Red Square

Tuesday we drove to a restaurant Tami and the girls love not too far from the Kremlin. We had a delicious lunch and then had the task of choosing from the array of gorgeous, fancy pastries.

We went to the Matrishka Museum that another expat had posted about and spent some time there. Worth going to if you are visiting the City and have the time. Then we battled the snow and very cold weather to walk by the Kremlin. Rachael, Cecelia, Jack and Katya - It is the park that runs along the Kremlin wall where we stopped to snack and enjoyed all the spring tulip beds. The entrance to Red Square was blocked so we had to walk all around and went into GUM. We walked around there looking at the expensive shops and the beautiful holiday decorations. They erected a huge wooden slide that the girls enjoyed climbing up and going down quite a few times. They even had a 5 piece band playing and the music was all American. The cafe was outside in the open part of GUM so we overlooked the slide, watched the musicians and people. I ordered a hot chocolate and it came in a small cup and was thick, melted chocolate like a pudding that hasn't set. Tami ordered me a hot, frothy milk so I could put some of the chocolate in it. What came was lukewarm milk not frothy so I had chocoate milk.

While sitting on a bench by the slide in GUM while Tami and the girls went to put on their snowpants, I made some observations:

Russian children are very cute.
Why do cute Russian little boys grow up into unattractive Russian men?
Russian young women are very fashionable, wear very short skirts and especially in their bitterly cold winters, many are light blondes, many are a size 6, many are attractive and they wear the craziest stiletto heeled or platform boots to navigate their poorly plowed sidewalks and streets.
I saw one snow plow and one snow blower all day and it snowed all day and evening long.
There are no city parking bans so the plows can actually clean the streets from the storms. In the US, this would not happen.
Sidewalks are not cleared well. It is not safe for the elderly or pregnant women to be out walking.
If people park real crazy during normal weather, you should see it during a snowstorm.
People of all ages love to skate. I saw from kindergarten age to a lady in her 60's bundled up in her long fur coat and hat.
People don't seem to mind the cold as the streets are full of people walking all over the city, moms pushing baby carriages and groceries.
You don't see many old men but lots of old women. Men smoke and drink more and die much younger. See, we women are much smarter!

The highlight was the elaborate, cute structure erected right in Red Square for ice skaing for the winter (outdoor rink). Tami brought their skates but they do have skate rentals, a nice warm building to put skates on and a bag check area. It is the most famous place in Russia to skate. They skated and I enjoyed watching. Since I have not been on figure skates since Tami was around in junior high, I thought it was wise not to tempt fate as I would not want another broken arm and especially in Russia.

Some people really were skating too fast and when she thought some had been drinking she and the girls called it a night. As we were leaving, there was a group of about 4 or 5 that had sparklers on the ice. Real smart, skating with sparklers that could hurt someone of someone's coats. Only in Russia.....

She is going to take the girls next week but fairly early in the AM before it gets crowded.

We wanted to get into Red Square for pictures and then to hitchhike back to our car but it was closed off and guards would not let us through.

We walked back around the back of GUM and there was a winter market with lots of vendors and a wooden little sled track. Each end had a raised platform that the kids climbed stairs up so they went down an incline pretty fast (but it wasn't too high).

It was a late night by time we got back to the car and had the traffic coming back home.

What tears at my heart is to see really elderly women on the sidewalks begging. What a gut wrenching site. Part of their society. I also hate seeing all the stray dogs and cats and don't know how they survive being out in the cold.

It's late so excuse any typos.