Moscow, Part I

Moscow was an experience, and I'm not going to even try to explain it all in one go, but here's the first section; starting, of course, with the night train.

On friday night we set off from St. Petersburg on a midnight train, aiming for Moscow. Our sleepers were at the end of the train from the platform, so our trip began with a long, long walk through the drizzle; thank you, S.P. On the train many were understandably exited; not many Americans had taken trains before, certainly not sleeper trains and this one was nice. Much better than Spain, with all sorts of neat little tricks, like the compartment right next to your head for- I assume- storing valuables on the way. Just like the train featured in my textbook, the conductors offer both tea and coffee aboard, the tea served in massive 'stakan's, large cups with mug-like handles. Eventually everyone calmed down and slept, after some conversation about the economy for some reason (probably because its rather worrying, and Iceland is currently sinking rapidly, like the Titanic, no lifeboats in sight).
After a night of sound sleep under a very comfortable cover, lured to sleep by the rocking of the train, we were awakened by an awful choice of some sort of bad American pop music at 7am. They left this lovely selection on until the train arrived, I assume as some sort of attempt to gently wake their passengers and keep them awake. It worked, unfortunately.

Moscow. We arrived at the 'Leningrad' station (a jab at St. Petersburg, putting them in their place with an old name they chose themselves to change?), a stunning building, like all the stations in Moscow it seems. Perhaps Lenin and Stalin saw efficient mass transport as the ultimate sign of industrialization, because all the train stations and particularly the Metro ones are stunning. But I'll get to that later. The square with the train station also contains the 'Kazakstan' station and one of Stalin's 'Seven Sisters', skyscrapers with various functions that tower among the Moscow skyline, eye-catching for both their height and elegant, ornate design. There were meant to be 8, built to celebrate 800 years of Moscow (the first reference to the city dates to 1147), but only seven were completed during Stalin's lifetime. An eighth, more modern one, is currently being built. The one by the station is in fact a hotel. We boarded our tour bus and went off to Breakfast, nothing to write home about. And then our tour began.
Our tour guide was, for the first time, a man, and it was actually quite nice. He had a very, very pleasant voice and looked strangely British. The first place we went was, of course, the Red Square, and on the drive we drove by the ex-KGB (currently occupied by its sort-of successor) building and down a row of churches whose proximity to the Red Square is at odds with the destruction in the Soviet era of so much of the Orthodox Church. The Red Square is actually smaller than I thought it would be, and not very square, more rectangular. We came from the St. Basil's cathedral side into the square, with the Kremlin and Lenin Mausoleum on the left and Gym ('goom'), a very up-market department store built on a historical marketplace, on the right. Straight ahead sat the 'Resurrection' gate and the Museum of Russian History. We only stopped briefly, getting a short overview of the history of the Red Square from the guide while watching the intermittent sun place over the surrounding buildings and square, most of them red. Also, realizing that Moscow is, in fact, colder than St. Peterburg, especially when you're just standing around.
(note: 'St. Basil's Cathedral is not actually only a church to St. Basil; most of it is actually other churches -seven in all, I believe- the original one, the Church of our Lady Of Assumption, having been built by Ivan the Terrible (in Russian Ivan the Thunderous) in thanks for a victory over the Poles, I believe).

Lunch time in Berlin! More later; this is about 10 am the first day.

(I apologize for any and all typos; I'm using a German keyboard, and you never realize how popular the letters 'z' and 'y' are until they're switched. Among other things.)