The centre of Mother Russia, at least in a financial and political sense, Moscow lies as far north as Edinburgh and further east than Jerusalem. It has not always been the capital of Russia, that status has belonged to St Petersburg for a considerable time, but it is now one of the largest cities in Europe with around 10 million inhabitants, and more billionnaires than Manhattan. Whereas St Petersburg is known as the most "European" of the Russian cities, Mosocw still feels unequivocably Soviet. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, things in Moscow have improved a lot for some people, and got considerably worse for others.

We visited Moscow as part of the Baltic tour 2004, staying for three nights at the Traveller's Guest House near Prospekt Mira in the north of the city. The hostel was part of an old Soviet hotel in a non-descript block on a street of non-descript blocks. As we were there over a weekend that allowed us to take advantage of a loophole and to not get visa registration for Moscow, as we were already registered in St Petersburg.

Just before we arrived at Leningrad Station in Moscow, we went past the Ostankino Tower, the second tallest freestanding structure in the world after the CN Tower in Toronto. Built in 1967, it is 540 metres to the top (an order of magnitude taller than any office building in the world), just 13 metres short of the CN Tower. In 2000 there was a fire in the large pod towards the summit, causing so much damage that it was thought that the tower would have to be demolished. It still stands today, but tourists have not been allowed inside since the fire.

We used the Moscow metro to get around all the time we were in the city, although not the most extensive metro in the world it carries the most passengers daily. The logistical organisation must be very well orchestrated, given that there is no more than 30 seconds between trains within the circular line. It is also the world's deepest metro system as can be seen here, the creaking wooden escalators descending hellward. The stations were built very deep underground so that they could double as shelters during nuclear war.

One of the (few) things for which the people of Moscow are grateful to Stalin was his construction of the splendiferous metro stations around the city centre. Statues, mosaics, chandeliers and stained glass abound in these underground palaces of urban transport, which are a tourist attraction in themselves. This station is one of the ones on the cirular line, possibly Prospekt Mira or one near it, I can't remember.

There is no other building that says "Russia" more than St Basil's Cathedral, at the south end of Red Square. It is a cacophony of domes and colours and I was surprised when I learned that it is more than 450 years old. It was built by degree of Ivan the Terrible in the mid-16th century, and has 9 seperate churches inside, each with its own dome.

Lenin, one of the great Russian leaders in history, siezed power in 1917 during the revolution, died in 1924 and lies within this masoleum by the Kremlin wall on Red Square. He has been chemically preserved and lies in a glass case on display to the people. Unfortunately Lenin is closed after lunch, so we missed out seeing him in the flesh.

This is the south wall of the Kremlin, which faces onto the Moscow River. The Kremlin is a roughly triangular enclosure housing the official and residential buildings of the Russian government. On the east side of the Kremlin is Red Square, so called not due to the Red Army or the amount of blood that has been spilled there over time, but simply because the walls of the Kremlin are painted red. In the distance you can see Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

There are a great many churches within the walls of the Kremlin, dating back hundreds of years. They are all Russian Orthodox, and are topped with gold-plated onion-shaped domes.

Here is the Tsar cannon, reputedly the world's largest at 16 feet long, almost 40 tonnes and built in 1586 by a commission of Ivan the Terrible's son. It is aimed at some buildings across the courtyard which are off-limits to tourists. There were no barriers to stop people walking over to these buildings, but there were certainly guards to shout at you.

The 200 tonne bronze Tsar Bell sits at the foot of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, a relic from the Romanov Dynasty. It has never been rung as shortly after its commissioning in 1734 it was cracked in a fire, chipping off an 11 tonne chunk.

I am not sure if this is where most of the Russian presidents in recent times have lived, but it is where Putin resides at the moment. Occasionally a black car would sweep in or out of the courtyard. It is the Grand Kremlin Palace.

The Faberge company of St Petersburg created the world-famous Faberge eggs, one of the most well known which you see here. This is the Trans-Siberian Railway egg, featuring a solid gold and platinum model of the train itself.

Here we see in a photo taken from within the Kremlin; one of the "Seven Sisters" of Stalin, the building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, and one of the watchtowers of the Kremlin wall.

Moscow State University is the largest of Stalin's "Seven Sisters", a set of seven skyscrapers scattered across Moscow and all built during the late 1940s and early 1950s but in the art-deco style of the 1930s. The architect is the very same who worked on many of the buildings of the 1930s in New York. The building stands 240 metres tall, and has over 6000 rooms. What we see here is only the central section, there are four gigantic wings spanning off in each direction out of the shot.