Raid Over Moscow!

Wendy and I slept better on this trip and adjusted to Moscow time more easily. We didn't wake up in the middle of the night that often and when we did we were able to get back to sleep pretty easily. No consumption of sleeping pills were required! That's always a good thing.

We still woke up pretty early in the morning most days. Thursday, court day, was one such day. I woke up around 4:30 am thinking, "Today is court day." The night before we had arranged with Lori and Antoine that if we woke up early we'd meet around 6:00 am for a sight-seeing trip. After waking up at 4:30 am I was definitely up for it. Getting out and doing something was a great way to burn off some nervous energy. Lori left her room at 6:00 so with that it was off for a little trip on the Metro to Red Square. Wendy and Antoine slept in, so they missed out!

Lori and I first walked to the Kievskaya Metro station. It is about a 10 minute walk from Hotel Ukraina. Here's a picture of me as I am about to descend into the depths of the Metro.

If you remember this post, you'll recall that Wendy and myself were taken by our guide Tatiana on a trip through the Metro on our first trip. We did stop at Kievskaya Station at one point. I recognized it. This time I only took a couple pictures of murals/art work. For the most part we were just trying to figure out where to go and didn't have time to look at the art work!

These must be revolutionaries pondering over the words of some great propaganda work, or something... The peasants move forward with the Red Banner...Bla bla bla...yada yada yada. Carrying the flag is cool and all, but you are most likely to get shot first I bet. I'd rather be carrying something more useful.
The Metro is organized into many different lines. There is a circular line that loops around the city. At each stop along the circular line, there are nodes that connect you to intersecting lines. We intended to take a straight line from Kievskaya into the center of City. Two of the three lines that are accessible at Kievskaya will do that. The third puts you on the loop around the city.

So...guess which one we ended up on? The circular line. No big deal. Once we realized our mistake we literally hopped off the train just as the doors were closing. It was a real James Bond or Alias kind of moment. It was impressive how far we got along the circular line in such a short amount of time. Those trains really move fast!

We figured out the line we needed to get us back on track to the city center so we hopped onto the train that would take us there. We looked at the sign on the train to make sure we were headed in the right direction and the sign made no sense. The sign was for a completely different line than we wanted. Either we had not been at the station we thought we were, or the train was on the wrong track. In a moment of profundity I said, "Either we weren't where we thought we were, or we aren't where we think we are now." It was a really odd feeling to be so completely wrong, or misled.

Turned out the latter was true. We were on the correct line, the train had been apparently pulled from another line and it's maps were not updated with information on the current line. Whew!

Once we got to the city center we stopped at the Lenin Bibliotech Metro station. Here's a picture of the Lenin Library and a statue. The statue is NOT of Lenin. Why? I don't know. I can't remember who it was. It's amazing how many little details escape you after a few intense days of activity.

From the Lenin Library it was a short walk to the Kremlin and Red Square. Here's a picture of the Kremlin Wall. In the foreground you can see remnants of some other wall. It is probably older versions of the wall that have been preserved. From the white stuff I guess it wasn't always Red! I must say I prefer the way it looks now.
Lori and Antoine didn't see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns when they were on their first trip. Well, Lori didn't see it on this trip either! We went by the tomb to see that it had been left unguarded! You can see in the picture below the guard station is empty! It was so tempting to run up into the guard station and get our pictures taken. The fact the guards were not in their stations did not mean there wasn't any military presence in the area. I figured if we pulled that stunt we'd get our visas revoked pretty quickly.

Here's Lori looking confused because the Unknown Soldier's identity is frustratingly unknown to her. Note the empty guard station to the left of the picture.
Another short walk and you come to the Russian Historical Museum and the statue of the great General Zhukov who led the Soviet Army into Berlin, Germany which effectively ended WWII in Europe. A short jog to the right will get you on a path to enter the square.
And once you have made that jog and entered the square, this was the breathtaking view. On the left, St. Basil's. In the foreground Lenin's Mausoleum. On the right in the background is the Savior's Tower. We got to hear it ring at quarter and half past seven. Wow! I might get this one enlarged.
Now we get to the subject of this post. Any Commodore 64 geeks out there? Besides me? I had this game called Raid Over Moscow. It was one of the best video games ever. There were several steps to it but the conclusion took place in Red Square where your objective was to attack the Russian History Museum with a bazooka. Sweet! This next picture was almost the exact view from the game. My friend Matt Ligon reminded me of this when he saw the picture. It cracked me up. Good thing seeing that building with my own eyes didn't trigger any subliminal memories. I might have gotten in big trouble. Deportation anyone?

Who could have imagined the kid blowing up the USSR on his Commodore 64 would be standing in front of the same building in Red Square about 20 years later on an adoption trip. Amazing how life twists and turns.


In addition to taking lots of awesome pictures and sight-seeing, my trip to Red Square had another purpose. Several famous communists and other historical people are entombed in the Kremlin Wall behind the Mausoleum. Yuri Gagarin's tomb is there and thought it would be appropriate for me to pay some respects to him. It's something I have always wanted to do. The only people I could see behind the Mausoleum had entered through a metal detector. They were official looking people so I didn't just rush into where I wanted to go. I approached a guard and asked him "Gidye Yuri Gagarin?" After repeating myself he told me I couldn't go there until 10:00. Bummer. We were about 3 hours too early to visit Yuri. So that was a minor disappointment. Yet it is hard to be disappointed when we you have such great views with so few people around. I soldiered on.

Here's a shot of the Mausoleum with the sunrise beginning to hit the side.

Here's the savior's Tower. I like the sound of the bells when it chimes. You know you are in Russia when you hear this tower ring!!!

Tower on the Kremlin Wall behind the Mausoleum.

Lori took this great shot of St. Basil's.
View from St. Basil's looking back to the History Museum. At the extreme right is the Resurrection Gate that was rebuilt in the 1990's after being destroyed by Stalin.
I have at least one more excursion to Red Square planned after we have custody of Jason Alexei. We want to get some pictures of him there. It is what adopting parents do after everything is done. Maybe I'll finally get to see Yuri Gagarin's tomb then.

Besides the 8 hours we got to spend with Jason Alexei and a completed court hearing, this early morning excursion was the highpoint of the trip for me.