Red Square -- Thursday November 2

The last evening we were in Moscow, we went to Red Square. We had Sonya and Gena drop us off after our second visit with Grace. One of the main reasons why I rented the particular apartment we stayed at was that it was only 1km to Red Square. I really hoped we could have taken more advantage of being so close, but the long car rides to O-Z and just being busy and tired prevented it for the most part.

If you are veterans of the blog, you have seen pictures like these before. I never get tired of being in Red Square, or taking pictures. It really is an amazing place. Hopefully sometime on my fifth or sixth trips to Moscow I will finally get the chance to go through Lenin's tomb.

The weather this time was foggy and misty. The spots on the camera were from the mist. After the previous day's camera disaster, I kept a close watch on it to make sure the batteries stayed nice and charged.

We started at the back side of St. Basil's close to where the remains of the Hotel Rossiya are located. It's now a construction site for what will probably be an overly expensive mega-star hotel that we will never have a chance of affording. Yeah, I'm a cheap American and proud of it.

Here's a picture of Wendy just as we entered the Red Square area. Adorning the side of the GUM shopping center is Jennifer Garner. You never know who you will see in Moscow. She will probably have enough $$$ to stay in the hotel that replaces the Rossiya.

And here I am by the Saviour's Tower.
Wendy and I decided that for us to really fit in with the Moscow crowd, we would both need to change our style some. Wendy would need to get over being tall and standing out. She would need to learn to love it. She will need knee-high boots with a lot of heel. She would need a more tailored coat with a splashy scarf. Finally, she will need to work on her runway strut and her blank, unegaged with anyone, look while she walks. Learning proper arm form when hailing a car ride may also be necessary.

I would need to dress less casually. I would need dressier shoes that are more pointy. I would also need a leather attache case to carry a few papers. If I carried too big and bulky of a bag then clearly I am not doing a good job. Not a lot of papers need to be carried. Laptop bag? Forget it. I am talking about papers! With lots of stamps. People who have adopted from Russia know what I mean. Also, I would have to channel my inner Jake more and have to walk with a blank, unegaged with anyone, look.

Since we don't have the $$$ to afford these kinds of luxuries, we just acted ourselves for better or worse. Every other trip we noticed people in Red Square that pinged our adoption radar. They stand out, just as we did. We didn't see any this trip. It may have been the weather or the time of day, maybe it was the fact there are not a lot of agencies working in Russia or Moscow. Right now only two are working in Moscow.

Getting back to our stroll, here is a shot of Saint Basil's from the side...

...and a shot looking ahead to the Lenin's tomb, the history museum, and the Resurrection Gate.

Me in front of Lenin's Tomb.


Saviour's Tower and Lenin's Tomb. What a name combo there! I read a pretty good book on the flight home that had a good Red Square connection. It is called Red Moon and it is an alternative history. After the Apollo 11 mission, the Soviets denied ever really having plans to land men on the moon. This was a complete lie. They had extensive plans that were revealed in the late 80's and early 90's. There is still some doubt over the extent of those plans, such as how close did they come to getting men to the moon? Some think much closer than they admitted. Red Moon plays on that speculation. It combines it with an extrapolation of what the world could look like if Al Gore is right about Global Warming and if the Muslim Extemists win the Middle East wars to form their hoped for Caliphate. In that world, Russia has become a great power. Siberia is the world's breadbasket and the American heartland suffers in a new Dustbowl. America returns to the moon in search of the "Mother Lode" of energy that will allow them to break their dependence on oil once and for all.

Where does Red Square come in? The Romanov dynasty has been restored to power and Lenin's Tomb is demolished. In place of it are statues celebrating 400 years of Romanov rule (excluding that 20th century interruption). It was funny to read this the day after walking by the exact spot.

It was a really good book. Most of it occurs in the 1960's reliving the Soviet moon program (or speculating on it) and in 2019 during the first American moon landing since Apollo.

Back to the stroll...We approached the Nikolskaya Tower and the Russian Historical Museum...
St. Basils and the Saviour's Tower.
Wendy is about to pass through Resurrection Gate...This is an appropriate name. Stalin demolished it in 1931 and Yeltsin rebuilt it during the 1990's.

There is still plenty to see once you exit the square. Here is the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a World War II memorial. In the background is the Kremlin Wall.
Here is the back of the Historical Museum and the big statue of Marshall Zhukov, the conqueror of Berlin.
The mayor of Moscow built an underground mall just outside of Red Square during the 1990's. At the ground level there is this popular restaurant. Perhaps you have heard of it? This is a pretty sad sight. Even today, many years after they first arrived, McDonald's are still very popular. This night, there was a line waiting to get inside. Wendy and I both thought this was a very sad thing to behold.
With that, we decided it was time to get back to the apartment to pack. We crossed onto Tverskaya Street and walked the kilometer back to our place. It was good to walk. It will be far colder the next time we are there. Hopefully we get there soon!