Day 4: Novodevichy Convent and Cemetry, Gorky Park, River Cruise

Another hot one. Got to about 32 today. The morning began with a trip to the supermarket for breads, cheese and salami..for our picnic lunch. It's so cool browsing supermarkets...at times a bit tricky figuring out what stuff is. Used the metro again today like real pros and headed out to Novodevichy Convent and the Somolensky Cathedral which sits near the Moscow River. The frescos inside were fantastic and the whole place had a calm feel...and there were hardly any tourists....which is surprising given it is a world heritage site.
After browsing around for a couple of hours we walked along a large pond towards the neighbouring Cemetry. Sounds a bit odd visiting a Cemetry, however many famous Russian artists, authors, statesmen, ballerinas etc are buried here. After purchasing an English map we decided to find Chekov, Tolstoy, Boris Yeltsin and Khrushchev. It took a while but we did succeed...BR ran point on this task and rose to the occasion. He may well have risen to equal top of the list , equal with Nick for my partner in the Amazing Race. Although we had a map...the names are in Russian and there are thousands of magnificent headstones...or sculptures. They were amazing.

After a picnic outside the Cemetry we headed back to the Metro and headed to Gorky Park. A photo stop to see Lenin and the Kazan Cathedral and we entered Gorky Park. It was nothing like I expected.  It's more a fun hangout place. The fake beach and lake was shut but people were sun baking everywhere. Had some fun with some backdrops for photos and headed down to the river for a bit of a cruise.  It was nice to get some river air...struggled a bit today in the heat. Was really good to see the Kremlin and other sites from the river.

Decided to get a latte when we got back...from our little cafe next door where we have brekkie. The waiter is very reserved and has limited but precise English and likes to say you're "welcome" a lot. When I ordered my latte he came over and asked if he could ask me a question. When I said ok he wanted to know why I wanted a coffee when  it was so hot outside.

I explained that in Australia we drink a lot of coffee...his response was priceless..he said "you are a very weird people". I laughed and say he might be right. He found it hilarious.