We travelled from the port into Moscow by coach this morning at 10am. We went into red square and joined the queue for Lenins tomb. It was very dark inside in polished black and red marble with steps down into the mausoleum. Lenin was in a casket which was brightly lit from above, he looked very small.

We then walked through the Guum (RYM) department store into the back streets, walked into a toy store which was empty apart from security guys on the doors and a couple of shop assistant

We wandered a bit further and came to the old KGB headquarters (now the FSA?) the joke was that you it was very tall as you could see all the way to Siberia from the top.

We walked back to the Alexander gardens in time for 11am to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The precision of the goose step was brilliant and would have been very funny if not so seriously done. There were two guys behind me and one tapped me on the shoulder and said something in Russian, he was telling me my bag was open, very grateful for this.

We then headed over the river and the canal to the tretakov art gallery, which cost us 400Roubles each, with another 450 for an audio guide. We walked up an impressive marble staircase to a first floor of paintings, many portraits, a few landscapes, but not many with English commentary. Downstairs, there were mainly icons, some of which dated back to the 12th century. We had lunch in the cafe downstairs, I picked what I thought was a fish cake but it was a meat sausage cake and some beetroot, Graham had a small veal steak with sour cream and potato salad. We had a black tea and a pink juice drink which was thick, slimy and a bit sweet but didn’t taste of a lot else. This all cost 550R (£5.50 approx).

We walked down again through the basement and through into the back of the building where it said Temple Museum. This was quite a grand and very ornate church, where I had to wear a head scarf. The only English translation was about an icon of Mary and Jesus which was very old, supposedly from Constantinople, which is where Christianity came to Russia from in 889AD.

we wandered back towards red square and looked at the market stalls, there was a queue so as we understood this is the way in Russia, we joined the queue and found ourselves in front of a massive cake, which the girls were cutting up and handing out to everyone. We watched the blacksmiths doing some metalwork, with customers bashing horseshoes and nails into shape. We went back into Gum to get an ice cream before getting back on the bus at 4pm to return to the ship.