[aside: still alive and still posting – just getting distracted with summer gardening]
Even with the late night we were able to spring (or crawl, depending which one of us you ask) out of bed. We headed down for breakfast with Rodrigo and Jose – which turned into just breakfast with Rodrigo since Jose slept in. After some catching up on our adventures since we separated we bided him adieu and set off about our day. The morning had two goals for us – first was to find a lock so we could lock our love on the bridge we had seen yesterday and secondly to get some food to munch on throughout the day.
We had seen a local market nearby when we first arrived and figured this may be a good place to start for food. Along the way Alicia spots the impossible: a hardware shop. Why is this such a great thing? Well we don’t know what to recognize in cyrllic, and mostly because these stores tend to have a horrible habit of not advertising they are a store on the outside. Typically they look like just all the residences. Alas, the place lacked heart shaped locks, but it did have a few nifty ones and moreover the specific one we wanted was in stock (and we also took the demo for the store). We bought two – one for Moscow, and one for a bridge near home. With our pack a pound and a bit heavier we made it to the market.
Like any good market, it had just about any fresh food you could want. The fish looked particularly tasty, but useless to us and our lack of kitchen.
After getting some veggies we were tempted to pick up some spices to bring back home. Saffron was plentiful and rather cheap. However we opted out since we weren’t sure how it would go over when crossing the many borders we still had to go.
We left the market and headed back to the hotel, trying to stop at a few places on the way to find stamps for the small pile of postcards we were able to produce during the train treck. Of course, everything was closed, but luckily the nice gentleman in the hotel was able to mail them for us (for no extra charge too!).
We packed our things, checked out, tossed most of our things into storage for the day and headed off for our last day in Moscow. We decided it would be nice to try and visit the Kremlin, which worked out well given how close it was to the lock bridge. But before we could put our lock up, we had to mark it as ours somehow. Alicia was feeling in desperate need of having pretty nails came up with a solution that solved both problems, and so we proceeded to pick up some bright red nail polish.
We headed towards the entrance of the Kremlin and found the ticket booth. The booth was what can be described as a coffin with a line-up. Compounding the unpleasantness was the rather expensive ticket prices for those who “are not citizens of the Russian Federation”. Our travel guide stated as a clever and sarcastic retort to this: “While it is unfortunate to think you must pay more than the locals, think of this as being the perk from not having to be Russian”. So after nearly dying of heat stroke in line we pop out to see that the grounds are being watered. We were very tempted to join the kids in “playing with the water truck”.
We get to the security checkpoint of the Kremlin and put our bags through the x-ray machine (pretty routine for us by now). This time however we aren’t simply able to keep going. The guard politely stops me and asks me to open my bag, which I do. He asks if I have a lock in it (which I do) and asks why I have this. Using my non-Russian skills and something resembling an odd form of Taboo I am able to tell him we have this lock for the lover’s lock bridge that is nearby. He hasn’t heard of it, unfortunately for us. He invites us to check our bags at a coat check if we want to continue, and confronted with a lack of choice, we agree.
We get near the coat check and decide that the risk of losing our stuff (or at the very least, the extortionate amount of money required for this) is too much and that we’d be better off to just ditch the lock. So we sit down on the grass and Alicia proceeds to show me what years of painting nails can do.
The finished result (one side of it at least)
With a personalized lock we start the trek towards the bridge passing a fountain on the way. The heat wave appears to be even bothering the locals, as some decide to take refuge from the heat in a fountain. We got some serious smiles once they realized we snapped their photo.
Without melting in the heat (or getting lost) we arrive at the bridge, pick a wire tree to plant our love and snap it into place!
<3s
This lock came with three keys, so I felt that at least one of them should remain nearby, but out of reach. The canal seemed like the most logical option. The view from our lock (if it had eyes):
And now with us departed from our Kremlin contraband we head back to do our tour. We stop along the way to get some great shots of the palace.
Since a camera was brought out, we followed in the local tradition of posing for it. I wasn’t nearly as glamorous as I had hoped.
This time we make it through security without incident and go in through the main gate.
On the inside we see rows of cannon, pointed at the entrance. We suspect they are purely decorative at this point 😉 However it is worth mentioning that a Kremlin is just a Russian castle, this just happens to be Moscow’s castle – and also where parliament is held.
Speaking of… this is the big fancy building. It has an air of “cold-war” to it, but still looked very modern.
We continue on the marked path towards the rest of the inner parts of the Kremlin. There are a few guards who are extremely proficient with a whistle that stop tourists that decide to try and get a closer look at some of the more secure buildings, and more importantly to force tourists to stay on the sidewalks, rather than walking on the road. (Who gets that kind of job? Is it punishment? “What did you do at work today honey?” “I blew a whistle at tourists who were dumb enough to walk on the road!”)
And like any good castle, a church had to exist somewhere on the inside of the walls. (And in good Russian context, “a church” meant at least 4).
We also come across a special cannon that was made. Like you may also expect from Russia – this one was GIGANTIC.
The cannon balls were just shy of half my height. I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end of this cannon (or loading it for that matter, it may have blown up). Luckily, it never was fired.
The day was just a stunning day for melding the sky and buildings. The gold onions at the top of the churches glistened in the light.
