We arrived in Moscow around 12:00. Weather was nice – it was cloudy, not hot, and it was not raining.
First we went to train station to get information about possibility to buy ticket Almaty-Urumqi. We were told that we should try central railroad booking office. After that we went with metro to Cosmonautics museum. Riding with metro was very fast and easy way to get to destination.
We spent about 2 hours in museum. We saw space suit that belonged to third guy on the Moon as well as stuffed Belka and Strelka – real or Chinese fake – don’t know ;). Also there was 1:1 model of living quarter of Mir space station. Also lot of other models and parts of various man made space objects.
After museum we went back to metro to ride to central railroad ticket booking office. Bureaucracy was great, we were sent from one responsible person to another. At least they realized that they can only try to reserve tickets, but not to order them. Computer showed information that there were no seats available. It meant for us only one thing – we will need to buy tickets in Almaty railway station.
Outside station we had quick lunch, some ordered kebabs, some took salads or other food. After that again to metro to go to museum of Matryoshka. It was quite a walk from metro to museum, carrying baggage full of heavy food. Some time after passing by monument of Pushkin, we spotted a street named “шведский тупик” which means “Swedish deadend” and of course, took a photo of Anders under the streetname. Sadly we arrived late at the museum and managed just to take a quick look into souvenir shop full of various sized matryoshkas. Museum was closing (open till 18:00).
Next stop – Red Square. Little bit of walking and there we were. Just settled down in the lawn near some flowers across the memorial of unknown warrior for a rest and enjoyment of view, when Russian militia came and sent us and others like us away. Then we divided in two groups – one who watch over the baggage while other walk around and explore Red Square. The roadway of Red Square was not red. And Kremlin was closed (closed on Thursdays). Saint Basil’s Cathedral had just taken last tourist group, we missed it. We walked around the Kremlin wall to quest how large area Kremlin takes up. And then the second group took the tour similar to first one. Although we didn’t manage to see these two objects from inside, it still seemed that we have seen much in this one day without any stress or haste.
Rested in another lawn we took a metro to our station where we stepped into a train that will take us to Almaty.
