Outside the Kremlin, Moscow

Once the scene of many great and evil things, the Kremlin today is really just a wall that protects many of the great treasures of the Russian past in one of the world's largest museums. Attacks, revolts, celebrations, cold war planning, the Kremlin has been famously known as ground zero for an American ICBM. Still surrounded by its great red wall, there are 3 public entrances, and several government entrances. Black cars with the famous blue light atop can still be seen coming in and out of the official goverment entrance on the northwest corner.

St. Basily's Cathedral, Moscow

On the very south side of Red Square, the magnificent St. Basily's Cathedral offsets the grey and red stone of the rest of the Kremlin. Certainly my personal favorite, seeing it for the first time made my skin tingle, because I could not believe it was really there.

Used as the model for the palace in Walt Disney's Aladdin, when you first make site of it, you think you're looking at a painting hanging from the sky... no structure in the world has this elaborate and vivid collection of colors. Unfortunately, this time of the year, the sun is still low in the sky, so the best pictures of it have to be from the south, and currently there are many preparations for the May Day parade, which is all being put together in the coblestone parking lot on the south side (hence all the heavy equipment).

Cathedral of Visily the Blessed, Moscow

On the north end of Red Square, the Cathedral of St. Visily the Blessed sits in all its majesty. The refined architecture is unique in all the world. Originally the site of the Church of St. Trinity, as Red Square centuries ago was actually referred to as "Troitskaya Square" or Trinity Square. The church of St. Trinity was demolished in the late 16th Century and replaced with the current cathedral.

Cathedral of Christ The Savior, Moscow

Not the original cathedral, however, from a distance you wouldn't know it. The original cathedtral was blown up in 1931, and the existing one wasn't rebuilt until 1995. The cathedral itself is about 1/2 mile from the southwest end of the Kremlin, and is the high point of the horizon in that direction. The gold tops stick out from pretty much all of Moscow.

Mockba Harley-Davidson, Moscow

You know I had to find one here... quite small in and of itself, this outlet's goal is to sell 200 Harley-Davidson Motorcycles a year. The store itself has 2 floors with about 8 to 10 bikes spread throughout. They had just about every leather jacket you could possibly find in a Harley store, possibly more, and a small (but expensive) collection of t-shirts. They've only been open for one year so far, and have sold 150 bikes (so about 3 a week). V-Rods seem to be the bike of choice over here to compete with all the Honda crotch rockets. I've seen two Hogs about the streets of Moscow so far, one was a Black Pearl Road King, and the other from a distance I'm guessing was a Softail.

Red Square, Moscow

Surrounded by the Kremlin wall to the west, Cathedral of Visiliy to the north, the GUM (Government stores to the east) and St. Basily's Cathedral to the south, Red Square has served as a market place, sites of executions, celebrations and the notorious May Day parades we've all seen in pictures and on TV of the Soviet Union's military might. Mostly now it is just a tourist destination. The Lenin Mausoleum rests in the west center of square, flushed to the Kremlin wall. The entire square is coblestone and is probably 200 meters wide and 500 meters long.