We always used to see them on the news. The Red Square and the Kremlin.
It was definitely time to see it in real life. For this reason we hopped on a train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. It felt like one of the ICE trains we have in Germany. Then I saw the Siemens sign in the train and found out, it is built by Siemens like the ICE. Couldn’t it be a Russian steam train from older times? Or a fast spacy train from communist times with a hammer and sickle up front? No.
These Germans are following me everywhere on our East Europe trip. So much stuff in Poland and the Baltic counties was built by Germans. But now we are in Russia. Leave me alone, my loved fatherland, I am on a world trip right now.
Travelling with 250 kilometers per hours over the Russian plains, we were there in no time. Let’s grab a taxi and go to our hotel and then immediately to the Red Square.
Of course, we do not want to take taxi from the street in front of the train station. Everybody knows they charge foreign tourists five times the amount of local people. So we call a cab with the phone number, we got from the hotel.
BTW: Did I tell you, since Saint Petersburg I have a Russian phone number (+7 911XXXX435)? I almost feel like a Russian. You have to guess the letters for XXXX, since this post is on the internet and I don’t want all the girls to call me. Michelle would be jealous.
Anyhow, the taxi phone number did not work and we ended up with a normal taxi. Since Michelle is good in bargaining now, we only paid three times the normal price. Our hotel National was really close to the Red Square. So we almost made it there.
Every check-in in a Russian hotel takes a long time. They fill out many forms and copy your passports and visas 5 times. I wonder, what they do with all that paperwork. Maybe they need it for the cold winters for making a fire.
The concierge told us, there a big event in the city for its 868th birthday and she recommends we get tickets for the show on the next evening at the Red Square. The ticket booth is next to the red square. So we walked the 200 meters to get onto the red square. It was all blocked off and closed, because there was already an event on this evening. Luckily, we saw another ticket booth, where only 10 people were standing in line, and stood in line. After 30 minutes we gave up, because we still had 6 people in front of us.
We are both good in math and can calculate how much more time it would have had taken. “The booth will open tomorrow morning at 11am and we are only 200 meters away. Why wait in line here?” These were our thoughts, which a small mistake in the logic. But we were hungry and had a nice time in funny Russian restaurant, where Michelle immediately found a friend. Now I was jealous.
On the next morning we had made our plans. Get tickets for the evening event, go to the Red Square and visit the Kremlin and some museums. We walked out of the hotel. The whole streets around our hotel and the place to the ticket booth was blocked. Marching band were in the street.
We tried a few ways over to the ticket booth, but got no mercy from the policemen. There was a metro station right there. Let’s take a subway to the other side of the Red Square. There should be the other ticket booth. It was only two stations, but we had to change trains and everything was in Cryllic letters.
We made it and got of the Metro and had no idea where we were. For some reason the navigation systems on our mobile phones did not work. Did we have a political crisis and the Americans have already switched off the GPS satellites?
Other people also wanted to go through the barricades, but the policemen had no mercy. We heard a woman talking to a police man. It sounded like “This is like during Stalin’s times”. Wasn’t there a Beatles song “Back in the USSR”? We asked many policemen, how we should get to the ticket booth for the show tonight, if it is inside their barricades. They were friendly, but did not let us thru.
They also did not know anything. They did not even know, how long the blockades will last. We already had asked in the hotel and they said, it would be over in 30 minutes, but the police does not tell them. Security by Obscurity. Still good tactics from former times. Even the birds seem to wait for the reopening of the Kremlin area.
But they did not fool us. We walked further along the river with a view of one of Stalin’s seven sisters, 7 big buildings surrounding the city.
For some reason the side along the river was blocked, but the other side along a construction area was open. At least some policemen let us walk thru. Does this Red Square really exist? Or is it just an invention of Russian propaganda? Then we came close.
It is said to be behind Saint Basil's Cathedral. Again we ask a policemen at the gate. He at least tells us to get closer back to our hotel, since we are now on the complete other side of the Red Square (only 500 meters away from the hotel, but 2 hours later).
This was actually the secret hint. It brought us into the side of the street, where the ticket office is supposed to be. We had already tried this street from the other end, but is was blocked. We walked towards the center and there was the one and only ticket booth. Nobody stood in line and after the lady in the booth was finished with her phone call it took us only 10 more minutes and Michelle had the tickets in her hand.
