Goodbye Moscow

Jessie and I are now on our way back. We are about midway on our four hour flight from Moscow to London. After a three hour layover, we’ll be on our nine hour flight back to Minneapolis. We can’t wait to be back home. We got up at around 5:15am and rode to the airport with Vladimir and Katarina. Fortunately, Vladimir was our driver all week after our gas-fumed ride with another driver Thursday afternoon. Vladimir is a really nice older guy. We'll miss his singing too! Vladimir loved to sing Russian drinking songs. It made the long days in his car more entertaining. Earlier today while sightseeing, he stopped in the middle of traffic, got out of the car, walked to his trunk and retrieved a bottle of Russian vodka. He brought it back in and as he handed it to me, he said "Gift for you" in his broken English. It was a really nice gesture.


We had a chance to spend most of Saturday going to some of the more familiar tourist spots in and around Moscow. No trip would be complete without seeing St. Basil's Cathedral. This Russian Orthodox church is almost 500 years old!

We also had a chance to see the Kremlin. It includes four palaces, four cathedrals, the Kremlin Wall and towers. Red Square was closed for a weeklong event with some sort of gathering for military bands from across the world. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of Russia.

We visited the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour church too. It is the largest Eastern Orthodox Church in the world. The church was built in 1997 but was modeled after the one demolished by the Soviets during the Stalin era. We got to go inside too. Almost everything was decorated in solid gold.

We went to an overlook called the High Point in Moscow where we could see most of the city. It is quite big. Moscow’s population is around 11 million people. You could see some of the “Seven Sister Buildings” from this site. These are the seven tallest buildings in Moscow that Stalin had built. Up until recently, no taller buildings could be constructed. Now, things have changed and there are several building being built that will be considerable taller. It was quite a view up there. We also saw many wedding parties while there. Katarina told us a lot of couples go up there to have their pictures taken.

This is one of many police cars you see in Moscow. Almost all look like this one. You can see the Moscow University building in the background. It is one of seven similarily styled buildings in Moscow. Those seven buildings are commonly referred to as the "Seven Sisters".

Prior to going back to the hotel, we stopped at a really nice park where Katarina pointed out a set of bronze duck statues that Barbara Bush bought for children to play on. Katerina actually said it was Hillary Clinton who bought the ducks but a plaque stated it was donated by Barbara Bush.

Once back at the hotel, we made lunch and had leftovers from the night before. Jess had a Ham and Swiss cheese sandwich and I had a carbonate & Swiss cheese sandwich. We still have no idea what the heck carbonate is but it seemed edible. Maybe it’s better I don’t find out now that I already ate it.

Although we can’t wait until we get back to the States, we can’t wait to come back to get the boys!