We got tickets the next day for the Kremlin and made our way around the vast complex inside the red walls comprising of Mr Putins
offices, administrative buildings, enormous Parliament, several chapels, the cathedral and the lovely gardens and a heliport.
We could only enter one chapel and the cathedral and wander around the gardens. We decided not to see the armoury and treasury. Unlike many other countries it is unknown as to where Mr Putin lives and the flag is always flying so it is also not known when he is in the Kremlin.
Since reading the novel “Gorky Park” and having it mentioned in other books I wanted to visit the actual park. It covers an enormous area on the bank of the Moscow river and it has many recreational Summer facilities with table tennis tables, outdoor volleyball area and other sport’s buildings, bike hire, boat hire on the various lakes and numerous outdoor cafes and
restaurants and plenty of benches to sit and enjoy the park. Several people were sunbaking on the concrete bank next to the river and a giant space station model was being dismantled and taken away with several large trucks.
A large area was being prepared for an outdoor concert and another area for a garden show.
We had a coffee on the river at the base of the Glass bridge and then crossed the bridge and walked to catch the metro to take some photos from a viewing point overlooking the city and to see the University building (one of the seven sisters).
We happened to ask three Chinese students coming out of the university how to get to the viewing point (two were from Harbin and were amazed to hear that we had been there and one was from Xi’an). The one from Xi’an who owned a car and immediately said that it would be too far to walk said that he would take us in his car. He kindly took us there and showed us where from where to catch the metro and wished us well. He was in his third year of study at Moscow university and had studied Russian and Russian literature and was completing his master’s degree. He already had a job lined up in Moscow as a Russian and Mandarin tourist guide for the following year. Such a nice chap. Thank goodness that he did take us in his car or we would have been more footsore than normal that day. We paid a nominal amount and took a chair lift from the viewing point
down to the river and had a nice stroll from there to the metro station where we met a Russian commercial lawyer on his second day of holidays. We had a good chat to him on the train (he had studied in San Diego) and he said “I’m so excited to meet you! We were the first Australians he had met. He also welcomed us to Russia and hoped that we would return.
We went back to “Receptor” a basement restaurant that Ksenia had recommended, had a nice meal and returned to the hotel.
We had only been in Moscow for four days however we managed with Ksenia’s tips to see a lot more of the city than we would have on our own.