Author Archives: Andrew

Olkhon island, Lake Baikal

Six hours from Irkutsk by local bus and a small ferry ride is Olkhon, the largest island on Lake Baikal. Tell anyone your plans include visiting Olkhon and they’ll ask if you’re staying at Nikita’s Homestead – it seems the two are synonymous – and with good reason as Nikita is widely credited for almost singlehandedly establishing Olkhon as a destination for visitors.

Nikita’s Homestead is on the outskirts of the main Olkhon town of Khuzhir, near the Shaman Rock, which sounds idyllic, and in many ways it is – for us, it was so nice not to have to think about shopping, cooking and washing up as all the meals are included, plentiful and tasty. Our spacious room was cosy and quiet, and there was always someone eager to strike up a conversation and share their wonderful (and sometimes scary!) travelling tales.

The food at Nikita’s. Clockwise: Breakfast of pancakes, porridge, fried eggs and tea; Lunch of two courses, soup or salad with grilled or fried fish (and this time with spaghetti), and tea; Dinner of beetroot and carrot salad with fish, pasta with giant meatball and lots more tea

Unfortunately, and it may just be that we were there early in the season and the cogs of tourism had yet to start turning, we felt Nikita’s suffered from a lack of organisation and openness. Literally in some instances – timetables said things should be open and they weren’t. Sadly, there was little orientation, description or explanation upon arrival, and while the excellent staff on reception answered our questions, sometimes you just don’t know to ask. For example, we didn’t know there were laundry services until 3 days in, and even after asking 2 different people we still couldn’t find the library! Minor criticisms aside, we had a great time there.

Excursion to the northern tip of Olkhon

Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads

We thought the bus to get to Olkhon was bumpy, but that was just the prelude to what we later nicknamed the “Russian Rollercoaster” – the trip from Khuzir to the northern tip of Olkhon island in a UAZ-452 Russian van.
The day trip takes in a number of stops up the western coast of the island, including Crocodile Rock, a human-like face in the cliffs of the mainland, and the site of an old fish processing gulag that continued to operate after prisoners stopped serving time there.

Western coastline of Olkhon. Clockwise: “Crocodile Rock”, The “Face of the Island” on the opposite shore, Old jetty outside a now dismantled gulag fish processing factory, Julie and “The 3 Brothers”, the view south from “The Three Brothers”, and Andrew testing his nerves on a natural window in the rock

At Khoboy Peninsular, the most northerly point, you’re afforded wonderful views from the cliff-tops of the lake and the coves below.

Shamanism prayer ribbons at Khoboy Peninsular – the northern-most tip of Olkhon Island, Lake Baikal, Siberia.

While we were taking in the views, our driver had been setting fire to a bucket of fish-soup. Mmm, lunch too!

Olkhon delicacy, “Ukha” (fish soup), server up with cheese sarnies, tea, and lots of sweet biscuits

The return journey takes in the little village of Uzury which is the only village on the east coast, has only solar power, and is home to weather and seismic stations, and Mount Zhima, the highest point on the island at 1274m.

A trek and a dip

It is said that swimming in Lake Baikal adds 5 years to your life. Given that at the height of summer, the lake reaches a temperature of just 9C, and it wasn’t the height of summer, it took determination and willpower / complete disregard for personal safety* (delete as appropriate) for us to venture into waters that felt like 3 or 4 degrees..

Braving the cold water of Lake Baikal in June – I don’t know why I’m smiling, I can’t feel my feet anymore..

We both waded in, Julie got up to her thighs, and I made the quickest dunk I could to get my head wet. It. Was. Cold.

Good thing it was a lovely day, we had plenty of time to warm through as we trekked back to Khuzir.

Clockwise: One of the many sandy/pebbly beaches on the western shoreline, cows stopping for a drink in the lake, the beach we took a dip from, view through the forest on the way home

Cycling (with a bit of pushing)

One of the guides had recommended taking bikes through the forest to the eastern coast of the island, and we thought that would be a good idea – we’ve already cycled around lake Shartash when we were in Yekaterinburg.

We hired our bikes in Khuzir instead of from Nikitas (as they were almost half the price), but they were insistent we took a southerly looping route via small lakeside lake (!) on the western coast. Armed with a small laminated satellite map with our route clearly marked in fluorescent yellow, we headed off in the prescribed south-easterly direction to the inconspicuously named ‘view point’. Now, had we stopped to think what that meant, we would have realised that view points typically look out over a vista, which implies height. Starting from the village, that meant uphill. A lot of uphill..

