Kremlin and Red Square The Kremlin isn’t like the Pentagon, it’s the moated medieval citadel at the heart of the city and indeed at the heart of Russia. It’s also a seat of government and at least half of it can’t be visited for this reason. At its centre is Cathedral Square, lined with the churches in which the tsars were baptised, crowned, married and buried. Red Square is behind the Kremlin’s walls, but unless you’re President Putin, you can’t speed out of the Spassky Tower in a limo and you will have to walk around through the Alexandrovsky Gardens (the former Kremlin moat).

Tverskaya Ulitsa The main drag.

A favourite spot for early evening promenading, or just being seen, especially around Pushkin Square at the mid-way point on the street. The buildings on the south-western side of the street were all moved back several metres on Stalin’s orders, so that he could have bigger parades.

Zamoskvarechye (across the river) was once an area of taverns and brothels where Muscovite law didn’t apply. These days it’s quite the opposite. The highly cultured area around the Tretyakov Gallery is well supplied with elegant cafés and upscale boutiques.

Ostozhenka On the Russian Monopoly board, this is Mayfair, which says it all. Patriarch’s Ponds The area between Spiridonovka and Malaya Bronnaya is another prime chunk of real estate, stacked with the mansions of 19th century merchants. Savva Morozov, the railway tycoon and arts patron, lived here, as did Ryabushinsky, whose extraordinary style moderne mansion (designed by Schechtel) can be visited as it’s now the Gorky Museum. The area is rich in associations with the author Mikhail Bulgakov, who lived overlooking the Ponds and set the opening of The Master and Margarita here. Margarita’s Café on the Ponds is a favourite late-evening gathering spot for Moscow’s classical musicians.

Vorobyevy Gory or Sparrow Hills

The best vantage point for a view over Moscow. The hill itself is topped by one of the Seven Sisters, the Senate building of Moscow State University.

GETTING AROUND

Even if your time is limited for sightseeing, you can see one of the most famous sights of Moscow as you travel around—just lift your head and look around in the famous Moscow Metro. Each station is decorated in a different style, following a theme related to the station’s name. One ride (any distance, there are no zones) costs 10 roubles, and as if this wasn’t already cheap enough, you get a discount if you buy a multi-ride card for 10 or more journeys. You put your magnetic card ticket through the barrier, just like in other world cities. The perfect way to avoid the urban gridlock above.

However, if you enjoy gridlock then take a taxi. In fact, any vehicle with a wheel at each corner is a potential taxi—if the driver has the time and financial interest. In theory you can wait until you see an official yellow cab, but that might be a long wait. If you take a non-official cab, don’t get in if there is already a passenger. You agree the fare before setting off. A 10-minute ride should cost around 100 roubles daytime, or 200 roubles after 1am when the Metro is closed. You never tip taxi drivers, ever, and they don’t expect it.

SHOPPING

Shops are generally open until 8pm, although they might not open before 10am. Many supermarkets and pharmacies are open 24 hours. Every Metro station attracts a conglomeration of grotty kiosks and stalls around it, selling grim groceries and beer (only proper shops can sell hard liquor), fast food and flowers, usually 24 hours.

Moscow has most of the world’s leading brands and fashion outlets these days, although there is no special reason to come to Moscow to buy them. Import taxes make them poor value for EU or North American visitors. For traditional Russian souvenirs, collectables, etc, it’s best to time your shopping for a weekend and head to the Izmailovsky Vernissage, or flea-market (Metro Partizanskaya, which was renamed from Izmailovsky Park last year, in case you’re using an older map). Russian military hats, belts, hip flasks and every kind of wooden knick-knack you can think of are available (USA vs USSR leaders chess set, anyone?). Another good buy, although one we can’t officially sanction, is bootleg music, DVDs and software disks. The main hunting ground for these is the Gorbushka electronics market, these days located inside the big red buildings behind the main market at Bagrationovskaya metro. To get the measure of the ritzier end of Russian shopping, you should start at GUM filling an entire side of Red Square. More exclusive still are the shops along Stoleshnikov Pereulok, where Vivienne Westwood, Diesel and similar outlets can be found.

THINGS TO DO

Decades of state-fuelled support and huge national pride make Moscow’s cultural life unrivalled.

