The Kremlin and Red Square

By Nik Stanbridge on April 4, 2008 5:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was decidedly odd being in Red Square. It is one of those places that I felt that I was 'familiar' with. Familiar from having 'grown up' with it. Or rather grown up hearing stories about it and seeing it. So, being there, I imagined the remembered May Day parades of military hardware. I worked out how the soldiers and their hardware entered and left the square - it must have been a Moscow-wide logistical operation.

I also imagined how anyone could have landed a light aircraft in the square (which an American did in the early 80s). That must have been quite a feat.

The square was bigger and smaller than I imagined. I also wasn't prepared for the fact that one of the sides of the square is a department store.

I did go inside the Kremlin (which means, I think, 'citadel') and visited many of the churches / cathedrals inside it (mainly to warm up - it was bitterly cold).

Next door to the square is an underground shopping centre which bizarrely contained many familiar 'western' shops. But also fur shops. There was also a cavernous net cafe where I did some email and MSN catch up.

The building in the picture below that has a big red 'M' on top is a Metro station.