Okay, the last steps to the Kremlin were still blocked, but we came close and had tickets to the International Military Music Festival. Right next to the Red Square is the famous shopping mall GUM. It is a large three story deluxe shopping mall. On this day it was quite empty. (As you can imagine, not many people found the way).
As we walked along the Mall, Michelle saw a fountain full of water melons. Since she loves melons, it was like a view into paradise. They were delicious.
We went out and over to the next street, the Arbat Promenade. Loud rock music hit us like a hammer. A big area with a free concert of musicians (including Aerosmith).
We went quickly in the direction of our hotel, since at our age, we prefer Military concerts over the Hard Rock which we listened to in our youth. People were wearing interesting hats for Moscow’s birthday. Michelle also wanted flowers or a crown for her hair. But not from me. I was still mad because of the Teddy bear affair last night.
On the way home we has some delicious Kvas, a drink made out of fermented bread. Very good stuff.
Now the square in front of the hotel was partly open and busy.
In the evening we went back and could get on the Red Square with the help of our tickets. The store GUM was lit up like a Christmas tree.
One of the stands sold cool Vladimir Putin "No1" TShirts. I wanted one as souvenir, but I would probably not be politically correct. No. I do not want an Angela Merkel No1 shirt instead.
We went up to our spot on the grand stands, where we had an excellent view of the colorful St Basils church. The towers of the church were built to look like a bon fire.
And then the show began. We were expecting to see only military march music, but the Japanese guys and the Belgium guys made a little different show.
It was definitely time to see it in real life. For this reason we hopped on a train from Saint Petersburg to Moscow. It felt like one of the ICE trains we have in Germany. Then I saw the Siemens sign in the train and found out, it is built by Siemens like the ICE. Couldn’t it be a Russian steam train from older times? Or a fast spacy train from communist times with a hammer and sickle up front? No.
These Germans are following me everywhere on our East Europe trip. So much stuff in Poland and the Baltic counties was built by Germans. But now we are in Russia. Leave me alone, my loved fatherland, I am on a world trip right now.
Travelling with 250 kilometers per hours over the Russian plains, we were there in no time. Let’s grab a taxi and go to our hotel and then immediately to the Red Square.
Of course, we do not want to take taxi from the street in front of the train station. Everybody knows they charge foreign tourists five times the amount of local people. So we call a cab with the phone number, we got from the hotel.
BTW: Did I tell you, since Saint Petersburg I have a Russian phone number (+7 911XXXX435)? I almost feel like a Russian. You have to guess the letters for XXXX, since this post is on the internet and I don’t want all the girls to call me. Michelle would be jealous.
Anyhow, the taxi phone number did not work and we ended up with a normal taxi. Since Michelle is good in bargaining now, we only paid three times the normal price. Our hotel National was really close to the Red Square. So we almost made it there.
Every check-in in a Russian hotel takes a long time. They fill out many forms and copy your passports and visas 5 times. I wonder, what they do with all that paperwork. Maybe they need it for the cold winters for making a fire.
The concierge told us, there a big event in the city for its 868th birthday and she recommends we get tickets for the show on the next evening at the Red Square. The ticket booth is next to the red square. So we walked the 200 meters to get onto the red square. It was all blocked off and closed, because there was already an event on this evening. Luckily, we saw another ticket booth, where only 10 people were standing in line, and stood in line. After 30 minutes we gave up, because we still had 6 people in front of us.
We are both good in math and can calculate how much more time it would have had taken. “The booth will open tomorrow morning at 11am and we are only 200 meters away. Why wait in line here?” These were our thoughts, which a small mistake in the logic. But we were hungry and had a nice time in funny Russian restaurant, where Michelle immediately found a friend. Now I was jealous.
Russians love Teddies
On the next morning we had made our plans. Get tickets for the evening event, go to the Red Square and visit the Kremlin and some museums. We walked out of the hotel. The whole streets around our hotel and the place to the ticket booth was blocked. Marching band were in the street.
We tried a few ways over to the ticket booth, but got no mercy from the policemen. There was a metro station right there. Let’s take a subway to the other side of the Red Square. There should be the other ticket booth. It was only two stations, but we had to change trains and everything was in Cryllic letters.
We made it and got of the Metro and had no idea where we were. For some reason the navigation systems on our mobile phones did not work. Did we have a political crisis and the Americans have already switched off the GPS satellites?
