Moscow day 1

After our morning walk we met our guides.  We actually had 2 since one was in training. Nikita and Ris ages 22 and 20. I am sure they were hoping for younger tourists that could actually walk a little faster.   It didn’t seem to slow them down and they walked us all over central Moscow when the day was over we walked 36000 steps, 29 floors and 270 minutes of exercise.  We were able to keep up and saw lots more of Moscow on our walking tour and had lunch in a little Russian cafe.  Great little tortilleni’s.   The end of the day we were to see The Kremlin and Armory. This was the only disappointment in that the private tour company was unable to secure the armory tickets. I was bummed.   Probably something about the World Cup being in Moscow in 3 days and it is the beginning of a 4 day weekend for Russia’s Independence Day, June 12th.  So all the out of towers are flooding the city

I found it enlightening that the Kremlin is a series of government office buildings and several churches that the Tsars have built. Not sure what I was expecting.  Today the weather went from cold drizzly and gray to partly sunny and back to rain.

What we loved about Moscow was the green and alll the trees in the city.  Wide pedistrian walkways, the city is amazing clean and transportation system that is efficient. The subway trains are old and noisy but running at 80 kmh

At the end of the day we met the tour guides from the boat for an evening performance of music provided by Russian music major graduates playing several pieces on classical Russian instruments. It was truly amazing. I have some video if anyone wants to listen when we are back.  That ends our first full day in Russia. I don’t think we will be able to keep up the pace of today for the next 10 days.