And then we had a moment which made us miss our smartphones and good internet connections… a man was there with his tablet and Skype – showing his brother the Kremlin. Excessive? yes. Do I want to be able to do something similar? Of course!
In the event that the ginormous cannon wasn’t considered “big enough”, we then came across the world’s largest bell. This bell has never actually rung (which isn’t a bad thing) and was broken shortly after its completion during a fire. On the other side is the large “chunk” that had broken off. I could not imagine being the poor guy that would have to pull the strings to make it chime had this bell not been broken.
And this would be that small piece. Note: there is a child hiding behind that piece in this photo.
Also, I suspect that this church would have had to been made a bit bigger to accommodate the bell.
Side note – world’s largest bell that never rang? World’s largest canon that never fired? Hmm… hopefully someone learned a lesson from this.
Near the church was some gorgeous gardens, where Alicia posed for a few pictures. The flowers (mostly tulips) were all in bloom. There are some distinct advantages to travelling in the spring – this was one of them.
The grounds of the Kremlin (at least the public parts). We barely knew we were in a city, or a castle or near Mr. Putin.
A flock of women started to congregate around here, all waiting in line for their chance to pose…
… next to this thing. The irony should not be lost on anyone.
From some angles we could see above the trees and to the nearby buildings. Admittedly having Saint Basil’s Cathedral popping up was rather easy on the eyes.
In centuries past they would have moats, or keeps within castles to protect the ones in charge. Here they have helicopter pads to get them out, as well as what would appear to be some very well armored tunnels to let people gain access to the choppers. Interestingly there were 2 helipads, one of which (based on my rudimentary knowledge from Hollywood) would be a decoy.
With the high price of admission, and the timing of us being here towards closing, we had opted out of the extra access that could be purchased on the grounds. But, we knew there was one building we were allowed in, but were unsure which it was. We therefore tried to get into several – and succeeded in each case. Apparently they didn’t look at the tickets too hard.
Some of the artifacts within these buildings were amazingly old. More remarkably is that they still exist and were able to survive the Communist era that had outlawed religion.
This roof of crosses was just stunning.
And so after a few hours we headed towards the exit of the Kremlin, all the while following the well marked paths on the pavement, lest a guard blow his whistle at us.
Once outside, things got a bit weirder for a bit, as we ran into Captain Hook.
With the time for our train approaching we set out to head back to the hotel to get our gear and meet our driver. On the way we passed by here, and quickly went in. This was (until the 2012 Olympics) the world’s largest McDonalds. As a former employee, it was impressive to see the size of the place and how nicely decorated the inside was. McDonalds is a big deal here, has smaller portion sizes than North America, and is amazingly cheap, all the while being a more middle-range restaurant.
We decided to go back to Mumu instead. We wanted to see what foods were there and knew they had some very nicely sized beer steins.
Norbert and Norman with the Holstein balloons, a hallmark of Mumu.
Near the metro to the hotel we came across this bar. Obviously it wasn’t so secret.
Within the Metro station we did stop and pay our respects to one of the many shrines/memorials that were created after the Moscow Metro Bombings (sadly there has been more than one attack. This is the shrine at the station near our hotel.).
Around the shrines though, life continued on with shops that sold pretty much anything (the change “rooms” in these places were quite creative).
We arrived at the hotel, grabbed our bags and shortly after our driver showed up. We were not originally to have a driver for this, but he wanted to make up for his missing us when we first arrived in Moscow. We appreciated the gesture.
And our appreciation grew as we were driven through Moscow’s streets on the 12 lanes of traffic that make up the ring road, or on the smaller 8 lane roads. It was slower than the metro, but did allow us to get a view of the city, which was nice. He whizzed us through the insane traffic and parking jam at the train station that goes to Saint Petersburg (Moscow has 4 major train station, with each having a certain destination profile). Carrying our large backpacks, we made our way to the platform for our train and waited for it. Like all the trains we have taken this trip, it arrived on time, and – after some pushing from the safety inspector and conductor – our carriage attendant opened the door up to passengers.
The car was what we were familiar with, but it was just nicer. You couldn’t see the flames around the boiler (or the smoke in the cabin), the bedrolls were actually soft, the sheets looked like something an airline may give rather than a prison, and to top it off we both got boxes from out attendant. We were really confused at first and opened it up to discover that food was actually served on the train! They even had water that wasn’t from the boiler! It felt a bit too posh for us.
Adding to the poshness was the lack of an openable window in the cabin, mostly because it had air conditioning. Given the heatwave the city had been experiencing, this was welcomed… even if it didn’t work very well and only functioned when the train was in motion (so we died of the heat before we left). Therefore we waited on the platform until the very last minute, and upon returning to the cabin were greeted by our bunkmate for the trip. He was young, quiet and unfriendly fellow who tossed on his headphones and went to sleep on his bunk. He must have been hard of hearing based on the volume blaring from his headphones. We both missed readily available music on the trip, but hearing tracks like Linkin Park on repeat at 2am at the same time they decided to turn off the AC made he journey less than pleasant. However this would all be worth it for in the morning we would be in Saint Petersburg.
Rails Across the Curtain 