We arrived in Moscow yesterday at Domodedovo airport where we were met and taken by bus through the middle of Moscow to our boat, Viking Truvor. This took a long time, more than 2 hours as it was rush hour, although the traffic in Central Moscow seems to always be terrible.  Kept drifting away but was aware of lots of concrete apartment high rises then as we came nearer the centre, big classical buildings with retro fit air conditioning units spoiling the lines. We arrived at the boat about 7pm, quickly unpacked and went for dinner, which was good, but a long day from 3.30 this morning. Ready for bed.
Woke up to a view across the river of a sea plane, a submarine and snow! We are at the Northern river port terminal off the M10 next to Park Druzhby. We went out for a little wander in the park and the snow, beautiful but cold.
We went on a walking tour of Moscow after lunch. We set off with Lara to walk through the park to the nearby metro station. We are at the end of the green line and travelled 7 stops into the city before getting out to look at the mosaics on the ceiling of one metro station and then the bronze statues of “the workers” in another. Our guide made a great deal of us getting on the metro and off quickly but it was nowhere near as busy as the Tube. There was a Russian lady in a red coat who kept smiling at me and people generally seemed chatty and friendly. We then went on 2 stops to Red Square in the centre of Moscow.
Looked round the square, went into Saint Basil’s cathedral, listened to four guys singing tingly spine music. Small rooms but beautiful and full of painting, icons and colour. Met up with the others and walked up to the Bolshoi theatre and then on to Christ the Saviour cathedral, built between 1995 and 2000 mainly by public subscription. Our guide said that there is a great renewal of religion and depending on who you listen to approx 80% plus of the population identify as Russian Orthodox. Inside the cathedral, there were many worshipers including a lot of young women writing prayers and lighting candles which they placed in front of whichever of the icons they wanted. The icon of the Trinity was there along with an icon of Seraphim Sarovsky who was a Russian Monk born in 1754 He had a kindly face. I asked a young woman who he was as she was kissing his icon. I also wrote a prayer and left it on the desk but wasn’t brave enough to buy a candle and light it which I think was the idea.

We returned to the coach to eat a picnic tea and then walked across the bridge to a concert hall for an early evening of Russian folk music starting at 7pm. This was the Moscow folk orchestra with several dolmens, 4 balalaikas including a very large one, two table top stringed instruments (gusli), an accordion (bayan), a flute, a percussionist and a conductor. There was a young woman soprano with a cutting edge voice who came on and sang a couple of songs. There was also a fool who came and played the pipes and various other instruments and did a bit of dancing, rather superfluous as the music was really good without any other entertainment. A great time then back to the coach and the boat for dinner about half past 9.