Rushing in Russia

Entry Gates to the Kremlin
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What a day! The day today was jam packed with activities that kept us on our feet pounding the pavement and subways of Moscow. An early morning start before 8am had us standing in Red Square looking at the famous St Basils Cathederal as the sun came up. This is the image of Moscow that we have all come to know with the multitude of decorated onion domes and steeples. To one side is the official gate to the Kremlin Complex, to one side Lenin's tomb and on the other the large "Goumb" department store - Moscow's Harrods. It is an amazing feeling to stand in this place and look at all these world known monuments of the previous communist country.

View across Red Square
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AFter this the group was herded on mass into a local city Metro station and we took a ride down four levels on an extremely fast and steep escalator. Once on the platform, our guide Vera explained why the platform was so ornately decorated with chandeliers, frescos and decorative columns. These stations were created in the Stalin era, and it was thought that these decorations were used as a form of subtle propoganda on the people. Each day they would use these platforms and see images of happy healthy people and think that they lived in the best country the world.

Keep on the Pedestrian crossing - or go to Siberia!

Lenin's Tomb in Red Square
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After looking at this station, our guide told us that we were going to ride the metro two stops. We all just looked at each other and swallowed deep. "Spread out" she said, "Trains come every minute", "we are catching the next train, get off in two stations, same side you got on". Well, what an adventure that was. Don't know where we are going, can't read the signs, luckily we can count to two. Most importantly she told us not to be shy - "just push youself into the door and then out again in two stops". These trains go fast and wait for no man, but all 37 of us managed to get on and get off without a problem. The arrival platform was again ornately decorated, this time with Ukrainian villagers reaping harvests and being happy etc. It was another 4 station ride to see another platform, before decending to the lowest level to view another platform. We eventually took the subway back to our orignal station without losses which made us all feel rather chuffed!

St Basils
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Back on the bus, we then travelled through the horrendous Moscow traffic to our scheduled visit to the Kremlin. Five concenctric one way ring roads were placed around the Kremlin as a security barrier. On each of these roads, a central lane is available for use only by state officials, signified by cars travelling with glaring blue lights. Anyone found travelling in this lane who shouldn't be is heavily fined. It did give us time so soak up our surroundings, seeing a couple of the famous Stalin Wedding Cake buildings, and funnily enough, I saw a poster for a Suzi Quatro concert on in late October - pity we missed that!

Here we go - into the Moscow Metro
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Once inside the 56 hectare Kremlin complex our guide told us to remain on the footpaths and only cross the roads on the prescribed pedestrian crossings. Apparently the many guards get quite angry if you divert off the crossings and immediately start blowing their whistles. None of us wanted to be shipped to Siberia so we kept our feet where they should be. We were shown Putin and Medvedev's office and other government buildings. Inside the complex are also a number of churches as well as the world's largest canon and bell (both of which were never used).

Heading into the bowls of Moscow down the Metro escalator
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Our last activity here was a visit inside the Kremlin Armoury, the locaiton of the "crown jewels". Inside the building there were many examples of armour, religious tunics and clothes and dresses worn by Russian Csars. TWe also saw the collection of Faberge Eggs and crowns, orbs and scepters used by the Csars. Lastly we saw a number of carriages used during the time of Catherine the Great. Some of these carriages were unbelievably ornate and heavily guilded and/or sculpted from wood. They all had one thing in common and that was they didn't look very comfortable.

One of many ornately decorated Metro Stations, way, way undergrund
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After a lunch break at an underground shopping centre food court, it was off on our next optional excursion for the day. This took us to a local cemetary that contained the graves of a number of notables, including Yeltson, Einstein and Checkov. I had never seen a cemetary like this, with massive granite sculptures on many graves. That of Yeltson was of a furled Russian Flag, another in limestone of a famous ballerina and another for a well known comedian. Graves for Part Secretaries (Ministers), were also huge, and most showed some indication as to the Ministary they looked after (e.g. Communications minister was standing talking on a phone).

Kremlin Guards on patrol
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We were then taken to a building which had an artwork 135 meters long, mounted in a circle, showing the battle of Borodino, where Napoleon and his French troups battled against the Russians and 100,000 lives were lost. With staged scenes in the foreground of the perspective artwork, it really felt like you were in the middle of a battle scene. Our guide pointed out where Napoleon sat above his nobel steed, 3klm from the Russian commanders post. Ultimately Russia lost this battle, but once Napoleon got to Moscow, he was ultimately pushed back with the french losing over 500,000 men. Nearby the building that houses this artwork is the Triumphful arch, a monument to this battle.

Just some cannons hanging around inside the Kremlin
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It was time to rest our weary feet and we had just an hour or so to find ourselves something to eat at a large Pedestrian mall called Arbat. Here we had dinner at a place called "moo-moo", which serverd traditional Russian food. It was an experience selecting what to eat from the buffet, with the servers not speaking English and us not knowing what different items were.

We didn't know if we would make it through the last activity of the night awake. This was an optional tour to see a Russian Choir. For an hour we listened to Russian Church music sung by talented vocalists, which was then followed by some traditional folk singing. Attending this concert were other people we met from Australia who were part of a train tour, which started in Hong Kong, went up through Mongolia and was to finish in St Petersberg.

World's Largest Cannon
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By the end of the evening I think we were all just about asleep on our feet. I couldn't get into bed fast enough.