15th July 1992 Day 361

The Diary

St Basil's

Breakfast was the usual Russian farce. No one seemed to know where it was, it opened half-an-hour late, it was the usual bread and cheese & they tried to charge me. I caught the metro to Red Square, (smaller than I'd imagined), visited Lenin, bumped into Dave & Amy, had a look around the GUM department store (I don't think Boyes need worry!), wandered around the river side of the Kremlin up to the huge swimming pool, which was empty & then up to the Dom Knigi, Moscow's best bookstore. Russians can't be big readers. Pathetic. I suppose it was on a par with other Russian shops. Just about empty. Everyone seems to buy (& sell) at little impromptu stalls in the streets. Not a place to come Xmas shopping. 

GUM

Len's Tomb

The Hokey Cokey

  

Red Square

Kremlin

Kremlin

Red Square

St Basil's

Kremlin

 I visited McDonalds again & then headed to the Kremlin where I bumped into Dave & Amy again. The Kremlin was very nice but apparently I missed out by not going to the armory. That's what happens when you haven't got a guide book. I then went & had a look inside St Basils & then went back to the hotel for a kip.

The World's biggest bell

Len in the Kremlin

At 6.30 I met the others at Pizza Hut for a Trans-Mongolian reunion - 16 of us! The Russians couldn't afford to eat here. I spent $22 - about the average monthly wage. Dave, Amy, Ken, Debbie & I then went & sat outside the Intourist hotel with a can of Coke each watching the prostitutes trying to do business. It all seemed very complicated to us.

Sign-of-the-times. The 6-foot high Coke can in Red Square!