Saturday 23rd March 2013

St. Basil’s Cathedral : Kremlin

 

We had a good night’s sleep in our pleasant hotel room. While enjoying a delicious breakfast of eggs, bread and blinis (traditional Russian pancakes) topped with yoghurt and blackcurrants, we learnt that Moscow’s current temperature was minus 9 degrees Celcius.

We have decided to go directly to Leningradskiy Railway Station this morning to purchase our train tickets for the journey to St. Petersburg which we will take early next week. We want to ensure that our seats are reserved.

Dave worked out which route we need to take on the metro and where we have to change to arrive at Komsomolskaya metro, which is linked with the railway station.

We got off the train at the metro station to our first ‘Wow’ of the day. Some of Moscow’s metro stations are elaborately decorated and Komsomolskaya is one of these. The station is named Komsomolskaya to commemorate the many thousands of members of the Young Communist League (Komsomol) who gave up their spare time to work voluntarily to help build the underground system.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This station has huge twinkling chandeliers hanging from the beautiful lemon coloured arched ceiling, stucco mouldings, and magnificent mosaics depicting Russian military parades and famous Russian people.

We entered the Leningradskiy railway station and went to various cashiers, upstairs and downstairs, one person sending us to another before we were eventually directed to the correct cashier. We wrote the date, the time, and the name of the train – Sapsan – and the destination – St Petersburg (we wrote this in Russian copying it from the huge information board) onto a piece of  paper. We handed the lady the information, she requested our passports and our tickets were issued.

We were relieved that we had the train tickets and knew that we could continue our journey as planned. (Barring any unforeseen circumstances of course).

We spent a little time admiring the facades of the three railway stations that are all reachable via the Komsomolskaya Metro. They had different styles of architecture, all of which were interesting. From the huge square containing the three train stations, one can set off on the Trans Siberian railway, travel to the Urals, or Siberia, visit Finland or like we are planning, go to St. Petersburg. But that is a few days away, we have done what we needed to do today and now we must get back to seeing the Moscow sights.

We caught the metro back to Red Square but took the wrong exit from the underground. Often three or four metro stations are linked underground; taking the wrong exit can lead you quite a way from where you want to be.

We came out of the exit and saw a large statue in front of us, from our research we knew that this statue was Fyodor Dostoevsky (author of ‘Crime & Punishment’) and that we were therefore outside the Russian State Library.

We checked the map and after first walking the wrong way for a short while, we soon got our bearings and keeping our eyes open for a coffee stop we headed towards Red Square. Nearly walking past it, we spotted, believe it or not, a McDonalds. We were surprised that it was so discreet, no great big bright sign. This wasn’t what we had been looking for but it would do. After a hot coffee to warm us, we went into Red Square. Workers were dismantling an ice rink; apparently one is built every year for the winter months and dismantled in early spring. At temperatures of nine degrees Celsius below freezing (without taking into account the wind chill factor) it definitely didn’t feel like spring!
We purchased two entry tickets for St. Basils along with a further two tickets, which permitted us to take photographs. Our first impression was one of disappointment. St. Basils is no longer a cathedral, it is now a museum. Many of the icons are now behind glass; unfortunately non-reflective glass has not been used so it is pointless taking photographs. We climbed the narrow circular wooden stairway, which led to the central chapel. While doing so, we started to hear wonderful singing voices. Entering the chapel we saw four people singing a cappella, this added to the ambience of this chapel with its beautiful Baroque style iconostasis. The singers were selling their music CDs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A beautiful gallery with painted murals links eight other chapels around the exterior of the central one. The views from the gallery, at this height, across Red Square are impressive. We stood for a while taking in the amazing architecture of ‘GUM’ and the Historical Museum.

We were ready for a quick lunch. I fancied trying borsht, traditional Russian beetroot soup, but the only choices that were apparent, where either ‘GUM’ or McDonalds. We chose McDonalds, it was very crowded but being one of the only two eateries (that we could find) in the area it wasn’t really surprising. We counted at least fifty staff behind the counter. The Mc Flurry striped ice creams reminded us of the domes of St. Basils.

Venturing back out into the very cold weather, Dave decided to buy a Russian style hat from a street vendor. It was big, black and furry and at least it would keep his ears warm. We later learnt that the hats are known as ushankas, the word being derived from the Russian for ears.

We walked the short way to the Kremlin and purchased our tickets. My bag had to be left in a secure cloakroom and our cameras and coats were passed through a security scanner. Being the home of the Russian president and the seat of the Russian government, less than half of the Kremlin is open to the public. Security men in long heavy winter coats and black Russian hats blew whistles to attract someone’s attention if they wandered into a ‘no go’ area.

We had tickets to go into the ‘Cathedral Square’ which is the main square within the Kremlin. The square is home to three magnificent cathedrals, a church and a palace.

 

 

 

 

 

The square has been the scene for many grand state occasions including weddings, coronations and funeral processions. The architecture in the square is breathtaking, golden domes with orthodox crosses rising high above ogee shaped gables.

We admired the interiors of the different cathedrals and church, the colourful frescoes, and stunning iconostases. The body of the first Russian Tsar, Ivan the Terrible, lies in a vault near the altar in the Archangel Cathedral. Many other tsars and princes are buried within this church. We saw no evidence that religious services are still held in any of the cathedrals. Most of them have some items in display cabinets and have areas cordoned off which gives more of a museum feeling than of a place of worship. Also, the tour guides with their clients packed tightly around them listening to the, sometimes loud information, add to what we felt was a museum atmosphere.

We could see the Moskva River from inside the Kremlin walls. Close to the river stands the bell tower that is named after Ivan the Great, the biggest bell in the world lies on the ground close by. The bell weighs over two hundred tonnes and is known as the Tsar Bell; apparently it was broken during casting and has never been rung.

We headed back to the hotel getting off the metro at a different stop in our search for somewhere to eat dinner later that evening. Once again there was very little choice of restaurants. An hour or so later, in flurries of snow, we set off to an Italian/Sushi restaurant. We both chose an Italian dish.

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