1 Jul, Mon – We slept until 0700 – first time we got a full
night’s sleep. We ate in the restaurant but didn’t have a big breakfast because
lunch would be early to allow for getting to our included excursion at 1300
(1245 really). At 0900 C.J. and I (and Paula, although we didn’t know it) went
to the second history lesson which covered 1917 to 1985 (Nikolai II to Gorbachev).
After that we
passed a ruined and flooded church (Krokhino) on the bank of the Volga-Baltic
Waterway. The ship docked early at Goritzy and we were able to go ashore to
peruse the row of souvenir stalls. C.J. bought a nice sheer shawl. We
had lunch at 1130 or so and then got ready for our excursion to the
Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery and a school visit. We first drove maybe five
miles to a town where we visited the primary-secondary-senior school – all one
building, class size about 20-25. A student with very good English guided us
 |
| Goritzy Classroom |
around and then all the tour groups gathered in a small auditorium and there
was a short dance demonstration by two young girls. After that there was a
chance to buy some cute souvenir dolls, etc. Then we drove eight miles to the
Kirillo-Belozersky founded by two monks, Ferapont and St. Cyril (not the one who
invented the Cyrillic alphabet in the 9th
century) in 1397. It is
Russia’s largest monastery, or rather seven
 |
| Part of Kirillo-Belozersky |
monasteries within one fortification.
One reason for the monastery’s success was that Ivan the Terrible was a patron
and made large donations. The monastery was closed down by the Bolsheviks in
1924 but was not destroyed and remained open as a museum. The icons we saw in
the museum were well preserved. From there we took the bus through part of the
North Russia National Park (just low trees) and on a gravel road to where the
ship had docked in the tiny port of Kuzino. There was a row of souvenir stalls
with some of the same vendors and C.J. bought a pair of low wool socks from one
of the Goritzy vendors. That puts us just about out of funds so we hope
that we’ll find an ATM in Yaroslavl, our next stop. When we got back to the
ship we all received a glass of “Russian lemonade” which tasted much like sweet
apple juice. After an hour of relaxing, C.J.
attended a live demonstration on
how to prepare Pelmeni (a kind of meat-filled dumpling) in the Pan. Bar with
Chef Leonidas. I continued working on my journal and labelling my photos. Later
we went to dinner with Paula and Stephen and sat in the stern where the noise from the
engines made it too hard to hear the conversation with Maggie and Mike from
England. We did get to order the Pelmeni, but not the handmade ones that C.J.
had helped with at the demo (and received her very own chef’s hat). C.J. had
the shashlik and I had the ahi tuna, sadly neither had very much flavor
compared to other times we had had those dishes. Back at the room, there was a
bit of noise from the Pan. Bar where there was a vodka-tasting event going on,
but nothing that kept us from going to sleep.
2 Jul, Tue – I woke up to go to the bathroom around 0530 and
then stayed up to see the Mother
 |
| Mother Volga Monument |
Volga monument. I first found it on Google
Maps and saw that it was at the tip of the approach to a set of locks. Then
around 0545 we got a wakeup call from Guest Services , which we had asked for
last night. Since we would pass the statue on our starboard, we went out
through our sliding glass door to our veranda and then through another sliding
door to the main upper deck companionway that goes around the outside of the
Pan. Bar. There were a few other people out, but not a crowd. I used my 10x
binoculars to spot the monument, and when we got close we took a bunch of
photos. The lock lowered us down to the Volga River. In a while we passed another
monument on the port, a memorial to the Cosmonauts, “to the conquerors of
space”. I didn’t take a picture because I did not have my camera or phone but
there are images online. C.J. and I waited for the restaurant to open at 0730
before having breakfast. It was one of the best breakfasts because I ordered
two fried eggs and a single slice of French toast. At 0900 we went to a history
presentation by Sasha on the Soviet Union, mostly about Mikhail Gorbachev (and
Perestoika (restructuring),
 |
| Monastery near Tutaev |
Glastnost (openness), Democratization and Acceleration).
