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About to enter the departure lounge for Aeroflot flight SU246.
You can't quite read it in this picture, but the blue screen on the wall had the less than reassuring message "disk write error, some files may be lost". Fortunately none of the missing files seemed to be critical to the functioning of my aircraft, as we landed without incident just under four hours later. |
Even more problematical was the apparent absence of the transportation that was supposed to have been organised to take me to the airport. I spent a little over an hour fending off the flocks of predatory taxi drivers attempting to make absolutely sure that there was not leave my appointed driver looking for me, and then decided that the best course of action would be to make my own way to the hotel where at least I could be contacted. This gave me a sooner than expected opportunity to revise my skills at navigating through Moscow on bus and metro.
I made it to my hotel without incident at around 22:00, but one last hicup remained, in that I was informed on attempting to check in that the reservation that had been made for me was for arrival on Sunday. This misunderstanding was quickly resolved by the application of appropriate plastic to cover the extra night. This misunderstanding at least went some way to explaining the absence of my transport.
I had arranged to meet with Stephanie Werner (from last year's Pescara Summer School, and also my first Microsymposium),who had also arrived on Saturday, for dinner in the evening. However being somewhat later than anticipated, we ended up sharing the hot dog that I had bought from one of the vendors near the metro station on the way to the hotel..
| Jim and David walking alongside the Kremlin at 10:46am, with Anne Cote, Carley Pieters and Stephanie Werner in the background. |
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| David, Jim, Roland and Stephanie in Red Square. |
| Inside GUM, (the initials stand for "State Department Store") on the Eastern side of Red Square. |
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| At 11:45, a view of St Basils Cathedral as we head away from Red Square toward the Moskva River. |
| The golden domes of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour come into view at 12:41. |
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| The fresh snow in the grounds made the scene particularly attractive. |
| Another view as we walked beside the Cathedral away from the Moskva River in search of the entrance. |
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After our exploration of the Cathedral, (which was not
open on my first visit to Moscow) we headed toward Old
Arbat in search of a suitable place for lunch.
Here we are at our chosen venue at 14:38, after a meal of Palmeni. |
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After the meal, we headed back toward the Pushkin Museum.
Stephanie and I walking toward the Pushkin in the snow. |
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| En route, Stephanie was taken by some ornate carvings she observed on some of the buildings that we passed, and demanded some pictures - of which this is an example. |
| There was also a cat on the front porch of this building (if you look closely) which also had to be photographed.. |
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I left Roland and Stephanie at the Pushkin, as I had arranged to catch up with Elena Pivchenkova (who was with me in Baikal) at 16:30.
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Lena's room, 20:30.
Lena looking stunned as I take an unexpected picture as she turns around after dealing with a phone call. |
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