“Welcome to the Kremlin,” Vera, our expert Moscow guide, announces in our earbuds as I, a photojournalist invited by Insight Vacations to experience its Easy Pace Russia journey, along with 22 bona fide travelers are fast-tracked through the turnstiles and security scanners inside the visitor’s center.

Following the “umbrella” along a carriageway above well-manicured Alexander Park, we pass through the arch of Trinity Tower, one of five towers topped with a one-ton, ruby-glass star, and enter into the 68 acre-fortress, the largest of its kind in Europe, brimming with history and architectural marvels.

The jaw dropping begins immediately as we spy the colorful, 17th century Glorification of the Virgin Church with its four gilded domes, the first of many decorative cupolas we’ll spot today on this 90-minute stroll around ground-zero of Russian life and culture.

“Sitting atop Borovitsky Hill in full view of the Moscow River to the south and Red Square to the east,” explains Vera, “the Kremlin means ‘fortress inside a city’ and it gave rise to a small settlement in the 12th century that has grown into the most populated metro area in Europe.”

Just a few paces inside the Kremlin grounds we’re faced with an eyesore, a piece of architecture that is completely out of place in this UNESCO World Heritage Site: the State Kremlin Palace. Originally named the Palace of Congresses when it was completed in 1961, the modern, 6,000-seat, concrete-and-glass hall was where the Communist Party of the old Soviet Union held its, well, congresses. Despite calls to send in the wrecking ball, Nikita Khrushchev’s “gift” to the Kremlin now serves as a venue for ballet and classical and pop music concerts. Covering my eyes, I walk away as quickly as I can.

The geographic and historic hub of Moscow, the Kremlin greets its visitors with a group of cannons lined up outside the Arsenal that were left behind by a beleaguered French army when Napoleon limped unceremoniously back to Paris following a bloody attempt to defeat Russia during the Napoleonic Wars of 1812. The Arsenal, a building commissioned by Tsar Peter the Great, houses the Kremlin Regiment, President Putin’s main security service.

While President Donald Trump of the United States officially resides and works at the White House in Washington, D.C., and unofficially at a few of his golf resorts, the Russian Federation’s President Putin resides and works out in the ‘burbs, but occasionally conducts business inside the triangular-shaped Kremlin Senate building. “Because his motorcades caused major traffic congestion around Moscow,” notes Vera, “a helipad was built in the Tainitsky Garden several years ago and President Putin now flies into an out of the Kremlin as he pleases aboard his twin-turbo Mi-8 helicopter.”

Most, if not all, tourists come to the Kremlin to marvel at the collection of onion-shaped domes that top three Orthodox cathedrals and a bell tower positioned around, you guessed it, Cathedral Square (Sobornaya Ploschad): the Dormition, the Archangel Michael, the Annunciation and the Ivan the Great Bell Tower. This square is the absolute star of our walking tour with its postcard-perfect scenes.

Built several times over, the Dormition, with its six pillar-five dome design, is the oldest of this trio of cathedrals. Desecrated by French troops during the aforementioned invasion of Russia, it was the place for the coronation of the tsars. We take our sweet time to admire and take in the details of the frescoes and iconostases.

Annunciation Cathedral, the middle born of our trio standing in Sobornaya Ploschad, is the most ornate in design with its nine, count ’em, nine gilded domes. Filled with restored 15th century frescoes, the cathedral hosts the “Treasures and Antiquities of the Moscow Kremlin” exhibition. Our group stays outside and just admires.

The youngest of the Kremlin’s treasured cathedrals, at only 509 years old, is Archangel Michael. Like the Dormition, it, too, is a six pillar-five dome design filled with beautiful frescoes and iconostases. Once built, Archangel Michael immediately became a royal necropolis and is the final resting place of almost all of the tsars prior to Peter the Great, including Ivan the Great.

Speaking of Ivan, the Great Bell Tower, adjacent to the Dormition belfry, was erected in his honor. Standing 81m tall with 24 bells, it was the tallest bell tower in the country. As time passed other bell towers were erected with greater height. Today, the Ivan the Great Bell Tower is listed as the 16th tallest in the country, but it still looks like it could touch the heavens.

As we depart the “fortress within a city,” I leave you with two interesting facts gleaned during this stroll around the Kremlin. First, the largest caliber cannon, the Tsar Cannon — 6m long, 40 tons of weight and an 890mm barrel — has NEVER, EVER been fired because it was just too heavy to roll into battle. And, secondly, the Tsar Bell, the largest bell ever made, at more than 200 tons, has NEVER, EVER been rung. A large piece of the bell cracked off during a fire shortly after it was cast, couldn’t be repaired and was, therefore, deemed useless. I guess size really does matter.

Go here for detailed information on Insight’s six journeys to Russia, as well as more than 100 other premium and luxury-escorted itineraries around Europe, or call toll free (888) 680-1241, or contact your travel agent.

See you in a few hours when we put our knives and forks to the test and savor some Ukrainian dishes at a popular Muscovite restaurant that we’ll file under Odessa.

