Day 2 - 30/6 Bus to Rostov - then 20 km ride to hotel

Go forward - to Rostov

Boarded the comfy bus – a double seat for each – and away we went (not south as my radar told me) but North East to Rostov.  3-lane motorway for about 10km totally jammed with traffic going into Moscow, but we flew along an almost empty road.

10km long traffic jam into Moscow

Forests of pine, birch and others, probably oak and elm.  Small villages with tradition wooden houses, the decorative window frames  quite beautiful, but not much large open farming apparent.  Felt like Estonia is so many ways, tho we hadn't seen any traditional houses there. (At this time, I didn't realise that we would be seeing these beautiful old houses everywhere!)

These traditional wooden homes are everywhere!  

Arrived in Rostov at lunchtime.  Unloaded bus and carried bikes and baggage down to carpark.  Here we met Andriev and Svetlana – bus driver and cook.  The bikes were unloaded from the truck and shared around while Caroline, John and I busily unpacked and reconstructed our bikes.  Looks like Aussies travel with bikes.  No real dramas with Maggie, tho the rear brake cable had to be readjusted for some reason.  Didn't have bike computer available and couldn’t set up gopro, but all good otherwise. 

reconstructed Maggie

 Quick lunch of bread, cheese, tomatoes with fruit and water or coffee and off to the Rostov kremlin.  Our tour guide was a strong woman, wonderful sense of humor, which was evident with her excellent command of English.  The cathedral was heavily fresco painted, but years of neglect and closure after the Revolution has meant that the paintings are black and grimy with the plaster falling away.  It’s a swampy area and the once very efficient drainage system has been lost and now the humidity is really high and so mould is winning.  But the whole Kremlin here is a museum and is government funded to be restored – very slowly, but some of the panels are so beautiful and bright that there’s a glimpse on how it might have once looked.  The floor had been heated by furnaces in the basement, but the cathedral was only ever used in the summertime.  There were other buildings, but I didn’t take notes – I am sure Mr Google will fill in the gaps.

 So (after a quick dash into a market square where I bought some light linen socks, 3pr for $3 or 100 roubles – its much warmer than I packed for, of course!!)  We were out onto the road!  We had a quick stop in an enamel factory showroom – really beautiful things there, some modern brightly coloured pieces and others totally traditional with roses and other flowers.  So tempted to buy MM a bracelet but maybe $270 was a bit too much, but worth every penny.

We were warned this would be the worst stretch traffic wise and rightly so.  I was so happy with my mirror as the shoulder was the place to be when cars and trucks flashed by.  Road surface really crappy,  potholes and rough mends – but it’s not unexpected. 

It was so good to be on a bike again!  Slightly windy from forward side, but not head wind and occasionally it was behind us.  Flat as – Sweet!  But no photos taken during this 20km doddle.  I was quite surprised how quickly the 20km went.  I thought we might have done 10, when everyone stopped, so no idea without a computer.  Will get that set up tomoz.  80km ride ahead.

Dimitriov's pannier set up - green with envy!!

Our hotel for the night, just out of Rostov

goats resting after a hard's day chopping wood

typical local bus - dangerous as all bus drivers are!!

Day 1 -29/6 Walking tour of Moscow

3/7 - already it is Thursday!  internet access has been missing in action and not always very good, so am just going to chuck up my journals when I have access - excuse the grammar, spelling n all that jazz - and I will try and get photos in asap.  and tidy things up later....

29/6 – Walking tour of Moscow

view from 28th floor, Olympic Village hotel

Staying at the 1980 Olympic village now hotel – 28^th floor – all good.  View from window is green forests surrounding the distant skyscrapers of Moscow.  Sun shining blue skies – all good – chilly in the wind.

Full-on breakfast – porridge with banana – scrambled eggs – great rye bread – coffee – instant machine stuff was crappy, so another cuppa of good strong stewed coffee!  Another piece of banana gotta be good for me surely!

So Vladimir and Vladimir 2 arrived to get us moving into the city – by the screaming loud metro!!  Fast as! 

Before the sites, let’s go to a bike protest!!!  (parade they called it but it was a protest to the government about no cycle infrastructure in Moscow!)  at first we thought it was going to be a expo of bikes, but indeed it was a protest with heavy metal bands, bike bells ringing and everyone with a bike was there – thousands really – flash road bikes – saw a cannondale, giants and treks, scotts of course, then heaps of folding bikes, garlic/bagel bikes, flowers decorating handlebars.  Marge Simpson and her sisters were there – and various other dressups – tutus blah blah – and all happy and very good natured.  We were walking, but Boris (the guy that collected me from the airport) had his Moscow Bike club flag and we hung around him a tad to get some cred.  It was fun – tho heaps of coppers looking stern as they do so well.  Homemade bikes welded together from pinched barriers – it appeared – were also amongst the crowd, tandems, big fat wheelers, everything.  Then they rode off with one side of the road blocked very reluctantly by the police.  I couldn’t help being amused as it’s probably the one thing I have had been told not to do!!  But it was a happy affair with yellow balloons with Doh! So obviously the Simpsons are popular!

So then we went off to see postcard Moscow-  to the Red Square - - and wow, those buildings are really impressive.  The gold topped cathedrals, stars, onion domes were sparking in the very warm sunshine and my overall impression was "this is spectacular - why can't we build like this these days",  I mean, no-one is truly want to come and see modern skyscrapers in 400 years from now - well, I doubt that any will be still standing!

We saw the changing of the guard outside the Tomb of the unknown soldier – where I got sternly told off cos I stepped onto the grass to get a better photo….  Yep told off!

3 guards goose-step up, swap with the 3 that have been on guard and then they goose-step off – slowly and loudly slapping their feet in perfect harmony.  Very serious, and they do this every 9 or 12 mins… not sure… 

We had lunch in the flash place food hall court within a beautifully restored building, once known for big, queues but nothing for sale…  name to be tracked down.  Lunch was cafeteria style, so I chose eggplant rolls stuffed with herb spiced cheese – really yummy and rye bread – it is too yummy!

 But I do know that group travel is not really my thing – I was dead tired and really just wanted to have a look then go back to the hotel, but had no idea of how to use the metro.  so had to stay.  I wanted to go into St Basil’s Cathedral, but the discussion of yes or no went on too long and it was decided to go to orthodox church instead – that was free, St basils was $8 – The main orthodox cathedral is a reconstruction of the original that Stalin demolished – so still beautiful but souless… (and no photography allowed inside)  and maybe the fact that the last time I had a decent sleep was Thursday night and apart from a few snippets of sleep on the plane and 2 hours in the motel I was a tad on the cranky side J  but I kept it together.

Moscow from the hotel window

Eventually we got back to the hotel – sore feet!!  We are cyclists not hikers.  Time for dinner, sleeping pill and crash. 

Dinner food?  Salads & bread, not much choice for vegos and no butter for bread (or cheese) “that’s for brrreakfast”!  (ps... I asked Svetlana - our "chef" on the trip and she said it was not usual to butter bread!)