........and, on the subject of architecture, the GUM shopping centre, Neil........... ???
I typed a longish reply, then I got timed-out by the site server and I lost it :(
Anyhow yes, GUM... large C19th shopping arcade, restored to its former glory now. Lots of pretentious international brands there, but also a couple of nice patisseries with views of Red Square (a nice way to treat guests to the city)... and the old art-deco Cinema Hall has been restored, programming art-house films these days. So not an entirely reprehensible place at all :)
And-one suspects-full of shops stocking goods which many Muscovites will be unable to afford :(
I vividly recall, back in 1991, taking around 40 16-17 year old school students to Moscow and St. Petersburg(one month before the coup against Gorbachev-good timing ;D). While in Moscow we "arranged" an evening at the Bolshoi Ballet. The tickets arrived as we were preparing to leave our hotel. They were brought by a man in a leather overcoat who screamed up in his car at the hotel door and, somewhat furtively, shoved the tickets into the hands of our guide. All deeply suspicious ;D ;D
I wonder how much has changed ;D
