Above the entrance to the Bolshoi Theatre
We are up early this morning so we can be at the Bolshoi Theatre for an 11am Walking Tour. It’s a 40min walk from our hotel but when we arrive, in plenty of time for the tour, there is nobody with the ‘Say Hi! To Russia’, T Shirt, at the designated meeting point.
Is she fed up waiting for the tour guide?
It’s a lovely morning with the temperature expected to reach 23deg C. We take the Hop On – Hop Off bus to get some context to the huge city that Moscow is and enable us to choose the points we want to go back to later in the day. Hopping off at Red Square which, bathed in sunshine, is spectacular. Spending 15min or so taking in the atmosphere and many photo’s with thousands of others, before opting to walk around the perimeter of the Kremlin. 
It’s hot and tiring after so much time in the last four months sitting in the Land Rover and more latterly, the train and our muscles and joints are letting us know. Lunch at the Boulogne Cafe was most enjoyable and nearly as good as being in France. Well….
While it is a beautiful city, older than St Petersburg, it doesn’t have the co-ordinated planning which makes that city so amazing. I can tell you that Moscow is a very different city to the drab one I visited in 1970. The money is here. The infrastructure is efficient and reasonably modern, where it hasn’t reached St Petersburg yet. The sight and sound of a Ferrari screaming around despite the congested roads. Sinister looking shining black V8 Toyota Land Cruisers and Mercedes, with dark tinted windows and wide boys inside gives one the impression that this is a city of privilege…. There are police and security everywhere. Lenin’s Mausoleum was next on the list of things to see, however we had’nt read the guide book properly, as it had closed for the day at 1pm. Maybe tomorrow?
In an earlier blog we had mentioned the huge number of RHD Japanese imports coming in through Vladivostok, where they were in the majority. However, there is not a sight of one in Moscow. The cars are mainly expensive German and Japanese models, all LHD.
State History Museum. Red Square.
Visits: 42
So where are all those RHD vehicles going? Unless someone is running a big business changing those vehicles to LHD then are they destined for south Asia or east/ south Africa. A route through Vladivostok looks to be a long way round compared with using a boat but perhaps it’s cheaper (and maybe easier to avoid taxes?).
Hi John, they must be going to the smaller cities and towns. There may be some local law here in Moscow that does not allow them? Or it may be just that they are here, but in the minority? I have not seen one. The journey from Japan to Vladivostok is a short one using RORO Ferries. The trip across Russia is long but relatively uncomplicated. They are the majority in Vladivostok.