Kremlin Walking

Today I'm anxious.  The Sound of Music  song lines are going through my head, "Totally unprepared am I . . ."

I'm planning on seeing the Kremlin and trying the Moscow Metro and who knows what else.  The hotel has a free shuttle scheduled to take 90 minutes to get to downtown because of the unpredictability of traffic here.  I'm hoping to take the metro back as close to the hotel as I can, but it will still be a substantial walk.  Pickpockets worry me.  I hedge against loss by putting my passport in my breast pocket underneath my jacket, my phone in one pants pocket and my billfold in another with that pocket covered by the tether of my pedometer.  My daily goal with the pedometer is 10,000 steps.  I have not made it once on this trip.

The shuttle takes only 65 minutes through roads that are as many as five lanes in each direction and filled with vehicles.  As soon as I leave the van, some golden domes and spires are visible.  I head toward them passing the Russian Duma (parliament).  The street to Red Square looks like it is impossible to cross as a pedestrian and I see no one attempting it.  Then I figure out there is an underpass for pedestrians.  It leads to the metro, but also to Red Square.  The underpass is extensive with many branches and filled with shops, some upscale.

Then I am on the rain-slicked paving stones of Red Square!  A few of the tourist kiosks are just opening.  Perhaps ten other people are on the giant square, plus a few guards and workers.  To my left is the famous GUM department store, famous for having bare shelves frequently during the Soviet era, but now the Russian equivalent of Harrod's or Macy's.  To my right is the Kremlin wall with its turrets and enormous brick wall.  Lenin's mausoleum is in the middle of that wall.  Straight ahead are the golden domes and spires of St. Basil's Cathedral.

GUM Department Store

St. Basil's Cathedral

The Wall of the Kremlin

I am awed and overwhelmed by being here.  I grew up during the Cold War.  Bad things happened in the Kremlin.  Now school children line up for tours.  I don't know how much of it they get to see.  Red Square descends to the Moscow River and I cross the bridge and find a park with a striking sculpture group of 15 figures.

Children are the Victims of Adults' Vices

I encounter my first panhandler of the trip as a man approaches me and switches effortlessly to English saying, "I don't want money, but could you buy me a cup of coffee?"

Crossing the next river I come to the Tretyakov Gallery and decide to try to spend more time tomorrow.  There is a sculpture park I want to spend time seeing.  It was featured on my favorite TV show, "The Amazing Race."

I re-cross both rivers ending up on the other side of the Kremlin from Red Square and browse the Kremlin gift shop.  Now I need to find the Тверская metro stop. When I do find the entrance, again there is an underground shopping mall before the actual entrance to the metro.  I find the metro ticket office and hold up five fingers and slide 125 rubles to the cashier.  She gives me an access card.  I observe how others are using the cards and follow suit.  It is a touch system identical to the London Tube.  After going down an escalator, I try to find the signs for the train to the владыкино metro stop but do not see them.  I check my map, then notice that the sign for line 9, the grey line, points down the hall.  The station is full of marble and well-kept.  There is frequent artwork remaining from the Soviet era.  After descent of two more escalators, I see the sign for the train toward владыкино and it arrives promptly.  I count seven stops from the map in the train and everything works.  It is actually one of the easiest and cleanest subways I've encountered with the language the biggest barrier.

Leaving the владыкино metro station, I look for a map of the neighborhood and find it.  The street starting my walk back to the hotel is on the map and I think I've got the right direction.  Forty-five minutes  and 2.8 miles later I am at the hotel.  My feet are talking to me.  My pedometer says over 17,000 steps today.  Maybe tomorrow I'll brave the bus system as it seems there is no metro station closer.