2004 - Moscow - my grumpy love disapproves of her paparazzo outside the Old English Embassy

The "Old English Court" [=Embassy] was the first foreign embassy in Moscow - opened during the reigns of Ivan "the Terrible" (actually, "The Fearsome") and Queen Elizabeth I. It belonged to the Moscovy Company, and its main function was to organize trade between the two countries. Famously, Ivan proposed to Elizabeth, but she declined the offer. Ten years before our visit, in 1994, Queen Elizabeth II paid a state visit to Russia with Prince Philip at the invitation of President Yeltsin, and among other places, she visited this old English embassy too (which is only a ten minute walk from the Kremlin) - there is a plaque on the wall to commemorate the occasion. We visited it with Thelma, and the Russian ladies there were very friendly with both of us (a bit more about this under the next picture ...). My sweet Thelma always hated to have pictures taken of her randomly, so here she "told me off" (in her sweet chiding way), that's why the grumpy look (but I loved her grumpy too). Our hotel (the "Rossiya") was right next to this old building. The giant hotel was pulled down two years later to improve the look of this central area next to the Kreml(in) and to restore it to the way it had looked before the Soviet era. The hotel had been built in Soviet times to provide comfy and close accomodation to delegates from all over the USSR for big congresses in the Kreml(in).