A typical russian

One of the 7 sisters

Reluctant allies

Russians do imposing well

Ouch

Disturbingly real frieze

The great war memorial museum

Polynaska hill

You know its cold when they make icehouses

Moscow has an amazing underground

Outside the Bolshoi

The nutcracker!

The tsars box

Going up

Classic

Many of the stations are very ornate. Like miniature underground art galleries.

Going down..

The metro train system is sooo deep underground. No lifts here. Just giant escalators.

Coffee

You start to get the hang of the Cyrillic eventually.

Lots of grand old architecture in Moscow.

Dosto

Pancakes.

Russian style.

More saints

Wishing well?

People would stand on this circle and throw coins in the air. Meanwhile an old lady was busily picking them up.

Gum

Inside Gum, the most expensive mall in Russia. There are 3 long halls each 3 stories high. Russians like to do things on a grand scale.  Christmas decorations looked nice.

St Bas

Basils is always breathtaking. The onion shaped domes keep the snow from piling up.

Church

Old wall

The old defensive wall around Moscow still largely intact. Nice addition of aircon units at upper right.

Epiphany

Epiphany monastery - one of the oldest in the country. Converted to a cathedral in the 17th century, and appropriated by the KGB during dark soviet days.

Cyril and Methodius Statue

These 2 Greeks missionaries apparently brought religion to eastern Europe and invented the Russian Cyrillic alphabet.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts...

Happy New Year Fred

Merry Russian Christmas!!

Dom

An amazing place for New Years. Felt very safe too with no less than three rings of security around. Never seen so many police/military. Russians must be gearing up for Sochi Olympics.

Heart of Russia

Weather baloon

Sending up hot air balloons, Russian style.

NYE

Near Red Square

Molly Greens

Has anyone seen an Irish pub round here?

The US embassy

Stalinism

One of the 7 sisters. The height of Stalinist architecture

Another Stalinist monument

Freaky dolls

Abacus

Life is tough when your playground is covered in snow

Lights everywhere at night

Goodnight

Wheels

Fred and i enjoyed playing with the landing gear. All the hydraulics looked to still be in working order.

Spaceshuttle

Russias first and only space shuttle now resides at Gorky park.

A Russian meal

On the train

Onto an icy runway

You could feel the plane sliding on the runway with the wind and the braking. Still was a pretty good landing. Everyone clapped when we reached a comfortable speed and i found myself joining in. Apparently they always do that here. Not sure why we stopped doing this in the west.

And into Moscow