UG got up at 9am to do his workout. I stayed in bed until after 10. We closed down the breakfast buffet at 11am. Then we got back on the metro, which we are getting really good at, and went to the Space Museum and cosmonaut monument. It turned out to be free admission day, which was awesome, but it was also filled with school children, which was not. UG pointed out that there were groups from 5 - 16 years old, and everyone seemed to be excited to be there. At home, the 16 yr olds would be looking bored and texting each other on their iPhones. The museum had the stuffed bodies of the 2 dogs that were the first to survive a trip to space. They also had a mock up of the Mir space station, and various scale models of rockets, including the Proton, which we saw the other day. We've started referring to this as the "n protoh" based on the Cyrillic characters on the side, which translate to "proton".
After the space museum, we went to Gorky Park. This park is supposed to be spectacular in summer and winter, but April is a bit of a transition period. A lot of work was being done to the landscaping and winter decor was being packed up. But the weather was beautiful, and we spent some time on a park bench watching people go by. Since we've been here, a lot of the remaining snow has melted. Some days saw water pouring off buildings and we've had to dodge our way into building.
They have another Buran shuttle on display here, but it's not as good condition as the one in Baikonur. The road around it was being repaved, and the paving equipment was being parked under the shuttle for protection. UG was a little disturbed by the lack of respect for a space relic.
From the park, we took the pedestrian bridge across the Moscow River towards another metro station. We had been told by the guide on one of the bus trips that this bridge was also a mall, but there were no shops at all up there. Maybe some booths get set up in the summer? But it did have some nice views.
For dinner, the first on our own, we checked out a pizza place we walked past 2 days ago. It had a bicycle mounted above the front door and sell pizza. It looked like UG's kind of place. It was called Pizza Express, which is apparently a chain, with an outlet in Ottawa. This is probably the most reasonable meal we've had so far. Pizzas started at $6 for 8 slices. Our whole bill was a little over $30, for 2 pizzas, drinks and a side of broccoli for UG. The pizza had the thinnest crust I've ever seen, which is the style UG prefers. We were quite happy.
Near the pizza place, we stopped into a fancy gourmet grocery store, Veliseev's Food Hall, which is a tourist destination in itself. It's a beautiful old building, which also has a souvenir store in the back at reasonable prices. I didn't buy anything because I figured we could go back if there was anything I decided I needed. They had a 7 piece nesting doll in the same colours as the imperial porcelain (blue and white) for about 1000 rub. They also had Beluga vodka for 700 rub for 500ml, probably the best price in Russia.
We then found a smaller grocery store near the hotel which had cheaper Russian Standard than Veliseev's, but more expensive Beluga. Then back to the hotel to enjoy an evening of doing nothing!
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