Day 52

Tired, tired, tired. Today I feel exhausted. Hills, traffic, dust and heat take their toll. At 5pm I give up and stop for the night. There is still good 3 hours of day light left but I am not interested. I snooze and then head to the cafe. I order a 4 course meal and stuff myself silly while I watch the dinner ladies chat and laugh about life.

Day 51.

A quiet day, caught in a bit of a down pour at one point. I stop at a road side cafe and swap coins with some local lads who like to collect currency. I get a rather cool Yuri Gagarin 1 Rouble coin! Later I am stuck in a traffic jam near a level crossing. I get to the front and the warning lights are on, train approaching! However most of the traffic ignores this and lazily moves on, over the crossing. One lorry gets half way across and then stops, stuck in traffic. This can't be good I think. And then I catch a glimpse of the train. It is moving at an even more lazy pace than the vehicles that surround me. I begin to understand. Everyone spots the train. Space opens up before the lorry, it moves forward and no one follows. The train passes by like a car passing through a herd of cattle on an English country road.

Day 50

 Moscow has 3 concentric orbital routes, I am now out of the third ring. Things are becoming rural again. I amazed at how quickly the affluence of central Moscow is replaced by villages that still have communal stand pipes for water. One does not have to travel far to see the difference in Russian lifestyles. I had always thought sites like this would be common east of the Urals, but not within 100 miles of Red Square. The commuter towns however are still smart, Kolomna for lunch and Ryazan for the evening.

Day 49

Do svidaniya Mockba, but not as quick as I would have like. I think that following The Moscow River out of the city might be a nice way to leave. Instead I end up lost in an industrial zone and trying to navigate through the outskirts without map, compass or much else. I find an escape route after much swearing to myself, but find this road leads to a big road which led to a motorway! I ask a taxi driver, and passers by which way I should go, all point down the motorway. It seems that it is perfectly legitimate to ride a bicycle on the motorway in Russia. However every bone in my body and years of conditioned learning are screaming at me NO!! I CAN'T RIDE HERE, THIS IS A MOTORWAY! After a while I calm down. I soon realise that riding on a motorway is safer and more pleasurable than normal routes! I have plenty of space in the hard shoulder. The road is wide, smooth and straight. I am relaxed and spot other cyclists going the other way. This is actually great fun and becomes one of the nicer afternoons of cycling in Russia. I begin to wish that this road would take me all the way to Kazakhstan!

Fortunately my motorway did not do this...!

Day 48

I like TV towers. I like going up them and seeing the views over the city I am in. Earlier in this journey I went up the Villnius TV tower. Now I planned to go to the Shukov Tower. However due to bad navigation I end up at the wrong tower, The Ostankino Tower instead! Ultimately fortunate as tourists can not enter the Shukov Tower.

Once the worlds tallest freestanding structure, and still Europe's, Ostankino has a viewing deck at 337 meters that gives superb views of Moscow. Peering through the binoculars at a teeny tiny Red Square, Kremlin and Arbat time flies. I consider going to The Space Park, but as it is late it is mostly closed. I return to the hostel and get ready to leave Moscow. I rather like Moscow and shall miss it!

Day 47

Today I go to the Kremlin. I had tried the previous day but it was closed. I explore the Cathedrals and see where Tsars were crowned and buried. Unfortunately, the building I found to be the most interesting to look at I could not enter, The State Kremlin Palace. I peer through the windows and glimpse fantastic stairways, angular strong communist architecture and seals of the former CCCP states still on the wall.

I leave and head to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (WWII). It is very interesting, filled with Dioramas depicting battles and information boards telling a rather biased Soviet side to the story. I have come to the opinion that if one wants a true and frank depiction of what happened during WWII then the museums of Germany are the best place. There I feel the story of the conflict is not nuanced to depict national interest (or bias) but to my inexpert mind one finds an open and honest account of what happened. May be the cliche that history is written by the victors is being challenged here, or perhaps Germany is not in a position to accord any personal hurrah! to The War, so is free to recount the story without national agenda. Anyway, I am waffling. I have included a couple of the information boards below.

I take a massive walk back to the hostel, and as it is a Friday I think about clubbing. After a bit of research I find a club that sounds suitable so head off. I stop at a few bars along the way, none of which are particularly exciting and find the club, only to find it is closed! Not a peep of that on its website. Other bars near by are open so I try these instead, but they are really not to my taste. It feels a bit like drinking on Broad Street in Birmingham, or Park End Street in Oxford. R and B schlager echos from all the bars. After a while (well half 3ish) I give up and return back to the hostel, only to find the night watchman is asleep and it takes half an hour of door banging to wake him!

Day 46

Today I met Lenin, St. Basil's and the sites around the Kremlin. Not the Kremlin itself as it is closed. I learn the concept of being a "Fool for Christ" as Basil was. An interesting idea, to use ones own ridicule to expose injustice in the world. I also visit the Gulag Museum and a modern art gallery filled with contemporary German art and some rather interesting statues outside.