We got up reasonably early this morning to take our group on their orientation walk. We walked them up to the metro and got out at the church of our savior, with its beautiful gold onion domes. We pointed out Arbats street with all its funky cafes and then walked up behind the church and across the river. From the bridge we could see amazing views of the Kremlin and a huge statue of Peter the Great.
We then went to have a look at one of the big art galleries, just to show the group where it was. We had a coffee stop for about half an hour and then attempted to cross back over the river to Red Square. Unfortunately, it was cordoned off due to the threat of protests that day, so we had to go around it and through the Gum shopping centre. We then pointed out where the gaurds and the eternal flame were before leaving the group to their own devices and heading off for lunch.
Sara and I went to a Mu Mu restaurant near Lublyanka and sat in there for a while, before heading back to the hotel via the metro. We actually spent about half an hour in one station trying to figure out how to change lines! There was one moment where we came to a set of steps and we both looked at each other and turned around and laughed, not wanting to make the effort to climb the stairs unless we knew where we were going. Laziness prevails.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in our room doing paper work, before we headed out for dinner in the shopping centre near the hotel. I could see a sign for KFC from the room and it had planted the idea in my mind, so off we went to KFC which was actually really nice and cheap as well. We had out dinner and then went back to the hotel, our Kremlin tour with the group is tomorrow and its supposed to be really cold….as if its been hot up until now!