Moscow - Walks in the city

Date: 24th October 2015

Since our last day in the city was rather short, we woke up quite early with a mixed feeling. Half excited to go home after a long trip of 4^th leg and another half was an excitement to wander on the street in search for a beautiful metro stations that we listed in our itinerary, gathered from many website. We had breakfast at 7 in the morning right after shower and Morning Prayer. We also decided to vacate the room, stored our luggage at the hotel dedicated area and checked out. By 8 am we were already on the street using the city map as a guide.

My life has drastically changed lately. I do not socialize a lot. While writing this, I can still sense a cold morning breeze brushes my cheeks while walking in the street heading towards the first Metro Station, said to be the most pretty among all. We first passed by a beautiful park, which was almost empty if not without the birds chirping and singing. The park has a playground for children of the community area beside statues and monuments. There was a photography exhibition at the end of the parks before we made our turn to enter the station. It has rows of Moscow’s picturesque which undoubtedly so beautiful in my eyes. I stood there admiring those displays for some time, appreciating arts of the cities. Let me share some of what I snapped in here.

Notice the bird in the photo? It was an attempt to attack me :)

We walked quite a long distance before reaching Mayakovskaya station, considered by many as jewel in the Moscow Metro crown. It is one of the metro situated on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line, i.e. Line 2. Following advice from the reception, we followed Tverskoy Boulevard, the main thoroughfares in central Moscow. It is a part of the Boulevard Ring and begins at the end of the Nikitsky Boulevard, at the crossing with Nikitsky Street. The boulevard ends at the Pushkin Square and Tverskaya Street, one of the busiest places in Moscow. East of Tverskaya Street becomes Strastnoy Boulevard. Some of the photos snapped from Tverskaya Street are shared below. We managed to find money changer to get some Russian Ruble for our lunch and cab fare to the airport later on. It was a huge relief as we do not have anymore ruble left after given it all to the cab driver from a train station to the hotel. 

It was an amazing feeling to enter the underground Metro Station. For ease of reference, Moscow has 12 Metro lines with a combinations of ground and underground stations of 200 numbers altogether. Our aimed was only to visit 3 out of 200. The first thing one must do was to get a ticket from either a ticket machine or at the ticket counter. Due to a language barrier, we had a slight difficulty in getting a ticket but once we have that in hand, it felt like riding a free train as if we were on HOHO (Hop On Hop Off) transportation. I’m going to write all about those Metros stations that we visited in separate entry. It was a blessed that Allah has sent someone that speaks English to help us during our 2 hours experience inside the underground Metro Lines. Too bad that I forgotten his name. Rest assured we thanked him more than enough after we parted on the surface. He even made sure he sent us to the Red Square area. How kind! 

She doesn't speak any language but we both survived by understanding each other that she has succeed in guiding me towards the right lane  

When we finally surfaced to the ground, we saw the Metropol Hotel again. Every time we passed by the hotel building, my heart tells me that I must bring hubby to stay here when I return to the city next time. The room rate at this hotel range from $348 per night. The price are inclusive of the luxury that they offered from the inside and the outside of the hotel plus their locality. The Hotel Metropol Moscow is a historical hotel, built in 1899 and completed in 1907 in Art Nouveau style. It is notable as the largest extant Moscow hotel built before the Russian Revolution of 1917, and for the unique collaboration of 3 architects and 3 and artists. You may find more about the hotel and justify the reason why I said to stay here by visiting their official website, http://metropol-moscow.ru/en/home. 

It was about lunch time when we were done with the Metro Stations. We headed towards the Red Square, decided what to eat (Ane chose an Italian meal) and thereafter, we visited the Red Square as our last stop. We only included a tour visit inside Saint Basil a.k.a Mushroom Cathedral and off back to the hotel. But before the tour, we stop by at gift shop, seated onto the State Historical Building before joining the crowds at the Red Square. It was indeed a beautiful and luxurious looking gift shop.

Must bring hubby to the shop 1 day