Sunday, May 8, 2011

Sunday May 8 - Moscow


Arrived Vienna at 9am after uneventful flight. Not very impressed with Austrian Airlines, plane was very squishy (I had trouble tying my shoes), crew perfunctory.
 
 
We had about three hours to spend in Vienna. we walked around and window-shopped, prices are extremely high. I took some photos of their smoking sections. Bizarre.




The flight from Vienna to Moscow was very good our seats were bigger and more comfortable than on our eight hour overseas flight, go figure.
We were served drinks and a meal for a two hour flight. We were the only North Americans on the flight.


 
Clearing customs was easy other than the customs officer who didn't speak any English. Picked up luggage and then found our driver who spoke no English either than hello. The drive into Moscow took about forty minutes through pretty ordinary countryside until you hit the city limits. We passed Red Square which was amazing and preparations are under way for Monday's Victory parade.

The Marriott is beautiful and in a perfect location, on the main street leading to Red Square. Moscow Hotel is in the central Moscow location on Tverskaya Street near Red Square, the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theatre.



Everyone in the hotel is telling us we need to head down to the Square early for the parade. In fact, the desk clerk said she was moving us to a street front room.


Once we had checked in and the bellhop had taken us to our room we decided to go out for a walk.


 


We walked about halfway to Red Square and turned around. 





The area is bustling with stores and people milling around. To cross the street you use the subway which is an underground labyrinth of passages lied with shops selling pretty well anything you can think of.





We were a little peckish but didn't want a big meal so we stopped at an outside cafĂ©, ordered a beer Russian of course, and spilt a meal of German sausages with fries, tomato and cucumber served with hot mustard and horseradish. It was delicious and hit the spot. 



And there's lots of tunny sandwiches available!




Time to people watch and take photos of the great billboards surrounding us. Okia had an ad for Angry Birds which made us laugh.

It doesn't matter the language, it is instantly recognizable. 


We headed back to the hotel for some downtime, TV and internet and then we hit our pillows after being up for nearly 32 hours!





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