Even in the lowest gear, some parts were tough going. In the end we both resorted to getting off and pushing.

We made it to the viewpoint, and stopped for a much needed rest. The view wasn’t too bad either..

Panorama of Khuzir, Olkhon island, Lake Baikal, Siberia

The next section was uphill too and we started to think we wouldn’t make it round in the described 6 hours, but shortly thereafter we hit a lengthy downhill section and the fun began – yeehaw!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imr7VFLxHBg]Not quite brave enough to freewheel it all..

The lake was just past the halfway point, and the last part consisted of the undulating main ferry road back to Khuzir. Despite it being the main road, the traffic was sparse which meant we could use the smoothest part, but at times the smoothest part was bumpier than a cattle grid designed for elephants.

Spotting a marmot-like creature in the verge, I tried to stop my bike to take a closer look, and forgetting that the front brake was a lot better than the back, I locked up the front wheel on the sandy-gravel road, which immediately skidded out from under me, sending me knee-first into the ground. With a small tear in my trousers and and a smaller scrape on my knee, I dusted myself off more embarrassed than injured, how long have I been riding bikes?!

Despite my little stumble, the bikes passed an impressive multi-point inspection by a young version of the censoring twins from the movie Good Morning Vietnam. We checked our watch – we’d made good time, 5 hours and 30 minutes. Probably not the fastest, but not the slowest either :o)

Severobaikalsk Round Up

5 Replies

Severobaikalsk is at the northern tip of Lake Baikal – the oldest and deepest lake in the World. Our guidebook says that if all the rest of the world’s drinking water ran out tomorrow, Lake Baikal could supply the entire population of the planet for the next 40 years.

Our feet in Lake Baikal. The water is safe to drink, but maybe not the bit we’ve just stepped in..

The town itself is just a little older than us, as it was established to support the construction of the Baikal Amur Mainline (BAM), which is a second, parallel northern line to the Trans-Siberian railway. The town is quite a small place, not particularly pretty to look at, but its dominating, uniform, tiled apartment blocks are specially designed to withstand both permafrost and earthquakes up to 9 on the Richter scale.

Top of the recommendations in our guidebook for staying in Severobaikalsk is the Baikal Trail Hostel, run by the “ultra-helpful, English-speaking Anya” – and their description is spot on. Anya also has quite a connection to Severobaikalsk as we later found out – her parents helped build it and she grew up here: her Mother, Rada, was a bridge engineer, and her Father, Evgeny, worked on the apartment blocks.

Day trip to Baikalskoe

The apartment blocks long complete, Evgeny is now working on a series of trails and walks with the help of volunteers towards the lofty aim of someday encircling the entirety of Lake Baikal.

The little wooden village of Baikalskoe is a 1 hour, bumpy local bus-ride south from Severobaikalsk, and is home to a small jetty and a 14km trail along the undulating western coastline of Lake Baikal.

A cow crosses the main road in Baikalskoe village. The trail heads up the hill beyond the church

The trail contains some lovely wooden sculptures of animals; a cow, reindeer, fox, and after recognising a sable, we thought they were getting quite exotic and we wondered what might be next, a woolly mammoth or dinosaur perhaps? The very next sculpture, I kid you not, was a pterodactyl.

The trail took us up and down, through open field and forest, cliff-top and pebbled beach, each with spectacular views of the countryside and the lake

Us on Cape Ludar, just north of Baikalskoe village

The water is clean enough to drink, and the air must be the cleanest we’ve ever seen as the forest floor is carpeted in various flavours of lichen. I specifically said flavours because there’s a moss-like lichen that reindeer find very tasty!

One of the many lichens

Before we got the return bus, Anya had arranged a traditional fish meal for us with the locally famous Gertrude and her family. Gertrude makes little fish pies that are a lot like pasties, and sells them in the village. They were so good that we think this is the reason she’s so well known. Dinner consisted of freshly made fish soup, fish pie, and homemade berry crumble fingers. Yum. Gertrude and her granddaughter Anya made us feel so welcome in their home.

