The Adventure Begins

The plan for today is a private tour of Moscow and the Kremlin.  I have a map from the ship and we know it’s a 20 minute walk.  The map is fairly straightforward and it looks similar to what I figured out on the internet.  Because our track record tends to cause us to take longer to get anywhere we left the ship at 8:20 to be in central Moscow by 10AM.

We followed the map exactly but the detail on the map as we learned later was inaccurate. When all else fails...ask a stranger. There were 2 couples at the bus stop. I approach them pointing at the sign for the Metro. Neither Dan or I have any Russian and they spoke no English.  At first they would help us take the bus but the wife understood we wanted the Metro and the gentleman came back and pointed us back the way we came. At this time we had been walking for about 35 minutes.  Clearly something is wrong. Onward in a new direction and we see a woman outside of a restaurant, again I point to the metro symbol and she has some English says we are in the wrong area and have to go around the building and double back.  We asked a gentleman walking on the street next, he just pointed for us to keep going.  Now we are 40 minutes into our 20 minute walk. There are 2 older ladies at a bus stop.  So again we ask and point. This time she has some English and points us back through the park.   At 50 minutes into our walk I took out my phone and checked Google Maps.  Success, we are now on the right street, heading in the correct direction and the station is about 1/2 mile ahead.

We locate the ticket office by following the crowd getting off the bus. Maybe we should have tried the bus after all.  Okay tickets in hand we are down at the train platform and it is impossible to tell which direction to take. As we are discussing since all the signs are in the Russian language and no mention of the stops written in English a woman in fluent English asks if she can help. I don’t think Dan was ever so happy to hear someone offer to help. Turns out we were actually in the right place and get on the metro only 70 minutes after leaving the ship. Now the ride into Moscow and we are going to be late to meet the guide.

I text to our guide and we show up only 10minutes late. We were saved by street maps that Moscow has erected especially the “you are here” dot. We have walked approximately 12000 steps and it isn’t even 10AM. Taking the long way to the metro station adds significantly to our daily step total!!