Greetings everyone! Today ends our last weekend here in Russia and we are only a few short days away from heading home. The weather was supposed to be cool this morning (mid-30’s), with rain/snow beginning in mid-afternoon. So, we decided to head out for some sightseeing, including a trip to the Moscow Zoo (along with Chris, Daniela and Sasha). Victoria’s fascination with animal shows on TV made us think that she would absolutely adore a trip to the zoo (http://www.zoo.ru/moscow/defengl.htm).
We had no driver today, so we took map in hand and had a crack at the Moscow Metro (train) system (http://engl.mosmetro.ru/flash/scheme01.html). We headed out at about 9:45am, starting at Sokolniki station (across the street from the hotel), then headed to Komsomolskaya station, where caught the ring and headed on to Krasnopresnenskaya station (which is right across the street from the zoo). The train stations here are incredibly ornate, colorful and marble from wall-to-wall (a number of stations date back to the early 1900’s). To enter the Metro, one must descend deep below Moscow down extremely long and steep escalators (one counted 410 steps and appeared to take multiple minutes to descend). Once at the bottom, the hum of the trains whizzing by is quite loud. For Victoria, this was a little unsettling at first. While she was OK with the ride (as long as we told her how many stops we had to go), she was not crazy about the loud sounds. All-in-all, she handled it all very well and was such a big girl. With any luck, we’ll have a similar reaction on our upcoming plane ride! Hahaha... Also, there are no signs in English and all signs are written in Cyrillic. So, it’s a good thing that we brushed up on our Russian before we travelled!
The trip to the zoo was every bit as good as we could have hoped. This being Victoria’s first trip ever to a zoo, she loved looking at the animals and even said “priv-yat” (hello) to most of them (very cute). One early afternoon hit, the weather started to get cold and snow began to fall. So, after the zoo, we decided to go to lunch downtown and headed to the Smolenskaya station, which is a short walk to the Hard Rock Cafe here in Moscow. The Hard Rock here is a 3 floor restaurant, which was not very busy today (since it is Sunday). On the second floor, they had a kids buffet and play area (something that they appear to do on given weekends). They had a moon bounce set up for the kids right in the middle of the restaurant’s second floor. This seemed a little odd for a Hard Rock, but it was definitely a hit for the kids that where there. After lunch, it had gotten colder and there was a constant rain/snow. So, we decided that it was time to call it a day and we headed to Biblioteka IM Lenina station for our transfer back to Sokolniki station, where we arrived shortly after 4pm.
Tomorrow is an important day, where we will technically set foot on US soil for the first time in over 3 weeks. We will be picked up at 12:45pm for our 2pm appointment at the US Embassy where we will obtain Victoria’s immigration visa and complete our official business in Russia. Once Victoria sets foot on US soil (at JFK on Wednesday), she will officially be a citizen of the Unites States. So, even if she does not realize it now, this will be a very important moment in her life!
Here are a few shots from today’s travels…
We had no driver today, so we took map in hand and had a crack at the Moscow Metro (train) system (http://engl.mosmetro.ru/flash/scheme01.html). We headed out at about 9:45am, starting at Sokolniki station (across the street from the hotel), then headed to Komsomolskaya station, where caught the ring and headed on to Krasnopresnenskaya station (which is right across the street from the zoo). The train stations here are incredibly ornate, colorful and marble from wall-to-wall (a number of stations date back to the early 1900’s). To enter the Metro, one must descend deep below Moscow down extremely long and steep escalators (one counted 410 steps and appeared to take multiple minutes to descend). Once at the bottom, the hum of the trains whizzing by is quite loud. For Victoria, this was a little unsettling at first. While she was OK with the ride (as long as we told her how many stops we had to go), she was not crazy about the loud sounds. All-in-all, she handled it all very well and was such a big girl. With any luck, we’ll have a similar reaction on our upcoming plane ride! Hahaha... Also, there are no signs in English and all signs are written in Cyrillic. So, it’s a good thing that we brushed up on our Russian before we travelled!
The trip to the zoo was every bit as good as we could have hoped. This being Victoria’s first trip ever to a zoo, she loved looking at the animals and even said “priv-yat” (hello) to most of them (very cute). One early afternoon hit, the weather started to get cold and snow began to fall. So, after the zoo, we decided to go to lunch downtown and headed to the Smolenskaya station, which is a short walk to the Hard Rock Cafe here in Moscow. The Hard Rock here is a 3 floor restaurant, which was not very busy today (since it is Sunday). On the second floor, they had a kids buffet and play area (something that they appear to do on given weekends). They had a moon bounce set up for the kids right in the middle of the restaurant’s second floor. This seemed a little odd for a Hard Rock, but it was definitely a hit for the kids that where there. After lunch, it had gotten colder and there was a constant rain/snow. So, we decided that it was time to call it a day and we headed to Biblioteka IM Lenina station for our transfer back to Sokolniki station, where we arrived shortly after 4pm.
Tomorrow is an important day, where we will technically set foot on US soil for the first time in over 3 weeks. We will be picked up at 12:45pm for our 2pm appointment at the US Embassy where we will obtain Victoria’s immigration visa and complete our official business in Russia. Once Victoria sets foot on US soil (at JFK on Wednesday), she will officially be a citizen of the Unites States. So, even if she does not realize it now, this will be a very important moment in her life!
Here are a few shots from today’s travels…
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