Traveling on Transaero can only be recommended. The plane was basically empty. We each had a row to ourselves. Plus all 10 rows behind us were available for sleeping.
Lunch was served and was for airplane food in economy a tasty affair.
Plus we were starving by this time.
We arrived in Vnuknovo around 6pm local time, made it through passport control and sat in the aeroexpress at 7. Buying the tickets was easy and so far everything was working as planned. 35 minutes later we arrived at Kievsky Station.
From there we tried to find the described exit to a shopping mall. We ended up in front of it but not because of any signs we could follow. Also reading the map proved to be impossible. We therefore asked someone on the street for the Radisson hotel and arrived at the Radisson which turned out to be the wrong one (and in all honesty I was disappointed at first cause Tici told me that we are staying in one of the best hotels of Moscow).
We took a cab from there and went to our hotel. So when we arrived at the Hotel Ukraina I knew we were at the right place!
The hotel boasts a huge reception hall, marble floors and columns, chandeliers and gives an overall impression of lots of money.
In the room chilled Champagne (ok, Prosecco), a fruit platter and chocolates were waiting for us. While drinking our second glass there was a knock at the door, more Prosecco and a huge fruit basket with compliments of the hotel. Amazing!
And here the view from our room
Note the traffic jam, we saw it this morning again.
Well into the second bottle we got a text from Alex (thanks Leni for your suggestion) that he will be in the reception in 5 minutes! He showed us Moscow by night and also where to go for dinner and drinks.
Our hotel
The Red Square
The Bolshoi Theater
A shopping mall
The KGB
GUM
Then he showed us a bar below a Chinese fast food place.
It’s the new hype here to have ‘hidden’ bars. You also need a password to get in and of course a local to show you where to go.
We went for dinner at an Eastern restaurant (here Eastern is Asian), had another bottle of wine and watched a bit of belly dancing.
Overall first impression so far, wow!
Yours, Pollybert
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