April 29

The morning began with a bright blue and sunny sky. After the usual hotel breakfast followed by the bus ride through central Moscow, we arrived near the entrance to the Kremlin and piled out of the bus. A line had already formed, so we joined it and slowly and patiently moved toward the entrance. I never really understood what the Kremlin is. I thought it was a big building that the Russian government conducted its affairs from. WRONG!

1. First the Russian government has two chambers like the U.S. and each has its own building not at the Kremlin, the 450-member State Duma (the lower house) and the 166-member Federation Council (the upper house).

2. Second, the Kremlin, to the west and separated from Red Square by a large red brick wall with towers, built by Italians 1485-1995, but is a complex of buildings, and the word means "fortress."

3. The term Kremlin has been a figure of speech used to refer to the government of the Soviet Union 1922-1991

So we walked an ever so slight hill to see buildings with beautiful shining gold towers. Cathedral Square is the heart of the Kremlin. It is surrounded by six buildings, including three cathedrals. Our first visit was to the Kremlin Armory which is not an armory at all, but a museum. The building dates from 1511 and eventually became a store for royal valuables under Peter the Great. The museum's display from Russia's royalty includes textiles, clothing, carriages and sleighs, weapons and armor, objects made from gold and silver, Faberge eggs. Such wealth and opulence and yet poverty abounded amongst the serfs. The Empress Elizabeth was reputed to have had over 3000 gowns. While walking in the galleries I met a woman from New Jersey, Natasha Solomon, who was visiting Russia with her young adult daughter. She was originally from Moscow, Jewish, and both she and her husband had been refuseniks. Her husband did not want to return, but her daughter had great interest in learning about the country.

We then went outside and walked around to see the various Kremlin buildings. We entered two of the cathedrals. The walls were covered floor to ceiling with Russian icons. There is no seating in these Russian orthodox churches during services. People come and go, the priest have certain rituals, there is singing but no instruments. The icons are essential to this religion. They are much more than the images of holy people and much more than a visual connection, but somehow the Russian orthodox connect directly with the icons.

After touring the Kremlin grounds, we had about an hour of free time, really lunch time. I decided to walk back and look at some of the buildings we had driven by in the bus - former KGB headquarters, the Bolshoi ballet building, the State Duma (building for one of the chambers of Parliament), the Hotel Metropole with some lovely external art deco décor (no time to go in). Got back to the rendezvous with a few minutes to spare and ran into a market and picked up a carton of yogurt and a bag of sort of spicy chip like things. I asked in the market for a spoon, but was directed to various corners of the store, never found one, so had the challenge once back on the bus of eating the yogurt with no spoon. My father and Mahine who had been sighted by some of the others eating lunch never showed up at the meeting point. Someone thought they had heard them discussing going to the Ritz Carlton. We couldn't wait for them so we left. (The story from Mahine is that they were there at the fountain with the horses where we were, but later I learned that my father had directed them elsewhere because he thought we were meeting someplace else. His inability to hear clearly does present a number of challenges). So I guess they took a cab somewhere and went to a hotel bar and ended up at the hotel later.

The rest of us went for a drive to some other areas of the city. We saw, but only from the outside, Novedeichy Convent and Cemetery. Many famous people are buried there (including Chekhov, Prokofiev, Boris Yeltsin, Leonid Brezhnev, and the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich). We drove by parts of the University of Moscow including the medical school and then along the river. The traffic is horrendous in Moscow. This is due in part to very bizarre routing of traffic, no freeways, and lots of cars. So it took a long time to get back to the hotel.

We had an early dinner at the Peking Hotel and, by far and away, the most disappointing - sweet and sour pork! (Chinese). Then back into the bus to the theater to see Swan Lake Ballet at the Stanislavsky & Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre with the Moscow Ballet. We arrived in the theater just as the lights were going down. Why? In part because my father had to go back up to his room for something so were very late departing and because it took us 40 minutes to drive a most circuitous and ridiculous route to the theater that was at most a mile away and could have been reached by walking and/or Metro. Some people found their seats; I ended up sitting on the stairs between the rows of seats with the tour guide for the first half. At intermission I went to my seat which was near where we had been sitting but had appeared to be occupied and found it to be occupied by a Russian woman who gave me a sheepish look when I showed her my ticket and then she left.

This was a special performance, the 60th year in this theater. There was a film beforehand showing previous ballet dancers (possibly originals) with interviews (all in Russian.) At the intermission I went down to the next level where the refreshments were being sold and saw two of the dancers who had been featured in the film. Apparently the same choreography has been done for the last 60 years. The performance was good. The male led had rather uninspiring choreography and so was not terribly impressive.

After the ballet, Sue and Peter, a couple on the trip, suggested walking down to Red Square to see the lights at night. I was the only one who took them up on the offer. It was a good night for walking and a different perspective on Red Square at night. We walked back to the hotel. My father, Mahine, and I had decided to have one really good meal in Moscow. Sue and Peter were the only ones interested as well and as the restaurant, Café Pushkin, was right along our walking route, we stopped in to make dinner reservations for the next night. Then back and to sleep.