A Kremlin adventure

From Red Square and Alexander Garden, the Kremlin looks like some sort of gated community. The red brick walls are so tall and dominating that you can only imagine what goes on behind them.

Even with the smallest of crowds to contend with, the Kremlin takes at least half a day to conquer. We went first thing in the morning and were thankful we had arrived early. In the early afternoon we surrendered to the onslaught of flags signalling that the swarms of tour groups had arrived.

Our day started at the Armoury, which houses a number of beauties like Fabergé eggs, exquisite gowns, jewel encrusted crowns and staffs, and breathtakingly extravagant horse-drawn carriages (minus the horses, of course).

The Armoury has four time slots for entry throughout the day, but tickets only go on sale one hour beforehand and there is limited capacity. We decided our best bet would be to try for the very first time slot beginning at 10am, so we strolled on up to the ticket office in Alexander Garden at 9.30am and bought our tickets for both the Armoury and the Kremlin Complex. These have separate entrances both in the Alexander Garden, the Armoury at the far end and the Kremlin along a brick walkway that you just can’t miss.

Even though we were half an hour early for our designated entry, we were allowed in. Aside from a handful of tourists who had the same idea as us and a one or two tour groups, we essentially had the place to ourselves. It was a nice change from the previous day, when we had to deal with masses of Russians enjoying their sports day in Red Square as well as the usual tourist crowds.

It meant that I could stand in front of the case of Fabergé eggs for a good five minutes without being pushed out of the way. I also got to witness a middle-aged American man complain about being stuck behind a German tour group in the room of carriages, even though the rest of the place was virtually deserted and they were the only tour group in sight.

We were greeted by the changing of the guards when we arrived at the main part of the Kremlin complex, which caught us by surprise. It’s an interesting experience to have three uniformed guards armed with bayonet rifles (or whatever they were. I’m a girl, not an expert on guns) march towards you for no apparent reason, but then ignore you completely.

 

Clearly they are marching away from us here

On the inside, the Kremlin complex was like a stroll through a theme park dedicated to cathedrals with only the State Kremlin Palace and the Senate to break a skyline dominated by onion domes. Incidentally, the State Kremlin Palace is not actually a palace and was originally built for Communist Party meeting, hence why it looks a little bit out of place.

The State Kremlin Palace - can you tell it was built at the end of the 1950s?

The Senate

The main touristy part of the complex is centred around the aptly named Cathedral Square. There’s the Assumption Cathedral which was used for crowning Tsars, the Annunciation Cathedral which was considered to be the home church for the Tsars, and the Archangel’s Cathedral where many of them were buried. There are also a couple of others, but hey, I can only remember so much. It was hard enough that those three all begin with A.

There is also a comically sized bell, weighing in at a whopping 200 ton. I’m not sure if it has ever been rung or if they even managed to lift it to any tower. For now, anyway, it stands at the bottom of Ivan the Great Bell Tower with a chunk larger than me broken away. 

So that the giant bell doesn’t feel out of place, there is also a giant cannon which happens to be the largest in the world.

After a well deserved iced tea in the carefully manicured gardens, we re-entered the realm of the ordinary but not before happening upon another changing of the guard, this time at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

It’s strange to think that this world is Putin’s office. Although, I have heard stories that he no longer comes to the Kremlin for work as often because he doesn’t want to add to Moscow’s traffic woes. Who wouldn't want to come to work here everyday though? Aside from the tourists, it's pretty great.

Say what? He doesn't want to come into the office today??