To Russia with Friends 2011: Day 2 in Russia

Great day today in Moscow. Weather was perfect - sunny, high in the mid-20's.

Went exploring central Moscow - around Red Square. It was Sunday morning, so it was pretty quiet, which made it very enjoyable. Moscow is a big old European city, and pretty much lives up to that expectation. All the old buildings inter-mixed with the western high end businesses, including Louis Vuitton, Yves Rochers, Starbuck's and of course, McDonald's.

After wandering around a bit, we went to the Opera at the Bolshoi Theatre; we saw Iolena by Tchaikovsky. It was very enjoyable - beautiful theatre, great music and singing. Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon in Moscow.

Later in the day, we met up with our tour group back at the hotel. Our guide, Marina, seems very nice, and very knowlegeable on Russian history, so this should be a good week. Group is made up of 5 Canadians, 4 Americans, and 1 Australian.

We headed back down to Red Square where we saw more of the old buildings and sights more commonly associated with Moscow. Then we had supper in the GUM shopping centre, right off Red Square. It is an old department store, which has been fully brought into the 21rst century, with beautiful high end stores. Wandered into a grocery store and was mesmerized by the beautiful wine offered for sale - they had every one of the Bordeaux Premier Crus, as well as 2 different vintages of Chateau Petrus, arguably the best wine in the world. Needless to say, I didn't buy any of those, but it was fun to wander around in there for a while. I tried to take a picture of one of the displays, and out of nowhere appears a security guard, who exclaimed in his broken English: "No photos!".

Oh well, here are some of the photos I did get on Day 2.

Take care;
Marc.

Starbuck's in Moscow