What a wonderful day we had on Sunday. The weather here in Moscow was wonderful, sunny and warm and it seemed that everyone had come out to enjoy the day. We went into the centre of the city and started in the Kremlin.

There was a long queue to buy the tickets to get in, when we got to the ticket office we could only buy the main entrance not a ticket for the Armoury which was the main thing we wanted to visit. Apparently we were too early we could only get the ticket 45 minutes later. Quite why this was the case we do not know so it meant we had to go back and queue again. I have to say we cheated the second time as we had spotted there was another door which few people were using so crept in there and avoided another long wait.

The Kremlin conplex feels like a complete place, a town of its own. Lots of Police around who blew whistles if you walked in the road even though I think only one vehicle went through. There is an enormous cannon cast in Bronze which was a clear attraction especiallly for the children. The buidings are magnificent with tons of Gold on the domes which are apparently modeled on the headgear of the women at the time.

The Armoury was indeed the high spot of the visit the artifacts housed in this building have to be seen, they defy description. The precious gems and metals and workmanship was astounding. It was incrdible how well preserved things were and it seems remarkable that they all survived the revolution. Highly recommended, a must see.

After the Kremlin we went to Red Square, very atmospheric. You could think back to the 60s and beyond where all the Communist leadership were overlooking the square and the show of pride in the armaments on parade, a bit chilling in a way. I was a bit surprised that the square wasn't larger, it always lookd vast on the TV. Lenin's tomb was not open but I doubt we would have queued even had it been so.

Again we were somewhat surprised at the size of Saint Basil's Cathedral. It is a real confection of colour and form. Because of the age and history it has to be appreciated but not really to my taste.

It was a wonderful and tiring day.

Monday

Monday and Tuesday are not the best days to be in Moscow as many of the Galleries and historic buildings are closed. We went on a guided bus tour of the city which was really interesting with an english speaking guide who did a good job of explaining not just the buildings but also the history and provenance of many of them. We made a stop at the Convent of the Novodevichiy, the gates of which have been designated a World Heritage site. The buildings were beautiful but clearly need to have some money spent to ensure they can be preserved for the future. There was an interesting exhibition where artifacts had been gathered together from religious buildings around Russia.

The weather was so cold today so after a few hours walking around we beat a hasty retreat back to the hotel.

Tomorrow is off to the Station for the Trans Siberian Railway. I don't think there is Internet on the train so there may be a while before I can catch up with the blog so watch this space.