After this eerie experience I set off to what was once the government-run Gum Department Store.
It’s now a shopping mall, with shops featuring fashion names from all corners of the globe. There were no queues although I did find one outside a shop nearby, so decided to join in. Once inside this shop I soon realised that canny Muscovites had spotted a bargain. I bought a pair of Italian shoes for just £40.
Since the dust sheets of communism have been lifted you can also visit things like the former KGB canteen. This has been extensively renovated and is now home to a swish restaurant called Praga.
And 007 fans should not miss out on the KGB Museum. Here you can see a range of spy equipment: the tricks used in the James Bond films are based on fact – the Russians used to conceal a number of things in the heels of their shoes.
Getting round the city is easy due to an efficient metro system. It transports 8m people a day – that’s more than the London and New York systems put together – and is surprisingly well kept. It’s also cheap to use – it costs under 10p and you can travel anywhere. My only word of advice though is that all the station signs are written in cyrillic script which can be a real test.
To ensure you don’t miss your station, count the number of stops you want to go.
IF I had believed all the recent warnings of anti-Western feeling that I had read in the tabloids, I would never have gone to Moscow.
I was expecting anti-war protests in Red Square, instead I found a concert just outside and a demonstration near the State Duma where locals were protesting against Yeltsin’s recent sacking of the government. I also expected to find hard toilet paper and empty shelves. I even took a supply of food as I was all set for a weekend of starvation. After 24hrs I dumped my dried fruit and ate the local Russian food.
Friends had warned me to be careful of the Russian mafia so I spent the first hour watching locals going about their business from my hotel balcony.
It all seemed safe to me, so off I set with my map and guidebook to discover the sights. My first stop was Red Square, which has the Kremlin on one side.
The square is surrounded by an imposing red fortress wall, topped by around 20 turrets. At the bottom of the square stands the picturesque St Basil’s cathedral with its famous coloured domes. Also on Red Square is Lenin’s Mausoleum, which is worth a visit. The embalmed body of the founder of the Soviet state has been on display in a glass case since 1924 and looks similar to the wax dummies that you find in Madame Tussauds.
After this eerie experience I set off to what was once the government-run Gum Department Store.
It’s now a shopping mall, with shops featuring fashion names from all corners of the globe. There were no queues although I did find one outside a shop nearby, so decided to join in. Once inside this shop I soon realised that canny Muscovites had spotted a bargain. I bought a pair of Italian shoes for just £40.
Since the dust sheets of communism have been lifted you can also visit things like the former KGB canteen. This has been extensively renovated and is now home to a swish restaurant called Praga.
And 007 fans should not miss out on the KGB Museum. Here you can see a range of spy equipment: the tricks used in the James Bond films are based on fact – the Russians used to conceal a number of things in the heels of their shoes.
Getting round the city is easy due to an efficient metro system. It transports 8m people a day – that’s more than the London and New York systems put together – and is surprisingly well kept. It’s also cheap to use – it costs under 10p and you can travel anywhere. My only word of advice though is that all the station signs are written in cyrillic script which can be a real test.
To ensure you don’t miss your station, count the number of stops you want to go.