Luckily one of my friends who shared my trip to Moscow last year was good enough to send me a CD with the pictures he took. So, to better illustrate my last month’s story I am enclosing a medley of Moscow, old, new and resurrected old.
(Click on the picture to see it full size, use a back button to return to this spot.)

Last weeks the temperature dropped to -35 C, so in retrospect, we visited at the right time.

Back in London we decided to lie low, days are still short, air is cold and there is not much enthusiasm for undertaking new expeditions. Living literally next door to the Natural History museum is handy. They even put up a skating ring this winter. I did not try it but Monica did and was one of the better skaters around. I took a few pictures and went inside (most museums are free) to visit the excellent mineral collection. The whole museum is covered, inside and out, with terra cotta castings of an enormous array of animals and plants, all initially intended to illustrate the wealth of creation. The museum was designed before theory of evolution became generally accepted.

Also, fully aware that we will be moving back across the puddle before this summer is over, I started to go through the list of things that I wanted to see and did not get around to yet. This is the time to fill in the gaps. One of those gaps was the Westminster Abbey. Since I go everywhere on foot, the 45 minutes to the abbey was a short haul. The nice thing is that I always notice new things, it is enough to take a slightly different turn, walk on the other side of the street or just carry my head at a different angle. This time, someone put soap into the fountain on Sloan Square and I found the house in Chelsea where Mozart wrote his first symphony. Do the math. He was only eight at the time.