Moscow: Another day, another free tour!

Just wanted to send off a quick post to you as this will be the last one for several days as we head off late tonight for our next leg on the Trans Siberian train, this one to Irkutsk in Siberia. We'll get there on the 28th but it's really only 3 full days on the train as we leave about midnight on the 24th (today for us already here in Moscow) and get to Irkutsk at breakfast time on the 28th. Taking these midnight departures has been a good decision for us b/c it's meant we've had an extra full day to spend in each city before going to bed on the train.

As the blog post suggests, we did another "free" tour y'day; this was by bus though compared to all the others which were walking ones. Interesting to see some of the same sights but from a different perspective, as in a new guide, not just from the bus window, I mean!
Met the tour bus and our guide, Paulina, at Revolution Sq. which was only a few minutes' walk from the hostel, for the 2 1/2 hour; Rev. Sq. is directly across the street from the Bolshoi Theater; we couldn't attend any performances as they were touring somewhere unfortunately.
Moscow was known as the White City b/c so much of it was built using white limestone; it's also the largest city in Europe.
Paulina mentioned that the Kremlin walls had been all white too from the limestone but were painted over in the lovely (to me at least) dark red hue at the beginning of the 20th century b/c red equated communism.
Just above the main gate, there's a beautiful icon that was only discovered in 2010; people knew of its existence for many decades and looked all over Russia and in many other countries for it only to discover it literally under their noses as it had been painted over.
On the tower above the gate, there is now a large red star, again equating communism, which moves in the wind although we didn't see that on our couple of trips there; prior to the star, there had been a 2 headed eagle in its place which had represented the emperors of the past.
Couldn't actually see much of Red Sq. itself as they're in the process of building a massive outdoor stage with stadium seating for a week long concert and military tattoo beginning in 10 days; when we were there a few days ago, we saw an adjacent horseback riding ring with many young riders and stunt riders - the music blaring over the speakers was Nights in White Satin! I could have stayed and watched them for hours but Steven was ready to continue exploring.
Back to y'day's tour again: stopped at one of the pedestrian bridges to see many trees covered with padlocks, each lock painted or inscribed with the couple's names and their wedding date; Steven and I had seen them before on our own marathon walking tour but didn't know the significance until Paulina told us. On Saturdays, she said, it's like a Bridal Parade there with all the brides and grooms stopping to add their locks to the trees.
The tour definitely saved the best for last so we could view Cathedral of Christ the Saviour; I am at a loss for words (I know, that's new for me, you must be thinking!!) trying to describe how incredibly gorgeous it is especially on the inside; we've seen our share of beautiful churches on this trip and before now too but this one was right up there with all the others in our opinion.
A few interesting facts about the history of the church; the massive church we saw was ONLY built over the course of THREE years about 15 years ago - I still cannot believe that.
On that same site before, there had been another Cath. of Christ the Sav. but it was demolished down to the equally massive AND impressive basement in the '30's b/c of the official state policy of atheism; plans were drawn up to build a 100 floor skyscraper (which we saw) but they were scrapped when they lacked the funding.
Eventually the site was used to build the world's largest outdoor swimming pool; Steven swam in the heated pool when he was here 40 some years ago!
We knew in advance we needed to have our knees covered and not to wear any sleeveless tops too; obviously a number of other people on the tour had not read that info as they wore shorts. to their dismay.
No photos could be taken in the Cathedral so I can't whet your appetite with how stunningly beautiful the icons, murals, mosaics and everything else is there. I would still swear that it was built centuries ago b/c of the overwhelming detail everywhere we glanced. Having just 15 minutes to try and appreciate its magnificence was just too short, but tis the nature of a tour, right!
I had read a lot before coming about the beautiful, amazing, overwhelming etc, etc Moscow metro stations who were built as a tribute to "Communist Paradise" according to Paulina and known for their underground art.
After the tour, Steven and I bought 2 tickets, for only 30 rubles or $1 each, to spend a couple of hours seeing the most famous stations. According to the blurb from a page of one of the tour books I had photocopied and brought with us, many of the stations "feature bas reliefs, stucco, mosaics, and chandeliers. Diversity is not their strongest point - generally it's history, war, the happy life of the Soviet people, or all of the above." That may be but still they are truly a sight to behold. Thinking of the dirt, grime, stench and graffiti of the NYC metro stations as we stopped to gaze at these did not make me proud right then of being an American.
Steven's up so I'll post some pictures and say adieu til the next post. Stay well and happy. Love, Annie B.

In front of the Boshoi

Riding to "Nights in White Satin"

Discovered icon on The Kremlin's main gate

Just above the icon

Where's our padlock?!

The tour bus, ya think!

Paulina, our tour guide, holding The Flower so we could always find her in a crowd! We'd seen a gazillion of tours and their guides before this all over SPB and Moscow with each of the guides holding up one of these flower thingies, made out of felt (?). I don't think either of us ever in our wildest dreams or nightmares could have imagined ourselves following a guide with one of these flowers!