Cows waiting patiently for the bus back to Severobaikalsk

Trek to the Gulag mica mining camp

Close by Severobaikalsk are a couple of abandoned gulag mining camps. En-route to the northern one, and accompanied by Pavel who discovered it, our guide Rada stopped frequently to point out many of the local monuments to the construction of the town and the railway. After a team of tunnel-builders completed each of the 4 BAM tunnels nearby, they constructed a monument to their achievement and threw a party.

BAM Tunnel monuments, and Julie, Anya and I making silly shapes..

The trek to the gulag camp was overgrown but very pleasant. While the body treks forward, the mind wanders backward, imagining what it must have have felt like to be one of the 200 bourgeoise exiled to Siberian manual labour, walking this very path a lifetime ago.

Only foundations remain of this former mica mining gulag camp

Only foundations remain of the camp’s buildings, the odd pan and mining wagons lie scattered about the place, as if the camp was suddenly liberated, leaving the forest to slowly reclaim what was once a man-made clearing.

Remains of the kitchen building, containing giant pots

After a spot of lunch, the climb continued albeit at a steeper gradient to the mica mines themselves. We visited the entrance to 3 mines, all of them flooded, their entrances collapsed and strewn with small trolleys used to transport the mica.

Mica mine entrances, at one of the gulag camps near Severobaikalsk

Geothermal hot springs

Because of the seismic activity in the area, there are a number of geothermal hot springs and given Julie’s love of saunas, banyas and all things hot, we had to check them out..

Enjoying the (very) hot springs in Goudzhekit

We really enjoyed the springs. The friendly attendant topped up the waters from the source until it got almost too hot to sit in them!

And so to our Severobaikalsk round up..

What photo takes you right back to Severobaikalsk?

When Lake Baikal starts to thaw, it does so in icicle-like shards, which make a distinctive glassy sound as they chink together with movement of the water and the wind.
A couple of weeks before we arrived, a suspected earthquake created a large wave on the lake, which deposited these icicles on the northern shore. It is a very rare spectacle, and one which all the locals came to see and climb!

Us on the ice crystals at the top of Lake Baikal. Photo credit: Rada ;)

Summarise Severobaikalsk in three words.

Deceptive – at first glance, there doesn’t seem a lot to occupy your time with, but after a cup of tea with Anya you will be wishing you had budgeted more days in Severobaikalsk because there are so many varied and interesting things to do
Unspoiled – it’s a small place, with great views of the lake from trails, beaches and cliff-top forests in and around. We didn’t see any other tourists, nor much in the way specifically for them
Railway – built in Soviet times to support the construction of the BAM, the town has that functional, built-to-last quality about it. The only building that stands apart, strangely, is the very modern looking train station!

You really know you’re in Severobaikalsk when…

You think you’ve walked two or three blocks, but really you’ve only walked one – the apartment blocks are numerous and well spaced out.

What one item should you definitely pack when going to Severobaikalsk?

We were there in tick season (May-June), and even if you’ve had the vaccinations, you’re still not 100% safe from catching encephalitis, so anti-tick spray and vigilance are essential if you intend to go trekking.

Yekaterinburg, Russia

Leave a Reply

Yekaterinburg is the fifth largest city in Russia, the third largest in Siberia, and sits on the Europe-Asia border. But it is perhaps most famous as the place where the last Russian Tsar was murdered at the start of the Soviet Revolution in 1917-18.

Yekaterinburg train station

The story of the Romanov’s transportation to Yekaterinburg via Tobolsk, their murder in the basement of the rich merchant’s house they were held in, the disposal of the bodies and their subsequent exhumation, canonisation, and state-funeral in St. Petersburg is lengthy and morbidly fascinating.

The merchant’s house was demolished on orders from Boris Yeltsin in 1976, the then mayor of the city, later to become president of the Soviet Federation. The site is now dominated by the shiny Church on the Blood, dedicated to the Tsar martyrs.

The Church of All-Saints Resplendent on Russian Land (aka Church on the Blood)

This was the second time in a row we’ve hit the jackpot with our accommodation choice through airbnb.com – Irina and her son Igor picked us up from the train station, showed us around their apartment which we’d booked a double room in, then promptly left – we had the whole place to ourselves!

Irina’s spotless apartment in Yekaterinburg

The plans for our first day in Yekaterinburg were somewhat thwarted as the local micro-brewery was closed to visitors for refurbishment, and we couldn’t find our second choice which was a fire-station themed restaurant (!). Instead we had pizza, beer and cake at a cafe called Tchaikovsky. Mmmm, cake :o)

Next we made our way to the Romanov Memorial Church on the Blood, via the Ascension Cathedral opposite, and the striking memorial to the Russians lost in the Afghan war.

