Greetings from Moscow

I haven't blogged in a while as I've scrambled to get ready for a trip to Russia to participate in a leader's conference hosted by the Nizhny-Novgorod Vineyard. My next few posts will be a travel log of the trip...

Friday we picked up Emily at 12 and headed for the airport. Got there at 1, after stopping for lunch, 5minutes before Kevin. First hurdle was fitting both my computer backpack and the bag with the projector into the Embraer mini-jet. No problem. Made our connection at JFK and headed for Moscow sitting three across in the center aisle. Kevin and Emily both got reasonable sleep, maybe 4-5 hours, but I had my typical difficult time and slept a few minutes here and there.

Landed in Moscow at 11 AM local time and get through customs quickly. Sergei, who goes to Moscow Christian Center, met us at the airport and drove us to the hotel and showed where the metro station was and the market. The room Kevin and I shared was quite nice, even compared to London. When you check in you get a pass which you exchange for a key with the woman who is stationed on each floor. There’s someone there 24 hours a day and when you leave, you give her your key and she gives you back your pass.

The market was a great experience. Miles of stalls with trinkets, clothes, antiques, wooden carvings. Got birthday presents for Robert and Adrienne and an antique icon of Michael the archangel.

Then headed for dinner in Arbatsky. Took the metro which is quite amazing. It was crowded every time we rode it, morning, evening even Sunday. Even though it was pretty cold, maybe 20-24 F, the streets were filled with vendors and musicians performing. Very fun. Went to an Uzbek restaurant we found in my DK guidebook and had a nice meal. Then headed to Red Square which was very beautiful at night.

Impressions: Everybody is very fashionably dressed. Lots of fur coats. Casinos everywhere. People walking around drinking beer everywhere. Classic scene was a young woman sitting on the subway with a full-length mink drinking a MGD.

When we returned we checked email and learned that Jesse and Steve had missed their connection in Paris and were not coming into until the next day (they’d taken a later Air France flight while we flew Delta).