Day 62 (Thursday). Dos vi dania to Russia and Cynthia.

Last night, after our light dinner, we walked over for one last goodbye of Red Square. The square was even more decorated for the big event, with what we felt were quite tacky items, including these two banners blocking the view of this great building....


They had also erected this huge board in front of the Lenin mausoleum (we wondered if they blocked the view of the mausoleum on purpose, as they are somewhat embarrassed by the prominence that he now enjoys).



One last nighttime view of St. Basil's Cathedral and the square...








More tacky decorations in the square...



...and on the bridge across the Moscow River...


And back out the gate one last time...


Then this morning we enjoyed the opulence,,,






,,,,and the harp player...


...one last time at our hotel, then headed outside to catch a photo of the "Old" Bolshoi theater, which we had not yet captured...


...as well as a photo of our hotel (note the paintings towards the roof line, the iron railings with carvings above, and the tiles between the two rows of windows right above the first level).


We bid dos vi dania to Russia as they prepare for their Victory Day celebration....


...and so long to each other as Cynthia heads back home, and I move on to Budapest!

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Day 61 (Wednesday). The Kremlin.

When we were here last week, we arranged to have a guided tour of The Kremlin with our English speaking guide, Ludmila. We had viewed it from all sides outside of the wall, but would now go within the walls.

The first building upon entering through the Troitskie Gate, was the Arsenal Building. It currently houses the regiment which guards the Kremlin, who also serve as guards of honor at ceremonial events...



Cannons which were seized from Napoleon line the front of the building (although the cannons are not French, but italian, Turkish, etc., as they had first been seized from other armies by Napoleon)...


The next building was the Senate Building (this is the end of one wing of a triangular shaped building, with the front being under the dome, which you can barely see in the left of the photo)...


...a study and apartment was held by Lenin in this third floor room...


...the above Senate Building was the most important building during the Soviet regime, and was the building in front of which Gorbachev stood when he resigned as the last president of the "Soviet Union." There was a typical Soviet building (I.e., square, gray concrete), which you can see in front of these eleven gold domes....


...this building is now considered an eyesore, and is why the Kremlin is not on the heritage list in its entirety....only Cathedral Square is a listed heritage site. When the Soviets lost power, the star on the top of this building was replaced by the double eagle which used to be the symbol of the Tsarist regime, but now represents the cooperation of church and state....


There is currently a joke about how this symbol represents the two heads of the country, Putin and Medevev, since Putin seems to continue to play a more primary role in the government despite Medevev's election to president. In reading the paper while here, it seemed that Putin is still running the country, and in the spotlight for any important matters, including foreign affairs, while Medevev is in the background, doing things like dedicating sites, etc. and there is speculation that Putin will run for president again in the next election (there were some May Day groups who protested his continued control of the government saying that no one should be in power for that long).

Anyway, enough politics :-)...

This bronze cannon, the largest cannon ever built, was commissioned by Tsar Feodor I during his reign around the 1580's....



...the iron carriage with lion head, however, was not built until about 1835...


...this cannon was never fired, and speculation is that it wouldn't work as it is too big, and it would be difficult to load and fire it.

The bell which sits next to it weighs about 200 tons and is purportedly the largest bell in the world (hmmm, I'm thinking I saw a bell in Myanmar which they claimed was the biggest?)...


....there was a fire in Moscow while it was being built, and in an effort to save the bell, they poured water on it, which caused it to crack and this piece fell off, so just as the cannon was never fired, this bell was never rung.

There was a small tree lined garden, which honors the Russian cosmonauts....a tree has been planted to honor each of them (this will be even more beautiful when the trees and tulips are in bloom!)...



It was now time to enter Cathedral Square, which includes the Cathedral of the Assumption...


...this church was founded in the 1300's and was the main church of the Russian state for 500 years during the reign of the tsars. It was used for weddings, but most importantly for coronations...I.e., it was where the tsars "assumed" power. This frieze marks the entrance...


No photos were allowed in the cathedrals...the frescoes, icons and historical relics within all of them are unbelievable...one item we saw is believed to be the oldest icon, dating back to the 12th century.

