St. Basil's Cathedral - on the inside

St. Basil's Cathedral - Interiors - Images by Pam Lane

Now to the inside of St. Basil's Cathedral. As I mentioned in my previous post, the cathedral is actually eight churches arranged around a ninth central church, joined by a labyrinth of corridors. And each room is uniquely decorated.

St. Basil's Cathedral

St. Basil's Cathedral - Exteriors - Images by Pam Lane

In the 16th century, Ivan the Terrible ordered the building of the Cathedral of the Protecting Veil, or the Church of Saint Vasily the Blessed (Saint Basil in English) to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. According to legend, Ivan had the architect blinded so that he could not create a more beautiful building. The story is somewhat doubtful, but the beauty is not exaggerated.


St. Basil's stands just outside the Kremlin walls, at the far end of Red Square. When you enter the square from the typical entrance to the north, St. Basil's rises up in the distance, across the huge stretch of the square, like something out of a fairy tale.

The cathedral is actually eight churches arranged around a ninth central church. The building's design is unlike anything else in Russian architecture.

The cathedral was originally all white. It must have been beautiful that way too, but it's hard to imagine. The color was added in the 17th century.

The cathedral was secularized in 1929 and remains the property of the Russian Federation, serving as a historical museum.

The Baggallini incident

While we were waiting for the boarding announcement for our flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg, Erinna suddenly realized that she didn't have her purse. She must have left it in the restaurant outside of the security area. We had half an hour—could I go get it?

I managed to reverse tracks and exit the security area, where my entrance stamp was cancelled. Then I rushed to the restaurant, where no one could find a trace of the purse. Where else could it be? Oh yeah, the restroom stop!

At the restroom, one of the cleaning ladies seemed to understand, and called to another cleaning lady, who guided me back outside—to a group of five men in security uniforms, looking very grave. That's when it occurred to me—Erinna's purse was an "unattended bag" in an airport where bombs are not out of the question.

Fortunately, I had both Erinna's and my passports, and Erinna's ID was in her purse. So my explanation apparently made sense to them, and they finally gave me back the purse and asked me to check if everything was there. They were very concerned that there was no money left in the wallet—until I explained the Erinna spent it all the day before.

Regardless, they had a report to write, so while they finished it up, the officers and I had a great chat about our trip back to Erinna's birthplace and how lucky we were to get her purse back.

Finally, I raced through the security check, back to the gate, only to find everyone gone! The gate had been changed, so back to the other end of the terminal where I joined our group just as we walked onto the plane.

Yes, we were pretty lucky!

More metro guidelines

Here are some metro lessons we've found useful for when we're traveling as a party of six:

1. As I mentioned in a previous post, the first lesson is that an adult always gets on last. When those doors close, they close fast.
2. Closely related to #1 is #2, an adult always gets on first. This was brought home to us when Abby and Alex made it on the train, and Joan just barely followed, while the rest of us watched them ride off.
   
3. This provided an opportunity to review the "hug a tree" rule, or in this case, the "hug a bench" rule. If a kid ends up alone on a train, he or she is to get off at the next stop and hug a tree -- I mean, bench. If a kid gets left behind alone at a stop, again, hug a bench.
4. When the train is crowded, do your best to not be standing right at the door. This was brought home to Alex when the doors opened and he was swept out with the crowd. Fortunately, Joan (last on, see #2) swept him back on with the incoming rush.
   
5. Watch out for strange people sitting next to you.
   
6. Take advantage of the train ride to exercise. When the train is packed like sardines and you can't reach a handrail, you can work those leg muscles trying to stay upright. When the train isn't so crowded, you can be a little more creative.
   
   
7. And last, when the train isn't crowded, have some fun!
   

Baby orphanage #14

Fourteen years later, the director of Abby's orphanage is still there, and she was very excited to meet us and show us around. "This is where we played with Abby, this is where they bathed her in the video," Mindy kept commenting as we moved from room to room. Memories were flooding back in. The women spoke no English, and we speak no Russian. We communicated in signs, smiles, and a few words of German.

But I think it was a bit odd for Abby. She was the center of attention in a story and a country that she has no real memory of. But she was a trooper!

For me, it was a reminder of the kids at Erinna's orphanage. Just like those kids years ago, these 2-to-3-year-olds saw us and starting yelling out, "Mama, mama!"

The heart of Moscow

We spent the day today at the Kremlin and Red Square. The last time Erinna and I were in Moscow, she was two and our host, Tatiana, kindly offered to watch her while our translator and guide, Julia, took me sightseeing. So for me, today was about remembering that first trip. For Erinna, it was about learning firsthand about her Soviet heritage.

Red Square is amazing. It's huge, and at the far end are the colorful onion domes of St. Basil's. It turned out St. Basil's was closed for some special event, so we headed over to the Kremlin instead.

Again, awesome! The cathedrals with their gold-plated onion domes are incredibly beautiful, and we walked around the inside of most them as well.

The kids were really interested—not! Abby was the most interested, since she's at least from Moscow. But really—they all just wanted lunch, with the promise of shopping at GUM afterwards.



In 1993, GUM was more like a giant flea market than a shopping center. The stores carried cheap scarves and those stacking dolls, along with sundries like toothpaste. Now, GUM is a high-end shopping center, with Cartier and Dior. We stayed long enough to buy Erinna a $3 pair of socks for $10. She's wearing her "comfortable" sandals today, which, it turns out, are giving her blisters. With her socks, she's not stylish, but at least she can continue walking.

Looking up in the GUM shopping mall

The Moscow metro

Before we could start our first full day as Moscow tourists, we had to learn how to use the metro.

No, first we had to find the metro. You wouldn't think it'd be that hard (it's just down the street), but it took us 30 minutes and a couple of helpful Russians.

Then we had to learn how to use the metro pass. It turns out you have to actually touch the pass to the turnstile, as was demonstrated very forcibly by the attendant. (Erinna wants to know why the Russians don't like us.)

Once you get through the turnstiles, you descend forever down the escalator to the bowels of the city.

This sign says "Bar Restaurant Cafe".
The metro stops aren't quite as easy.

And finally, you have to decipher the stops and make sure you're going the right direction. We can easily recognize restaurants and bars, but metro stops are a challenge.

Oh, and one more thing. When the trains are crowded, you have to make sure you get on quickly. I learned this the hard way when I actually got caught in the closing door. That's when we decided that an adult should always be the last one in our group to get on each time. Just in case.