Well, what can I say, Moscow has truly surprised me. We have had the most fun time exploring the city centre, Red Square, The Kremlin, St Basil's Cathedral and most surprisingingly of all the Metro! Many of the stations were built to epitomise the Russian word "svet" meaning radiance and brilliance and were built when Stalin was in power to showcase how powerful the country was. Some of the stations are like palaces and very beautiful. We spent a couple of hours jumping from station to station all for the paltry sun of 50 rubles, the price of a one trip ticket to any destination. Once you get your head around the Russian cyrillic alphabet it is easy to travel on the Metro and a great way to people watch. It is extremely clean, no litter or graffiti. One of the escalators was so long that it took 2 minutes 15 seconds from top to bottom! In the station with the bronze statues people touched the head of the dog and stroked the cockerel for luck, so many people do this every day that they are polished to a fine shine.
Red Square was packed with people taking photos of the famous sites with the golden domes of St Basil's glistening in the sun. I have never seen so many selfie sticks! All the surrounding streets were lined in garlands to celebrate Autumn and there were little street markets with huts decorated in Autumn leaves. Our last visit was to the Botanical Gardens, right next to our hotel, which was very picturesque, with the trees a riot of colour. Tomorrow we leave on the trans-siberian for Kemerovo.