We picked good weather for Moscow. We researched it the day before thinking about what we wanted to do. We thought of Tretyakovskky Gallery, Pushkin Museum of Art, Kolomenskoe, or the Armoury Chamber of The Moscow Kremlin. We ended up with the last two.
Driving to the city was challenging. Did not take us that long, but at one spot there were 6 lanes that combined into two. It was crazy how creatively fast my Dad would merge into the one he needed to.
We parked at Altufyevo, took subway to downtown. What I was most amazed with was that I remembered so much. Of course, there are many new stations but I was surprised how much I remembered about subway, which stations were where, where we could jump on another train.
A lot of memories brought the smell of the subway. It is one of a kind, nothing else smells like subway. Since it was Sunday, there were no people on the train. Not like none, but so few that we all could take a sit on each train. I wish I knew there was wi fi everywhere in the subway. It would have been so neat to take a picture right there and send it "live".
At one point we stopped and bought a few souvinirs. We got a bell for Jimmy's Mom and when my Mom was carrying it, my Dad compared her to a sheep and that with that bell we would never lose her :)
Here is where we stood to be checked at police station to make sure we did not have any guns, I guess.
First we got to Red Square. For Day of the City (September 6 and 7th this year) they would have Military Music Festival Spasskaya Bashnya. We saw how many people from different countries would participate in it. Bad thing that Red Square was soooo full and had so much stuff on it that if I to come there for the first time, I would not have understood what the big deal about this Square is. Was not impressive at all.
My goodness, it took us a while to find the ticket booth and the entrance, we just kept going around trying to find it and then.. Here.. It is not very easy because territory is huge.
I have to say it was definitely worth going there. The only thing I was very upset about that no one could videotape or take any pictures. The exhibit booth had cameras above them so no one wanted to get in trouble.
We got little portal devices that you can put to your ear, kind of like a phone and then listen to the narrator who was describing each exhibit. I wish we had time to walk through twice, there was so much information and I am sure I would have noticed something later that I did not notice before.
It is one of the oldest museums of Moscow - was established in 1808. The Kremlin Armoury originated as the royal arsenal in 1508 and then it got to be in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons, jewelry and various articles of the tsars. There are 9 rooms that start with XII century items.
The Russian Imperial Regalia (Shapka Monomaha)
The Armoury has ten Faberge eggs, a collection equal to largest in the world.
Crazy how many of those rifles were with DIAMONDS!
Our favorite rooms were the last two. One showed the clothes that tsars used to wear and the other their coaches/carriers. Hard to believe that those dresses were worn only once. They weighted about 30 kg. Imagine just wearing such heavy things and look at the waist! it is insane!
As for men.. They seems to be sooo slim. Like what kind of men were they????
This one was the most blowing away. It was given to Elizabeth Petrovna in 1754 by Count Razumovsky. It is hard to believe that many of them were wealthier than tsars themselves.
I was blown away by the level of skills that those people had to create all those items sooooo many years ago. It was amazing!
We got out on the way to the subway and deciding on what to do in this huge city.
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