Russia

Hello from Beijing! Now I have a few minutes to tell you about our days in Moscow. The first thing we had to learn was to navigate the Moscow subway.

Besides being fast, reliable and showing up every 2 minutes on the dot, the Moscow Metro boasts some very nice stations, thanks to its Soviet legacy...



Of course, we visited the main Moscow sites, such as the Red Square and the Kremlin,

Sunday afternoon, we also visited the Moscow Zoo. Quite frankly, many parts of the zoo are in need of serious attention. as the wolves below decry...

The bear did not care so much...

I am running out of internet time but I wanted to post about our evening at the football game here in Moscow where we had a chance to watch Spartak Moscow, the league leader win over Tomb 3-2. The game was played at the former Olympic stadium in Moscow, home of the Spartans.

The action was excellen, this is where Tomb scored the first goal...

The fans went crazy when Spartak scored back

Our trip to St. Petersburg would not be complete without a visit to the prestigious Hermitage, one of the great World museum, housing two of the twelve known Leonardo da Vinci paintings in the World.

Not only is the Hermitage a great museum, but it is also an amazing palace with hundred of opulent and lavish rooms.

We spent a few hours admiring the amazing art ranging from roman statues,

to rare Michelangelo statues,

to the Dutch Masters...

Finally, at 4 PM, we boarded the express train for Moscow

St Petersburg is the town where Sveta is from, and we wanted to go back to the place where she spent the first three years of her life. I was told that Children's House #11 was closed but our guide told me that he went there with other parents last year. So we went.

It looked very familiar. When we introduced ourselves, a nurse said she did not remember Sveta. When we talked to the Director, she vaguely remembered but we could not find her name in the register. This is when we discovered that we were in The House of Children #11 (Detsky Dom) as opposed to the Children's House #11 (Dom Rebenke) - The Director had no idea where this other place was. Back to ground zero.

We search the internet in Russian and found a list of Children Houses but no Number 11. We called #14 and they said they used to be #11, so we went... Wrong number 11, but there we found a nurse (Valentina) who remembered Sveta and used to work at #11.


We spoke to the Doctor in charge at #14 and they gave us the phone number of the Doctor who signed Sveta's orders 14 years ago in #11 (she is now director at #2) So we went to visit her at Children's House #2

It turns out that Children;s house #2 (they are a lot nicer inside now)


is 200 meters from the original House #11 where Sveta was, which was closed and is now turned into a dental clinic.

Mystery solved. The next day, we printed pictures of the reunions with the Dr, and Valentina and gave then a framed copy as a souvenir.

At our next stop, we had the opportunity to visit St Petersbug, the Venice of the North... Here are a sample of the beautiful palaces and monuments to be seen...
The Spilled Blood Cathedral which marks the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881.

Then comes the statue to Peter the Great presented to him by Catherine:

followed by the famous Aurora ship, involve in three Soviet wars

Here we are posing across from the Hermitage museum

On other days, we ventured outside the city to visit the famous PeterHof

and then Catherine's Palace in Pushkin:

They know how to do palaces...By the way, all these palaces were nearly destroyed in WW II and the Russians have done an incredible job rebuilding all this.