Москва day trip

4 hour train ride on a 7:40 am 200 kilometer high speed train, but the economy seats were not exactly comfortable for napping through the dead flat terrain. Better than Amtrak, everything new and clean. I can imagine the shocking comparisions foreign tourists make when they encounter the sad state of our own travel infrastructure. But best of all another sunny day, luck with weather continues. Nice to be away from my tour group, but being guideless meant having to figure out Cryllic alphabet signs.

Red Square was blocked off due to a concert venue being set up, but did see a memorial service at the Russian tomb of the unknown soldier at the Kremlin wall in the Alexander gardens, with band, soldiers parading.
Inside the Kremlin swarms of Chinese tour groups as always, but the cathedrals were small enough that fewer people could enter.

So much for the view of Red Square and Lenin's tomb (and John Reed's grave)

 Steps away, the once famous GUM department store, propaganda showpiece of Soviet days (how they would "bury" us with consumer goods, non of which were available to the Soviet people) now just looks like another silly upscale mall.

Just a block away from all this was a small coffee and sandwich shop called Prime Star, part of a chain but very reasonable prices, think Dunkin Donuts but tiny comfortable spot (wouldn't be out of place back in Northampton) to drink tea, recover from not enough sleep, museum backitis and still nagging cold) and rest before the next hopefully open museum. The State Historical museum turned out to be under some mysterious renovation but next door was an exhibit of "the Great Patriotic War of 1812." 

 War seems to be the flavor of the month: the train showed WWII themed movies and documentaries coming and going, and offers free firstclass seats to those few surviving 90-plus veterans of that other great patriotic war, celebrating the May 1945 victory.

Famous marble Moscow subway station

And return to the train station for a beer and salad and almost missed the 7:40pm St. Petersburg train since they didn't bother to post the gate or even announce it until just minutes before departure.

The real attraction of travel is never the destination but rather the journey, as they say.