10-05-2013 Moscow

10-05-2013 Moscow

LAT Post

We arrived and parked at the pier in Moscow late morning. In the morning we went to a meeting on our debarking the ship, what time we need to leave for the airport to get our planes.  Luckily for us we have a late morning flight and are leaving from the closest airport from where we are docked.  There are three airports in Moscow the furtherest being an hour and forty five minutes away in good traffic which around here would be unusual!  Our airport is about an hour away in similar conditions.  The threeViking guides then held a round table question and answer session which was interesting but their view on the gay issue was way out of wack!  They said that the issue was distorted by the news and that there are many gay organizations that operate openly and without harassment.  What Russians really are concerned with is the shrinking Russian population and that is why they do not want gays to be seen by their children.  If the children saw happy gay couples that would or could persuade them to be gay....REALLY?? How ignorant is that??  Other then that little curve from reality the talk was interesting.  We then left for a city tour on the bus.  The city is beyond huge.. Huge huge buildings long streets with as many as eight lanes of cars..and bumper to bumper.  We went to Red square which was fenced off preparing for a celebration of theOlympic torch arriving.  They were practicing their marches and band playing.  We wandered around the outside of some of the stores that are around red square on one side (the other side being a red brick wall).  Then they started shutting down the area and a bunch (a very large bunch)  of police started moving us out.  We were then separated from most of our group and could not get to the assigned meeting place to meet up with our guide...it was very cold by now and we are all wandering around trying to get our group together...we did and it was fine!  One thing before Red Square was a ride on the Moscow underground subway.  Pretty amazing how far down it is and how clean it is..really amazing ..and was a great experience.  We headed back to the boat and Mary Lou taught Patsy and I a new dice game called Farkle...I was really really bad at it and lost both games!, I accused Mary Lou of making up the rules as we went along..but of course she was not... But she did win pretty handily!

LMR Post

"A" is for adventure!!  and boy did we  have one!  Took the city tour after arriving in Russia late morning.  The tour was from 1:30 to 6:30PM, and was a bus tour of the city.  We toured around and stopped several times - saw theOlympic ski jumps from 1980and stopped at SparrowHill for a panoramic view of the city.  Then we headed for Red Square- looked at Gum department store (from outside) saw Herme"s, Louis Vitton etc.  Suddenly we were told top leave!  Been thrown out of lots of places but Red Square??  Really they were closing the Square so they could practice for the ceremony of the Olympic torch relay which begins Monday.  Then we could not find our guide, most of our group nor our bus!  Took a long time to connect all the pieces but we finally all got together.  Most of our group was exhausted from the long hike to the hidden bus.  But I went to the folk festival concert, only thing is the guides did not tell us iot was a mile walk!  Music was great...Lara's Theme, Tschikorsky, Rimsky.  Muscians played Russian instruments (balaika, doma and Guesli (like a harp)  Soloist and xylophone player were great.  Conductor was funny.  Bus-trip returned us to the boat at 9;30PM at which time we were served dinner.  Suppose to spend 5 hours at Red Square tomorrow but its closed for 24 hours so doesn't seem like a good plan.  Bolshoi tomorrow night.