Moscow

I am writing this as I sit at a Japanese restaurant looking out on the line into Lenin's tomb and the eternal flame like our tomb of the unknown soldier.  The tulips are blooming and it is a lovely day, even though they say it will rain starting at noon. it is past that now and no rain. yea! We took the complimentary shuttle bus down to Red Square this AM and have spent the morning wandering and having fun.  We went in to see Lenin as it is open only certain days only until noon.  So we did that and are just enjoying the experience of being here. The big GUM dept store is right on Red Square and of course there are the multitude of souvenir places around. It must be near the end of school here as well as the place is full of school classes on field trips. 
It is pleasantly warm here today.  So it is just a nice day to wander around. There were two optional tours this AM but we were not interested in any of those.  Tonight we get to go to the Moscow Circus.  I think that will be fun.

The circus was very interesting. It was a lot like the circuses we remember as children but in a permanent arena and there was not as much high wire and trapeze acts as I remember. There was a dog show and a seal show and a lion show. I have to say that without realizing it, I have become somewhat of an animal activist after going on the safaris to Africa. Those poor sad lions were just hard to watch.  Having seen such magnificent creatures in the wild, these had just very sad eyes to me.  I know they are treated well but it just made me sad and that was something I had not even realized had changed in me.  But it was a fun evening and we all enjoyed the show.