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Today we were up early (5:00 am) for our 5:45 am departure for Moscow. It was made more challenging by the fact that the past few nights we have lost 1 hour each night to the time zone changes!
We boarded a bus that took us to the St. Petersburg train station where we boarded a high-speed train to Moscow. We arrived in just under 4 hours reaching speeds in excess of 150 mph!
Our first adventure in Moscow was to visit a hotel where we had a coffee break (which seemed strange because we were just sitting on a train for 4 hours!). After the break we walked to the Moscow Metro station and took the underground Metro to the Red Square.
The Moscow Metro is one of the deepest underground metro systems in the world, third to Tokyo and Seoul in terms of passenger numbers. It is recognized as one of the city’s landmarks due to the rich and varied architecture of its 188 stations. There was an impressive amount of bronze statues throughout the station.
The name Red Square comes neither from the color of the bricks around it (which, in fact, were whitewashed at certain times in history) nor from the link between the color red and communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная which can mean either “red” or “beautiful” (although it looks Greek to me). This word, with the meaning “beautiful”, was originally applied to Saint Basil’s Cathedral and was subsequently transferred to the nearby square.
The Red Square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter. The Red Square is often considered the central square of Moscow and all of Russia, because Moscow’s major streets—which connect to Russia’s major highways—originate from the square.
At one end of the Square is a beautiful, ornate, Orthordox church called Saint Basil’s Cathedral. It possesses the tell tale golden domes and is a very impressive structure.
Next we visited the Kremlin! It is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow. It is the best known of all the Kremlins (Russian citadels or fortress) and includes five palaces, four cathedrals and the enclosing Kremlin Wall and towers. The complex serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation, currently Vladimir Putin. The line to get inside was long, the weather warm and there was no shade to be found! After about 45 minutes we were finally inside and overwhelmed with the size and beauty of the complex.
One of the most amazing sights inside was the Kremlin Armory which originated as the royal arsenal in 1508. The Armory was in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons, jewelry and various household articles of the Tsars. It was a fantastic display of wealth and an awesome experience! We saw Catherine the Great’s Faberge eggs, her coronation clothing as well as a dozen ornate horse-drawn carriages. Pretty cool.
After the Kremlin we were taken to dinner at the Moscow Hilton. After we walked to the train station and boarded our return train to St. Petersburg. We arrived back to the ship around 12:30 am, just in time to see the mid-summer celebration in St. Petersburg. Today was the longest day of the year and, since we are so far North, the sun only sets for a few hours. The locals celebrate this day and we even got to see a fireworks demonstration from our bus.
Back on the ship we relaxed for a little while on our veranda and were treated to a beautiful full “Super” moon as we sipped wine and discussed the long and interesting day we spent in Moscow. Dale captured a beautiful picture of the moon over the Crystal Serenity cruise ship which was parked next to us on the dock.
Tomorrow we are staying on the ship and relaxing instead of going on the tour of the Hermitage. We are “museum-ed” out at the moment. However, friends have told us that the evening tours and concerts have been incredible. Too bad we couldn’t have squeezed them in but it was out of the question given our 18 hour tour to Moscow.
Margaret’s Top Picks:
Moscow Full Gallery: