Russia 2015: A Day on Red Square and Its Environs

Today was a later start. We met Dan at 10:00 and that was handy since my luggage was delivered at 2:30 a.m. and it rather interrupted my sleep cycle. :) So today we toured a small monastery, the Kazan Cathedral, a tiny bakery, St. Basil's, GUM, the Kremlin and believe it or not we stopped for an evening snack at Russian Krispy Kreme.

Haley has made it official. Russia (Moscow) is now her favorite place she has ever been! She is her mother's daughter for sure. I hope the pictures below convey the beauty of this country.

This is the Arbat Metro stop. Again, the architecture is gorgeous. Dan does such a good job of teaching us. It was really hard to say goodbye to him today. Hopefully someday he will come to Tennessee with his family.

This Metro stop shows Russian life in a positive light. Of course I had to take of picture of the boy and girl studying geography. :)

It is good luck to rub the nose of the dog. Haley had a hard time even touching it because of germs...forget about rubbing it.

This was a print shop back in 1564. It printed the first book in Russia. The facade was gorgeous.

Plaque tells the history of the building. Many of these old building were destroyed under Stalin, but today some are being restored.

We visited this small church and monastery. The bell tower has been restored. The inside of the church was so beautiful but pictures were not allowed and we even had to borrow head scarves.

We learned today that GUM has a store just for kids.

The street dividing GUM: Children's store from Adult store. I bet it is pretty at night when the lights are on.

This is an antique Volga, Russian national car.

Guess what: Russia has a Krispy Kreme and it is good!!! We stopped her later....at the end of the day.,

Tim, Dan and Haley outside the GUM.

Lenin's tomb. It is closed on Friday's so we didn't go inside. Perhaps we will get up in the morning and go see him before we depart for St. Petersburg.

Today we had a tour of St. Basil's. Haley proclaimed at the end that if did not disappoint. We love the painted brinks used in construction.


There are actually 10 chapels that make up St. Basil's. Each dome is an individual chapel. We got to hear Orthodox Christian men singing in the church. The acoustics were perfect.

Below are several pictures of St. Basil's from different views.

The Christ the Redeemer Clock Tower next to the church.

The inside of the church is simply decorated with lots of reds and greens. It is strikingly beautiful.

Ivan the Terrible commissioned the church to honor a local saint named Basil. It was finished in 1588. So glad that Stalin didn't demo this church during the purges!

An area where restoration is occurring.

This is the tomb of St. Basil. It's a bit blurry. :(

This chapel reminds me of the inside of mosques because the decoration is only geometric designs, flowers and vines.

There were plenty of icons in other chapels though.

We love the painted brink.

The icon stand in one of the small chapels.

During the communist years, the icons and other decorations were protected and hidden in monasteries. After 1991, they were returned to their original location.

An icon of Jesus painted on the inside of the highest chapel.

Red Square with the State Museum in the background. We took this picture from a window in St. Basil's.

Tim looking at the Christ the Redeemer Clock Tower.

Haley got to check this off her bucket list. :) Done and done.

Dan teaching the Mynatt's a bit more about the Russian Orthodox faith and the history of this lovely church.

After touring St. Basil's we had lunch on the top floor of the GUM Department Store. Dan and I had middle eastern food. Tim and Haley had pizza and Greek salad. Haley finished up with a caramel and banana crepe. Grayson told her she would starve in Russia. I think she would disagree. We have had great food for every meal.

The obelisk originally had the name of the royal families; Stalin had it recarved with the names of famous communist leaders. Today it has been recarved again to list Russian rulers.

The double-headed eagle is the national symbol of Russia.

After lunch, we began our tour of the Kremlin. It sits on a hill just beside the Moscow River. The Kremlin has been on this site since the 14th century. Today it is the seat of government. It is much bigger inside the walls than you might expect. All of the building have similar architectural style except the Palace of Congresses (below) It is the only modern building.