Bond James Bond

So yesterday we visited the Kremlin. With scary machine gun armed guards on one side and a bunch of fifteen century cathedrals on the other it promised to be something truly special. Sadly it wasn't. Not quite Pissweak World it's certainly been the biggest disappointment since we left St. Petersburg.

While it's totally impressive walking down the road towards Red Square with its multiplicity of spires rising up over the very cool walls inside its a collection of okay churches and a museum that you really need a guide to talk you through and me and Katie skipped out on the guide. The temples were okay with your usual assortment of gilted frescoes and dizzying spires but maybe we're just suffering from temple fatigue. The Church of the Assumption was definitely a highlight though.

And the grounds looked quite beautiful covered in fresh white snow. And we did see the world's biggest bell which was cracked before it was even tolled. Apparently it court fire and some well meaning firemen tossed water on it and cracked it.

For lunch we headed over to GUM, the Soviet department store, that is now a massive repository for some of the flashiest brands in the world. It's actually quite a beautiful department store. Then after lunch and window shopping we headed over to St. Basil's to check out the beautiful church.

Like all the beautiful Russian Orthodox churches it's got the onion domes on top only these are, along with the Church of the Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, some of the most brightly coloured ones. Framing one edge of Red Square it looks magical. Inside there are beautiful inconistasis as well as a few cool little passageways left over, I guess, from the church's original life.

We finished the day off window shopping at a three story underground mall beneath Red Square. Communism is well and truly dead.