Another church within the square is the Cathedral of the Archangel Michael (neither of us had a good picture of that cathedral....my camera was still on an improper setting from the day before and Cynthia's battery gave out on her). Anyway, it was where the tsars before Peter the Great were buried (we discovered here that the Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg only has the crypts of all tsars (except two) SINCE Peter the Great...so our prior reporting about "all" of the tsars being there was not quite right). Interestingly, Ivan the Terrible has the most honored spot...the translation of his name to "terrible" is actually incorrect, as his name actually means "feared, yet revered." So he was well respected. Also, towards the end of his life, he repented and became a monk. So he had the highest regarded placement behind the altar.

Another church in the square is the Cathedral of the Annunciation...


...this was the private church of the tsars' families and was used for baptisms and private services. It was built in the 15th and 16th centuries and had nine gilded domes altogether, representing the nine ranks of the angels...


Also in the square is the Ivan the Great bell tower which housed the bell for all churches within the Kremlin. There is a separate assumption bell in the building to the right that was only used for coronations.



Faberge eggs...I didn't realize that these eggs had been specifically commissioned from Faberge by one of the tsars (was it one of the nicholas'?). I think our guide said there were a total of 43 eggs that had been made...I might be wrong on that number. The Kremlin has ten of them. We saw five of them in a special exhibit within the Kremlin, including the outstanding clock egg, and we saw the other five in the Armory Building. Stalin didn't think the eggs were worth anything, so he sold the rest of them for a pittance, all of which are now in private hands. The craftsmanship and small, minute detail of each egg is unbelievable.

Besides the Faberge eggs, the Armory Building....



...had an unbelievable display of over 4,000 tsar-era items including military equipment; imperial crowns; coronation, wedding and other imperial outfits; thrones; imperial tableware; carriages, including an ornate one belonging to Elizabeth, which she rode at breakneck speed from St. Petersburg to Moscow to make sure she received the throne which she so coveted (she's the one who transformed Catherine's Palace into its opulent grandeur--see Day 57); ambassadorial and other gifts; silver and gold items, etc., etc.

Again, a lot to absorb... a good time for mindless shopping...so we headed back to Old Arbat street to finish up our Russian shopping...on this trip, the street had now been decorated for Victory Day...


...and we found the statue of Pushkin and his wife in front of a house where they had once lived, which we had missed the last time we were here...



We had a bite to eat and a nip of vodka at our hotel, marking our last night in Russia.

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Day 60 (Tuesday). Back to Moscow.

Happy birthday to my sister, Susie! I did forget to mention that yesterday, a day early in honor of her birthday, Cynthia and I visited the Russian Chocolate Museum (which was basically a store pretending to be a museum :-) to sample the Russian chocolates. We did determine that Belgium has nothing to worry about.

Today it is time for us to leave St. Petersburg and head back to Moscow. We loved our little boutique, niche hotel on Nevsky...the Nevsky Forum Hotel. It was small...about 25 rooms,perfectly located, friendly, always trying to please and very comfortable. During our free breakfast buffet, we had met a couple traveling with two children from England (although they were Americans now living there). Kids were about two years older than Kara and Kean, my grand niece and nephew. We really enjoyed swapping stories with them. And the little girl had a new game she liked to play called "passport control." So we of course let her review our passports to make sure they were ok. The next morning in the hallway she yelled to her mom, there are those people we played our game with :-). Aren't kids great fun?!!

So we leave with our fond memories of the city and our stay here.

A couple of important things we didn't get to see on this trip, for those of you who may plan to travel here, was the Summer Palace, which was closed for renovation, and scheduled to reopen next year (although reopenings seem to always be delayed here). The palace itself is reported to be modest in comparison to other palaces we've seen (as it was built by the modest, Peter the Great) but it is supposed to have a wonderful garden. Also, we did not get out to Peterhof, about 19 miles outside of the city. This was also commissioned by the same Peter the Great, and was to rival Versailles (hmm, sounds like a contradiction to his modesty). It is supposed to be spectacular, especially the garden and the fountains. While they usually don't turn the fountains on until late May, they did turn them on May 1 because of the beautiful early spring they were having. But we wanted to experience May Day in the city, and on Mondays all of the buildings at Peterhof are closed. We understand this is a worthwhile trip, so for both of these gardens, a visit in about June is probably superb (although probably a lot more crowded with tourists then). There is a hydrofoil you can take to Peterhof from behind the Hermitage on the Neva River (also not yet open until late May...as they have to ensure there is absolutely no residual ice on the river).

On to the train station to catch the high speed train back to Moscow (very similar to our Acela....right down to everyone talking on their cell phones and working on their laptops and iPads)...





