Moscow holidays: Tame tigers and wild nights in Russia where the subway has chandeliers
It is a balmy summer night and a man is walking his prized pet along the sinuous curves of the River Moskva.
This, however, is no chi chi chihuahua or lolling lab. It's not even a half-breed wolf with piercing eyes and a hellooo Red Riding Hood grin.
No, this is 450lbs of pure, unadulterated tiger, padding self-assuredly through the centre of Moscow on a diamante leash. 'Perfectly normal,' our guide says, shrugging resignedly. 'They're taken to parties. If you're very wealthy, it's just another way to show off.'
Gold rush: Moscow is a heady city where displays of opulence can be found in great supply
After just 24 hours in Moscow, the tiger probably shouldn't be a surprise. The Russians are grand masters at this game of my cat's bigger than yours.
On a whistlestop tour of the city, standout displays of one-upmanship include the giant bell that broke and a cannon so immense, it would explode if fired. Its the only place I've ever visited where the underground boasts crystal chandeliers.
The crowning glory of this unapologetically blingtastic city is the State Armoury, a 24-carat golden horde where the fabled wealth of the tsars is so jaw-droppingly prodigious that visitors risk being bedazzled blind.
Thrones come lacquered with 3,000 diamonds, icon covers are studded in a riot of precious stones. In case after glittering case, a profusion of orbs and sceptres, crowns and coronets are encrusted fist-thick with jewels.
Blingtastic: Moscow's underground is a lesson in! oversta ted luxury
Yet the most poignant exhibits in this undoubtedly breathtaking display are the things that do not glitter. Peter the Great's leather boots, size tens fashioned by his own hand, rest quiet in a corner.
In a case of priceless Faberg is one of the last eggs made for the Romanovs. Its dull steel case stands on four artillery shells and inside a tiny painting depicts Nicholas II and his son visiting the Front during World War One. Just two years after the egg was delivered to the Empress Alexandra, the imperial family would be executed by the Bolsheviks.
Back outside, Moscow has shed its cloying Cold War furs for the careless chic of a European summer. Young women in towering heels and short skirts clip the pavements, couples linger in cafes or stroll hand-in-hand in the shady boulevards.
Red Square, once crimson with the blood of executed prisoners, then scarlet with the inhumane onslaught of Communist flags, now has the air of an Italian piazza.
Statement piece: St Basil's Cathedral on Red Square was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible
We shun the brutalist block of Lenin's tomb and the designer excesses of GUM for fairy-tale St Basil's. It rises from Red Square in a sugar-candy confection of swirling domes and salmon walls, turrets iced in green and gold.
Inside, the visitor is plunged into deepest gloom, clambering up a curling staircase to a room plastered thick with dulled icons. There is no central church; instead a honeycomb of chapels fan beneath the nine towers.
This whole strange, claustrophobic cocoon reverberates to the basso profundo of an orthodox choir. The swell sweeps tourists back to a medieval Russia where Ivan the Terrible commissioned his fantastical masterpiece to mark a victory over the Mongols.
Consecrated as The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin by the Moat i! n 1561, it has always been known as St Basils after the holy fool buried on the site. The churchs architects are said to have had their eyes gouged out on Ivans orders so they would never build anything as beautiful.
Soaring: One of the iconic Seven Sisters built by Stalin, the former Hotel Ukraina is now the Radisson Royal
This legend, however, is dubious in the extreme. There is absolutely no proof that this ever happened, our guide says firmly,
Ivan wasnt the only dictator desperate to leave his monumental mark. In the 1950s, Stalin dreamed up a scheme to rival the skyscrapers of New York, resulting in a ring of eight spiky towers circling the city.
The Seven Sisters one was never built still dominate the horizon, vast slabs of buttery stone shooting up to a central glass spire. They house apartments, government ministries, Moscows State University and hotels.
We are staying in one - the former Hotel Ukraina - now reborn and lavishly refurbished as the Radisson Royal. A five-star spectacular with such extensive facilities, it would be very easy never to venture out.
Palace of pleasure: Moscow's GUM department store is a mecca for consumers
It catapults up from the river to a dizzying 675ft and boasts five restaurants, a leisure centre and spa with an Olympic size pool, shopping arcades, beauty suites with immaculate assistants and an engagement room high in the spire, hired out solely for proposals.
The corridors and public rooms are crammed with Stalin-era art, hefty marble sculptures in the usual Soviet style and a healthy sprinkling of hammers and sickles. Should you get bored, the hotel also has a fleet of yachts offering cruises along the river.
The star attraction, however, ! has to b e my room. I am transfixed by the stellar view from the window, distant domes glinting in the late afternoon sun.
The 360-degree vista from Buono, a candlelit Italian restaurant near the top of the tower, is even more spectacular. As darkness falls, the city below becomes a spiders web of light and we stand transfixed, picking out floodlit Seven Sisters, distant churches and the eerie glow of the Kremlin.
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The next day its time for a taste of traditional Russia. Pushkin, an intriguing three-floor complex which plunges diners back into the 19th century, is one of the most acclaimed restaurants in Moscow - and certainly one of the most expensive.
On the final day, we brave Moscows notoriously wild nightlife. The evening unfolds at an alarming pace, rushing from a basement jazz club - where a frizzy-haired Chechen sings the standards with his head rolling madly - to a black-lacquered bar where shots are knocked back under super-sized chandeliers.
Our final destination is Rolling Stone. The queue is epic and when I suggest moving to another door, one of our hosts give me a scornful look. If we get in that queue, she says, You will lose your legs.
After waiting an hour, we finally enter a bare-bricked bar where customers are downing flaming shots at a frightening pace. Upstairs, women in skyscraper heels take it in! turns t o dance on the bar. At a club where feral revellers are prepared for violence to get in, in a city where tigers are kept as pets, there is only one cocktail deadly enough for the occasion.
I think, I say slowly, ll have a white bear.
Travel Facts
Rooms at The Radisson Royal Moscow cost from 230 a night, www.radisson.ru/royalhotel-moscow.
Bmi offers two flights a day from Heathrow with rates from 247 return, www.flybmi.com
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