| Wednesday's lectures began at 10:00am with a presentation entitled "Medical maintenance of the manned flights at the space station" by V. Bogomolov. |
| This was followed at 11:40 by a lecture entitled "Adaptation of sensory systems to microgravity: Space motion sickness" by I. Kozlovskaya. |
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Red Square
| Then after our lunch break it was onto the bus for our afternoon tour of Red Square and the Kremlin. This picture was taken at 13:53, seven minutes before the sheduled start of the tour. |
| At 14:19 we were still negotiating the Moscow traffic, but there was plenty to look at from the bus, like this splendid example of Stalinist architecture - one of a series which included the Moscow University main building in which I was living. |
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We were off the bus and beside the Kremlin wall at 14:22. The tower near
the centre of the picture is the Alarm Tower whose bell warned of fires
until Catherine the Great had its tongue removed as a "punishment" after
its bell was rung to summon a dangerous mob during the plague riot of
1771. Further to the right is the Tsar's Tower and beyond that the
Saviour Tower, and around the corner from that is Red Square.
The tower which unfortunately is just out of shot on the left is the SS-Constantine-Helena tower which served as the Kremlins torture chamber. |
| Opposite the Alarm Tower is St Basil's Catherdral, in front of which we are met by our guide for the afternoon - whose name I unfortunately can't remember. |
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The gothic spired Savior Tower, whose chimes play the Russian national
anthem.
This was quite a fortuitous image of Ulf's, as neither of us had remembered to set the clocks accurately on our digital cameras, making it initially a little tricky to accurately merge the two sets of images in a correct sequence. However the clock on this kremlin tower is apparently the master clock for all of Russia, so this image allowed be to calculate the exact correction that had to be applied to Ulf's images (32,414 seconds slow, plus or minus about 30 seconds). |
| Further along the Kremlin wall, into the main part of Red Square. The smaller tower near the centre of the picture is the Senate Tower, with Lenin's Mausoleum to its front. The St Nicholas and Corner Arsenal Towers are further along the wall. The building on the other side of the Kremlin wall is the Senate Palace. |
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Here is another image of the Saviour Tower, this time taken with my
camera. I had been able to come up with a reasonable correction for
my time stamps by examining the camera clock on return home, but
this image allowed me to confirm that my calculation of 3,381 seconds
slow was correct.
The name of the tower comes from the white frame just above the gate, which in Tsarist times contained an icon of the Saviour. It was a tradition for those passing through the gate to doff their hats in respect to the icon, and legend has it that when Napoleon rode through without doing so, his horse shied and his hat fell off, thus demonstrating the power of the icon. |
| The north-easterly end of Red Square is bounded by the ornate red Historical Museum, with the Corner Arsenal Tower of the Kremlin wall to its left and the Resurrection gate to its right. |
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| Just time for a quick picture of myself with St Basil's Cathedral in the background. |
| Then at 14:53 it is time to leave Red Square and make our way around toward the Kremlin entrance. |
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| The statue of Marshal Zhukov, situated in front of the historical museum. He is depicted trampling a Nazi battle standard under his horses hooves. |
| At 15:04 we pass through the entrance to the Alexander Gardens which lies along the side of the Kremlin which contains the public entrance in its middle. |
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| Beside the Kremlin wall on the other side of the gate is the tomb of the unknown soldier, along with the eternal flame. |
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On the opposite side of Alexander Gardens to the Kremlin is the roof of
the three story underground shopping complex - The Okhotniy Ryad Mall.
The two merge via a Disney like profusion of statues, fountains and
balustrades.
It is a popular place to eat, drink and generally hang out, and we will be returning to spend some time here after dinner tomorrow night. |
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| It is not unusual in Russia to see people wandering around with monkeys, bears or large snakes. In tourist destinations such as this they are usually making a living from people willing to pay to have their pictures taken with the exotic animals. |
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Ulf standing in front of one of the fountains, with the impressive Central
Exhibition Hall (Tsentralniy Vystavochniy zal) just visible on the left.
