I spent today touring the Kremlin and Red Square. The morning started out very well - snow and melt gone from the pavements; sun shining; and a good day for sight seeing. Afternoon it started raining. The picture is the confection that is The Cathedral of St. Basil, at the end of Red Square. The Kremlin is large and impressive - imagine The Tower of London, five times over, amalgamated into one site. Then add in five copies of Westminster Cathedral, one of Westminster Abbey, and a couple of the larger pieces of architecture on Whitehall, and you have the general idea. The novelty of gilded onion domes does pall fairly quickly, and I did not find the internals of any of the buildings particularly fascinating. St Basil's cathedral was another matter. I paid the extra money to legitimately take photos inside. The results really surprised me - it is kept very dark in the cathedral, partly from the architecture of the place, and partly to protect the icons - the photos are much clearer than the view, and they also show the prime principle behind Orthodox religious art - the very exact placing of light to illustrate the metaphor "Jesus - the light of the world". I am very pleased with the results. Red Square is a fascinating place - the architecture is varied and stunning. All the publicity round the area suggests that first sight of Red Square will inevitably be a "Wow" moment. As always I was perverse - it is splendid, and the architecture is much more interesting - compared to Tienamen Square I was surprised by how small it was.
Restarting travelling tomorrow by catching the Trans-Mongolian Express in the evening. Judging by the train journey here, I will not be posting any updates for the whole time I am on that train, so the next time you hear from me is likely to be in a week's time..
