Arrival in Moscow

2 July 2008-Wednesday

I awoke the following morning about 4:00 a.m. which was the Russian local time and they had breakfast prepared for us about an hour later – which was essentially a McDonald’s egg and ham sandwich and actually pretty tasty. We landed uneventfully at one of Moscow’s several airports and, as promised, were met by Elder Hostel representatives who loaded us into their bus for the one hour drive to the Moscow city center. The traffic was impressive and found our hotel, which was Peter the Great, was only about 2 blocks from Red Square. By now it was early afternoon and I decided to nap before our dinner that night. A welcome packet provided for each of us put down most of the rules and told us we would be boarding the Trans-Siberian Express the next day. After a short nap, we went to a dinner at a restaurant which was one block walking distance from area we were staying. It was a typical Russian meal including borscht, which is a beet soup with sour cream, and a shish-kabob. By then, I was ready for sleep again and, although they had announced that there would be a 10 o’clock walking tour of Red Square to see the lights, a huge thunderstorm came in about the same time and we had some significant fireworks, not only for the 10 o’clock walking tour which I declined to take, but also throughout the night. I noticed that Russian thunder is different from Ohio thunder in that these were long rumbles that went on for seemingly minutes at a time, but it led to a good night’s sleep.