Part I

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We walked through Red Square the first evening we arrived, seeing Alexander's Garden, St. Basil's, the Kremlin, Lenin's Mausoleum and GUM, Russia's largest and oldest department store. First impression: Pretty cool place.

We visited Lenin's Mausoleum this morning. There's somewhat controversial talk of burying him soon (he's been mummified and center-stage since 1924), so attendance is up.

Note to visitors: You must not bring a bag or camera, talk, put your hands in your pockets or show any other disrespectful signs while visiting. Waving is definitely out.
The line moved swiftly (the men with machine guns saw to that) and soon we entered the dark tomb. Lenin was lying (what else?) in the center of a small room encased in thick glass. Spotlights illuminated him, but he was a bit distorted through the glass.
Real or wax? Only his hair dresser knows for sure. He looked pretty good for a man his age, but our friend who last saw him 13 years ago says he's not looking as perky as he once did. You decide.

The Vodka-swilling stereotype of Russians didn't hold true by my observations. They (and we) drank beer where we hung-out. I must say, however, that the rise in vodka prices was front-page news so someone really cares about such things.

For tourists, Moscow can be very expensive. This mornings coffee for four was $23.00. A small water (you can't drink the tap water) was $7.00.

The fluctuating exchange rate of the Ruble has been solved by listing prices in "Equivalent Monetary Units", which just happen to correspond to the Dollar price of things. When buying something, the conversion rate from Dollars to Rubles is often calculated on the spot and you pay in Rubles. As a result, my hotel bill is different every night.

We drove past the huge titanium Yuri Gagarin (cosmonaut) statue on a giant pedestal. Yuri looks like the young communist we all aspire to be.

The office building we visited today was terrible. It was built in the 1950's and it's pretty much just the way they built it. With the high temperatures, they have to leave the building by about 3:00 as the sun heats the air conditioning retrofitted building and makes it unlivable.

We also went past an interesting railroad bridge over the Moscow river. The original bridge was built around the 1960's, but soon started sagging. They begin a rebuilding project that went on for years. At the time work began on the English Channel tunnel, the joke was that the tunnel would be finished before the bridge was. The joke turned out to be true as the bridge is still under construction.

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