ABC Revisiting M

When we visited Russia in 1998, we spent the first day in Moscow, then returned there for a few days after time in Siberia and St. Petersburg.

This ABC round I am revisiting memorable places we have been. The gingerbread  look of St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square is one of the memorable sights in revisiting
Moscow.

We arrived in Moscow near midnight after a five hour delay and a twelve hour bumpy flight.
Our flight to Siberia was late the next day, so we had a day to visit the capital---on our own.

We walked.

All day.

All over Moscow.

When you are on your own in a strange city with a vocabulary of a couple dozen words and everything written in an unfamiliar alphabet, you hesitate to try to get on a bus or subway--even if you have a guidebook with directions.

So we walked. ..

...and walked...

...and walked.

The Moscow River and the new cathedral nearing completion when we were there. We were wondering what it was--it ws not in our guidebook published two years earlier. We took a boat cruise on the river, but not till we had returned to Moscow at the end of our trip.

On that second time in the city, we lodged in a homestay. Our hostess helped us plot out our routes on the subway map. By this time I could sound out the Cyrillic letters and we were a little more confidant in not getting lost. Well, my husband and son were confidant. They assumed that I knew what I was doing. I didn't. But you could get a lot farther around the city on the subway than you could on foot. And our lodging was quite a distance out of the center.

One exciting moment occurred when we were on our way somewhere--I don't remember where. I do know that we saw the Bolshoi Theater and KGB headquarters that day. We went down into the subway with a plan to catch a train to the next spot on our itinerary. The train came. The doors to the car opened. I got on. The doors closed. That was quick---really quick---really really quick.

Husband and son were still standing open mouthed on the platform as I stood open mouthed watching them slip rapidly away as the train sped on its way. I got out at the next station. Fortunately, common sense and logic prevailed and the next train disgorged the two of them, having reasoned that this was the best way to be reunited.  

Kremlin Walls

There are seven churches within the Kremlin walls. Gold onion domes everywhere.

The subway scare was probably the most exciting thing that happened to us in Moscow. At least until the airport, where, after fearing that  the flight was overbooked and we would be bumped off--we found instead that we had been bumped to first class for our twelve hour flight home.

Bumpy flight to bumped flight. But that's a tale for another time.

You will find ABC Wednesday here. Thanks Denise, for another fine round of ABCs.