Moscow
It took us around 48 hours from the Seychelles before we finally made it to Russia. An endurance test on the ferry from Praslin Island back to Mahe where around half the passengers were vomiting into plastic bags (how we survived that we’re not sure, but it was touch and go – it would have been less stomach-churning in a washing machine). Then a night in Mumbai with 4 hours sleep and a long wait in Delhi before an overnight flight with minimal shut-eye before landing at Sheremetyevo airport on the northern outskirts of Moscow.
As well as being totally buggered, we were more than a little apprehensive, to be honest. We’d avoided telling most people we were coming here and got mixed responses from those we did. But we’re not ones to shy away from travel challenges so we decided to fully commit and jump in at the deep end. What was going to happen on arrival anyway? Would we get stopped, searched, grilled to the nth degree about why the hell we were here? What was the worst that could happen? Deportation? Something more sinister? It didn’t start too promisingly…. We got to the immigration booth, had some biometrics done and then the passports disappeared behind the desk. “Wait over there,” the less than joyful officer barked. “Err, OK” we said. We sat on a bench and waited. We were joined by the French assistant coach of the under-21s Saudi Arabian football team (who were all on the same flight as us). “I didn’t want to come,” he complained, shrugging his shoulders. We tried to cheer him up by wishing the team well, but it didn’t seem to work. We waited some more. Countless immigration officials came and went through many doors. One guy carried a fistful of passports, including ours. We were asked to join him and went to sit somewhere else to wait some more. More people arrived – pretty much every non-Russian from every arriving flight seemed to turn up as we waited ever more. Naturally, no-one knew exactly what was going on, but we surmised that our personal details, including our online presence, were being checked for any opinions that might influence a decision to grant us entry. Eventually, after nearly 3 hours, the passport-carrier guy led us to a booth. We were called one by one and stamped in. No forms to sign, no personal questions asked, no opinions about the current conflict sought. The nervousness of waiting, the ‘not knowing what was going to happen’, was all we had to get through – after that we were out and free…
The Moscow Kremlin and the Moskva River
We were quite elated. Other sanction-related problems were overcome. We got a Russian debit card at the airport and loaded it with the Roubles I’d bought in Kazakhstan. It worked. The VPN I’d downloaded, one of only two that still works in Russia, was fine. My expensive ESim worked a treat. To be fair, a lot of research and preparation went into making all this come about, but it was wonderful to know we could live & travel with much more ease than we’d feared. Our only real concern was having a very finite supply of money with no real way of getting any more (unless we were prepared to branch out into dodgy sounding cryptocurrency transactions).
Moscow itself was pretty remarkable and, to be really honest, we enjoyed it immensely. I suspect part of that was our overall sense (misguided or not) of doing something vaguely illicit. We knew we probably ought not to be here and that just added to the frisson. That might sound terrible, but that was the overriding emotion. Interestingly, though, the general reaction to our presence did not back that up. We were asked where we were from several times and on each occasion got a very positive reaction, if one filled with surprise. “Ah, Great Britain. Great,” smiled a metro guard as he scanned our bags in what appeared to be a large microwave oven. “I want to go to London,” he cheerfully demanded. “We’ll take you next time…..” Restaurant staff happily talked to us in English to counter my appalling Russian, and like anywhere else in the world, seemed pleased at our efforts to communicate in the native tongue.
St Basil’s Cathedral
We were not the only tourists either, though we didn’t encounter any other Westerners. The city was not busy and inevitably numbers must be seriously down against those expected in normal times. We saw a few Chinese groups, but the vast majority were domestic Russian tourists, all marvelling at the delights of the city much as we were.
What was noticeable though, was the ever-present security on the streets. Guards and police everywhere. Scores of black sedans with blacked-out windows escorting the privileged and protected. Bag checks galore & passport viewings in abundance. It was not like our time in Afghanistan by any means – this was done with more sophistication and speed (and not quite as much weaponry on display) – but it was clear that this was a very controlled environment. In the main though, we were not intimidated, nor did we feel threatened. We did, however, curb our natural inclination to go jay-walking around the streets. Here was definitely a place to keep your nose clean and your feet firmly on the zebra crossings….
Kazan Cathedral, Red Square
What was also noticeable was the presence of a good deal of men in military fatigues, mainly on the metro and the Moscow East railway station. It was unclear whether these were troops going out or coming back, but we saw several apparently wounded individuals – perhaps it was both. What was not so prevalent in the city, and much against our expectations, was any real propaganda about the military operation in general. We’d seen news reports of huge posters and billboards extolling the virtues of the cause, but we encountered none of that, just a few posters celebrating 80 years since victory in World War II, or the ‘Great Patriotic War’ as it’s known here, and a few generalised and relatively subtle posters relating to the armed forces in general, but nothing more confronting. Who knows – perhaps that was just an absence in touristy areas…..
