A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 22 January 2019 - T for Russia

Translates: "A little coffee for you! So that you start the day with a lot of energy and a positive attitude. Good Morning"

Good morning lovely ladies,

Are you all ready for the T-party? Lets join Elisabeth and Bluebeard at Altered Book Lover with a beverage. My beverage you will see much later, but I think the cockerel has beaten me to it. (He obviously gets up much before me)

 My T-blog has a Russian theme today (totally by accident). 

To start with, both my postcards today are from Russia:

This one is a view of the Red Square in Moscow. I think the building on the left is the Kremlin. Has any of you been to Moscow? (I haven't).

The next card is an old image from 1960. The caption reads: 'The match will take place in any weather!' Dinamo Stadium. From the Russian Photo Museum. 

Bottom left is a commemorative coin of the World Championship soccer 2018:

The stamps are gorgeous. I think the large one faetures the Kremlin again, but I wasn't sure so I used my Google translate with the camera on my phone. The words on top say: "Happy New Year!"

On Tuesday we went to our usual restaurant to have a lovely lunch. There is a nice dining room, but we always sit in the bar to eat. The staff always reserve a table for us on Tuesdays. (There are only two tables in the bar area). 

While we are waiting for our drinks, here is hubby.

Here come our red wines. The waitress/co-owner is Mahri.

Erika did some book reviews the other day, so I thought I'd do that too as I have read two really good books lately. The first one, A Gentleman In Moscow by Amor Towles, I am about to finish but I can already say it is surprisingly good. The plot is that in 1922 a Russian  aristocrat gets sentenced by a Bolshevik tribunal (because he is unrepentent) to life long house arrest at the hotel where he is currently staying. All his properties and land are confiscated. He is lucky as most of the aristocracy was murdered. He gets offered a small attic room in the Hotel Metropole in Moscow in stead of his large suite where he used to live. Well I thought that it would be boring, but not at all! Count Rostov is a a delightful, educated, wise and resourceful man and you can't help but like him. Through him and the people he meets over the 30 years, the history of Russia comes through very subtly. The rise of communism, the second WW, etc. I love it and don't want it to end really. I comes highly recommended.

This is a photo of the hotel Metropole, which still exists today. It is near the Kremlin and at the back it overlooks the entrance of the Bolshoi theatre.

Another book I was totally blown away with is this one, All This I Will Give You by Dolores Redondo, a Spanish author.

It is a thriller, but a well written one. It is quite unusual, not only because it is set in Spain, but it is written as a literary novel, while it really is a murder mystery which turns into a nail biting thriller.  It's about Michael who is a writer and one night the police have to tell him that Alvaro, his husband of 10 years, has died in a car crash. The strange thing is that the accident happened in a totally different part of the country to where Alvaro said he was going. Michael travels to the scene and tries to find out what happened. It turns out Alvaro had a secret life he had not mentioned in all those 10 years. 
I won't say any more as I don't want to spoil it, but an awful lot happens. There are unexpected twists in the story nearly every chapter. It is well written and also well translated.
This is Dolores Redondo:

I hope someone can get hold of these as they are well worth reading. I read mine on my e-reader (Kindle). The Gentleman in Moscow was a special offer at 99pence and the Spanish one I paid full price for (but that's still not a lot).

That is it from me today. 
Happy T-Day everyone!
Have a good week!
Stay safe,
Lisca