As dawn broke over Moscow on this autumn day, young people scurried about, wrapped against a slight chill, going to work, going home, jumping onto crowded trams, marching to the beat of the city. Traffic snarled, trams clanked a blacksmith’s tune on worn tracks, lights counted down to a stop at intersections. The city has the buzz of every marketplace.Timofei and Boris were oblivious to all. They slept. Their out-of-tune orchestra could not hit the right notes nor keep time.Mid-morning they woke and set out to confront the day. Red Square would prove to be an illusive target.Firstly they made their way to Paveletsky Vokzal, and from there through the streets to the French Ambassador’s residence. Timofei had to prove to Julian and Mathilde that the south of France is not the only symbol of French decadence. Here is an icon of post Napoleon art, decorated more so than St Basil’s church in Red Square. Then they wandered into a park beside the Moscow River. In the distance they could see the obscene monument to Peter the Great, but navigation was more a game of chance than a science. In the park they encountered a statue of Mikhail Lermontov. His knee worn bare by young ladies, showing he is a Hero of Our Time, for all times.Boris was bailed up by a babushka, wanting to talk. He was stretched by his limited vocabulary and a desire to get the hell out of there.Following that encounter, Boris and Timofei discovered they had stumbled into the Park of Fallen Heroes. They were in the title sequence of a Bond movie. A short time passed before it started to rain. With a little determination they they made their way across an iron bridge to Park Culture Metro station, and after a train trip arrived at Kommsomolskaya. After a repast of soup and blini, washed down with a half litre of Stari Melnik, a sweet and palatable Russian beer, they made their way to their appointed destiny at the Kutafia Tower at the Kremlin. A few minutes after 4:00 pm an enthusiastic, 152 cm bundle of energy arrived to guide the group through the delights, sights and stories of the Moscow Metro. Irina introduced herself and quickly strode off to Alexander Garden station. What was to follow were two hours of a journey through architecture, engineering, history and urban myth.  All delighted in the mosaics, statues and designs.

Railway station

Lubianka at rear & memorial to those who died in front

Irina brought history and stories to life with humour and fact.Andfinally the tour ended at Lubyanka. Boris and Timofei had arrived home at the historic setting of the Committee of State Security. They had come in from the cold.But this exhilaration led to another tour, through communism, meandering through central Moscow, forever circling but never arriving at Red Square.This jaunt took them from secret police headquarters, to ruined churches, to the Bolshoi Theatre (the place where the USSR was inaugurated), to the gulag museum, to shrines of capitalism, and finally to Pushkin Square. They had arrived at the site of the first McDonald’s restaurant in the Soviet Union and Russia. And now it is closed more out of disagreement between Putin and Obama than for health reasons.The day ended with soup at a buffet near Pushkin Square, a train ride to Paveletskaya, an overpriced taxi ride to the hotel (it was raining), and with sore and happy feet.Maybe tomorrow will see Red Square.