The city itself had a very cosmopolitan atmosphere, a rather European air perhaps, and seemed extremely sure of itself. Money abounds here for sure, despite international sanctions, though we got the impression that the cost of existence has fallen somewhat over the past few years (no complaints about that from us). Sleek individuals in designer clothes and, if female, with obligatory botox and false facial appendages were rife, confidently prancing around the city centre in abundance.
The outsized Tsar cannon, Moscow Kremlin
Interior Archangel Cathedral, Moscow Kremlin
Archangel Cathedral, Moscow Kremlin
Ivan the Great Bell Tower, Moscow Kremlin
Interior Annunciation Cathedral, Moscow Kremlin
Our exploration began, naturally enough, with the marvels of Krasnaya Ploshad (Red Square) where we took in the splendour of St Basil’s cathedral in the beautiful evening sunshine. Reminiscent of some exotic ice-cream confection, scoops perched precariously atop their faux brick towers, the striped and studded domes shone most splendidly. No doubt the most famous building in the country, it impressed us greatly. The structure is actually a set of several mini-churches, each built in different decades and each contributing to the general sense of confusion in the interior, where warren-like passages transport the faithful from one set of bright golden icons to another. We were treated to a beautiful hymn by a small resident ensemble in the main church where the entire space reverberated with echoes of soft rising harmonies. Wonderful it was, but not enough to make us buy their recordings…..
We sampled most of the obvious ‘things to do’ here. We rode the underground to stop at selected stations where Soviet art and architecture still dominate. It’s probably one of the most impressive subterranean spaces anywhere and we marvelled and were appalled at the vast amounts of money that must have been spent to create this most elaborate of systems, largely in times of great famine in Ukraine and Kazakhstan and during the deprivation of the war when the Nazis were invading. Most modern passengers ignored the statuary, mosaics and motifs and most did not seem inspired by wheat-strewn ideals of country living, industrial hard-work ethics or the benign and supportive hand of the communist enterprise – all that’s long gone and they were probably just keen to start their stressful jobs on time….
Kievskaya Metro Station
Komsomolskaya Metro Station
Mayakovskaya Metro Station
We walked for miles, down wide breezy boulevards, over cobbled squares, past scores of elaborate 18th and 19th century mansions and offices, now filled with restaurants and cafes. A very European feel indeed, with seemingly little or no concession to the bold Soviet apartment block architecture we were expecting, save for the immensity of Stalin’s skyscrapers, the so-called ‘seven sisters’ built in the 1940s & ’50s.
The Kremlin was another top of the list activity of course. The rather domineering red wall hides a pretty extensive complex of buildings, but only part of it concerns the presidential palace. The majority of the grounds and buildings inside the fortress are historical ‘set-pieces’. The Armoury was the best, where we wandered round admiring the opulence and grandeur of the treasures on display. Rather like the Hermitage in St Petersburg it goes out to impress with an array of gold, silver and jewel encrusted exhibits, most being diplomatic gifts to Tsarist empires through the years. Our favourite was a 12-inch silver statuette of what appeared to be a dumpy pear-shaped chicken playing the bagpipes (an unusual centre-piece for your dining table indeed). Also in the grounds were several quite wonderful gold-clad onion-domed churches, the interiors of which, like St Basil’s, were a strange mish-mash of architectural rebuilds, faded frescoes and gleaming bright gold iconostasis screens.
Some things were a little less impressive, to us at least. The unbridled bling of the GUM department store (now a mall and monument to luxury consumerism) was a little depressing in its ostentation. Equally, we weren’t blown away by Gorky Park which seemed too pedestrianised and not really ‘green’ enough (in contrast to other areas of the city). However, these were against our overriding impression that this was a city to be savoured and probably one to return to in better times.
Lenin’s Mausoleum, Red Square
On Lenin’s death in 1924, a decision was taken not to bury him in St Petersburg, as was his wish, but to have him embalmed and put on display in a purpose-built mausoleum in Red Square. It’s still possible to visit him now. Viewers leave their belongings behind and parade down the side of the Kremlin wall where notables such as Yuri Gagarin are entombed, past Josef Stalin’s grave and into a large black and deep-orange marble structure. You have little time for your eyes to adjust to the dimness before descending a flight of stairs and around a corner to come face to face with the man himself. The lighting of the body is quite something – your first impression is that his head and hands are glowing, as if someone had mistakenly embalmed him with phosphorescent fluid. Clad in a dark suit in a dark room the effect takes you aback. Was Lenin an alien after all? Or was he about to spontaneously combust? Alas no photos could be taken. Just imagine a corpse with its head lit-up like a light bulb and you’ll get the overall idea…..