Other people also wanted to go through the barricades, but the policemen had no mercy. We heard a woman talking to a police man. It sounded like “This is like during Stalin’s times”. Wasn’t there a Beatles song “Back in the USSR”? We asked many policemen, how we should get to the ticket booth for the show tonight, if it is inside their barricades. They were friendly, but did not let us thru.
They also did not know anything. They did not even know, how long the blockades will last. We already had asked in the hotel and they said, it would be over in 30 minutes, but the police does not tell them. Security by Obscurity. Still good tactics from former times. Even the birds seem to wait for the reopening of the Kremlin area.
But they did not fool us. We walked further along the river with a view of one of Stalin’s seven sisters, 7 big buildings surrounding the city.
For some reason the side along the river was blocked, but the other side along a construction area was open. At least some policemen let us walk thru. Does this Red Square really exist? Or is it just an invention of Russian propaganda? Then we came close.
It is said to be behind Saint Basil's Cathedral. Again we ask a policemen at the gate. He at least tells us to get closer back to our hotel, since we are now on the complete other side of the Red Square (only 500 meters away from the hotel, but 2 hours later).
This was actually the secret hint. It brought us into the side of the street, where the ticket office is supposed to be. We had already tried this street from the other end, but is was blocked. We walked towards the center and there was the one and only ticket booth. Nobody stood in line and after the lady in the booth was finished with her phone call it took us only 10 more minutes and Michelle had the tickets in her hand.
Okay, the last steps to the Kremlin were still blocked, but we came close and had tickets to the International Military Music Festival. Right next to the Red Square is the famous shopping mall GUM. It is a large three story deluxe shopping mall. On this day it was quite empty. (As you can imagine, not many people found the way).
As we walked along the Mall, Michelle saw a fountain full of water melons. Since she loves melons, it was like a view into paradise. They were delicious.
We went out and over to the next street, the Arbat Promenade. Loud rock music hit us like a hammer. A big area with a free concert of musicians (including Aerosmith).
We went quickly in the direction of our hotel, since at our age, we prefer Military concerts over the Hard Rock which we listened to in our youth. People were wearing interesting hats for Moscow’s birthday. Michelle also wanted flowers or a crown for her hair. But not from me. I was still mad because of the Teddy bear affair last night.
On the way home we has some delicious Kvas, a drink made out of fermented bread. Very good stuff.
Now the square in front of the hotel was partly open and busy.
In the evening we went back and could get on the Red Square with the help of our tickets. The store GUM was lit up like a Christmas tree.
One of the stands sold cool Vladimir Putin "No1" TShirts. I wanted one as souvenir, but I would probably not be politically correct. No. I do not want an Angela Merkel No1 shirt instead.
We went up to our spot on the grand stands, where we had an excellent view of the colorful St Basils church. The towers of the church were built to look like a bon fire.
And then the show began. We were expecting to see only military march music, but the Japanese guys and the Belgium guys made a little different show.
Classic military
marching on the Red Square
Japanese Marching Band
Belgian Military in Action. Don’t they look scary?
Even me not being into military things, I have to admit, it was very entertaining and that made the nearby Aerosmith concert a bit easier to take. The king of Spain also chose this event over the Rock concert, so it must have been the better choice. It all ended with a nice firework. Happy 686th birthday, Moscow.
We made our 200 meters back to the hotel thru all the policemen. I have never seen so many policemen like on this Moscow weekend. Every second Moscow citizen must be a policemen.
When we were trying to leave Moscow on the next morning the road to our hotel was again blocked for some unknown reason. We rolled our nice Samsonite suitcases for half a kilometer and behind a blockage of trash trucks we found our taxi, which brought us to the rental car place.
It was definitely an existing couple of days in Moscow, much better than the standard tourist program. And yes, the Red Square and the Kremlin still exists, just a little hard to find.
Let’s see how the countyside of Russia looks like. Coming coon in this theatre.
PS: This was the end of the blog posting. If you are up for a short puzzle, continue reading. What could this sign mean?
I did not visit this place, because it cost 200 Ruble and I was too cheap. Plus I already had the ultimate experience on the equator (see posting about the equator) and also in New Zealand (see NZ and Hundertwasser posting). So what can it be?
Comments
Post a Comment