Glitz and Glamour Galore!

Today, our two goals were to visit the Kremlin, and to pick up a pocket Russian-English dictionary. The latter was not, originally, on our agenda, but after going to the grocery store and not being able to understand the majority of the packaging, we decided that we really needed something more in depth than the tiny section in our Russian phrasebook.

So, we postponed the grocery store, scrounged some breakfast from our supplies, and headed down the subway towards the Kremlin.

After picking up the tickets (and getting serious discounts for Bridgit’s student card), we headed into the Kremlin Armory. This houses the collected jewels and valuables of around 600 years of Russian monarchy. We took our complementary audio guides, and followed the tour past the Great Siberian Easter Egg, the Crown of Monomakh, and more gold, silver and jewels than you can shake a stick at. We saw bible covers two feet long made of solid gold, gem encrusted scabbards, and gold, silver, and porcelain services given by monarchs from all over Europe. All together, it was a truly stunning display of wealth and artistry. The Faberge eggs given by the Tsars to their wives and mothers were truly magnificent (and all so very different).

After leaving the Armory, we grabbed a quick lunch and headed back in to the Kremlin to check out Cathedral square, and all of the cathedrals inside. The sun was stunning, shining off the golden domes and spires of the five closely packed cathedrals.

Heading towards the exit of the Kremlin, we found the Tsar Cannon, and just had to get a picture.

Looking back at a Kremlin tower on our way out.

Our jaunt through the Kremlin complete (and with our feet sore from the trip), we set out in search of dinner and a book store. We found both, eventually, and scored ourselves a teensy-weensy dictionary to carry around. Success!