Day 20: Tuesday 1st September
‘Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits.’ We’ve had our fair share of luck so far so why risk losing it by failing to observe a superstitious ritual? Nothing can go wrong now.
Up at 6.45am. It’s cloudy and cool. Our last metro credits will take us back to the space museum. The metro is packed and we arrive just after 10.00 – which the guidebook tells us is opening time – it’s locked. We go off to find a café and eventually find one after a long walk back into the international expo park. The chap isn’t really open but they are glad of the early custom and we have coffees – and me another crepe with sour cream. Very tasty again. We get back to the museum for 11.00 but the closed sign is still up and when we walk past it to enquire what’s occurrin’ we are told it is closed for the day, dammit!! It is closed every Monday and Tuesday. Damned guidebooks and damned rabbits! But we laugh it off and head to the monorail that takes us on a leisurely trip across town to one metro stop from our own. The guidebook map shows the monorail terminating at a totally different station!
We waste no time in getting moving and head for the ring road as the simple route out … but it isn’t. The road divides into two and we are unable to follow the route we came in on. Then it twists and turns for a bit, we must have missed a sign and before you know it we’re totally lost and our Moscow map does not extend this far out. After scratching our heads for a while I am able to get some directions in Russian at a petrol station and it’s not too long before we find the ring road – albeit a junction back from the one we really wanted and at least half an hour of valuable time wasted. Damned rabbits!! After fifteen minutes on the ring road I manage to misunderstand Jill’s instructions and we miss our turn on to the M7. We go off at the next junction (M8) straight into very heavy congestion and a further half an hour is lost getting to a turning point and returning through more congestion. (Would it have been worth buying the detailed maps of Moscow for the satnav at £100?)
Once on the M7 we find it is clogged up and with frequent traffic lights and speed controls progress is very slow. We don’t make Suzdal until after 18.00 but soon find a real overnighting car park (right turn just before the main kremlin) where we pull in next to another motorhome – French. We exchange ‘bon soirs’ but engage in no further conversation.
After our meal we amble into the village and take a few piccies as the sun sets over the various churches and kremlins that the place is famous for. Most of the churches are, in fact, abandoned. Lenin also has a statue in front of the town hall.
Groups of youths gather in places around the village and there’s a militsia presence in the most popular spot behind the ‘trading centre’, now mainly closed for the evening.
It’s a quiet mild evening and below us on the bend of the river there are a couple messing about in a pedalo boat. Their voices carry up to us through the still air as the sun sets behind the distant woods. Very nice.
The sun is now down so we turn for home, walking past the shops and bars in the trade centre, then across to see the eternal flame at the village war memorial. There’s an off licence on the way back and we stop to buy some wine – including Russian wine that turns out to be undrinkable.
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