Moscow, The Paris of the East

Saturday we divided the guests into our small groups of thirty, boarded our bus with Gene, our tour guide, and headed southeast into the heart of Moscow and the Red Square. On first impression Moscow is like any big international city. Lots of traffic, tall buildings and on going construction. Gene pointed out many noteworthy building along the way, some very old and some dating just to the Soviet era.

Umbrellas popped up when we were greeted by Seattle skies at Red Square. We could only view the square, not walk across it, as crews are working hard to prepare for big parades set for May 9th to honor the end of World War II. Lenin's tomb was barely visible behind the scaffolding wrapped in "May 9th" banners and much of the Kremlin wall is concealed by the rows of red, white and blue bleachers prepared for the dignitaries who will witness the grand parade across the square.

I could almost visualize the Stalin and the government leaders standing there before the passing tanks and missile launchers during the parades of the cold war. The square is impressive and bathed in history but somehow smaller that I pictured it.

Passing the famed St. Basil's Cathedral we moved to the GUM department store. I was surprised to see that, rather than being a single store it was an enclosed mall sporting high end and familiar names such as IZOD, Mont Blanc and scores of others. There is evidence of a high end consumer market in the area. (That was reinforced by the fleets of Mercedes, BMW and Lexus automobiles populating the city.

We were cautioned not to judge Russia by the appearance of wealth in this part of Moscow. That would be like judging Fargo North Dakota by ones impressions of 5th Ave in New York City.

We saw this building and that building and heard many interesting stories about them before descending into the famous Moscow Metro to ride the rails and visit several stations, most of which were built and are maintained like museums. Residents are justifiably proud of the beautiful and apparently efficient system.

The tour ended on the famous Arbat shopping street. Turned loose for lunch we passed local shops and not so local ones like Dunkin Donuts, Wendy's, McDonalds and the Hard Rock Cafe ending up at a large Starbucks. It looked like any store in Seattle except the signs were unreadable and, with my command of the language, our drinks were unorderable. We were saved by a lovely Russian woman in line who graciously translated our order for the barrista.

It was then back to the bus for a quiet evening and attempt to further ameliorate our lingering jet lag.