General Impressions

Once you get a brief respite from the confusion, Moscow emerges as a city of contrasts. There is the magnificence of St Basil's and the gold domed cathedrals of the Kremlin glinting in the sun while the opposing river bank, which should be some of the most expensive real estate in all of Russia, is drab and run down. Similarly there is the beautiful and uber sophisticated GUM shopping mall running along the right flank of Red Square, while just to the north of the square there is the most awful seedy shopping street. One minute you can be somewhere quite lovely, the next you'd doubt you were in a first world city at all.

We found Moscow a very easy city to navigate our way around, but a good map is an essential piece of kit. Our Insight fold out map, purchased from Stanford's in Covent Garden prior to our trip proved invaluable. The "must see" tourist attractions are all contained within one small area of the city which can be walked around easily. However if you are not lucky enough to be staying very central, and with hotel prices as expensive as they are in Moscow this is likely, the metro system is your saviour.

Or Metpo as known to Russians! Once you've mastered the system, it's a fantastic way to zip around the city and exceptionally cheap at 15 roubles (29p) a ticket purchased from the "kacca" lady. You will need a metro map with Russian to English translations, our Insight map of Moscow was again indispensable. If you do not have a map like this navigation is almost impossible with all signs written in incomprehensible Russian.

St Basil's Cathedral - The unmistakeable and instantly recognisable icon of Moscow and, in fact, Russia. The multi-coloured, onion domed cathedral is situated at the southern end of Red Square, visible from the river, is breath-taking to see. It was built by Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century to celebrate his victory over the Tartars.

The Krelim - Once you've managed to get your ticket from one of three different booths (nothing is very fast, kacca ladies especially) access to the Krelim is via a bridge in Alesandrovsky Park to the west of the huge complex. There are three different ticket prices ranging from 100 roubles (£2) just to get inside and view the exhibition, to 300 roubles (£6) to enter all the cathedrals within the Kremlin. It is very much worth the bargain entrance fare just to take a look around inside - the cathedrals are simply stunning, topped with the finest gold onions in all the world!

The guide also recommends a visit to Novodevichy Covent and Cemetery in the south-west of Moscow and the All of Russia Exhibition north of the city for Soviet ear history. We did not have time for either of these, but we did make a trip to Gorkogo Park in the southwest. From Park Kultury metro station the walk over the bridge is very interesting, particularly thanks to a bizarre monument to the left. The park itself is like a relic from the 1950's with fairground rides and ice cream stands, but is obviously still extremely popular on a sunny day!

I wish I could tell you we found fabulous Russian restaurants and I'm sure they exist but we didn't know where to look! Instead we found the standard fare - Italian, American etc. Restaurants are often surprisingly sparse, especially around Red Square, and when

Pictures of Moscow (Russia)

St Basil's Cathedral

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Moscow is located to the west of the Russian Federation and is a land-locked city. Although only as far north as Copenhagen and Edinburgh, Moscow, along with most of Russia, experiences very harsh winters. The extreme cold of Russian winters are a combined result of the huge land mass of Europe and Asia isolating the country from the influence of warm ocean waters and the Arctic Ocean coastline. The harshest months in Moscow are December, January and February with recorded temperatures of -32°C! The winter lasts a long time, but then spring arrives quickly in around April and the months of May, June, July and August can be surprisingly warm.

The Train to St Petersburg

Not to worry, we thought, we'll just buy them at the station. Would that be okay? We asked at our hotel. Yes, yes, the train to St Petersburg goes frequently, no problem. So we turned up in good time for the 10 o clock train - and were eventually made to understand that every train was full until 8pm meaning we would not arrive in St Petersburg until 5am! In the end we had to pay a ticket tout a fee and miraculously suddenly the lady managed to find tickets for the 4.30 "express" train. Surprisingly a Russian girl was also forced to secure her ticket in this way proving just how corrupt the system can be. We were then forced to wait 6 hours at Leningradsky, a typical station environ the outside is as insalubrious as the inside with drunks careering around all over the place! However when we did finally get on our train it was very comfortable and thankfully arrived bang on schedule.

Traveller Tips

Conclusion

Thanks for reading & I look forward to hearing your comments. Triciax