Days 6 and Day 5 (below): Kateri and St. Pete

See if you can figure out what this sign says. You can KIND of tell...but not really...(Yeay for trusty phrasebooks, mime, and patient people).

DAY 6:

Today after breakfast we all kind of headed in our own direction to see the stuff we wanted to see and in a hurry. I walked to Peter and Paul Fortress and then came back on this side of the river and toured Pushkin House Museum. Then around to Church on Spilled Blood again and down Nevsky Prospect to pop in a toy store and book store before meeting back at the B&B. Again it was freezing cold but city busses and coffee and museums are warm! Charles and Kateri spent most of their time in the Hermitage and then Charles left to check out Pushkin house. Around 3 were were all back at the B & B and then off to the train station to get on the express back to Moscow. Beautiful scenery on the way – autumn colors, small village-life, country cabins, rivers, and some light snow on the ground. So here we are back in Moscow! We succumbed to Sara's favorite blini stand and brought some back to Sara at her hotel.

(Peter and Paul Fortress in the distance)

(Pushkin's apartment - nice tour)

This photo above is Church on (Alexander the II's) Spilled Blood

View from the train above - a beautiful sunset and a cold winter is approaching. Notice, the trees still have leaves...they are JUST starting to turn which is amazing since we were only able to walk around for 1/2 hour at a time bundled up like it was full-on winter...wow these trees, and the people here, are very hardy.)

DAY 5:

My sister Kateri arrived- she took a flight from Moscow. It was a much better day weather wise (no snow but still cold) so we decided to do some walking. We headed to St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the Admiralty Building. Then past the Hermitage to the Church on Spilled Blood – amazing site. We stopped for lunch at a nearby café. Hot tea, Borsht soup, mushroom julienne (baked cheese/mushroom delicious thing) and a mozzarella pesto salad – and blini’s of course.

(This view is looking toward Nevsky Prospect and Kateri is taking a picture of the Hermitage - Our place was at a prime spot!)

(This is Church on Spilled Blood, right outside the cafe)

We passed up the Russian Art Museum...Charles was bummed realizing we would only have an hour to see everything – not enough time. So we went instead to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan right down the street. We struck out at Puskin’s house Museum too - it closed 10 minutes before we got there – ddouhh!!

(Inside the cathedral)

Charles got us all tickets to the Marinskiy Theatre performance this evening - YEAY!. Unbelievable opera solos accompanied by a fantastic orchestra. I won’t even begin to do it justice if I describe it – but it was a moving experience in a beautiful theatre. Dinner out and it’s already 11:30 p.m.!

(The three soloists were A-mazing)

Day 4 amd Day 3 (below): Moscow to St. Petersbuuuurrrrg

DAY 4:

Hey everyone!! We're at a lovely Bed and Breakfast right by the Hermitage/Winter Palace. We're in the prime part of town. Holy cow this city is georgeous. Also cold. We got in about 7 a.m. off the overnight train from Moscow (had bunkbeds, a berth, rickety train, the whole bit). We stepped off the train and it was probably a good 20 degrees colder! Yep, coat, hat and gloves weather. A metro stop later and we were walking on Nevsky Prospekt. While walking down Nevsky when it was lightly snowing, we were seeing Church of Spilled Blood, Gostiny Dvor, Kazan Cathedral, St. Isaac's Cathedral...WOW. very incredible - this place is pretty amazing.

From the B&B, we walked 2 blocks to the gi-normous Hermitage and Winter Palace. In hours touring, we MAYBE say 1/10th of what there was to see. Crazy. It's supposed to be nicer out tomorrow so we'll try our hand at Peter and Paul Fortress, Cathedrals, maybe Peterhof - there's so much to see. We've become huge fans of 'blinny's' - this super thin pancake thing they use as a carrier for many things: eggs, or maybe fish, or go sweet with berry jam. it's soooo delicious. And of course borsch- can't go wrong with that!







DAY 3:

Today was a beautiful day – partly cloudy and brisk. We were on our own without Sara to chaperone (GULP). Charles and I navigated the city’s metro system and got ourselves to Catherine the Great’s summer palace. AMAZING fall foliage, a huge palace, cathedral, a lake, and the usual city types in tight leather and stiletto high-heels (they are everywhere). We spent the afternoon walking around the lake and enjoying the non-city before catching an overnight sleeper train tonight to St. Petersburg! It was about 15 minutes to walk there, right past the favorite ‘blini’ place (blinis are delicious super thin pancakes with jam or whatever you want – even caviar – rolled up in them.) We left the station around 11 p.m. and arrived just before7 with not much solid sleep but a cool trip.

Day 2 - Kremlin and the ballet!