We had heard last night from the car service that we had arranged to pick us up in Moscow that they would not be able to do so because of road closures around our hotel. And that we would instead need to catch the metro from the train station....with all of our luggage. Cynthia had already bought a load of vodka, so her suitcase was even heavier than mine, which I've managed to keep at less than 19 kilos...so last night we got out the metro map...






...aiiyiyi, we were in for another adventure. Now, if you can enlarge this map, the stops are written in English...not so at the stations. So again we had figured out that our hotel was four stops from the train station on the red line. First, we had to find the metro station which wasn't in the train station! Once outside, we remembered that the entrances and exits are separate, so we first found what we thought was the exit, and with the help of a Russian woman who spoke no English, she walked us over to the entrance. (I am always glad to help tourists in NYC when they seem lost on the subway, so was happy to find someone who was also willing to help us out). Now it was down steps, and up steps, and down steps to find the red line...at one point, I stayed with the luggage while Cynthia made sure we really had to go up more steps to get there...yep, so up we went. Then to figure out which way to go as we tried to match the Russian words to our metro map. Once again, success...somehow we ended up at our hotel....in tact, but ready for a drink!

After a rest, and a couple of Advil, we ventured back to the arts district we had discovered in our wanderings last week, where we found a little restaurant tucked back off the street called Cafe Chekhov, which was very good and reasonably priced (by Moscow standards).

When we left the restaurant, there was a crowd lining the street.....aha, the reason for the street closures was yet another practice for the Victory Day celebrations which will take place on May 9 (in case you forgot, this holiday is related to their victory against the Nazis in WWII)....a very big day here.





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You can barely see the sea of soldiers lined up down the side street, beyond this soldiers hat, near Red Square awaiting their time to enter and march through the square....





Lots of pride, lots of pomp and circumstance...(and lots of road disruptions :-).

After watching as much as we could, from as close as we could get to the square (no front row vantage point like we had in St. Petersburg), we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our last full day in Moscow, which will include a tour inside of the Kremlin walls.

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Day 59 (Monday). Last day in St. Petersburg.

We woke up this morning to the astonishing news regarding Bin Laden. We at first thought it couldn't be true, but were able to get BBC on our TV to confirm the news, and to listen to the President's announcement. As someone who had experienced the terror of 9/11 first-hand, the news was very emotional for me, vividly bringing back memories of that horrific day. While I know we don't all agree on how this should have been handled, I was very happy to hear the news.

While the Russian foreign ministry announced their support of the effort, the people on the street appeared to be totally indifferent. We felt that bin Laden and Al-Qaeda have not permeated the average Russian's conscience. The editorials in the Russian papers were mixed, but no more so than the mixed responses that we heard from the American news reports.

Anyway, it took us some time to unglue ourselves to go out. We had originally planned to go to the Pushkin museum, in a house where he had lived, but couldn't quite get ourselves up for that, so decided to just wander.

When we walked out, we noticed that after yesterday's parade, they had now decorated the street for the upcoming Victory Day...





(note: for a couple of days it appears my camera had been set wrong, and unfortunately, it didn't show up on my camera viewer, but was only evident when I loaded the photos onto my iPad...I have now fixed it, but for a couple of days, all of my photos are dark....may be able to fix on computer when I get home).

In our wandering we ended up at St. Isaac's Cathedral, which we had been by a few times, but had not yet gone inside. It is the largest cathedral in the city and was the largest cathedral in Russia when it was first built You can go up what they call the Colonnade...





which takes you up 185 steps for a 360 degree view...
























Two of the four apostle statues which are at the compass points of the church....










































(these photos were so awesome in my camera viewer? :-(

Then we went inside the cathedral, and it was pretty awesome...(ceiling)











This was done in mosaic...





This was the detail on the huge door which covered the entire door...











Both Greek and Italian influences throughout this church, which was designed by a French architect. The inside is much more impressive than the outside....although it's a large building, it's gray, and quite dreary outside. This church had sustained significant damage during WWII and then it became an atheist museum under Stalin and has only recently been restored.

We had driven by Faberge's original headquarters, so decided to look for it, as it still has their name etched on the building...





We then headed to an Armenian restaurant, Erivan, on the embankment of the canal close to our hotel. We thought about our good Armenian friend, Tina! And it was great, so a good ending to our time in St. Petersburg.

Tomorrow, back to Moscow!

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