• Home
• Russia:
• 1. Lapland
• 2. Rovaniemi
• 3. Lapland
• 4. Lapland
• 5. Helsinki
• 6. Tallinn
• 7. St Petersburg
• 8. Peterhof
• 9. Pushkin
• 10. Moscow
• 11. Kremlin
• 12. Return

Day 11 (March 29, 2015)   Moscow: Kremlin

Before       This day is kept entirely for visiting Kremlin and its surroundings. If it was spare time we could go to a further place we could miss the previous day.    The spots marked at map are:  1- Cathedral of Christ the Saviour  2- Kremlin  3- Cathedral Square  4- Saint Basil's Cathedral  5- Red Square  6- GUM department store  7- Kazan Cathedral  8- Bolshoi Theatre

After   We leave the hotel after a good breakfast around 9 AM to take the metro to Biblioteka Imeni Lenina station. We walk along the library giving name to the station and we can see the entrance to the Kremlin across the street. There we’re addressed to the small building in the middle of the park downstairs to get our tickets.    There are a couple of boxes attending people and we don’t have to wait long in our line. We purchase two tickets for Kremlin and cathedrals by 500 rub each and two tickets for Armoury by 700 rub each. So we pay 2400 rub in total.    Tickets for armoury are always for a specific time and the ones we get are for 10 AM, which is now. So we go with this new rush to Borovitskaya Tower, which is the tower at the peak at left in the image of the Kremlin above. This is the place we’ve been pointed to be.    It is near too and the only one with a line at door. We join the line and wait for half an hour, which makes us think the time at the ticket is not a big deal. We’ll come back to home without being used to these waits at cold.    Once inside, the Armoury building is the first and we can leave our heavy coats and take a couple of audio guides, which are included in the visit.    We already knew it’s not allowed to take any pictures or videos here and it’s a pity because this is the best visit you can do in Moscow. Upstairs we can walk through the multiple halls showing the huge and fantastic treasure that, as our audio guide explains, have been formed from the gifts strangers should give to the Tsars in order to get audience with them along the centuries.    Downstairs we find a collection of dresses and suits of Tsars period and a spectacular exhibition of carriages. We spend more than one hour and a half before coming back outside and following the Armoury building at our left until reaching the Cathedral Square.    We get into these cathedrals: of the Archangel, of the Annunciation, of the Dormition and of the Deposition of the Robe. Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles and Ivan the Great Bell Tower are closed. Inside, all of them are beautiful but none allows getting any photos.    We try to get into the Palace but the guard is not allowing us entrance, twice, so we go at the side of the square to get some pictures with the Tsar Bell and Canyon. Both are huge.    It’s around 1 PM when we leave the Kremlin by the Trinity Tower to walk to Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.    We reach the cathedral following the river but, once here, we need to look for a way to go one level up on the bridge. The way is finally a stairs at the side of the bridge.    This bridge is panoramic, with fantastic views of the Kremlin at one side, and the port with the huge Peter the Great Statue at the other side.    We go downstairs from the bridge at the other side of the river to walk to Red Square along the Kremlin, which great views are changing as we’re walking.    We reach Red Square using the bridge we avoided yesterday and go directly to GUM as we want to lunch in the same place than yesterday. We take different things, but I had clear in mind I would repeat the cherry strudel. Today we pay 1275 rub in total.    When we’re back in the street is past 3 PM but we realize all the visits in our must-do list are done so it’s time to take one of the optional ones: Izmailovo or VDNKH.    We choose VDNKH for various reasons, but the main one could be it’s only at three stations from the hotel.    We leave the metro around 4 PM and at the moment of getting outside we can see the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, which is a fantastic representation of a rocket taking off using an original obelisk as tail which sets the rocket more than 100 meters high.    Our main visit here is the Museum of Cosmonautics but, as the All-Russia Exhibition Centre is here too, we walk to it to take a look at the Arch as main entrance and the Central Pavilion.    Then we walk back to the museum. We pay 200 rub each as admission fee but we’re requested to come back to the ticket office for getting the picture permission ticket, which is 230 rub more.    Inside, what I thought it was a small hall with some satellites and space artifacts turns to be a huge and complete museum after crossing a door at the end of the first hall. We see all sort of elements used by the Russians in the Space Race, with rockets and ships have coming back from space.    We leave the place happy and grateful our hotel was close of here because now we know this was the right choice.    We get the metro to end our day and the travel as we only have our trip back to home for tomorrow. We buy some Chinese food to bring to the hotel in our way to it.