What an amazing trip, country and overall experience.  That's a city I (Sarah) could easily settle into. Here are some of my favorites:

"There's No Place Like Home" or at least nothing like being in our home country...

We finally made it back to the U.S. after three security checkpoints, three attempts to get our tickets at the wrong counter, immigration and customs (and that was only in the Moscow airport).  We had a big debate in the Moscow airport about whether or not we needed to declare Mom's balalaika - the answer was a resounding "No" as the customs agent just about laughed us through.  A chaotic boarding, 11 hour flight, three inedible meals, four inflight movies, and more than one crying baby later we arrived at JFK!  All joking aside - pretty smooth process getting back to the U.S. and we were both more than content to be able to sit for 11 hours.

Mom's attempt to take a picture of Greenland from the plane 

We've now been trying to keep ourselves awake in a cafeteria at JFK for the past few hours and still have a few hours to go.  The last thing we want to do is sleep through our connections.

See you all soon - if not we're probably still stuck at JFK :)

Diamonds are a girl's best friend . . . ..

We spent Friday morning salivating over the unbelievable crown jewels exhibition in the Kremlin.  Nuggets of gold, platinum, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, diamonds, diamonds.  Incredible pieces of jewelry in crowns, flower bouquets, and more than one showcase with just diamonds (although the room was dark, we needed our sunglasses for the sparkle).

There was a ruby so big that the Swedish king added emeralds to the top and gave it to Catherine the Great as a strawberry.  One of my other favorites was a map of russia made out of diamonds with a ruby to mark moscow and other precious gems denoting the Ural mountains.  We had to check our cameras, phones, along with our coats before we walked through a metal detector to enter the exhibit so no pictures unfortunately.

View of the Kremlin Wall from outside the Armoury

After the Diamond Fund we visited an apartment where Tchaikovsky lived for a year, along with Rubinstein.  Our guide was wonderful and worked very hard to ensure we understood everything in the museum.  It was interesting to see and walk through the rooms where Tchaikovsky lived and composed his 2nd symphony.  Probably more information than we wanted to know and could possibly remember, but still a neat experience.

Otherwise Friday was a pretty slow day - other than running into a park with tons of fountains (see pictures below).  We did most of our packing so that we'd be ready to leave for the airport bright and early on Saturday - as you all know we are planners after all :)

Scoping out the walk to the Bolshoi Theatre.

We just finished the day with a performance of the ballet Coppelia at the Bolshoi Theatre.  It was fantastic.  Everything thing was beautiful, even the tickets.

The performance was so much fun!  This particular ballet is a comedy about a young love -- more specifically a man who falls in love with a girl, forsakes her to fall in love with a doll, realizes he was an idiot to fall in love with a doll and reconciles with the girl.  

Mom pretending to be a ballering with the tickets

The colors of the costumes were so vibrant and the music depicted the story perfectly.  The dancers were exquisite and there were clearly some favorites. We observed the audience response upon their entrances.  

Bolshoi Theatre

One of the things we have noticed here in Russia is that the audience tends to applaud in unison - people here have a fantastic sense of rhythm.  

Bonus:  There were seats in the theatre so Mom got to sit for two and a half hours!

Before the theatre, we took a walk in search of The Perlov Tea House.  Perlov remodeled his tea house when he heard that a representative of the Chinese Emperor would be visiting Moscow in hopes that would stop by.  He never did, but now they have a really neat building to show for it.  (Note -- there was no where to sit and  have have a cup of tea and buying tea to take with us was a bit confusing).  The neighborhood was a bit different from the ones we had been in and was quite beautiful.  

Perlov Tea House

 On the way to Tea House we passed by the former KGB headquarters!

Former KGB Building

The morning included a visit to another beautiful Russian Cathedral.  This one was the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer.  It was originally completed in late 1800's but was blown up by Stalin in 1931. It then became the worlds largest swimming pool.  In 1994 the cathedral was rebuilt.  The walls and floors are made of beautiful marble and granite slabs and the cathedral had amazing icons and other various treasures.  It was rebuilt, not surprisingly,  at a cost of over $200M.

We then returned to Arbat street for a second round of souvenir shopping.  After finding a great little cafe we meandered down the pedestrian street, stopping at shops, and visiting with authors along they way.

Arbat street - Statue of Pushkin and his wife (yes and Sarah too)

We also stopped in a pet store because we needed a fix (missing our crew) and saw these unusual cats:

Overall another amazing day in Moscow and a little bit of sun to top it off!

Let us begin by saying brrrrrrrrrrrr . . . .

Kremlin wall bordering the frozen Moscow River

It takes me (Tammy) a few hours to come to life in the morning, which I will note is 10PM in the states.  For anyone who knows me, that's one hour past my normal bedtime - perhaps that's why I walk into doors.  After we got some caffeine and a good dose of cold air, we woke up enough to start the day.

We began by visiting the Tretyakov Gallery. This is widely regarded as one of the most impressive Russian Art collections in the world and it certainly seemed that way to us.  It's an immense gallery that leads you through Russian history through its art.  The gallery begins with an enormous collection of Russian Icons from as early as the 1100s.  The second floor showcases hundreds of portraits (Pushkin, Ivan the Terrible, Dostoevsky, Catherine the Great, Peter the Great) before the collection weaves it's way through the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

It was interesting to view Russian life through these works of art.  We are having a hard time coming up with words to describe what we saw . . perhaps that's why it was painted to begin with.  Highly recommend for your bucket list.

Tretyakov Gallery

After feeling utterly overwhelmed after spending hours in the Tretyakov gallery we grabbed a bite to eat at a little cafe we discovered.  Most of the menu was not available in English so we took a chance with something they told us would come out quickly.  It wasn't the best food we've ever eaten, but no where near the worst.  We felt reassured to see the locals eating the same thing - still feeling okay so that's a bonus.

