A new tunnel discovered beneath the Kremlin

Well! there we were in Moscow over the Orthodox Christmas holiday. Temperatures had fallen to a record low of minus 28, which had not been recorded in the city at Christmas for 120 years. Many Muscovites were driven indoors, and the men and women trying to sell holiday snacks, and gifts in the stalls around Red Square were having a very hard time of it. Minus 28 is so cold that to get your hands out of your gloves and pocket to take a photograph is almost injurious to health, and it takes ages before the blood is flowing back into your digits. Moscow was looking superb: there was snow on the domes of St Basil's Cathedral, and no one was queuing to see Lenin's tomb. The Moscow River was frozen over, and we were all waddling along like penguins partly to stay upright on icy pavements and partly because we had all our clothes on! Everyone was friendly, and when help was needed, we were willingly assisted. We hugely enjoyed exploring the Moscow Metro, which is a testament to the many who died or were killed building it, and to a commitment to the decorative arts. And talking of tunnels...it was while walking close to the edge of Red Square, beneath the fortress walls of the Kremlin that we came across some workmen fixing a huge trapdoor which was levered open, and showed steps leading who knows where: but surely under the Kremlin.