This is Moscow Day 3 of touring, but it is really day 4 of our days in Moscow. As I write this, it is a lazy day on the river. We set sail last night at 6:30 from Moscow. The weather had been exceptional. I slept late and awoke at 10:30 to grey skies. Doug has been wandering in and out all morning and reports the rest of the group is out and about. Brad, Leslie, Ngaire and Ken have been playing hearts, Guy has been reading on deck and Yvonne is on her computer.

Yesterday, we took a walking tour the kremlin in the morning and retuned to the ship for lunch. We took in the fantastic armory, filled with royal treasure...carriages, china, coronation thrones, crowns, silver, faberge eggs, etc. Magnificent and well worth the visit. It was such a lovely day, the walk was terrific as well. There were hoards of tourists and we bobbed and weaved get our glimpses of these works of art.

We returned to the ship for lunch and I was treated to the best hot Siberian borscht I have ever tasted. So good, that I requested it for dessert and made a request to have it again for dinner. We also had a very tasty beef stroganoff - even better than the one I had at the $350 restaurant in Moscow. Service has been willing but spotty with some of us served and others of us waiting eons before the kitchen is ready with the other's entrees. I feel we are on an episode of Hells Kitchen.

Only Ngaire, Ken, Leslie, Doug and I ventured out for the afternoon tour to the subway and Ararat street. Doug and I had heard so much about these subways we had to see it. They are all individually and artistically decorated so as to make the common people feel that they were living in a palace. We visited three individual stops and they were very nice and then we visited the highly touted pedestrian Ararat street which was nothing more than an ugly street with a McDonalds, a Hard Rock Cafe, and lots of souvenir shops with the same junk. I wish I had gone to the art museum again. Ngaire reports that the McDinalds was well priced!

The Captain's cocktail party was last night and I would have been embarrassed to have served the hors d"hoevres they had out...mystery meat and pineapple on a skewer. Guy and Yvonne tucked into the well done, nicked filet, but Doug, Brad, Ngaire, Leslie, and I just couldn't bear to see such nice meat destroyed as such. So, some opted for the chicken Kiev, others for the ratatouille and I, the borscht.

Today, we are planning to dock mid afternoon for a walking tour and a visit to a Russian home. Let's hope the tours continue to be as interesting as they have been!

As far as the ship and AMA..Brad keeps saying "it's all your fault" whenever he sees me ... Ngaire keeps saying " we're doing this because of you" whenever she sees me", so read into these comments whatever you will. I am just grateful that they upgraded Ngaire to the Imperial suite so I can get my bath. I may not have been so jolly otherwise. I am used to having an en suite and not taking my towel and going down a flight. How one must rough it these days!