Day 2: Kremlin and Red Square

Day 2: Kremlin and Red Square.
Well, after 8.5 hours of walking we are back in our room nibbling on Camembert cheese and crackers. BR is downing a Tubog beer and I a refreshing cup of tea...with ice pack....whilst Stargate is on in Russian. It was quite hot today which was nice, though with all the walking we did indulge in a very expensive iced coffee and brownie in the iconic GUM State Store. This was built in the 1800s and is now a very exclusive shopping centre...only stocking designer stuff. It is a really  beautiful building...looks like a palace

The day began heading towards Alexandrovsky Gardens to convert my online museum ticket purchases to entry tickets. The gardens were really lovely and obsessively maintained. After waiting for about 45 minutes to be screened and checked by a very scary dude, we entered. Headed up,to Cathedral Square and was surrounded by amazing churches and cathedrals. All of them operate as museums and they are truly spectacular, inside and out. Made our way around and through: the Assumption Cathedral, the Annunciation Cathedral, the Archangel Cathedral, the Patriarch's Palace. We also saw the Tsar cannon and bell, and the Ivan the Great bell tower. What was amazing about these Cathedrals was that the Romanov tombs were there, along with Ivan the Terrible. We also had tickets to The Armoury Museum. OMG...enough gold in this place to stabilise the global economy. After looking at hundreds, maybe thousands, of plates, ornaments etc, we found the truly remarkable Royal carriages...for Catherine...boy she had a few...carriages that is. They were so grand they were somewhat over the top.
After spending nearly 6 hours going through all of the above, we exited Red Square and took in the amazing, famous and iconic St Basil's Cathedral. I had been really hanging out to see this. How many times have we seen in spy movies and even the occasional James Bond thriller. All of the coloured spires are named after a saint. It was the most vibrant and beautiful building.  Walking along we ventured into the Gum store on the left and then Lenin's mausoleum on the right. At the end of this square was a massive red building which is the State History Museum. We plan to visit it tomorrow evening. It does not matter which way you turn here, there is amazing architecture everywhere. Another observation, moscovites seem to be obsessed with ice creams. Little stores are everywhere. Second observation: I think I walked about 6-7 kms today by BR's calculations....a bit sore, limp pretty badly by arvo, but coping quite well. As muscles get stronger, hope limp gets less.
Off now to source train travel. Heading out 70kms tomorrow. Need to figure out how to get there. It's very hard to read the Russian symbols...they don't have the English version anywhere....as when yesterday BR returned from hunting and gathering...with my "milk". As I made a cuppa I discovered it was actually yogurt. BR saw a cat on the front and assumed it was milk. We have since googled how milk is written and have some in the fridge.