"Today is a Good Day to Drive!" .....Van-Go

July 16-21, 2008 Will spent his free time working on is Russian. Our meal started off with borsh, a wonderful beet soup served with a dalop of sour cream and topped with chopped parsley and dill. Igor taught Will how to toast with beer glasses; they are held at the top so when you hit together hands touch, not glasses. Next course was pork braised in the oven and fish served with salad. Every bite just melted in your mouth.

July 16-21, 2008 Moscow University's main building is a master piece; it was designed by Architect Rudnev and built in 1949 on the right shore of the Moscow River. The star at the top of the spirl weighs 12 tons! One of the side towers is decorated with champion clock - the biggest clock in Moscow. The building has numerous columns many hold up nothing and are simply there as decorations. A short walk brings you to an overlook across the river where you can see the Kremlin among the city buildings. There is new construction going on of what will be the new Moscow City Center. Vendors sell their wares even in the rain.

July 16-21- 2008 Remember that map of the world where Kathy stopped to take a rest. Well we walled along the prominade outside the Kremlin, pass the foundtains with bronze statues of Russian fairy tales and entered the underground Menezh Mall. It is very modern with shops and a food court. You can buy anything here if you have the money.

July 23, 2008 We made a gazillion pelmani today and put them in the freezer for the party on the 26th. The first ones were made with a meat combo of pork and beef; the second batch were made with strawberries. We sort of cheated and used a wonton ready made dough so they were square; real ones are made with round dough cuts to hold in the juices. Between preparing the foods for the party, we dusted and ran the sweeper; Jayne's looks so clean! Yea, it looks like Will does all the work! He is a big help! "As for dough for pelmeni, it's very easy to make: you have to take plenty of flour (4-5 glasses), add some salt, mix, then stir in eggs and water in equal volumes. 4-5 eggs will make dough for 100+ pelmeni. You have to knead the dough with your hands for some time until it gets smooth and let it rest in plastic bag for an hour before making pelmeni. There are several different ways of handling the dough, I prefer to roll it out a little thicker than it should be in the end...

July 18-21, 2008 The Kremlin is a self contained city. Inside its red wall are a multitude of palaces, armories, and churches. It is a medieval fortress that today houses Russia government houses. The Armory is headquarters of the Kremlin Guard. A group marched past as we entered. The State Palace uses its 6000 seat hall to host theater, music and dance performances. The Senate building was commissioned by Catherine the Great and is today used as the Presidential residence; when the flag is up he is home. The 40-ton Tsar Cannon is the largest in the world capable of projecting wine casket size balls; it was never used however. The 200-ton Tsar Bell was never completed and never rung, but is the largest in the world. If one thinks of Russia as a traditional matryoska doll, with Moscow contained within the country and the Kremlin similarly nested inside Moscow, then Cathedral Square is the final solid figure contained within the Kremlin; it was Russia's first great public space. Domi...

July 18-21, 2008 We would have liked to stay and soak in as much of Red Square as a body can, but we needed to move on with our hosts to see other treasures of Moscow. We looked back often, but walked on. We crossed a park of large glass domes. The largest had a globe engraved on to it and Kathy took a seat just below Moscow. The park was filled with people coming and going or just milling around. We stood in awe in Alexander Garden gazing at the four horses rearing up at a wall of water. We came to the ticket office, tickets are required to enter the Kremlin, and stood in the long line. Finally we went through secruity, like entering the White House tour, and walked across the bridge into the Kremlin.

July 18-21, 2008 We paused for a quick look at the resting place of the founder of the Soviet State, Valdimir Lenin. The mausoleum is faced with red granite (for Communism) and black labradorite (for mourning), the mausoleum is essentially a pyramid composed of cubes. We were too late to go inside to see Lenin (or at the least the alleged wax copy of his body) that lies in his crystal casket. Kathy was dissappointed that we also missed seeing the grave of Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space.

July 18-21, 2008 St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design comprises nine individual chapels, each topped with a unique onion dome and each commemorating a victorious assault on the city of Kazan. The eight onion dome-topped towers are positioned around a central, ninth spire, forming an eight-point star. The extravagant and brightly colored domes of the cathedral's exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior we were told so we didn't go inside. In the small garden outside St. Basil's stands an impressive bronze Statue to Minin and Pozharsky, who rallied Russia's volunteer army during the Time of Troubles and drove out the invading Polish forces. They were an interesting duo - Dmitry Pozharsky was a prince, while Kuzma Minin was a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod. We took so many pictures trying to get the right one and still none do justice to the delightfully extravagant cathedral.

July 18-21, 2008 What you have all been waiting for: Moscow's famous Red Square. Although the walls are red, it was not named because of them; it was named after an ancient Russian word, "red" meaning beautiful. We walked around the outside of the walls first looking for the way in. We stopped at a flower garden for a picture. We found an entrance. After admiring the archetecture we walked under the archway leading to square's vast cobble stone expanse. Looking right was a red building used as a museum; to the left was the newly constructed Kazan Cathedral, a 17th century replica of the church built in honor of the Kazanskaya Icon to commemorate Tsar Mikhail Romanov's victory over the Poles and Lithuanians in 1612, and later destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Beyond is the largest department store you can imagine. We turned and looked back to the twin towers. Then, we turned again stretching our view Russia's most famous landmark, St. Basil's Cathedral . It was...