We're in a different hotel, the Holiday Inn – Moscow Sokolniki, for the rest of our stay. This is the one that was originally reserved for our return from Astrakhan. It has a reliable internet connection, costs less per night than yesterday's, and provides a great FREE (not $60) breakfast. The only drawback (if that, given that the Metro subway is so close, cheap and fast) is that it is farther away from the Kremlin/Red Square. With this much downtime we'll probably do some touristy things, after all.

We had lunch at the McDonald's across the street from this hotel. Elizabeth does NOT like McDonald's. That's good, actually, even though Tara and I agreed that it was the best McDonald's meal we'd ever had. 🙂 I tried to order combo meals for us, but that didn't work. All we missed out on were the fries, which I should probably avoid, anyway. In fairness to McDonald's, Elizabeth probably just doesn't like beef. It might be the first time she's ever tried it. Her distaste for beef is also a good thing, though I don't expect it to last. We have nothing against Russian restaurants, we just can't read the menu to know what to order. That, plus the fact that they're usually too expensive.