It was only a few stops on the metro and within fifteen minutes we were taking the escalator from Smolenskaya station back to street level and on to the pedestrianised main street lined with historic churches, timber houses and nineteenth century mansions all overshadowed by the nearby Foreign Ministry building, one of Stalin’s Gothic skyscrapers and the nearby Soviet apartment blocks built on New Arbat.
Have Bag, Will Travel 
As a notorious skinflint, I also go for minimarket over minibar while travelling. It’s also an unfortunate rule of the road that the more you pay for your hotel room, the more you’re expected to pay for every extra service – laundry, room service, tipping etc.
It would be so nice to find a place that said,’Sir, since you’ve already paid us such a lot of money we’ll shine your hiking boots for free.’
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It is for this very reason that I always insist on carrying my bag to my room on arrival!
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Home, sweet home 🙂
By the way there is a small museum of steam trains right near Rizhskaya railway station.
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It was a grand experience and i feel sure that you were pleased that you went, even if you did not collect me on the way! It has been interesting reading all about Russia and seeing the photos…thank you for sharing x
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And thank you for reading and commenting!
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When we stayed in Moscow we wee lucky enough to be within walking distance of Red Sqaure so that saved us having to figure out using the Metro. Voyage Jules Verne’s organised tours very expensive, they wanted £20 to show us the metro, but we just went and bought a 50p ticket, had a look around and then took the commuter boat down the Moscow River for I think £6. Great afternoon out for just a few quid.
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Same with Travelsphere – ludicrously inflated prices for tours. We did the same as you and enjoyed a couple of evenings visiting the best of the metro stations!
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Fascinating interesting thank you Andrew. I’m very impressed that you worked out the names of the subway stations. I can’t believe the prices charged to tourists
“one man on the tour paid £11 for a vodka and tonic”
Did you take a bottle of vodka home?
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Bought one at the airport duty free shop but haven’t opened it yet!
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I’m surprised to hear you haven’t had obstacles or restrictions. I hear St. Petersburg is more open than Moscow. No, I have never been there but have met and entertained Russian visitors to my country but that was at least five years ago. Maybe changes have been made since then. Love the Russian tour, Andrew. Great photos too.
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