Afghan War Memorial in Yekaterinburg. Not your usual depiction of a soldier

The Ascension Cathedral

Church on the Blood – Downstairs is the memorial and history of Tsar Nicholas II and his family

.. Upstairs is a working church, which reportedly contains the most expensive icon ever commissioned

The next day we attempted to get into the largest private collection of precious stones, metals and crystals collected from the Ural region, but despite the Mineralogical museum building being open and the signs outside and in saying it was open, the main museum doors were locked. Thwarted again, we started to wonder if we had overbooked our time in Yekaterinburg as the city seemed to be shut.

After picking up a map from the tourist information office, we spotted that the “QWERTY” art installation was on the way back to our apartment, along the river Iset.

The QWERTY art installation, or the “ЙЦУКЕН” in Russian, as it’s in Cyrillic as well (It might not be “ЙЦУКЕН” – I just made that up..)

There was some cool graffiti on the way home too..

Graffiti along the Iset river

That night we decided to get a little more organised, so we made a list of what we wanted to do, planned our days to try the sights we’d missed again, and asked Irina if we could stay a couple of extra nights.

The next morning we walked the length of Yekaterinburg to the train station which took us about 85 minutes! Tickets in hand, we headed back into the centre and took Irina’s suggestion to visit the viewing platform of the city’s tallest skyscraper – the Vysotsky Tower

Yekaterinburg’s City Pond, from the top of the Vysotsky skyscraper

Speaking of tall things, Yekaterinburg has the worlds tallest unfinished structure – a TV Tower that stands at 220m. They got to half of its intended height before construction was abandoned in the 1990s and after a number of trespassing free-climbers died attempting to climb it, it has been fenced off. It’s visible from almost anywhere in the city.

Yekaterinburg’s abandoned TV Tower

The following day we tried the Mineralogical Museum one last time, and.. it was open!

Urals Mineralogical Museum, worth the perseverance!

The Mineralogical Museum contains raw minerals, crystals and chunks of metals, but also some statues, ornaments and trinkets made from minerals too. We really enjoyed the variety and scale – some of the pieces near the door were really big.

We loved the variety of minerals on display – so many different colours and shapes

While researching, I’d read that the world’s oldest idol is on display in Yekaterinburg. The Shigir Idol, dated 7,500 B.C.E was found in the Urals and what remains of it can be seen here, that is, if you know which of the 4 museums with “History” in their title it is in. I couldn’t find any mention less vague than “a history museum”, so we took a stab at the Icon History museum, and I can tell you the Shigir Idol is NOT among its exhibits.

Still, the Icon History museum was nice for a few reasons; it was small but full of really ornately painted religious icons – so ornate they had magnifying glasses dotted around for closer inspection; it was raining outside, and there was what I can only describe as a church in the style of a doll’s house, which the museum staff took great delight in opening up and showing off.

Yekaterinburg Icon History museum

A little tired of walking, we got up early the next day and headed east of the city centre by tram to the nearby Kamennie Palatki (which means ‘stone tents’) and Lake Shartash, where, after some inventive sign-language that included me saying “ding-ding” and miming the bell on handlebars, we successfully hired a couple of mountain bikes and cycled it’s 12.5km circumference.

The Kamennie Palatki were formed by volcanic eruption, and afford a lovely view over the park with bits of the city visible over the tops of the trees

View north of the park from the easily climbable Kamennie Palatki

There isn’t a clearly marked cycle-way, but starting at the water’s edge we just kept the lake in sight as we made our way on the various pathways, access roads and muddy tracks. We were surprised at how many lone fishermen lined the shore, most with a rod and net, but some with multiple lines and hideaways, and even one or two in waders!

Lake Shartash, lots of fishermen, and stopped for lunch

That night, two German guys arrived to share the apartment with us. Marcus and Michael found they shared a love of train travel, and had just 3 and half weeks of holiday to get from Moscow to Beijing. The next day, Irina had arranged to take the four of us to see a couple of the famous sights.

First, she drove us to the official Europe-Asia border monument

Julie, Irina, Michael, Marcus and I straddling the west-east divide

Irina translated the plaques on the monument – it contains stone quarried from each continent, and the European side is from Italy. There’s also a ceremonial area at the site where couples come to get married.