Hey everyone! I think we’re STILL trying to recover from jet lag! Yesterday was pretty stormy all day but let up in the evening when we went to dinner and the ballet. Sara had Columbus day off so we all headed out to tour the Kremlin. The rain and clouds were actually pretty cool – after all its autumn in Russia! After a quick ride on the Metro, we popped up to the street level and made our way along Kremlin wall to the ticket booth. Along the way we stopped at the eternal flame (photo above) for the unknown, fallen heroes of the Great Patriotic War (World War II). We opted not to visit the State Armory (running low on time). The armory houses many of the Tsars’ personal items, so we focused on visiting the other sights, mainly cathedrals instead. We took a look at the 40 ton Tsar’s Cannnon cast in 1586. We then walked by the massive 200 ton Tsar Bell, which lay next to the Bell Tower constructed by Ivan The Terrible.

The first Cathedral we went into was the Cathedral of the Archangel. The Archangel Michael was the protector of the early princes of Moscow. Many of the sarcophagi of early princes and Tsars (including Ivan The Terrible and his sons) reside in this cathedral. The entire place is filled with frescoes and icons, as are all of the cathedrals. We then visited the Cathedrals of Annuciation and Assumption. After that, hunger drove us out of the Kremlin and to a Georgian (country not the state) restaurant near Sara’s hotel for some excellent food and needed hot tea and relaxation. Afterwards we came back to the hotel, changed clothes and headed back out to catch a ballet of Cinderella. What a great ballet in an elegant theatre!

WOW!

Day 1 - Arriving in Moscow

CHARLES: Hi everyone! It’s day two in Russia. We had an excellent and relatively fast flight over here yesterday. I have to say that Singapore Air is going to be my first choice for all future flights. From the hot towels at the beginning and end of the flight, repeated rounds of wine, the excellent service, it was all good. Even had a wonderful steak for dinner and good omelet the following morning. In flight screen with on-demand movies, TV shows, radio, music, and video games. Pretty cool!

We flew over these huge birch forests and arrived about 1pm outside of Moscow. Sara met us at the lobby for the Aeroexpress train back into Moscow. We were able to then experience the efficient metro subway system. If only every city in the US had something akin to this…The people watching was great. We made a couple of transfers and ended a block from Sara’s nice hotel, The Volga. Nice views of city from the seventh floor. We dropped our bags, rested for a few minutes before heading back out for the rest of the afternoon.

We decided to head down to Red Square just to check things out before it got dark. We’re heading back there today to actually visit the Kremlin, etc, but we just walked around the square itself yesterday. First we had to stop for coffee, actually got a mocha or mocco, as they say it. On the way we passed by the building (photo above) housing the FSB (formerly known as the KGB). Was able to practice reading Russian along the way; translating store signs and billboards. So much of it sounds close to English! Just looks like Greek.

Just after we arrived in the square, the bells began to at the Kazan Cathedral (photo above). We watched the guy in the bell tower to the left as he worked hands and feet churning out a tune. It’s right next to the state building. We then made our way across Red Square towards St. Basil’s Cathedral. Along the way, you walk parallel to the wall of the Kremlin and Lenin’s tomb (closed for the day by then).


St. Basil’s Cathedral (photo above; left side) is just beautiful. Seems like it’s from some imaginary land with all of the colors and swirls. The huge executioner’s block in front and to the left of it reminds you of another, more gruesome time. Behind the cathedral is the Moscow River.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped for beer (Belhaven Stout) and a bite to eat at a nice restaurant. I had rabbit with a sour cream sauce that was fantastic. The lounge band was pretty good. Heard some Ray Charles songs, etc. Then it was back to the hotel. We didn’t last too long after arriving.


KRISTI: The flight was pretty fast – I stayed up the whole time watching movies and learning Russian phrases. My sister Sara is so awesome – we’re staying at her hotel while we’re here. Red Square and dinner were amazing yesterday. We crashed pretty early after dinner and slept for 12 hours straight!! I worked on my on-line classes for a couple hours this morning and now we’re off for another day on the town before the ballet tonight. YEAY!

Houston

We're at Houston International, waiting to soon board. We'll be in this airplane for 11 and a half H-O-U-R-S... If a relationship can survive this - it can survive anything...(poor Charles)!

Kristi, Charles, and Kateri head to Moscow!

Hey everyone. Charles and I are headed to Moscow Saturday followed soon after by Kateri on Tuesday (and mom and chuck 10 days after). Our sister Sara is in Moscow working for NASA's International Space Program - so we thought we'd take the opportunity to 1) hang out with someone who speaks Russian so we don't have to as much, 2) stay with someone who has a place we can stay for free and 3) bother the hell out of our little sister. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up!
(OH and the ballet and opera, the Hermitage, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Fortress, etc etc - that'll be cool too I think).

So we're packing up, getting ready to head to Houston tomorrow and then 11 hours non-stop on Saturday to Moscow on Signapore Airlines. Next week well head to St. Petersburg for a few days - can't wait! We'll keep you posted with pictures and what we're doing. See you in Moscow!!