I visited Moscow for the first time a few weeks ago.
It was on my bucket list as a major world city that I hadn't been to, but I was unsure what to expect.
Russia is given such a hard time in the western press that I didn't have high expectations.
But from the moment we entered Moscow on a high speed train from the airport to a grand historic railway station, I was blown away! It also helped that everyone was celebrating Russia beating Spain in the World Cup!
We stayed in a lovely AirBnB a few km from the centre of Moscow which had a lovely park with kids play equipment at the rear.
The Soviet architecture of building apartment blocks surrounding lovely green communal areas certainly has merit.
As we walked into the centre along wide boulevards lined with magnificent architecture we came across Bolshoi ballerina's performing scenes from Swan Lake.
We had been worried about stroller access on busy city streets but Moscow's pavements were so wide and well kept that there was no issue at all.
We were very impressed by the beautiful condition (restoration?) of the buildings and public infrastructure. Imperial Russian, Soviet and post Communist architecture all melding into one extremely interesting cityscape.
Red Square and the Kremlin were spectacular, and nowhere near as crowded as we had feared. Even though there were lots of tourists for the World Cup, the spaces were so large and grand that it never felt squashy.
I was able to allow my one year old to safely crawl around Red Square.
We had a picnic lunch on lovely parkland between the Kremlin and the Moscova River and my one year old made a Mexican friend.
