Our group is only 12 people big, the maximum was 24-30 so we’re lucky! However we we’re picked up in a huge tourist bus, and we think the bus driver was surprised to see only 12 of us. We didn’t mind having a whole row each though! We started a city tour immediately, which proved very hot and tiring. We saw the another beautiful Orthodox Church, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, built in the 19th century, 83m high. It was destroyed during Stalin’s reign, and during that time game the worlds largest swimming pool. It has now been restored, and is covered in lots of icons and beautiful paintings, and of course, its fair share of gold. On the bus we also saw a Russian Spacecraft.
We stopped for a brief photo outside the ‘New Maid’ monastery, which looked colourful and kind of magical with its big colourful domed roofs – as with a lot of religious Russian buildings.
We drove past the 1980 olympic stadium where we saw the rugby sevens were playing this weekend, then went to the ski jump from another Olympics, passing the Moscow University which looked similar to Hogwarts, before arriving at the famous Red Square and St Basil’s Cathedral – probably the most colourful and strangely shaped church I’ve ever seen, enough for a kid to think it was a playland. It was built in the 16th century, and has many very small churches inside, about 3x3m with extremely high ceilings. We were lucky enough to hear four guys singing acapella Russian hymns, which sounded incredible with the acoustics of the church. The bass singer sang solos; it sounded like a musical instrument – incredible.
When we arrived in Red Square who should we see but DJ Forbes and all the other rugby Sevens captains lining up for a photo shoot in front of St Basil’s Cathedral (and looking uncomfortable in the 34 degree heat). Scotty being Scotty, managed to get right into the media line to get his own private photo! The next couple of days we saw and heard many kiwis and accents which was cool.
We finally got to our hotel early evening, everyone more than ready for a cold shower. Our hotel, located further out of the city centre, was a huge Soviet style building, 28 stories, and accommodated thousands of tourists. There were about three similar ones next door, and the surrounding restaurants also left a bit to be desired so we had ….well I won’t say what we had for dinner, I’ll leave that to your imagination!

The next day was a free day from the tour, so did a ‘metro tour’, visiting many different metro stations that had cool decorative additions – mosaics, stain glass, bronze statues etc. that afternoon we visited the Russian History Museum which took us from prior to the Stone Age, all the way through the development of human civilisation (mainly Russian) to the 20th century, very interesting. Saw an 18th century harp! I really wanted to see the Monet collection at the Fine Arts Museum, so ventured there and also saw some cool Picasso which Scott quite liked. Had a few drinks that night, then enjoyed a nice comfy sleep before our four day train journey the following night.

The much anticipated Kremlin was on the cards the next day. There was a hiccup with the tickets, as they only go on sale the day before, and you need a local tourist guide who has to line up and swap her guiding licence with a Kremlin one which is time consuming, and apparently these rules can change at anytime without notice! We were stoked to get in, walking through the the Trinity Gate Towers of the fortress. Once inside we saw the outside the arsenal. There was a driveway/road separating the official buildings (we weren’t told what building was what), with a white line down the middle. A policeman blew his whistle every time someone crossed the white line, very strict! We saw a big row of Napoleons cannons, the biggest cannon in the world, Tsar Cannon (40tonne, never been used), and the huge Tsar Bell weighing 202 tonnes making it the biggest in the world. It has never been rung. Inside the Kremlin there are 4 churches, each with a different purpose. We visited Archangel Cathedral which is the final resting place for many princes and emperors . Unfortunately we couldn’t visit Assumption Cathedral where previous coronations have taken place as it was closed for a church service.
The Armoury of the Krelin was beyond words, so much gold, silver, jewels on the carriages, horses, cradles, it seemed to be absolutely everything, even the bowl for the royal horse to poo in was made of silver! The carriages were stunning though,like in the fairy tales, as were the sleds used during winter. We saw coronation dresses, the size of the waist on some dresses were tiny, I could nearly fit my hands around it – apparently they removed ribs in the young ladies to get a smaller waist, very dodgey! We saw some cool armour, even some for a small child.

We had a baked potato for lunch and walked down to the Sculpture Park which ended up being a blow out as it was under construction, we were so hot from walking and a bit disappointed. We saw a statue call ‘Peter Columbus’ on the river front. Originally a gift to America it showed Columbus atop a boat, higher than the Statue of Liberty. 5 cities rejected it before they had to erect it in Moscow and changed the face to Peter the Great. Heading back home on the metro at rush hour was a mission .

That night we boarded our 4 day train, so the evening was spent shopping for food ( nutritious and delicious 2 min noodles, porridge, dried fruit, couscous, and tonic for our gin! We had a much needed last minute cold shower just before we left, as we wouldn’t get another one for four days! At 10 bucks for a shower it was a rip off but much needed.

It was exciting but also nerve wrecking as we were going to be on an older train so I was preparing myself for hot sweaty nights, and feeling claustrophobic – read the next blog to see how it really was!