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Published: February 18th 2008
We arrived in Moscow in the dark early hours of the morning after a pretty reasonable overnight train journey. We were collected and taken straight to our homestay with Olga. She was a great lady and looked after us really well while we were there.
We had a great time in Moscow, although I think there are heaps more things to see in St Petersburg and I would recommend more time there than in Moscow.
On our first day we headed straight to Red Square, or Revolution Square if you prefer. It is absolutely awesome - the size and all the buildings around it. The Kremlin on one side (with Lenin´s musoleum in front - we didn´t visit the old guy), St Basil´s Cathedral on another, the beautiful Russian state museum building on another, and finally a gorgeous old building which is now a pretty high class shopping centre (known as GUM)!
We soaked up the atmosphere for a while and then headed off to the Kremlin. We passed the Unknown Soldier memorial on the way and it is really interesting because they have guards there all day and if you time it right you get to watch
the changing of the guard - they do some impressive leg kicks!
The Kremlin was not as spectacular as we thought it would be - you can actually only really go walking around the cathedral area. There are about 6 or 7 of them all within a block. But we did also get to see the impressive Tsar´s cannon (made in 1586) which was never fired and what was the world´s biggest bell before it cracked (and before it was ever rung).
However, the Armoury inside the Kremlin is amazing. It is a museum worth seeing, but what they don´t tell you is that you only have 1.5hrs (only so many people allowed in at one time) - so you need to rush. We did the last rooms in about 5 minutes. The wealth kept within those walls is just amazing. My favourites included the fantastic 200 year old dresses, some over 2m wide at the hips, and the horse carriages - apparently the best exhibition of them from around the world. They were owned by the Russian Empresses and Emperors and some were gifts from various other european cities. There was even a child's carriage, a couple
Russian State Museum
Another side of Red Squareof sleds and even a garden carriage! So much for getting exercise walking in the gardens. We got into a bit of trouble in this section though - you lean in too close and you end up setting off a big alarm which tells you off very loudly. It was quite amusing watching it happen to other people. Unfortunately we couldn´t take any pictures in the Armoury.
We also saw the famous Faberge eggs, Ivan the Terrible´s throne, a whole room dedicated to horse gear decorations including a horse head piece which had over 1000 diamonds and a large yellow topaz from Brazil. Evan loved the last room full of old war memorabilia - guns, armour and all sorts.
Other amazing things in Moscow were St Basil´s Cathedral - although much more impressive from the outside than inside, the old KGB headquarters building, and we saw the world's biggest McDonalds - it is huge!
We left Moscow and headed to Suzdal, one of the Golden Ring towns just outside the city. We stayed in a gorgeous B&B in the very pretty town and just generally enjoyed walking around and looking at the old wooden houses with their
The Tsar's Cannon
Inside the Kremlin - the famous cannon was never actually fired! What a waste impressive decoration. Here I bought one of the famous matryoska (the dolls inside dolls - 10 pieces in all) and a couple of other souvenirs. Evan discovered a 1litre beer can - check out the pictures. Then it was time to move on and venture into Siberia.
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