From there we went to Ganina Yama which used to be an abandoned mine, and is the site where the bodies of the murdered Tsar Nicholas II and his family were taken to be disposed of in 1918. Today the site resembles an outdoor museum of churches – there are beautiful churches, shrines and statues every few paces located in a secluded, fenced off area of woodland.

The highlight for me was the covered walkway around the series of pits where the bodies were found. We were fortunate that it wasn’t busy, so we had time and tranquility to reflect.

Covered walkway at Ganina Yama, site of the Romanov’s disposal

Spires, Julie and Michael in contemplation, statue of the Romanov children who were also murdered, my favourite of the churches as it has lots of outdoor staircases and balconies

Irina dropped the 4 of us in the centre on her way to work, and it was our turn to be tour-guides for our new found German friends as we showed them the sights. We had a great time chatting with Marcus and Michael – Marcus in particular has a very witty sense of humour :o) – and it was a perfect end to our time in Yekaterinburg.

Bolshoi Theatre Tour

Leave a Reply

The Bolshoi ballet company is world renowned. The company tour during the summer months, which meant that there was a good chance they’d be performing at their home theatre while we were in Moscow. As you would expect, most of the tickets were booked over a fortnight ahead, and although we can go a little over our daily budget, most of the tickets were still north of £100. Each. Ouch.

Given that neither of us know anything about ballet (OK, I know there are mirrors, tutu’s and pirouette’s, but that’s about it), we didn’t think we’d fully appreciate what it would cost us, despite being tempted by the performance of Romeo and Juliet. We’d read that it’s possible to get tickets at the last minute from touts keen to make any money back on the night of performances, but decided against it as we weren’t confident we had the right clothing even if we scored a couple of cheap seats. And it’d be very unlikely we’d end up sitting together.

Getting in

While investigating tickets, we found out that the Bolshoi does tours three times a week on a first-come, first-served basis. The strictly limited 15 tickets go on sale at 12:00, for a Russian-only tour that starts at 14:30, lasting 90 minutes, and are sold as one ticket per person. We thought we’d get there early, and on arrival at 11:00, there was already a handful of people waiting. A nice Russian lady asked us some questions, and we think we heard some numbers in there, until a Dutch couple translated for us – the group was self-organising, and we had number’s 11 and 12. Excellent.

Queuing outside the Bolshoi for 2 of the 15 tour tickets. The couple to the right sitting down are the friendly Dutch translating organisers!

Our Dutch friends explained the situation to everyone else that turned up, and after there were 15 waiting, most decided to try again another day.. it all seemed quite efficient, that is, until 5 minutes before the ticket door opened. One old lady just walked right into the middle of us crowded around the door, and managed to get in just ahead of us – we’re now 12 and 13.. OK, we’re still good.

The door opened again and the next bunch were allowed in – then a slight and well dressed pensioner wearing too much lipstick at the back of the group shouted protestations at the guard and thrust an official-looking card at him. It transpires that war veterans can queue jump, she’d only been waiting 10 minutes! We got in just behind Mrs Veteran, as 13 and 14 – a definite case of Russian queuing.

The Tour

We bought our ticket in the foyer and the tour began immediately – contrary to the information we’d read. And what a first impression the foyer makes:

White walls, white marble staircases with gold relief and red carpets for the stairs. Elegant and sophisticated

I can’t tell you much about the tour itself, as it was in Russian. Instead, here are some more pictures..

Foyer for the belle-etage

The tour included several rooms off the wings of the main theatre, which contained photographs and costumes of past performances

From the first floor we took the lifts to the top floor and were asked to keep very quiet as rehearsals were on in the main theatre.. yay! we’re going into the Bolshoi theatre!

View from the 4th floor balcony, Main stage, Bolshoi Theatre

One of the women in our tour group started doing a little bit of translation into English for us and the Dutch couple. The main chandelier used to hold candles, and was lowered to the stalls before performances to be lit, but the dripping wax became a problem so they installed a net underneath, but that obscured the view from the 4th floor balcony!

Delighted at being able to see the main stage (as sometimes it’s not possible during the tour), we then went through one of the refreshments bars to a staircase on the western side of the building – wait! There’s an upstairs?

