Mayhem and luxury in Moscow

Mayhem and luxury you say??? I just have to share with you the unbelievable traffic first of all!! In just 20 years the Moscovites have been released from the constraints of dictatorship and there has been so much change in such a short time. But you do need to put Moscow and Russia on your "to see" list though. I have so much admiration and at the same time empathy for the people. But with this sudden change and status there are suddenly western influences including being able to own a car. The problem is the roads were not prepared for it - and they are still not. People drive anywhere, park anywhere and I think I have already said this in St Petersburg! Well Moscow is 100 times worse. Today we got stuck in what is known as a 'gridlock'. Basically we came to a stand still. Our trip took almost 2 hours and it was only 7 minutes from our hotel! These photos will not do it justice but I will try........

Here we have 4 lanes of traffic merging with another 4 lanes - yes 8 lanes of 
several ring roads going the same direction around central Moscow

 Cars are parked anywhere they can be as there are no carparks - 

check out the black four wheel drive above

 And even a "solid gold" (!!) BMW

 That limo is going to do some damage

 Entering the traffic

 Above another interesting way of parking - must be great for the suspension. The crazy thing is there is a fantastic underground Metro and public transport - but we were told the Moscovites love to show off their cars and think nothing of driving for 60-90 minutes to show it off to get to work. Gotta love their courage  for that!

 Now to the "luxury" part of the story. Here is the first peek at our hotel for 3 nights. This is an old Stalin apartment building which has been totally refitted......

 Guess where.....

 What a grand entrance! I will leave you with a few images while I go and run my bath....hmmmm