Advertisement
Published: January 24th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Things never work as per the itinerary! Fact of life!
After a few hiccups I was off on my Moscow city tour. The plan was to spend 2 days in Moscow, first day with the guide and second day by myself, they called it the 'free day'. We started by visiting the Eternal Flame. Located on one of the side walls of the Kremlin its a memorial dedicated to the Soviet soldiers who were killed in World War II. Like any other place they had the 'change of guard' every hour, I wasn't keen on watching it as all change of guard processions are pretty much the same. The guide was passionately talking about the great warriors who laid their lives in World War II, I remembered reading about how sensitive the subject of World War II is for the Russians. A total of 30 million people were killed and this is just the official figure!
We then walked towards Lenin's Mausoleum. Vladimir Lenin was a revolutionary and politician who died in 1924. His embalmed body has been on display since then. They created a wooden tomb initially, then Lenin's body was transferred to a metal tomb and finally
Change of Guards
Saw it while returning from the 1812 museum they created the current marble/granite tomb. The body looks so real! We didn't spend much time there as there was nothing else to see other than the embalmed body. I was eagerly waiting to see St Basil!
I think St Basil is the prettiest (read cutest) man made thing I have ever seen. I spent a lot of time taking pictures both inside and outside the cathedral. The wall paintings and embellishments were outstanding. They didn't have the audio guide (the lady didn't come to work as it was very cold! Amazing excuse! Awesome boss!) but information was available in English throughout the 9 cathedrals that St Basil is made of. It is named after Saint Vasily the blessed, who was buried in the cathedral after his death in 1557. Saint Vasily was a wanderer and used to roam naked on the streets of Moscow. He was gifted and could perform miracles to help the poor and needy. I couldn't get over the interiors, every corner of the cathedral was beautiful. The wall paintings are great inspiration for curtains and bed spreads 😊 girls you will know what I mean after you look at these pics! I didn't want
to leave the cathedral!
After St Basil I walked towards the Historical Museum, another stunning piece of architecture located in the Red Square! It had all the usual stuff you would expect in any historical museum - excavated earthen wares, half broken utensils, daggers, knifes and so on. However I was blown away by the jewellery display! No wonder Russian models are ruling the runways, they have been fashionistas for centuries. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the historical museum as much as I did, hmmm may be it's the age!
I also went to the 1812 war museum but there isn't much to write as all the video clips were in Russian and (obviously) I couldn't understand any of it. I was also rushing a bit as I wanted to spend time at the Moscow Kremlin.
Moscow Kremlin had some astonishingly beautiful cathedrals. It is to Russia what the White House is to the U S of A. It is made of five palaces and four cathedrals. For centuries the Kremlin has been home to the Russian royalties, it's architecture is influenced by French and Italian designers.
The Metro stations in Moscow have been made very
tastefully and each of the main station has its own character and significance. Although I wasn't that fascinated by the stations the guide couldn't stop talking about the station interiors so I went along and showed my (pseudo) enthusiasm. The Russians spent a lot of time decorating their Metro stations but missed out important things like writing the station name on the front side of the platform rather than behind so that it's not covered as train arrives at the platform. I managed traveling by myself as my guide gave me all the necessary instructions, he helped me with everything - gem of a person with some VERY strong opinions!
After the long day I treated myself with a chilled Siberian Corona and some delicious sushi. Although the tourist in me didn't want to have sushi in Russia (!!), I am a BIG sushi fan, the place looked inviting, was cheap-er (paid £20 for a pint and 12 rolls!), the sushi standard was 3rd to Nobu, 2nd is Zuma in London and they had free wi fi so I decided to settle for it; couldn't have been happier with my decision. I returned to my hotel feeling content for
St Basil
From inside the day 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0497s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
JAHAL PUROHIT
non-member comment
wonderful!!!
hey its an awesome post. Thanks for blogging would love to know all in details. have fun.