Moscow - Holy Cats! I'm at the Kremlin!

Moscow- When we got off the train we found a café where I got a chocolate donut. First we went to the hostel which was called Godzilla’s to drop off our bags. The first thing we did was visit the Kremlin. It is a collection of cathedrals in the center of Moscow.

There were amazing paintings on the ceilings and doors, with fabulous icons and designs everywhere. There were 6 churches, and we also saw the world’s largest bell, with an 11 ton piece broken off of it. The churches had golden domes with the cross of the Russian Orthodox Church on them.

Next we went to Red Square to see St. Basil’s church, which is actually 10 churches connected to each other. The outside was spectacular and the inside had glorious paintings. The 10 domes were fabulous, each one had a different decorative scheme, checkered, swirled, latticed. All were vibrantly colored. There I also learned that on my birthday Russian troops defeated a Tartar army and one of the churches in St. Basil’s is dedicated to that victory. After that we headed back to Godzilla’s for a good night’s sleep.

We got up the next day and, after eating our oatmeal, headed back to the Kremlin to see the Armory. Inside they have the most exquisite Gospel in the universe. It had giant cut emeralds, rubies, and amethyst as well as pearls on the cover. There were bowls made of carved shells, amazing cups, and some Faberge eggs. My favorite eggs were a big gold one with a gold and ivory train inside and one sitting atop the Kremlin. There was also a cup with Perseus leading Pegasus up a mountain to rescue Andromeda who was chain to a rock. There was another room dedicated to clothes, another to thrones, and we saw Ivan the Terrible’s crown. There was another room with horse trappings.

When we were done we went to the Moscow Cats Theatre. The cats and dogs were so cute! They swung cats out over our heads. There was a cat that did flips. One of the cats got bored and began playing with the tassels on his trapeze. They climbed a pole and as the clowns tried to pull them off the cats held on. A dog dressed as a mailman walked a cart across the stage. One cat walked on a pole upside down. A dog dressed as a ballerina did the conga line with the mailman dog. There were 3 dogs, a mini poodle, a mini pincher, and a bichon fries. There was a Siamese cat and the rest were just generic cats. They were amazing cats doing amazing tricks. In one act the clown was trying to get a cat out of a soup pot but it kept leaping back in. When he tried to block its path, the cat ran up his chest and he pushed it off. It flipped in the air and ran right back up. A little girl went up on stage but she didn’t know what the clown was asking her to do. She was so funny. I loved the cats. We also tried to see Lenin, a communist leader but the line was too long. We had dinner at Pizza Hut and then went back to our hostel.