Monday 23 April
We both have a brilliant night's sleep in the comfy bed, and go for breakfast to the same self serve restaurant. Eating out is expensive in Moscow (everything is expensive in Moscow!) so it's good to find a restaurant that's reasonably priced. I spot croissants - bliss! I warm them up in the microwave which is there for customers' use, and ask for jam. The lady behind the counter scoops out a ladle full of jam from a bowl and pours it over my warm croissants! Lovely. Reg manages to make the counter assistant understand that he'd like a couple of fried eggs. There's no bacon or sausages so he has his eggs with bread. We've both got used to black tea now.
i keep forgetting to mention that it's getting warmer. It was 6 degrees c in Wrocslaw in Poland, and today is a pleasant 18 degrees c in Moscow. We should make the most of this mild weather - it's going to be very hot in Tashkent in 3 days time - about 28 degrees c.
We take the Metro to the Kremlin. It's two long escalators down into the depths of the station. Good job it's only a couple of stops, otherwise it would be difficult to know where to get off - there are no English signs or place names on the Metro - everything is not only in Russian, but in their Cyrillic Alphabet (some of the letters are the wrong way round!) Well, the right way round for Russians!
Our impression is that everything in Russia is money, money, money. When we arrived at the hostel we had to buy registration forms which you have to carry around with you, in case you get stopped by the Russian police (you don't walk very far without seeing them in their familiar Russian caps). We pay the equivalent of about £25 each for tickets into the Kremlin Museums - this includes the Armoury and the Kremlin Cathedrals (2 of which were shut). Actually the expenditure is well worth it - but then you aren't allowed to take rucksacks in and have to pay to put them in a left luggage store.
The building of the Kremlin is like a red brick fortress, with a tower and a wall surrounding it, which varies in height from about 16ft to 50 ft. They've even got changing of the guard - or something similar with a posse of Kremlin soldiers with their rifles marching along a parade ground then back again.
We can only liken the Kremlin Armoury Museum to the Crown Jewels in The Tower of London. If you have the chance to go to Moscow, don't miss this exquisite treasure trove of Russian history - many of the items having been presented to the Russian Czars as royal gifts. There's much more than Armoury there - in fact, though interesting, the Armoury exhibits are tame compared to the rest of the displays - although of course it all depends on where your interests lie.
Of particular interest to me are the many 16th and 17th century editions of the Four Gospels; these were altar bibles in churches. They are all about 1ft x2ft, encased in jewelled covers, all set in beautifully worked silver or gold. They were made by master craftsmen and are magnificent. A far cry from the dog eared bible in my suitcase!
There are hundreds of 16th - 19th century silver and gold items - some were religious artefacts, some belonged to the royal household - a whole case contains Engish silverware given as gifts to the various members of the Russian royal family. There are Faberge eggs with surprises inside (one of the surprises was a tiny working replica of the Trans-Siberian railway train at that time) and a huge porcelain tea service, each plate with a different picture on it, painted by a master artist, telling stories of the Greek fables - this is called the Olympic tea service, and was a gift from France.
There are 17th and 18th century costumes, including embroidered silk dresses with bustle cages and enormous flowing trains, which various queens wore at their coronation and on their wedding day. There are carriages, finished in gold and artwork, including an English carriage given by King James 1, and a carriage on skis which transported Catherine the Great on a 3 day journey during the Russian winter.
Everything, from snuff boxes to Limoges boxes to the thrones of the Zsars, appears to be in pristine condition - whether they were preserved in this condition, or have been restored, I don't know.
We are flagging by the time we finish in the Armoury Museum - and could do with a cuppa. Surprisingly, there are no cafes nearby - I'm surprised Russia has missed this opportunity to make a lot of money! - so we buy a Fanta, a Snickers and a Mars from a kiosk, and sit on a bench in the gardens outside the walls of the Kremin to relax for a while,
After lunch we continue our tour by visiting some of the Kremlin cathedrals. These are stunning, but we are tired, and after our visits to Lvov and Kiev in the Ukraine, where we also saw spectaclular church exteriors and interiors, we are ashamed to say we're a bit "churched out".
We walk to Red Square. On this huge expanse of cobbles, Reg pictures in his mind the colourful May Day parades that take place there every year, and reflects on the historic use of the square.
We are extremely brave and decide to try getting the Metro back to our hostel from Red Square, which involves taking a different metro line from the one we came on, and then changing to our original line. Bearing in mind that it's really difficult to read the station names, I attempt to copy onto a piece of paper the Cyrillic letters of the station where we change lines, and of the Metro station near our hostel. Even having done this, we still have difficulty. A young woman who speaks English approaches us and asks if she can help - she must have noticed our puzzled expressions as we tried to recognise the station names.
We alight at the right station, congratualate ourselves (we're relieved actually), have a meal at the self-service cafe, and return to the hostel. I sleep for an hour, then, having booked to do our washing at 9.30 pm, put the washing on.
In the laundry room I get talking to a young Australian girl who tells us they spent 5 days and 5 nights travelling on a Russian train - and it was a bit tortuous! (Our journey tomorrow evening to Tashkent in Uzbekistan will be 3 days and 3 nights.) The young woman advises us to take a thermos flask (which we have), as there is free boiling water on the trains. She also recommends taking plenty of bottled drinking water and plenty of food - the meals on the Russian trains are expensive and not big enough to feed a sparrow!
Reg has already gone to bed; I'll follow once the washing is dry.
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