08.06.2011 – 08.06.2011  28 °C

Early start this morning as we had to meet our guide at the entry to Lenin’s tomb at 9.30. It’s a bit surreal walking passed a dead person, especially a dead person who has been dead for almost a hundred years! Lenin’s tomb abuts the outside of the Kremlin walls and is directly opposite the GUM department store. His tomb is surrounded by tombs of Communist leaders and the heads of the Russian military.

He is housed in a red and black granite mausoleum.. You are walked in one side of the tomb.. I would describe it as a bunker (considering all of the military personnel watching him and the huge steel doors on both ends and the metal detection at the gates).. and past his body, which is housed in a glass coffin. He is lying on his back with eyes closed. Both hands are resting on his hips/ upper thighs, one hand clenched in a fist the other open. He is surrounded by a red nimbus (thanks to red spotlights overhead). The whole room is quite gloomy and the only light comes from the tomb.. As I said, quite surreal. Total time in the mausoleum would be less than 30 seconds! The embalming process happens daily with him being injected with some drug, he is also pulled out of his coffin every 18 months for his overhaul- this includes him being dunked in paraffin wax! Pretty amazing when you see him. You would think he is a wax figure not a body that died 100 yrs ago… Or, maybe that’s the conspiracy, maybe he is wax and……………

After checking out Lenin we entered the 27 acre fortress that is the Kremlin. The Kremlin was built by Ivan the Terrible in the mid 1500s. It is a red brick enclave that houses the President and many of the cities beautiful cathedrals. It was originally the home of the Tsars of Russia until Peter the Great moved the capital to St Petersberg in the 1700s.

Everywhere you look in the Kremlin is a new site.. Many parts of the Kremlin are off limits to the public as they are used for the governing of Russia. For example after entering the Kremlin (they are only two public entrances) you can only walk on the paved parts of the road ways.. Anything cobblestoned is off limits and is used by the govt vehicles. Medvedev was in residence and invited all of us Intrepid travellers in for coffee and sweets (well in my dreams I was invited into the Presidential palace!!).

Interesting fact about the Kremlin. As everyone knows it was used as the main power base for the govt of Russia under the Communists. During this time, a few new buildings were constructed inside the Kremlin walls, a military training and office block and the People’s Congress (hall of the Communist party). The Congress was a building that was only used once a year when all of the communist heavy weights would travel to Moscow for the yearly congress meeting.. The hall seats 6000 people! The communist party had a hotel built also in Moscow just to house these congress members for a once a year meeting. Linking the hotel, airport and congress building is a “not so secret” underground rail line that was only used by Communist personnel.. It is not so secret because since the fall of Communism the average person has heard the stories but during the Communist era it was unknown to regular people.. Apparently the rail line also links the 6 “Stalin Towers” that he had built (The Stalin Towers remind me of some sort of Gothem City look-a-like!).. Sadly, many circa 1600 buildings were demolished to make way for these buildings.. One such was a church that had many of the early Tsarina’s tombs…

The Kremlin is largely made up of churches.. I swear there are more churches within the Kremlin than in most cities in Au! (ok so that’s an exaggeration but you get the drift).. I was really surprised that so many of them survived the Communist era.. Apparently, Lenin decreed that all the Churches and Heritage buildings were to be saved as cultural icons for further generations and thank goodness he did as some of the churches are just beautiful.

The main cathedral (Assumption Cathedral) inside the Kremlin walls is the one where all of the Tsars were coronated. Even after Peter the Great moved the capital to St Petersberg in the 1700s, all of the Tsars and Tsarinas of Russia were coronated in the Kremlin. The thing I find so astounding about the Russian Orthodox churches is just how beautifully painted the interiors are.. The Assumption is no exception.. All of the walls are covered in frescos and the icons at the front are surrounded by gold.. Just amazing!