Around 1100 we sailed past a scenic town (on both sides of the river connected
by a ferry), Tutaev. It had beautiful churches and a nunnery (photos). Shortly
after 1300 we arrived in Yaroslavl and went ashore. I had a hard time keeping
up with the group since it was right after lunch. We climbed a stairway to
reach the top of the embankment and walked south to the old Governor’s House
(now Museum of Fine Arts) where there was a display of the papier-mache lacquered boxes under several tents. They were very expensive, small boxes costing
in excess of $300. From there it was only a short walk to the Church of Elijah
the Prophet a very-well preserved church built in the 1650s. It has many of its
original frescoes and managed to survive the Soviet era as a museum. It’s
located on a large city plaza called “Red Square” or Sovietskaya Pl. Across the
plaza is the Yaroslavl Region Duma building. Behind the Duma is the modern(1892) chapel of Alexander Nevskiy, a red brick building constructed in the
style of the 17th
 |
| Yaroslavl Bear with Axe (and us) |
century. Our guide, a former head of the Soviet
Intourist agency, left us there for a hour of free time. C.J. and I walked down
the pedestrian shopping street ul. Kirova and got 5000 rubles from an ATM,
then stopped in a café to use the rest rooms [This appears to be perfectly
acceptable in Russia]. We were looking for a bronze bear sculpted holding a
battleaxe that was the mascot of the city, but we missed it and continued
across a street and through a tunnel and then back around the block to Deputatskaya
ul. Some other Viking passengers pointed us in the right direction to find the
bear and we got some photos. Then we went to the city market just down the
street from the Nevskiy Chapel. We bought a bag of dried fruit and candied
ginger, etc. (as if we needed any more food, but the price was good). We
walked through the outdoor part of the market although it had started to rain
lightly. Back at the chapel we went south with our guide passing City Hall and a
church (maybe St. Mikhail). Then we
walked east following the course of the Kotorosl River which flows into the
Volga. We passed a stadium and could see a park and amusement area on an island
in the river. From a Rotunda, we could look down on a planted bed in the shape
of the Yaroslavl bear with an axe. Back to the NW we could see the new
cathedral built just a short time ago by a large donation from a businessman.
The Cathedral of the Assumption (or “Dormition” as the Orthodox call it) was
 |
| War Memorial and new Cathedral |
completed in 2012, replacing a previous church destroyed by Stalin. We were
able to go inside to see the new frescoes and iconostasis. Continuing along through
the park we came to a monument that framed the view of the cathedral, the
Eternal Flames stands between the Memorial to the soldiers of WWII and the
Monument to those lost in the Great Patriotic War – a total of 27 million. We
turned toward the Volga (east) at a tall column crowned by a two-headed eagle
[it may be a memorial to those killed in the White Guard Mutiny or Uprising]
and passed a house that was seen in Dr. Zhivago. We returned to the ship
along the embankment sometime after 1700. We went to the Port Talk by Margo at
1800 to learn about Uglich. Dinner at 1900 with Paula and Stephen and Linda and Mike who
are REAL travelers with lots of interesting stories. Back at our room we got to
bed early again because we were beat from all that walking – C.J.’s fitbit said
6.5 miles.
4 July, Independence Day, Thu – After breakfast we went to an
extended daily briefing which covered disembarkation details as well as the
shore excursions for the next three days in Moscow. Right after that, at 1030,
Vadim, Sasha and Alexandra presented a round table discussion on Russia Today.
During the morning we stopped motoring along the Moscow Canal (connecting Volga
with Moscow R) and anchored for an hour or so across from a zoo park. That was
designed to get us to our mooring location at the right time – shortly before
1300. At noon the restaurant presented a Fourth of July lunch complete with BBQ
ribs, baked beans, corn on the cob and a decorated US flag cake. The ribs were
good. Our shore excursion – a walking tour of the center of Moscow – departed
at 1330. By then the weather had settled on cloudy with an occasional shower
and cool
 |
| Moscow Metro sign |
temperatures. We wore our down jackets and carried our rain parkas. We
took a bus just as far as the top of the hill leading out of the North River
Terminal, then we walked about a kilometer through a park, under the Leningrad
Highway, and along a closed-for-construction park to a small shopping area and
the Reknoy Metro station. We took Metro (much noisier than the St. P Metro) seven
stations to
 |
| Bronze in Dynamo Sta. |
Mayakovskiy station where we got off to look at the marble-clad
walls and mosaic vaulted ceilings. We also took escalators to other stations
or terminals to see the bronze bas-reliefs of Dynamo Station and the white
marble of Teatralnaya. We re-boarded the Metro Green Line train and rode two
stops to Kropotkinskaya Station where we came out at the huge, new (consecrated
in 2000) Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Our group and many other people and
groups walked around the exterior of the Cathedral and went out on a bridge
over the Moscow River for views of the Kremlin, the Cathedral, the monument of
Peter I (the Great), and the Stalin-empire-style Foreign Ministry Building (and
a bunch more that I can’t remember). Next we were allowed into the Cathedral
but photography was not permitted. From there we walked north past the Pushkin
Museum of Fine Arts and the Lenin Library (now renamed to Library of Russian
Federation (?). Then we walked through a park that abutted the west walls of the
Kremlin and the Arsenal and passed the silent and rigid guards at the Memorial
to the Heroes of the Great Patriotic War (and others?) with its eternal flame.
