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Published: August 7th 2008
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Red Square
The square is not actually red but red in Russia means beautiful. We arrived in Moscow at around 5.30pm and were met once again by our local guide, this one was Nadia and it seemed as if she had had a long day and was a bit tired. The weather was dry and warm and we had a huge bus to transport the 14 of us to the hotel with Nadia pointing out places of interest on the way. Our hotel was one of the ones that was built for the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and had been refurbished at some time. It was reasonably well appointed but the lack of air conditioning in the rooms and almost everywhere else was going to prove a little uncomfortable. The worst thing about this hotel was the difficulty everyone had dealing with the front desk staff who were extremely uncooperative. Even Claire who speaks a little Russian was having trouble organizing things. They had internet connections in the rooms but the difficulty I had getting it turned on was really frustrating and took several trips to the counter to get it done. Sometimes one of them would take a break and go around to the front of the counter and chat with her co-worker who
was still working while she was having a cigarette - and you couldn’t talk to either of them! There were four hotels in the complex - Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta and we were staying in Beta. (I did hear that the staff at Alpha were better) Anyway that’s enough moaning, so after we freshened up in our rooms we met Claire in the lobby and went for a trip on the Metro subway into the city to have a look and get some dinner. We went to a buffet style pectopah (restaurant) which avoided any language problems as you could just point to what you wanted and pay the figure on the till at the end - it wasn’t a flash meal but it was ok and relatively cheap. On the way back to the metro we stopped at Red Square to take a brief look at the wall of the Kremlin and St Basil’s Cathedral, we were coming back in the next 2 days to check them out better so it was just a brief stop. Back to the metro and about 15 minutes later we were back at the hotel (the metro station was only about 2
Inside the Kremlin
The flag was flying so the boss must have been working minutes walk from the hotel). To bed and to sleep.
DAY 32 - July 15
Breakfast was at 9 and was not half bad and if you sat in the right place you could even feel the airconditioning. First on the agenda this morning was a bus trip to the Kremlin with Nadia. Our bus had shrunk down to a coach and we left at 10 in quite heavy traffic which apparently is quite normal as I guess it is in most big cities. The population in Moscow is 11 million but they say that during the day it actually gets up to 15 million as there are 4 million commuters on the metro every morning and night. There was not much of a queue when we got to the Kremlin which was quite lucky as sometimes you can wait for quite awhile to get in, so we were lucky. Inside the Kremlin wall there stands various large buildings including imperial residences, government offices and administration buildings, the armory, the museum, the diamond vault and at least 4 churches or cathedrals. We breezed past the boring buildings with Nadia giving us a full commentary and far too
Inside the Kremlin
1 tonne per cannonball, but it never fired many facts to remember and the first building we entered was the Ascension Cathedral where all the important people have stood for their Russian Orthodox Church services for hundreds of years including the Imperials such as Peter the Great and Ivan the Terrible and their families (although there were actually three box seats for the Tsar, the Tsarina and the head of the church). The inside is adorned from top to bottom with religious paintings directly on the walls depicting all the figures from the bible and representations of Heaven and Hell and it is most impressive. We then visited the E….. Cathedral (sorry, can’t remember the name - can anyone help?) next door where all the Tsars and their families are entombed up to before Peter the Great (from Peter the Great onwards they moved to St Petersburg in the Peter and Paul Cathedral). There were many tomb shape boxes to represent all the Imperials there but the actual remains were deep below the Cathedral in the Crypt. It was a very somber place not made any less so by the monks harmonizing a song while we were there, they had incredible voices. The last place we visited in
Inside the Kremlin
This bell cracked during casting, the piece that fell out was 12 tonne so it never rang. the Kremlin was the museum and OMG I have never seen so much gold, silver and precious stones in my entire life! Every showcase was full of it and every item must have been worth a small fortune. Solid gold pieces weighing in the kilograms and huge rubies, emeralds and sapphires not to mention thousands of diamonds. There was so much wealth that it was almost obscene - no wonder the peasants revolted! It really has to be seen to be believed. On leaving the museum we exited the Kremlin and met up with Claire and went for lunch at a food court before taking a tour of the metro stations on the original ring route around the city. There are about 12 metro lines under Moscow and the first one was the ring route built in 1936 I think and it was built to impress. They wanted to show their own people and the rest of the world how good they were so they adorned the cavernous stations with mosaics, bronze statues, huge chandeliers and stained glass panels. The pictures depicted happy peasants hard at work or soldiers defeating their enemies - much of it seemed like large scale
Inside the Kremlin
Ascension Cathedral propaganda but incredible nevertheless. The metro itself was also impressive with two tracks on every line and a train coming every 60 seconds on every track. Following our metro tour was a long walk down to the Moscow River for a boat ride. (another example of Russian service - Corrissa tried to pay for her 350 rouble ticket with a 500 rouble note and the girl refused to take it!) The boat ride was great, cruising up the river with a bit of music on a hot day - pity the beer wasn’t cold. It must have lasted for nearly an hour before we got off and then we walked a bit further to Arbat St which is a combination of eateries and open air markets and shops. In the 18th and 19th centuries it used to be a hangout for the ‘gentry and intelligentsia’ and now a hangout for bards and artists. It was still hot and we had walked a long way today so we headed straight for Starbucks and a nice cold Mocca Frappachino - it was delicious. We then had a quiet stroll and a small bite to eat before finding the nearest metro (very close)
at took 3 trains back to the hotel. It was a long hot day and we were just about ready for bed.
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