After viewing all of the Churches (I’m starting to understand the “ABC” syndrome of Europe– most of you will know what I’m talking about) in the Kremlin we went into the Armoury Museum. The Armoury Museum within the Kremlin houses probably the greatest collection of jewellery, silver ware, ornaments that could be found anywhere in the world. Staggering, does not even describe the museum. It has been in existence since the mid 1600s and was built to house the Royal Jewellery (and all other stuff) since that time. Again unbelievably very little of the collection was touched by the Communist regime and is largely complete!

You begin the tour of the Armoury by viewing all of the coronation gowns and coats by most of the Tsars and Tsarinas since Peter the Great’s time. You can actually see the gown that Catherine the Great wore for her coronation! The gowns have been untouched for centuries (in some cases) and are enclosed in glass cabinets for viewing. After viewing the opulence of the gowns (seed pearls, gold threads, silks galore) we went into the throne room. The throne room houses all of the thrones that most of the Tsars used throughout their reigns. Every Tsar had his own throne constructed for his coronation and reign. They range from an ivory built throne by Ivan the Terrible through to a gold and jewel encrusted throne that Alex II used… Just amazing.. Again they are virtually how they would have been hundreds of years ago.. nothing has really been restored so you can clearly see where velvets have been worn out either by age or wear during the reign of the monarch. Within the throne room you can also see the crown jewels of the Tsars… The original crown (built by Ivan the Terrible) is quite Mongol in construction and really highlights the Mongol influence up until Ivan’s time.. It is fur rimmed with a basic gold dome for his head a few jewels (emerald most prevalent) pushed into the gold. It wasn’t until Peter the Great that the crown was changed and a more “traditional” crown was adopted, gold encrusted with jewels.

The next room is the carriage room and you can see all of the carriages the royal family had and used for the past 300 years.. There is everything from kid sized carriages (Peter the Great was only 12 when he ascended the throne) thru to very ornate gold encrusted carriages used for parades etc.

The final area to the museum (although by far the largest) is the area that shows the collection of gold, silver and jewel encrusted tableware and ornaments that the Tsars used and had. The show cases are endless with every conceivable type of dinnerware and ornaments. It was really quite overwhelming. After a while the show cases just started to meld into one.. The $$ that the Tsars must have had must be overwhelming! Apparently, many collectors etc now come to Russia just to see all the different styles of tableware looked like.. For example during the time of Thomas a Becket much of the English silverware was melted down to produce coins etc so much of that style of silver ware is no longer visible except in the Armoury Collection!

After oggling at the Armoury collection we decided to stay in Red Square and visit the State History Museum. The history museum is housed in this beautiful fairy tale castle on the western edge of Red Square (by the way, red square is not named for the Communist affiliation– it has always been known as the red square, which signified the beautiful square). After seeing the Armoury Musuem the State History Museum seemed pale in comparison! It shows the history of Russia from prehistoric times right thru to late 1800s. Unfortunately it did not show any of the 20th centuries history so was a little dull for me (i was sincerely hoping that this museum would portray the whole history of Russia).

By 6pm our feet were absolutely stuffed so we decided to make our way back to the hotel and try and find a Georgian restaurant on the way (that had been mentioned in Lonely Planet). After spending more than hour looking for the place (god I wish I could read cyrillic) we gave up and ended up walking back to the hotel to have dinner in the restaurant.

After dinner we all met up again and went on a tour of the Moscow metro. Again talk about opulence. The underground has to be seen to be believed! We followed one particular metro line (apparently the most beautiful) and got off at each station to oggle at the mosaics, stained glass and MARBLE! The metro in Moscow puts most 5 star hotels to shame and it is only really a station for trains!! Most of the stations are some sort of tribute to the might of socialism, with lots of patriotic looking frescos of people in paddocks working or army personnel cheering. And of course there were heaps of Hammers and Sickles and Bundles of Wheat as well as frescos of Lenin and Stalin! Gotta love the soviet propaganda!

By now the time was well after 12 pm and when we were on our way home we decided to detour to Red Square to see the Kremlin and St Basils at night.. Gosh what a way to cap off an opulently, fantastic day! V much time to go to bed now as tomorrow we are off to see the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and St Basils Cathedral.