The Central Exhibition Hall housed the first modern art exhibition since early Soviet times in 1962, the content of which Khrushchev famously described as "dogshit". I think I have warmed to the Soviet leader after hearing of his skills as an art critic. |
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| At 15:17 - I think our guide was giving us a run down on the history of the Central Exhibition Hall which we were just passing at this point. I only really included this one because it is one of the relatively few that I managed to get into.. |
The Kremlin
| A warning for anyone planning to visit the Kremlin - don't bring bags with you or you will just have to pay to leave them here at the Kremlin Cloakroom. |
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The bridge that we are about to cross leading up to the Trinity
Tower, which is the entrance that admits visitors to the Kremlin.
The eighty metre tower is the tallest of the Kremlin towers. |
| Gathering on the bridge - it looks like our guide is telling Greg to holster his pistol before going over.. |
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| and Risto seems to be having some sort of religious experience.. |
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At 15:47 we are through the main gate (in the background) and evidently
being given some orientation by our guide.
The State Kremlin Palace is just visible on the left, and a corner of the Arsenal is on the right. |
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| Seems a bit pointless having had metal detectors at the entrance to make sure nobody brought in any weapons, when anyone could just walk in and grab one of the cannons lining the walls of the arsenal. |
| The main entrance to the Arsenal.. |
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The Tzar Cannon - I don't know how he got that past the metal detector.
It is one of the largest cannons ever made.
The 40 ton, 890mm barrel was cast in 1586 by Andrei Chokhov. It was intended to defend the Saviour gate, but has never been fired in battle. It was apparently used, however, to fire the ashes of the False Dmitry back toward Poland. |
| The chasis with the lions head beneath the barrel, along with the cannon balls in front, were cast in 1835. The cannon balls are purely decorative, as the cannon was designed to fire stone case-shot. |
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| Through the trees behind the Tzar cannon are the domes of the Cathedral of the Assumption (left) and Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles (right). |
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Another record breaker - the worlds largest bell. The 200 ton Tzar Bell,
which is almost 15 times heavier than Big Ben.
The first (130 ton) version was cast in 1655 at the order or Tsar Alexei and Empress Anna, but it took nineteen years to work out how to lift it into the belfry. Twenty seven years later it fell to the ground and shattered in the fire of 1701. The current bell was cast 30 years later from the remnants of the first, but cracked before it could be raised from its casting pit in 1737 when water was poured onto it after another Kremlin fire. It lay in its casting put for over a century till 1836, when it was excavated and moved to its current site. |
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| Oops - somebody didn't read the 'fragile - do not touch' sign... |
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It wasn't us..
Time to move on to Cathedral Square. |
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| Ulf in Cathedral square, I think taking the picture which appears next.. |
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Entering Cathedral Square at 16:02. In the center of the picture is
the Assumption Cathedral - the oldest and largest church in
Cathedral Square.
From the 16th Century until the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, all of the Russian Grand Princes and Czars were crowned here. |
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| The Cathedral of the Annunciation, built from 1484-1489, was for a long time the main church of Moscow's dukes. It was damaged during the bombardment of the Kremlin in 1917. |
| Ivan the Great Bell Tower, long the tallest structure in Moscow, and said to mark its exact center. |
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The last item on the agenda for our Kremlin visit was a tour of
the Armoury Palace. The visits to the armoury are strictly timed
at 1 hour and 45 minutes, with our visit being the last of the
day extending from 16:30 to 18:15.
Both Ulf and I were very economical with the photography (there was and extra charge for taking photographs) so this one picture taken by Ulf at 17:15 is the only pictorial record that I have of the visit. Unfortunatley I have no idea what it is, but I am sure it was something important. |
An evening in Central Moscow
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At 18:58 we have left the Kremlin and are on Manezhnaya Ploshchad, adjacent
to the norhtern end of Alexander Gardens with Red Square and St Basils
Catherdral in the distance.
Most of our group waited at a nearby bar whilst I went off to locate Kelly. Kelly had not come with us on the tour, so I had arranged to meet him and at a nearby metro station so that he could join us for dinner. |
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| The glass world map dome under which is the three story underground shopping mall Okhotniy Ryad - which proudly boasts at being the most expensive in the world. Shops pay over $3,000 per square metre per month in rent. |
| At 19:44 we had left the bar and were were on our way to locate a suitable dinner venue. |
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| At 23:43 we are making our way back to the University.. |
| At 19 minutes past midnight, we are back home at the main building. |
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