Directly above the main stage is an exact replica of the stage itself and the orchestra pit. There are only about 10 rows of seats, but all other dimensions, mechanics and materials are the same. We were allowed to wander briefly onto the stage, and when the tour guide led the group back downstairs Mrs Dutch and I quickly snuck behind the stage for a peek!

The main practice stage and orchestra pit, which is above the main Bolshoi performance stage

The tour continued downstairs, and we found the main 1st floor foyer filled with TV cameras for some sort of press conference:

Interview inside the Bolshoi. Do you know who this is?

The old banqueting hall, which was used to entertain VIPs. To the west of the main stage on the first floor. That’s our tour guide in the middle of the picture

Just before we thought the tour would end, our guide checked the main theatre again and said it was OK for us to sit in on the rehearsals for a few minutes – this time on the ground floor in the amphitheatre at the back of the stalls!

Bolshoi rehearsals. Wonderful organ music recital

Close-up of the organ rehearsals

The ceiling in the Bolshoi’s main stage – stunning

The tour is definitely worth your time if you can get to the Bolshoi on a Monday, Wednesday or Friday no later than 11am, and don’t mind a bit of Russian queuing (or “pushing in”, as we British call it) when the doors open for tickets at 12:00.

Moscow Kremlin

Leave a Reply

I’m sure you’ve heard of the Moscow Kremlin. I hadn’t realised before we started planning our little trip that the word “Kremlin” actually means fortress, and isn’t just the exclusive moniker for the most famous of them.

The Moscow Kremlin is the centre of Moscow, and we were surprised to find that all of the places Moscow is famous for are either a block away, right next to, or actually inside the Kremlin walls themselves.

The Moscow Kremlin, viewed from the footbridge over the Moskva River. The white and gold building in the centre is the Grand Kremlin Palace, and the golden domes belong to Cathedrals and Bell Tower

We arrived in Moscow a week or so before the Victory Day celebrations, to find most of Red Square – which is the long, cobbled space outside the east wall of the of the Kremlin – closed for the massive military parade preparations. After a short walk around the outside of the magnificent St Basil’s Cathedral which is in Red Square, and the impressive and expensive ГУМ (pronounced “Goom”) shopping arcade adjacent, we decided to return a few days later when we could spend a full day in the Kremlin.

Our first evening in Moscow, outside the magnificent St Basil’s Cathedral

St Basil’s Cathedral from the Red Square side, and the one-time exclusive ГУМ shopping centre

Our guide book states of visiting “[the Kremlin] .. may be partly or completely closed without warning if there are VIP visitors”. Unknown to us and the 80-odd people stood at the ticket offices at 1pm that John Kerry, the USA Secretary of State was inside. Not only was there no warning, but there wasn’t any notification on the ticket offices at all – not even in Russian! The Kremlin was simply shut.

Moscow Kremlin ticket offices – closed. The queues kept moving, but it was because people were giving up!

We tried again the next day and.. sunshine and success!

The aptly named Cathedral Square in the centre of the Moscow Kremlin. Left to right: The Assumption Cathedral, Ivan the Great Bell-Tower & the Assumption Belfry & the Filaret’s extension, The Archangel’s Cathedral

There’s strict security to get inside the walls (as one would expect) and there are uniformed guards at every corner ready to blow a whistle at you if you stray off the designated path, but it’s so worth the visit. Cathedral square is stunning. The interior is elevated to the height of the walls which adds to both the view, and the feeling of safety and superiority as you look out over the Moskva river and the southern Moscow skyline.

Entranceway into The Archangel’s Cathedral

Unfortunately we don’t have any internal pictures of the Cathedrals as photography isn’t allowed.

Main entranceway into The Assumption Cathedral

As well as the amazing Cathedrals, there are two massive Tsar artefacts in the Kremlin grounds:

The Tsar-Cannon – never fired in battle, and apparently only ever fired once

The Tsar-Bell – damaged in a fire in 1737 before it was finished

After a quick stroll in the secret gardens (which aren’t so secret as you now know about them), we were ushered out of the Kremlin as it closes promptly at 6pm.. not before I noticed the empty guard boxes on the way out..

The Kremlin Armoury

We wanted to visit the Kremlin again, this time to see the Armoury Chamber – a purpose-built museum to house the riches of the Tsars. Getting tickets was easy, but they’re for timed “seances” of two hours in duration. We arrived at the gate about 10 minutes past the start of our allotted “seance”, to find an extremely slow-moving queue of one security gate at the southern Kremlin entrance, compared to the 8 or so for the main western one. 40 minutes later with half our allocation spent on queuing, we were in.

