First day in Moscow

My suitcase arrived in the morning.

After breakfast, we got on the Blue Group bus (the people on the ship were divided into one of 6 color coded groups), where we met our Program Manager for the group, Lidia Usikova. We then departed for a city tour of Moscow.

Our first stop was the Red Square. Here we saw (but did not enter) St. Basil's Cathedral, Lenin's Mausoleum, the State History Museum, and Resurrection Gate. We also saw and went inside the Kazan Cathedral and GUM. GUM was once a government department store, but now it's a shopping mall.

While at GUM, I tried looking for a store that would sell a SIM card. The one cell phone store that I found would only sell a SIM card if you could show your passport. Unfortunately, the ship was holding on to mine.

From the Red Square, we headed to Novodevichiy Convent. A ticket to take still photos cost 80 rubles ($1 equals about 25 rubles).

We had lunch on pleasure boats on the Moskva River. The cruise along the river provided excellent views of the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and Gorky Park.

After lunch, we headed to Sparrow Hill (formerly Lenin Hills) which had a good view of the city. Then, we headed back to the ship.

Dinner was on the ship. The presentation of the food was excellent.

After dinner, we went to see a performance at the Nikulin Circus (Old Moscow Circus).