~~~~ Moscow ~~~~

~ Many Surprises for Me ~
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This was the view from our 12th room in the Cosmos Hotel .. 3,000 rooms !.
The park below included a huge, sweeping monument with sleek rocket on top (not pictured)
and was in honor of their space program.
Our hotel had many restaurants and shops and was alit with sparkling lights at night.
It had heated towel bars, as did most hotels in Russia, but you found no hair dryer or kleenex.
As a matter of fact, I ended up confiscating some toilet paper from the women's restroom on the first floor !

Our first evening we had a "Moscow by Night" tour
which included champagne at a fabulous overlook of the city.
We visited the monastery setting which inspired Tchaikovski's "Swan Lake" (see lake view below).

Our tour ended in Red Square to hear the impressive Clock Tower strike midnight.
It was a terribly exciting evening and I found Moscow absolutely exciting and magical.
This was not at all what I expected.

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I decided to wait until daylight to see if the magic vanished.

It did not........

The place looked like Disney World !!!

Here Vernon and I are across the river from the Kremlin.

We took a tour inside the Kremlin Walls...
the cathedrals pictured below are just two of many inside the walls.

I found it interesting that the guide mentioned a typical Sunday for Moscovites......
it did not include going to church.

There was an underground, three level shopping mall at Red Square that would rival any we have in the states.
A part of this setting was a lovely park with an impressive walk with fountains.

The old walls looked as though they had just been built.

We just sat for A LONG TIME pinching ourselves, trying to realize we were really here !

A bit of reality became evident when we heard a noise and witnessed a demonstration marching into Red Square carrying a Hammer and Sickle Soviet flag.
These were elderly people who were left destitute when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The difference is that they would have never had a demonstration for ANYTHING fifteen years ago.

One of our tour members was here eighteen years ago.
He was amazed at the changes he saw as soon as we drove into the city.
When he was here before the streets were almost empty,
hardly any cars and there were no advertisements to be seen.

*** Villages of Latvia ***
(Human needs Mission)
*** Tallin, Estonia and Riga, Latvia ***
(Charming old cities)
*** Vilnuis, Lithania/ Minsk, Belarus and Smolensk, Russia ***
(Pastoral scenes and KGB Geocide Victims Museum)
*** Moscow, Russia ***
(Beauty and the Beast)
*** St. Petersburg, Russia ***
(Young, beautiful city)

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Music: "Tomyana"