More Pictures from Moscow!

Day two and day three in Moscow were pretty fun. The weather was mostly good. I think it did rain a little on day two, but only in the morning. The fall colors were still present and enjoyable for us to see. Brian and I have a friend who we met last year that took us out to two different parks to see the sites. The first park we went to is called, Tsaritsyno Park. This beautiful palace was first built in 1776 for Catherine the Great. But for some reason she had it partially torn down in 1786. So, it remained unfinished until 2007 when the Russian government decided to finish it. The palace and surrounding property is very beautiful! I think we were a little disappointed with how new the building was though. 

This next building is much older, built in 1532 by an Italian architect; The Church of the Ascension is set up on a hill overlooking a section of the city. 

Next up, back to Red Square:

Built in the middle of the 12th century, Ivan the Terrible cut people's heads off to show what happens when they opposed the Tsar.  I tried to get Brian to jump over the fence and put his head down on the block for a good picture, but he wouldn't do it. Next time maybe. :)

Here it is from a different angle. It is right in Red Square, next to one of our favorite buildings. 

Mom and I. 

The FSB (formally know as KGB) building. Like the American CIA. 

The Gulag Museum

Who knows what the Gulag is? Thanks to Brad Christensen, we went to this wonderful museum. Our guide spoke all in Russian, so Brian had his work cut out for him as an interpreter. This is a museum for all the Soviet forced labor camps that came about in the Stalin era, 1930's-1950's. MILLIONS of people were sent to these camps that were all over Russia at the time. Convicts, political prisoners and petty criminals were some who were sent to these camps. Unfortunately, many people were sent here for silly reasons, like jokes about the Soviet Government. They say more than half the people sent didn't even have a trial. 

Miserable camps, some people spent 20 years in these camps, if they didn't die. Approximately 14 million people passed through the labor camps. A few even became present day cities after the camps were closed and shut down. Some of the ex-prisoners had no where to go, so the prison camp became their city!

Mom, sitting on a typical gulag bed. 

Moscow completed! Onward to Saint Petersburg on the night train. We squeezed into our upper bunks and attempted to sleep the night away.