Moscow Kremlin east wall
Less day-glo, but no less impressive, were the tombs and headstones on display at the Novodevichy cemetery. This is where some of Russia’s great notables are buried, Stravinsky, Eisenstein (director of Battleship Potemkin), Pavlov (of ‘dogs’ fame), Tupalov (of aerospace fame) and some of the best known politicians. We visited Nikita Krushchev, Boris Yeltsin (stored under a giant concrete Russian flag) and most notably the Gorbachaevs, both Mikhail and Raisa, under a black marble tomb bedecked with a tonne of flowers. The real joys here though, were the elaborate and rather beautiful representations of the dead in their living years. Some graves had huge marble carved effigies, full bodies or just enormous heads, emerging from massive marble blocks. Some had elaborate Soviet brutalist structures extolling their deeds in life. Some had art deco styling. All to idealise and celebrate the rich and virtuous deeds of the comrades of the Union ‘as was’.
Novodevichy cemetery
Museum of Cosmonautics
We took in the Museum of Cosmonautics, with its tremendous 110m high representation of the endeavours of space flight. It was an assertive reminder of how the Soviets were the ‘first’ to do everything in the space-race – first satellite, first living creature (the unfortunate hound Laika with its own doggy space-suit) and of course the first man in space. The American space programme got a begrudging mention. Apparently, and really only as a passing aside, they were the first to land on the moon, but so what? Then a solo visit (me) to the Tretyakov Galleries, truly one of the best art spaces in the world.
We topped off the stay with an opera at the HelikonTheatre on our last night, a production of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Eugene Onegin’, which, as you’d expect, was completely marvellous (and considerably cheaper than some other stuff that was going on at the Bolshoi)….Eugene himself was clad in a pair of outrageous breeches that left nothing to the imagination in the groin area, which tickled Helen considerably (though, luckily, not literally).
We loved it here to be honest. Hopefully for all the right reasons. Next, the start of the long, long, long trip across the Trans-Siberian railway (c. 9,300km) and a first stop in Vladimir and Suzdal, two of the towns on the so-called ‘golden circle’…
Simon (6th September 2025)
Fabulous and interesting read. Glad you decided to stick to your itinerary!
Thank you. We’re glad we decided to come. It seems quite normal here (to two tourists anyway)
Reading this brings back all my memories of Moscow, although entry for us was the opposite … not much waiting but a lot of questioning and confused looks from the locals when they realised we were English. The underground is stunning and dread to think how much it cost but certainly a statement of Russian grandeur. So glad you had a positive experience
Ha ha – yes we talked to someone yesterday (in Kazan) who was most surprised at us being here. Us Englanders are ‘very rare creatures’ indeed at the moment!! It’s all been most positive so far, I have to say, and hopefully that will continue. Glad the post brought back some good times of your own!
Fab photos & narrative as usual. Mad to think that my son Stuart went on a school trip there probably about 14 or 15 years ago. Architecture the same. experience very different. I think the hotel they were in was frequented by a very specific type of lady on the ground floor
I see… Is that why he came back skint then? Sounds like he might have had an even better time than us!! Juat joking of course. I bet it’s not changed that much to be honest
Glad you had such a good experience, so much history and culture to explore and enjoy. Your enjoyment of it jumps off the page. Sounds like your holiday did you good 😊. Can I ask a mundane question – where did you stay? Did you have to stay in a hotel or were there lots of options?
Oh yes, we really did enjoy it here. A total contrast to everything we’d done on this trip so far and probably enchanced by being refereshed from the Seychelles despite a marathon journey. We did stay in a hotel, but we could have easily booked an apartment (I’m writing this from an apartment in Novosibirsk as it happens). The problem is booking practicalities and money. Only certain sites (Zen Hotels for example) will allow booking and payment via Western credit cards up front, but its a bit like Booking.com and had all sorts of options. Alternatively, you can just turn up and pay in cash of course, but that means winging it and bringing more cash into the country to exchange (and lying about your hotels on your visa application). All doable, but all part of the pretty unique challenges of trying to travel here at the moment…..
It’s so interesting to hear about all these practicalities, you must be juggling a thousand things in your head about upcoming locations. I’ll keep my other mundane questions for another time! (Mostly to do with “how and where are they doing their washing? 🤔😁)
Oh you are so right. It’s sometimes harder doing this than our previous jobs for sure!! Washing is tricky tbh – OK when we’ve got an apartment with a washing machine…..
Another great post. Glad you had a good visit to Moscow and you felt welcome. It is somewhere I’d like to go, but in different circumstances. I’m not as brave as you two! X
Thanks Katrina – it should be on everyone’s list, but, as you say, when circumstances change.
Bucket list tick. Glad you were not thrown in the clink
There’s time yet Nics…..