We then walked over to the fallen statues park which is exactly what it sounds like (we're learning that things here are quite literal).  By the time we got to the park we were freezing and thinking that we might skip it, but were so distracted by all the amazing statues everywhere that we forgot how cold we were.  There must have been close to, if not more than, 1,000 statues - many of which were from the Soviet Era.  Definitely worth seeing.  Here are a few of our favorites:

This park is next to the New Tretyakov Gallery which showcases Russian Art from the 1900s on.  When we walked in the door we had very confusing conversation (that word is generous) with the guard.  He told us that we were not allowed to come in with the giant bag I was holding with what we purchased at the original Tretyakov Gallery.  Unfortunately, there was nowhere to leave our bag so we had to leave (after dragging that stupid bag around for miles I was not about to give it up).  

We left the gallery and began the long walk back to the hotel.  We expected the walk to be cold (which it was) but we had no idea we would get such a magnificent view of the city on the way.  While walking across the Moscow River this is what we saw:

After 15 minutes of resting and warming up back at the hotel, Sarah suggested we go to ANOTHER museum.  I was still feeling overwhelmed by everything we had just seen, but we are only here for two more days.  We walked back to Red Square where we visited the State Historical Museum.  This chronological museum dating back to the paleolithic period showcases the development of Russian culture.  We actually saw the skeletal remains of a young boy and girl from 27,000 years ago.  We were both impressed and disgusted at the same time.  

While Sarah was marveling at the jewelry and deciding which piece she would like to wear,  I was looking for somewhere to sit.  It's possible that we were experiencing a small amount of museum overload.  I've (Tammy) decided that the Russians don't like to sit, because there are NO seats anywhere, not even in the Cathedrals. 

All joking aside, it was a cool museum.

We decided to have an easy evening as we spent the day bouncing back and forth between our legs feeling sore and not feeling our legs at all.  We went back to GUM (if you're an avid reader you now know what that is) to grab a couple salads for dinner.  On the way out Mom thought it would be a great idea to stop for ice cream - I thought she was nuts.  I'm not about to turn down ice cream though so I joined her and we sat and ate on a bench in the mail.  I was completely shocked to see about half of the people walking through the mall stop for ice cream!  I wonder if eating something cold before you go out in the cold helps prepare your body.  

When we got back to the room with our salads we realized we didn't have any utensils.  Thankfully, I having been in college (somewhat) recently came up with some creative uses for the corkscrew and the drink stirrers in our minibar.  Dinner was great but we're going to have to leave the maid a tip in the morning.

Day 3 began with breakfast at Starbucks (They are everywhere).  Although Mom asked me to order green tea, she received Earl Grey - clearly I haven't yet mastered my colors, at least not before my morning coffee.  We were doing just fine until we looked for the exit and Mom walked right into the glass door (yes like the birds in the Windex commercials).  We (Mom) entertained several customers having their morning coffee.

Notice the very clean windows at this Starbucks

We went looking for an ATM (I'm afraid of the fees that are going to be charged), and finally found one after adding a few more miles to our boots.  A nice little brisk morning walk in the 14 degree weather.  Although we were able to get a few more photos of St. Basil's without a big crowd.  

Sarah (not photoshopped) at St. Basil's

After our photo op, we went to the Kazan Cathedral in red square.  We were fortunate enough to walk in as a service was being conducted.  I find Russian Orthodox cathedrals particularly interesting because each one is different but all still follow the same template.  Each cathedral has an iconostisis, which is basically a wall between where the general public comes to pray (the temporal world) and where the priests worship (the spiritual).  Mom couldn't believe there wasn't a place for anyone to sit :)  (In my defense, I find it interesting that all other cathedrals we have visited in Europe and the US have a place for the congregants to sit - perhaps it's my age showing -- always looking a seat)

Kazan Cathedral 

We had planned on seeing a couple of other museums which turned out to be closed on Tuesdays so we decided to visit the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts instead.  What a phenomenal building - I was impressed before we even walked in the door.  I didn't think I could feel any smaller than I did standing next to the Tsar Bell until I walked up the stairs to the museum.

Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

For some reason (unknown to us) we were able to take photos in most of the exhibit rooms at this museum.  So we've included a few:

Iranian Pedestal

Art from the Northern Black Sea Region

Donatello  Plaster Cast

Sarcophagus 

Ancient Greek Hall

Leaving the Museum

As we were walking back to our hotel we discovered an "Irish Pub".  We were excited to find a place where we might be able read the menu (although, we actually haven't had any trouble).  It was set up in a cafe style for a young hip crowd (Sarah fit the description).  The hostess was very pleasant, but after we were seated the waitress would not wait on us.  Oh well, we found it particularly funny that the only place we've had trouble getting served, was in an Irish Pub (although we noticed menu didn't have any
Guinness, so how Irish can it  be? ).

We ended the evening with an extraordinary concert at the Moscow Conservatory.  We were able to see a piano performance by one their professors performing Schumann and Tchaikovsky!  I (Tammy) was especially excited to hear pieces by Tchaikovsky performed by a professor who teaches at the school where he once taught. We couldn't get over the number of people who were bringing flowers, until we realized they were clearly students of the professor.  Even Sarah who often gets bored with long performances was impressed and would have sat through more.   She almost got a new coat on the way out.  The lady checking the coats tried to give her a different one ....  good thing it wasn't one of those long fur coats, otherwise she would have thought twice about spending another 10 minutes trying to figure out how to describe what her coat looks like in Russian.  Glad she got her colors straight this time -- guess that morning coffee helped.