Ken Hensley

"Sunrise Over The Kremlin"

Day 2

Alexander and I had breakfast and prepared for the first event of the day, a private guided tour of The Kremlin. This meant of course that I would add to the numbers of foreigners in the queue! I overheard people from the UK and the US and saw a lot of visitors from Asia, though I was unable to define their exact origin and am not prepared to guess.

It also meant that I met Marina for the first time and I was instantly happy that she would be the one helping me to understand and to communicate. She's a real pro and a delight to be around. I am sure we will work together a lot in the future.

Boris, our guide, is a teacher of history and an expert on things to do with The Church and this is important when you get to see inside the Kremlin complex. It started as a fortress on a hill close to the Moscow River and the city was founded here.

Over time The Church built around it and now there are many churches there, all dedicated to various purposes and people from history.

It is fascinating and well worth a visit.

After this we went back to the hotel to collect our luggage and set off for Father Sergij's church. Father Sergij is a big fan and he and a lot of his fellow priests and co-workers were waiting for us when we got there.

Among them, there were many fans of Uriah Heep and my music and of western rock in general and it seems they had depended a lot on pirate radio and bootleg cassettes during the years when this music was forbidden.

By now I have heard many stories about this repression and they are all quite fascinating. Compelling, frightening and, now, victorious.

We sat down to a huge table of food prepared by the sisters in the convent attached to the church and then began a series of wonderful conversations, during which it struck me how much they knew about and loved rock music and how unlikely a meeting like this would be in so many churches where rock music is condemned as an instrument of the devil, which of course is quite ridiculous.

IF HE IS ALLOWED TO, the devil uses anyone and anything for his destructive purposes, even the people who condemn rock music!

After many photos and much too soon, the time came for us to begin the journey to Lake Seliger.

I had enjoyed this moment very much and look forward to the day when I can come back to this place and to these wonderful people. And I am very thankful to Marina who did a great job and had to work so hard translating that she didn´t have a chance to eat anything!

The van was spacious and fairly comfortable until we hit the dreadful roads that pollute the otherwise pretty Russian countryside.

Then it became an endurance test and I didn't handle that very well. Finding a bathroom was practically impossible and coffee? Almost out of the question! But everyone was working hard to make it as bearable as possible and I was grateful for that.

This five-hour ride slowly became six and then more so I was very grateful to see the camp site where the concert will take place tomorrow, weather permitting! The area is a complex of large and small lakes with islands dotted around and we had to take a boat to get to the island where my cottage was.

This was different and our island was pretty. The cottage was very big and the people very warm and friendly. But it was late and I was tired and cranky so there was time to move in, have a quick snack (accompanied by a tame and friendly red fox…. see photo) and get to bed.

The attempts to provide me with an internet connection were strenuous and well-intentioned but, ultimately futile…. A bit frustrating for all concerned actually.

I was a bit disappointed by my own attitude regarding this…. it needs work!