A Day in Moscow (a long travelogue post)

When we traveled to Siberia in March, we had a 12 hour layover in Moscow, so we got a guide and toured the Kremlin and the Diamond Fund Museum, but the tickets were all sold out to the State Armoury, which has a lot of the czars' treasures. So, this morning after we slept in a bit, we headed off to get tickets, only to find (after waiting in a long line) that they did not have any. Apparently there are only 4 times during the day where they let people in to see it, and you have to buy the tickets 1/2 hour before that time starts. So we headed to Red Square to get the "Moscow picture" and to tour St. Basil's Cathedral.

This picture is the view of Red Square from one of the upper chapels in St. Basil's.

After that we headed back to the ticket office so that we would be there 1/2 hour before the next Armoury session. We got there, got in line, and 5 minutes later found out the tickets had already sold out! I guess you have to work it so you can be right at the front of the line right when they start allowing ticket sales!

After that we headed back to the apartment for lunch. Our agency rep here stopped by so we could sign some papers that would allow us to skip going to the Ministry's office tomorrow and go directly to the orphanage to meet the kids. This was good news, however, she said they are doing vaccinations at the orphanage tomorrow so we will not be able to go until 4pm.

Next, we decided to tackle the metro system! They have a really great system here, and the metro stations are strangely ornate and beautiful.

When we got down there we realized there was not a speck of English anywhere, so I was busy looking at the map and sounding out the Russian names. One kind lady who spoke English saw us and helped get us started. We made our way to the Christ the Redeemer Cathedral. It is such a beautiful church that was blown up by Stalin in 1931. Moscow's mayor had it rebuilt just 10 years ago despite a lot of protest that the city could not afford the $200 million project.

The inside of the cathedral was spectacular! Vivid, colorful paintings of Christ and some of the Russian Orthodox saints. Some kind of service was going on where there was a line of people going through, kissing an icon and then going to a priest where he would paint a cross on their forehead with water and then they would kiss his hand. Meanwhile 2 other priests were chanting. One lady that worked there asked us not to hold hands. I guess that's not allowed. Many of the women had their heads covered with scarves too.

It was so beautiful outside that we decided to walk over to the other side of the river and see an outdoor sculpture park where they put all the sculptures that get taken down, like the huge sculpture of the guy who started the KGB and put everyone in prison. They crowds apparently cheered when it was taken down, but the put it back up in this garden!

Then we headed over to Gorky park. Here we had fun trying to order our first blini! It's like a Russian crepe, but these ones came with chicken and vegetables in them. They were actually pretty good!

After dinner we hit the amusement park rides! It has probably been 5 years since we've done this kind of thing. It was so much fun! Here are pics of some of the rides we went on:
By the time we got off this swing ride we decided we should get going. I looked at my watch and was so surprised to see that it was 10pm! It wasn't dark yet so we hadn't thought it was so late. We can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!