Moscow II

Where we start with a sideways pic of Joanna:


Sorry if that's a bit disappointing, we have more up-to-date shots with a bit more tummy, but you'll have to wait. She has however been told 3 times this week how neat she is for 6 months, so is very proud of that.

When we left you, we were covering our Moscow Tuesday. We went and saw the Armoury in the Kremlin, after the ticket lady told us we didn't have time to see everything and that was the ticket she was going to sell us! It's splendid, although very much a no-photographs sort of place, sorry. Faberge eggs, all the tsar's gold & silver gifts from the last few centuries, and their carriages, thrones and clothes. It's all there. And they seemed to get a lot of presents. None from NZ though, and just a few from Blighty.

Wednesday we couldn't go to the Kazakh Embassy so it was mega-tourist day. After a sleep in, obviously. But when we got to the Kremlin this was the sight that awaited us:


There was a "Young Russia" rally going on, with some serious security. This was the back-up, in case there was trouble:


So we didn't make trouble, and like everyone else quietly walked the long way around to Red Square. We said hello to Lenin (very quietly, no noise in the mausoleum please - or pictures), who was looking somewhat waxy.

Red Square was a bit emptier, the rally appeared to have frightened off some people. Young people had been bussed in fom the provinces and given flags, t-shirts etc ... although some seemed to be taking the opportunity to investigate Moscow's shopping. It's all a bit scary when the Yoof Of The Day support those in power - particularly when they do so so ardently.

We sneaked back past the rally to go see the rest of the Kremlin. It has palaces, including Puti-babes current residence, Stalin's favourite hold-up etc, but you're not allowed into them. Not even the ugly empty one where Communist Party conferences were held. You are allowed into the 5 cathedrals. Yes 5, which seems a little excessive for the Tsar and his family. We guess if they had a falling out on a Sunday morning they could all go somewhere different. The Patriarch (head church dude) has his residence open too, but his stuff has no English. And we weren't allowed to take our camera in, so we'll jump straight to St Basil's:

and it's interior:


Which is quite amazing and not very church-like inside. More like a rabbit warren. Had some nice singing inside though. And some impressive altars and other artwork.

That wasn't quite enough sight-seeing for one day, we also got to ... a shopping mall! Yes, Joanna conquered her fears and made it inside GUM, which it turns out has the only free loos in Moscow. It's too posh to charge. It is, in fact, very very posh. You've had the outside, here's the interior:


So Thursday we were back on the Kazakh visa trail. But we weren't quite quick enough off the mark. Although we made it out of the hotel at 9.30, and to the embassy before 10.30... they still hadn't processed us by the magic shut-off time of 12 o'clock. Come back tomorrow. D'oh. We were quite keen to leave over-crowded Moscow by this point...

So Friday we were very on the ball. 9am opening? We say: get there at 8.30. 2nd in the queue, we were done and dusted by 10. Well, "all submitted, come back Monday" dusted at any rate. So off we went to book tickets to Astana (Kazakhstan), and escape this town... Which took us quite a while, particularly with the world's most confusing train station that liked to send us from desk to desk. We eventually took a bus to Vladimir.