanes each side on top of that.

I had thought the buildings in St Peters were big but this is jaw dropping. Outside the Kremlin and Red Square area they are typical of the soviet era - all grey and in huge blocks, some at least 1 km long. Then as you get towards the Kremlin the buildings don't change in size particularly but they are laced with gold and painted elaborately.

So far we have taken a boat trip around the city and walked through the markets of Red Square. We have seen St Basils cathedral (my favourite building of all time) and been in a working monastery where I had to wear a hanky head and dress up in a wrapped skirt. Tomorrow we go to see Lenin's dead body in the Mausoleum and we have tickets to see Cinderella at the ballet.