Out in Moscow

Today we did some touring of Moscow with our translator/facilitator here, Philip. He is very knowledgeable and was a great guide. We went to Red Square, saw the Kremlin, Lenin's tomb, & St. Basil's Basilica as well as the large government shopping mall next door. Today is a national holiday relating to unity of ideas, so we saw some demonstrators in Red Square capitalizing on the situation. We also had some sunshine today for the 1st in several days. Moscow is a very beautiful city, even more so in the sunshine. Especially this center area of Red Square. We were surprised that there really are no skyscrapers in this very large city. The tallest buildings are a series of 7 huge gothic apartment buildings called the 7 sisters built by Stalin. It does give a city a feel of openness. We also found out that some of the military we have seen are military police who have been patrolling more than usual this weekend due to the holiday and to keep any demonstrations orderly.