June 4, 2017       Sunday in Moscow

I have updated the post for June 3^rd, for what it’s worth.

After breakfast we set out for the Izmailovsky Market. On the way to the Metro station we came upon an antique car rally.  There were a lot old American cars.  We took the Metro out to the Market.  The Moscow Metro is famous for some of the elaborately decorated stations, and we went to one of them.  It was Ploschad Revolyutsii.  I took a couple of photos, people rub the dog’s nose for good luck.  There are actually guided tours you can take, or you can find tours on the internet that you can do on your own.  

The market is located in or near an amusement park.  I don’t think the park is running anymore.  The place is basically souvenir central: matryoshka dolls, fabrege eggs, soviet military uniforms and badges and a lot more.  There are three long rows lined on both sides with stalls connected at both ends by cross rows.  We saw a black cat matryoshka doll for Tamme almost as soon as we started walking around.  But we wanted to see what else was available.  By the time we decided we wanted to get that first doll we couldn’t find that stall.  We went up and down the aisles for at least 45 minutes and were just about ready to give up when found it again.  We didn’t see another black cat in the entire market.  After that success we set off to find Café Pushkin for dinner.  We took the Metro back to a different station and then took a bus to Café Pushkin.  Café Pushkin is an antique-filled dining room of a nobleman's house with formal service & a typically Russian menu.  When we walked in we were greeted with complimentary champagne and vodka because of some anniversary.  Sue just had the champagne and I had two vodkas.  The vodka was flavored with a flower(?) and I don’t think it was 80 proof alcohol, because I couldn’t have had two of those and two beers and still been able to walk.  We started per usual with herring and also some elk sausage.  We shared an entrée, but I can’t remember what it was, but it must have been good.  During dinner the guy next to us was scrapping his dessert plate so much that his wife was laughing out loud.  So we asked what they had so we could order the same thing.  It was a caramel dome with a crème filling.  The photos show the waiter dousing it in cognac and then lighting it on fire.  It was very good.  I almost forgot that the restaurant had a string quartet playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.  We had a wonderful time, I think the champagne and vodka helped a lot.

 

2017 06 04 Moscow