Dare

Day 7: Moscow (RUS).

Take a lift to the top of the Empire State,
Take a drive across the Golden Gate,
March, march, march across Red Square,
Do all the things you've ever dared.
These are the things, These are the things:
The things that dreams are made of.

If you recognise those lyrics, chances are you are as old as I am and have a similar taste in dodgy music! I remember buying the Human League album 'Dare' as a spotty adolescent back in 1981 and being inspired by the words and Phil Oakey's delivery of 'The Things That Dreams are Made of'. I remember thinking, “Yeah, I'm going to do all of that”.

Well it's took me a long time, but today, after almost 30 years, I finally achieved that boyhood dream. Karen and I visited New York back in 2000 as part of a long weekend away to cerebrate her 30th birthday, and as part of the usual tourist route we ascended America's most famous skyscraper. The following year we did a tour of the West Coast on one of our most memorable holidays and on the way down from the Napa Valley to LA we we drove over that iconic bridge. On this day, as flurry's of snow blew in the cold Russian air Karen and I walked the across the open expanse between Pokovshy Cathedral and the Lenin Mausoleum and I finally completed the set by marching across Moscow's famous square.

Moscow is an amazing place – not what I was expect ting – but amazing non-the-less. In fact, as we wandered around the wide boulevards, I found it hard to image that this city was ever communist! The chauffeur driven Rolls Royces's and Maybach's portrayed the cities affluence, the top class Sushi restaurants and expensive coffee shops characterised the cities 'chic' and the array of designer brand shops along every high street depicted the city as truly international.

The Kremlin, also, was not what we expected. To me the Kremlin was a building – like the White House, but it is actually the entire old city consisting of government buildings, churches, cathedrals and museums. And believe me it is stunning! The architecture, the paintings and the artefacts exhaust superlatives within minutes. And when we stumbled upon a choir of Orthodox monks delivering praise to God in Russian A Cappella, it sent shudders down our spines. On it's own, worth the 2,000 mile journey.

Day 7: Total Mileage to Date: 2,377: Number of Time Zones Crossed: 4; Number of Countries Visited: 6; Number of Transport Modes Used: 7.