The post Easy Pace Russia: A Glimpse Inside the Kremlin (Dispatch #14) appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Barely out of first gear, the mood gets serious, but only for a moment, as our Mercedes coach, with business class-legroom seating, passes by Lubyanka Square and the former headquarters building of the Komitet Gosudarstvennoj Bezopasnosti (Committee for State Security), better known as the KGB. It was here that erstwhile Soviet spies received their marching orders, then went out in the cold dressed in trench coats (collars up), fedoras (brims turned down) and sunglasses (the darker, the better).

What a difference a day makes, actually 12 hours to be precise. That’s how long, or short, it’s been since we meandered about the nearly deserted cobblestone and admired for the very first time the beauty that is Red Square, the very heart of Moscow, in the waning light at sunset. It’s daytime now, and Krasnaya Ploshchad — the Beautiful, but not Red, Square — is packed with Muscovites and tourists alike.

Following close behind Vera, our Moscow expert, and Gennady, our GQ-worthy tour director, we arrive at center stage of Red Square, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990, and bask in the beauty of St. Basil’s Cathedral, commissioned by Tsar Ivan IV, aka Ivan the Terrible, with its colorful, iconic rounded domes.

Over to our left is the 71m-tall Spasskaya (Savior) Tower with its Kremlin chimes that remind us all of the official time in Moscow every quarter hour. And, just behind those red-brick walls is where President Vladimir Putin governs and where we’ll be this afternoon.

Further along are the remains of former Soviet leaders buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, including Joseph Stalin, while the embalmed body of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, the “Father of the Revolution,” lies inside a pyramid-shaped mausoleum made of red, gray and black granite that fronts the cemetery.

In the far north corner of the square sits the State Historical Museum. Underneath its twin spires are 4.3 million pieces of Russian history, including the country’s largest coin collection.

And, on the east side of the square where the Upper Trading Rows once occupied the space — a massive trade center of 1,200 shops commissioned in the early part of the 18th century by Empress Catherine the Great and designed by Giacomo Quarenghi, an Italian neoclassical architect — stands Moscow’s swankiest enclosed shopping mall: GUM.

The ornate 240m-long (794 ft) facade, built in the 1890s, is a bright and open shopping gallery with hundreds of upscale stores and white tablecloth restaurants. Enclosed in a steel framed skylight of some 22k pieces of glass — designed by Vladimir Shukhov, an architectural engineer, to resemble the roofs of the great Victorian railway stations of London and to also support the heavy weight of snow during Moscow’s frigid winters — GUM, with its three-level arcades, wows the visitor with its spectacular interior.

“Nationalized following the Russian Revolution of 1917, GUM, which stood for Glávnyj Universáĺnyj Magazine or State Department Store, now National Department Store,” intones Vera, Insight’s local area expert, through our earbuds, “operated as a model retail enterprise for consumers regardless of class, gender, and ethnicity.”

Over the decades, GUM has morphed into and out of more characters than the late Lon Chaney, Hollywood’s “Man of a Thousand Faces.” First, it was a large block of state-run and tightly controlled shops followed by government office space. Then, in 1932, GUM was used briefly to display the body of Premier Joseph Stalin’s deceased wife, Nadezhda. After World War II, it returned to being a state-run trade center which then gave way to partial privatization. And, in 2005, GUM became wholly privatized and is now under the watchful, bottom-line eyes of Bosco di Ciliegi, a Russian luxury-goods distributor and boutique operator.

GUM, a “Who’s Who” of international brands elegantly laid out underneath its revolutionary arched glass roof, is one of the most popular shopping venues in Moscow, especially for rich and influential oligarchs packing a by-invitation-only black credit card in their wallets. And, that’s probably why I’m here just window shopping.

An afternoon walking tour inside the walls of the Kremlin will be Insight’s treat, but lunch is on my own ruble as I grab a table inside Shashlik-Mashlyk, a pectopah (restaurant) on the ground floor of an elegant, rose-colored, neoclassic apartment building along pedestrian-only Arbat Street, an affluent zip code in the heart of Moscow’s historic center.

Serving up some of the city’s most authentic Georgian, Ukrainian and Russian dishes, I study the leather-bound menu, over a glass of chilled Chilean Chardonnay, and decide to keep it light. Well, as light as I can.

With only an hour on the clock to consume (read, devour), I order a plate of succulent, marinated chicken kebabs, stuffed with herbs and spices and plated with sliced red onions and pomegranate seeds, along with a khachapuri, a piping-hot Ukranian cheese bread shaped like a turnover with a spicy tomato-based dipping sauce. Mmm.

Go here for detailed information on Insight’s six journeys to Russia, as well as more than 100 other premium and luxury-escorted itineraries around Europe, or call toll free (888) 680-1241, or contact your travel agent.

The post Easy Pace Russia: Walking and chewing GUM in Red Square (Dispatch #13) appeared first on Traveling Archive.