Moscow: Saturday, September 29, 2018:

It was 7°C this morning. The morning traffic was a nightmare – it took three hours to get there and just two hours to get back.

We visited the town of Sergiev Posad which has the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church – The Trinity Lavra of St Sergius (Russian: Тро́ице-Се́ргиева ла́вра).

The monastery is about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently it is home to more than 300 monks.

There was plenty to see including the first interior which was a former refectory, a green building with a bell tower, a red building and the tomb of the family of Boris Godunov.

We went inside a white building – or the Assumption Cathedral – where people were praying and blessing over tombs.

People were eager to fill bottles from a holy water fountain or just to fill their hands with the liquid and splash it over their heads.

There was a long queue to see the relics of St Sergius and the people there were very religious.

We enjoyed lunch at a local restaurant which consisted of Caesar salad, beef and veg soup, meat and potatoes, pancakes and syrup.

Once we got back to the hotel I hadn’t been in my room that long before there was a knock at the door – someone had a cake for my birthday which was a nice surprise.

We went to Arbat Street which has plenty of souvenir shops where I picked up a few things including some KGB shot glasses – can they be called shot glasses when they are made out of metal?

We also enjoyed hospitality at the shop which included vodka and pickled cucumbers before going for a meal in a Georgian restaurant, which was just off Arbat Street, including warm salad and beef with Russian beer.

On the way back to the hotel we passed one of the Seven Sisters – they are quite distinctive buildings in Moscow – which now houses the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

We later went to the Tipsy Pub again which was empty compared to the previous evening and celebrated my birthday. Apparently Breda is somehow related to Noel and Liam Gallagher.