Wednesday September 1, 2010: Russian River Cruise, week 1

The following is a brief narrative on the first week of Bob and Nancy's two week Russian River Cruise between Moscow and St Petersburg. It was a great trip and I will only hit the highlights.

Wednesday: September 1, 2010: We slept in today so that we would be well rested for our big adventure. We loaded up the Taurus with our baggage and Ms P's baggage. Ms P will be staying with Missy while we are gone. In fact, if Ms P behaves she might stay in Ohio. We leave home about 1000 and our first stop is Dunkin Donuts for coffee and, of course, donuts. The trip to Lakewood was uneventful. Missy and AJ gave us a warm welcome. We all went out for dinner at a local pub. It was another early night for Bob and Nancy.

Thursday: September 2 our big travel day. Our flight leaves for Dulles in Washington at noon. Missy gets us to the airport by 1000. The flight to Dulles was smooth. Our next leg is a flight from Dulles direct to Moscow. As we were boarding the plane the ticket taker stopped us to announce a change of plans. Because of overbooking in Economy Class we are being upgraded to Business Class. Surprise! Surprise!. The stewardess greets us with a glass of champagne. It is a great way to start a flight. The Business Class seats are great. You can actually sleep in a horizontal position. The only way to travel.

Friday: September 3. We arrived in Moscow about 1100 local time, Friday, September 3. It took awhile to get our passports checked but when we finally cleared this hurdle a Grand Circle rep met us and would get our bags and deliver us to the boat. There was only one other couple on our flight so we rode to the boat in a small van. It was about an hour ride to the boat from the airport. My first impression of Moscow was that their infrastructure was well maintained and all the bridges I saw looked new. Our boat was moored at a quay on the Moscow River. The boat was named the Tikhi Don and on our cruise would be 200 passengers and 100 crew members. The boat was 410 feet long and 52 feet wide. It had five decks and it drew only 9 feet. Our room 235, was small but well laid out. We had plenty of room to store our belongings. The weather when we arrived was cloudy and cool, 54⁰, and wet. (For comparison it was 94⁰when we left Ohio.)
At 1730 we attended a Ship and Safety Briefing and at 1900 we had a light dinner. Nancy and I turned in early.

Saturday September 4, 2010: Weather, 44L, 54H, Mostly sunny: This is our first full day. We start each day with a breakfast buffet. It is a great buffet. We have a selection of fruits, breads and cereal. Every day scrambled eggs are available. I especially liked the porridge (oatmeal) and pancakes with a fruit sauce. The coffee was American style. After breakfast we went on a bus tour of Moscow. The bus tour gave us a feeling for the city.

Our first stop on the tour was a cemetery where a lot of famous Russians are buried. We saw the burial memorial to Nikita Khrushchev and Mikhail Gorbachev's wife. Famous authors, poets, artists and musicians all had very elaborate sites. The sites were very small but this cemetery was not like any I have seen in the states. After the cemetery tours we drove around Moscow looking at the sites and then stopped for lunch along a pedestrian mall. This was the only time we had to buy lunch. After lunch we went to the main Metro terminal. We took a short ride on Moscow's famous subway. The terminals we stopped at were beautiful. They were well maintained and the lighting was great. The escalator ride into and out of the terminal was fun. The escalator's are very fast and steep. In fact the Moscow subway is very deep and so the need for speed.

At 1900 dinner was served. Dinner is a sit down affair and consists of appetizer, soup, Entrees and dessert. We had a glass of wine at all dinners. I had the pan fried fish and Nancy had the chicken skewer. The soups on our trip were excellent. We had soup two times each day and we never had a repeat. Dessert was an apple crumble with ice cream.
The 200 passengers on our tour are organized into groups of 36. We were the orange group with an English speaking program director. Our program director was a college instructor from Tula, Russia. His name was Sergi. We had a great group and Nancy and I got to know most of the folks.

Nancy and I were tired so we headed to bed early. Our bus tour today gave us a feel for Moscow. My first impression was how many waterways Moscow had. We saw water taxis and small tour boats everywhere.

Sunday September 5, 2010: Weather, 52L, 60H, Partly cloudy: Nancy and I are getting into the routine. Breakfast is a 0700 and we are always on time. Today we continue the Moscow city tour. We visit St Basil's church and it is spectacular. The bus stops at several other venues so we may take pictures. Lunch is onboard the boat and I select the soup, of course, a cheeseburger and dessert.

In the afternoon three WWII veteran were onboard to discuss their experiences during the war. The Russians refer to WWII as the "Great Patriotic War". The USSR lost 27,000,000 during this war. It was especially brutal on both sides. It was interesting to hear the stories of the veterans, two men and 1 woman. They were all in their mid 80s and very alert and articulate.

