23 September

After just dozing all night (must be the excitement of going on the TransSiberian) I was up not long after 0700 and down for breakfast about 0750. Today I beat the South African gent down and had nearly finished before he arrived. We had a bit of a chat, then farewelled each other as I am off tonight and won’t see him again. I was surprised that he hadn’t used or seen much of the metro, as it is world-famous (and a very quick way of getting around).
Then it was back to the room to pack (not too neatly, as I will be on the train and not a plane), check that I had left nothing and finally out for the day by about 0900. The luggage was left so I could travel relatively unencumbered.
As I was early for visiting museums (the point of today), I walked down towards the Kremlin again. I paused at Lubyanka Place to photograph the old prison and was asked (not told) not to take photos, so I complied and moved on. But the last thing I had read was about the Polytechnical Museum, so not having seen anything like that while I was away, I decided I could invest a little time. And so, after three and a half hours, I left, having entered at 1000. In that time I saw some very good models of mines and factories, some series of developments (including computers, where a Mac Plus like the one I still use occasionally, was on display as a relic!) and some original material, including devices used by Tesla and Van Lewanhook (inventor of the microscope – and I know I’ve misspelt it), the first Russian atomic bomb and models of most of their spacecraft. The biggest disappointment (apart from the dilapidated state of the building, but that is being refurbished) was the lack of people inside. Apart from three small schoolgroups, I saw about six other people looking at the exhibits (and we were outnumbered by the baboushkas, though some of them were really helpful and pointed out good things to see). After that I walked to Lenin’s tomb, only to find (naturally) that it closed at 1300. I went to have some lunch at the centre of American capitalism right opposite the Kremlin (and there is some irony there, in that in the US, I got shown the Capitol Building by a Russian and here I was eating at an American chain opposite the Kremlin) and on my way out photographed where the Bolshio building has had the hammer and sickle replaced by the double-headed Russian eagle. I thought I had had enough so I caught the Metro back to my hotel, but found I was far too early. I needed sugar for the train trip, so walked down a side street as far as the next main road into the city looking for a supermarket and … no luck! I walked through a park (still marvelling at how many of them there are, and how many have playgrounds for children) and then back along another side street. I found a possible street vendor, and after making her understand what I was after, she said she didn’t have any but there was a place to the right about five minutes further on. As it turned out, it was only two minutes further on, and almost diagonally opposite the hotel! I got the sugar (500g of cubes, easier to handle while travelling) and then investigated the neighbourhood opposite the hotel. Just down another street there were garages with graffiti, in, you guessed it, English, so that got photographed. Then one of two girls who looked like they had sneaked out for a quick smoke cried out and rushed away, only to come back embracing two other girls (presumably friends she had had not seen for two minutes). Just down the alley there was a church which was being renovated but was still conducting services, even though the inside was still being plastered up and the outside had not been started. On the way back to the hotel I saw a cat curled up in the sun, but it didn’t respond to my meow, so it looks as though I cannot meow in Russian. Then I got asked directions by a Russian girl and had to answer that I couldn’t speak Russian (although that didn’t stop me last night, when I helped a young Russian couple who looked like they were from the country, totally bewildered by the Metro and all the people and couldn’t find the way to get to the Green Line from the Red Line – I showed them with signals). Finally I decided I could go into the hotel, sit down, write up my blog for today (as far as I could) and post it, as well as uploading today’s photos and sending my last email for a week or so (or maybe more). At just after 1730, I’ve finished all those tasks and will sit back and wait for my driver at 1925.
As a side note, I know why they need all those public toilets on the street in Moscow. It’s all those fountains, and their sound of running water, and everyone needs to go, even if they don’t!