Third queue of the day – almost inside the Armoury!

On the positive side, the excellent audio-guide is included in the price, and for all we thought we would get rounded up at 11:30, our fears were unfounded and we were able to walk back through some of the rooms and re-visit their vast collections, ignoring the time constraints.

We agreed that this is the best, most well-laid out collection we’ve ever visited because of its size, variety of the collections, and for me at least, the way the exhibition differs room-to-room. For example, the first room contains religious iconography with intricate gold thread and jewels. The next contains weaponry: rifles, duelling pistols, swords and armour gifted to the Tsars and created by the craftsmen of the Armoury, and so on it goes, every room is something new and a change from the last which keeps the interest piqued.

The Kremlin Armoury (photo credit: thefrenchblue.com)

As part of the Armoury’s collection are 10 Fabergé eggs. Some of them were on loan when we visited, and it would have been thoughtful had they put a photo in their place – especially as the audio guide described two of the ones on loan! I didn’t know that they were made to order, some taking two years to make, and contain a secret inside that was relevant to the intended recipient. We’d have loved to have seen the Trans-Siberian Railway Fabergé egg!

The Trans-Siberian Fabergé Egg – with working miniature train! (photo credit: wikipedia.org)

The Kremlin Diamond Fund

After leaving the Armoury and the Kremlin for a spot of lunch, we queued again to catch the first afternoon “seance” of the Kremlin’s Diamond Fund.
We’d read plenty of information of how you actually get to it, and it all seemed a little complicated – indeed it is..
The Diamond Fund is in the Armoury museum building, but it’s managed by a different government department to the Armoury which means the tickets can only be bought once you’re inside. To get into the Armoury you either need an Armoury ticket or you can just say the Moscow Kremlin equivalent of open sesame.. “Diamond Fund”. This not only got us into the building, but past the ticket gates too – if you didn’t want the audio guide (and you had the front to try it), you could visit the Armoury for free! – up the stairs and en-route is the Diamond Fund entrance and ticket desk. There’s a small waiting area and despite queuing outside for half-an-hour past the stated opening time to get in we’d timed it perfectly.

The Diamond Fund has even tighter security – no cameras, phones, or bags are allowed and there’s an extra security checkpoint just before the entrance which feels like you’re stepping into a posh bank vault.

Oh but inside.. Wow! The darkened rooms accentuate the sparkling wealth on show. The first display cases contain un-cut diamonds grouped by size and colour, arranged in tubes about the size of toilet rolls, maybe 15 or so tubes per case and easily 40+ diamonds in a tube.

As you progress though the first of the two rooms, the diamonds get bigger and there are cut diamonds alongside other precious stones; rubies, emeralds, and sapphires – including the world’s largest sapphire.

In the centre of the room is a large square cabinet containing gold nuggets found in the mines of Siberia. Most are larger than your hand, and there are 3 Russian stamped gold bars on display too.

The Orlov Diamond (Photo credit: Elkan Wijnberg; http://commons.wikimedia.org; www.adin.be)

The second room contains intricate, ornate, and elaborate jewellery, including the massive Orlov Diamond, gifted by Count Grigory Orlov to Catherine the Great in the 18th Century, and believed to have been originally found in India, then subsequently stolen from a Hindu statue in 1750 by a deserter from the French army. Seeing it reminded me of the line from the movie Snatch: “Frankie four-fingers has a diamond the size of a fist” – it’s about the same size!

The two Kremlin museums are quite expensive to visit at ~£14 and ~£10 each respectively, but we thought they were worth it given the collections on display.

two year trip

Andrew and Julie's Travelling Adventures

Author Archives: Andrew

Olkhon island, Lake Baikal

Excursion to the northern tip of Olkhon

A trek and a dip

Cycling (with a bit of pushing)

Severobaikalsk Round Up

Day trip to Baikalskoe

Trek to the Gulag mica mining camp

Geothermal hot springs

What photo takes you right back to Severobaikalsk?

Summarise Severobaikalsk in three words.

You really know you’re in Severobaikalsk when…

What one item should you definitely pack when going to Severobaikalsk?

Yekaterinburg, Russia

Bolshoi Theatre Tour

Getting in

The Tour

Moscow Kremlin

The Kremlin Armoury

The Kremlin Diamond Fund