RIDING THE METRO IN MOSCOW

The metro is a huge underground world of transportation in and around Moscow, Russia.  The metro was started in 1930 and continues to be updated and expanded even today.  It carries some 8 million people a day.  Moscow is a bustling city of 15-16 million people so there is traffic and with that traffic come traffic jams.  It's much faster and a whole lot safer just to hop a ride on the metro.  You can get to about anywhere you want to go.  Cost is about 80 cents a ride.  One could spend a whole day just riding the metro for only 80 cents and looking at all of the different underground architecture from marble columns to great giant chandeliers to paintings and mosiacs.  Each station is different and unique.  You can transfer from one line to another without cost as long as you don't exit.

Sister Patterson descending down into the depths of the Moscow Metro.  Escalators are a way of ascent and descent in this underground world.  Better hold on to the hand rail.

Elder Patterson estimates that the escalators are about as long as a foodball field.  Here you see Elder and Sister Budd (Area Auditors) from Wyoming and Michael, our friendly Taiwan student who knows about Paul Hyer.  It was really hard the first time we met him not to say, "Ah, you know Paul Hya?"  (that's an inside Hyer family joke).

The excalators are steep and you definitely don't want to go up the down staircase!  You have to stand to the right so that anyone brave enough to "run" down the escalators is free to pass you.  For us seniors we're content to just ride.

This is one of the prettiest stops on our way to the city center (Teatralnaya) where you get off to visit the Kremlin.  This stop is called Mayakovskaya.  The lights are bautiful, the arches have shiny metal on them and the floors are red, black, and white granite.

This little hamburger stand is quite cute.  It resembles a metro car.  It is located inside the metro on the Solkoniki stop where we go to church.  We've never had the opportunity to taste the offerings because we're always only there on a Sunday.

Here is a video of an incoming train and what it's like.  The stop is our home stop of Sokol.  This was taken at "off" rush hour so is not typical of what you would find when the place is brimming with people.