We stayed in Eridan which is about 1/2 hour train ride to the city. Metro is 15min walk away. Service in the hotel is nothing to shout about. Some staff were helpful while others annoying. You just have to realize that good service in Russia is rare.

Some shocking examples in Russia:
1) We went to a restaurant and there was a wrong order, instead of pork and they give us beef. When we highlighted the error to the waitress, she says it is not her problem because she did not step into the kitchen. We have many experiences regarding this excuse "This is not my problem".
2) I was at the Hermitage gift shop in St Petersburg. It was near closing time and I asked the counter lady about a particular poster. Before I even finished my sentence ("Do you have ..."), she says "NO!". She did not even know what I was asking for.
3) On our last day, we asked the hotel staff from Eridan to book us a taxi to the airport. The taxi arrived 45min late and the driver smelled of vodka. When we paid him he claimed he has no change and thus pocketed an additional R$200. The taxi company is "Taxi 3AKA3 TAKCN" or "Zakaz Taksi" in English. Don't ever book taxi from this company as they are never on time. They also screwed up when we booked a cab to take us to the train station - arriving 30min late.

What is there to see in Moscow? In my opinion, nothing much.
- Kremlin (not terribly impressed)
- Red Square (good and beautiful at night)
- St Basil (better from the outside)
- GUM. Beautiful shopping centre
- Izmailovsky park. The open air market is a big mess and you can easily get lost in it. We spent 4 hours and could not find any souvenir stalls.
- Kolomenskoye Park. Nice park but nothing fantastic.
- Tretyakov Gallery (Old). Very good museum. I was impressed with the landscape painting.
- Pushkin Museum. Other than some old gates, not impressive. Not many paintings. You may like their replica of famous sculptures.
- Novodevichy Convent. Did not manage to enter the church because it is closed for renovation. But nice grounds.

St Petersburg is much better in terms of sights and service is better too. More people in St Petersburg speak English.

Russian food is boring. Georgian food is ok. We went to a nice Italian restaurant opposite Pushkin museum by the name of iL Patyio (I am guessing only since I am not an expert in cryllic). They have a website www.rosinter.ru. Generally food is expensive and is not worth the price. You can pay US$25 and just get canteen food with small portions. We paid US$25 for a combo platter in Pizza Hut and what we got was 4 chicken wings, 4 onion rings, and 3 other starters. You get the picture.

The people. There are some helpful ones that tried to help even when they do not speak English. Generally Russian are tall and good looking - visual feast. There is obviously a drinking culture and you can see many kids with liquor bottles on their hands and smoking cigerettes.