The Kremlin (public entrance from the Kutafya Tower, Metro Alexandrovsky Sad). Inside are the onion-domed cathedrals, Tsar Bell (the largest in the world), Tsar Cannon (biggest in the... you get the idea) which can all be visited. So too can the Royal Treasury, housed in the former Armoury Palace. This is where the Fabergé eggs, coronation carriages and English silver are kept, but entry is by time-allocated ticket to control the crowds, so get your ticket as early as you can.

Next door on Red Square is St Basil’s Cathedral, probably the most famous sight in Russia. However, the desecration caused inside by Napoleon has never been repaired, so the exterior is by far the more attractive aspect.

For a guided walk, Capital Tours (www. capitaltours.ru) operates daily trips.

Art lovers will be torn between the huge collection of Russian art at the Tretyavkov Gallery (Tretyakovskaya metro) and the Western art on view at the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum (Kropotkinskaya metro). The Bolshoi Theatre’s fame is worldwide. It presents superlative ballet and rather stodgy opera on a rotating basis, although until 2008 you will see its shows on the next-door 'new stage’ while the historic theatre has its first refit since 1825. Touts charge nearly double the price you will pay directly on the website (www.bolshoi. ru), but same-day tickets are almost never available except through the touts.

Less expensive are opera (and occasional ballet) performances at the Novaya Opera, which presents a slightly dowdy repertoire of classics, as does the Kremlin Ballet on its stage within the Kremlin itself. Alternatively, fight for a ticket for Moscow’s cult success Helikon Opera. There are marvellous classical concerts for mere pennies all over Moscow.

Sports fans might want to catch a game. Russians play football (soccer) in the summer and ice hockey in the winter. The two big soccer teams are Spartak and Moscow Dinamo. You can just turn up and buy a ticket.

EXCURSIONS

Although many companies offer to set up trips (including Capital Tours, see above) there are no organised scheduled excursions from Moscow that you can just join. The don’t-miss excursion is Sergiev Posad, the location of the St Sergius Monastery (www.stsl.ru), one of only two lavra (associated with holy miracles) monasteries now in Russia. Suburban trains go regularly from Yaroslavsky station for about 250 roubles return.

The very organised (ideally with a Russian speaker in tow) could combine this with an excursion to the nearby Abramtsevo Estate, where many famous 19th century Russian writers worked. In a different direction is Tula, an undistinguished town that has the huge country estate of the Tolstoy family 15kms down the road. Although trains run to Tula, you’ll need a taxi to get to the estate once you’re there. Yaroslavl’ is another possibility, although public transport is so slow that you really need a car to do this feasibly in a day.

It’s a pleasant town on the Volga with a wealth of churches, and by car you can break your outbound journey at Sergiev Posad (above) and the return journey at Rostov Veliky, provided you don’t mind a mid-evening return to Moscow. Vladimir and Suzdal frankly merit an overnight stop. There is so much to see in these medieval towns that a one-day attempt will leave you frazzled and frustrated.

If you have a full day’s gap in your schedule, don’t ignore the chance to slip up to St Petersburg, the favourite excursion of Muscovites themselves. Take the night train (13 different trains nightly, typically departing 11.55pm and arriving 8.15am the next day) up and back and you can sightsee all day, take in the Mariinsky Ballet then supper, and still easily make your midnight train back to Moscow. In the same night-train fashion, medieval Novgorod—Russia’s oldest city—is equally feasible, and the trains are perfectly cosy.

CONVENTION CENTRES

There are two main convention centres in Moscow: Expocentre is located at Krasnaya Presnya, and consists of three large halls which are not physically linked. Large trade fairs are held here and might involve more than one of the halls. The least convenient aspect of Expocentre is the absence of any public transport, causing gridlocked traffic during and after shows. The closest Metro is Ul 1905 g (the odd name of the station refers to 1905 Street, which itself celebrates the year of the failed Revolution in 1905). There are no hotels in or near the complex, which is on the periphery of the centre.

Much more central is T-Module, located in a converted shopping centre at Tishinskaya Ploschad’. There is no Metro at the location itself, but it’s only a 10-minute walk to Belorusskaya.