A circus show was scheduled for tonight but was postponed until Monday because of a big celebration in downtown Moscow.


Monday, September 6, 2010: Weather, 53L, 65H, mostly sunny: I was first in line for breakfast. Today is our last full day in Moscow. We get in our tour bus at 1000 and head for a tour of both the Armory and Kremlin. Our first stop is the Armory a museum/art gallery. After the Armory we have lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The afternoon includes a tour of the Kremlin. I enjoyed the tour of the Kremlin. We visited several churches within the walls of the Kremlin.

Tonight we are going to a Circus Show and so we have a light dinner at 1645. The Circus was very entertaining. A lot of the acts reminded me of the old Ed Sullivan show where he would bring circus acts from Europe. After the show a dinner was served but Nancy and I went to bed instead.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010: Weather, 52L, 65H, Partly cloudy: Today Nancy and I signed up for a tour of the Tretakow Gallery. The gallery contained works of Russian artists.

When we went on all the tours we were provided with electronic receivers and earphones. This was a nice innovation because we could hear the guide without having to crowd together.

After lunch on board the boat, we cast off on our river cruise. The river cruise covers over 1,000 miles. We go through 18 locks and get a good look at wild and scenic Russia. We start on the Moscow River and then go a short distance on the Volga. As we head north we go on a series of manmade reservoirs and we see several impressive hydro electric plants created by impounding several rivers, Sheesna and Kovzha. As a civil engineer I was very impressed with the scope of these projects. All the infrastructure looks well maintained. We also pass through the two largest lakes in Europe, Ladoga Lake and Onega Lake. The waterway had a lot of small freighter and barge traffic. The shores which were nearly always visible were heavily forested. I noted a lot of birch and pine trees.

In the afternoon we had a safety drill and then attended the Captain's Welcome Cocktail hour. The boat had two bars. The dinner was called the Captain's Welcome Dinner.

At 2100 we attended an Accordion concert. Russian folk tunes were played. Every night they had dancing at 2200 but Nancy and I were in bed by 2130.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010: Weather, 52L, 65H, Partly Cloudy: The boat was moving about 6 mph all night and we passed through several locks. Today we are going to stop at the town of Uglich located on the Volga River. Uglich was founded in 937 and today has a population of 37,000. It is 136 river miles from Moscow. Ivan the Terrible used Uglich as his base in the war against the "Golden Horde". We had a walking tour of the city.

Before dinner we had a talk on Russian History. For dinner I had the soup, fish and dessert. There was another music concert at 2100.

Thursday, September 9, 2010: Weather, 43L, 56H, Partly cloudy: We continue to chug along. At 1030 they had a Bloody Mary Happy Hour. I felt obliged to attend.

Today we are making a stop at Goritsy a small village of 600. Goritsy is located 565 river miles from Moscow. There is an optional tour of the "Convent of Resurrection". Nancy and I did not take this tour because we wanted to walk around the village. My first impression of Goritsy was that I am finally seeing a typical Russian rural village. All of the homes were made of wood with corrugated steel roofs. Why corrugated steel was the roof of choice I do not know. Several of the homes were log homes. In fact we saw some folks making a log home. They were using native pine. They used a chain saw to cut the logs to size. This is the first time I saw a rusted car. In Moscow all the cars looked new. The village looked poor. However, every home had a satellite dish. I was surprised that I did not see a snow mobile. After all Goritsy is at the same latitude as Hudson Bay. The major street was paved but all the side streets were dirt. I really enjoyed our walk around this town.

At 1745 they had a Vodka Presentation. We were given a demonstration of how to tell the good vodka from the bad. We started with the lowest rated vodka. A shot was poured and we were told how to drink the vodka like a native. We had three more shots with the last shot being the superior grade vodka. I could tell the difference. However, I think I will stick with beer. The Russian beer was real good. After dinner Nancy and I turned in.

Friday September 10, 2010: Weather, 48L, 62H, partly cloudy: The river cruise continues. Today we are going to visit the village of Kizhi. Kizhi is an island located in Lake Onega. It is 2.5 miles long and 656 yards wide. Lake Onega is the second largest lake in Europe. It is 250 miles from St Petersburg. We had a walking tour of the Village. The island has two large wooden Russian Orthodox churches in addition to centuries old homesteads that we were able to visit. We also saw steam bathhouses. Kizhi is a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE. I really enjoyed our tour and will post some photos soon.

For dinner tonight we had a Ukrainian dinner. We turned in early.