Just beyond that we could see the equestrian statue of Marshal Zhukov and in
the distance the glass dome-topped Hotel Metropole. Turning right we climbed a
cobblestone road to the entrance to Red (“beautiful”?) Square. We may have come
in through the Resurrection Gate (?). On our left was the huge expanse of the
GUM (goom) department store, and on the right was the Senat Building and the
Presidential Palace (name?) with Lenin’s tomb in the foreground. St. Basil’s
Cathedral appeared little by little as it was downhill from where we stood. Our
guide took us to the SW corner of GUM and told us to meet in 70 minutes. Then
she said there was ice cream in the department store so we followed her in and
stopped at the first ice cream stand where we bought one machine-scooped cone (100R)
and ate it as we wandered through the hallways lined with expensive
internationally-known stores. We exited at the far end on the decorated
Nikolskaya and spotted President Putin sitting on a bench outside!
A second
glance noted that he was sitting next to Comrade Stalin – another photo op scam.
C.J. and I went down to St. Basils and walked around the building; our guides
had told us that the interior was not worth waiting in line to buy tickets.
After a quick bathroom break (free!) we joined the rest of the group. We walked
downhill to where our bus was parked. It wasn’t a long drive to the Writers
Club Theater but there was plenty of time to eat our box lunch as traffic was
heavy. We drove right by the US Embassy but there wasn’t anything special to
see. There was a bit of a wait to get into the hall, but the wait was worth it
because the small Russian folk orchestra was excellent and individual
performances were stellar. Everyone enjoyed the old guy dressed in bright red
folksy clothes who could make music on just about anything, including a saw.
There were also dance numbers as well as solos by balalaika, domra and
accordion players. C.J. had a moment of panic when she thought her hearing aid
had slipped out of her ear. We couldn’t find it even using Stephen’s mobile
phone flashlight. We left around 2030
and C.J. found her aid on the bus in her pack. She had taken it out so that the
“Whisper” fit in her ear. We didn’t get back to the ship until 2130 due to the
extended rush hour. But the restaurant had held up dinner and we were able to
eat again. Just what we needed – more food.
5 Jul, Fri – C.J. and I had nothing scheduled until the
Moscow by Night excursion at 2130, so we ate breakfast with Stephen in the
restaurant. He and Paula were going on the excursion to the Jewish Museum. We
decided to take a walk in the nearby park. We found a different route through
the woods and gardens to Leningrad HWY, crossed under it and followed the
sidewalk around the other side of the park to the Recknoy Metro station. We
checked out a market with many different food stores (like the one across from
our hotel in Barcelona). Then we started walking along the edge of the
under-construction park. We found a couple of lakes with ducks, lots of pigeons
and little birds and some gray ravens. We managed not to retrace our steps
until we got back to the Metro Station and then followed our earlier route back
to the ship. C.J. easily got 10,000 steps on her Fitbit. I hung out in the Pan.
Bar trying to remember all we had seen and done in the last day and a half. We
got our preliminary bill from Viking for gratuities and a couple of drinks -
$611, urk! The gratuities are
calculated on this cruise as $25 per person per
day, much higher than we’ve paid on ocean cruises (and on our previous Viking
river cruise). C.J. and I spent part of the afternoon filling out our
questionnaire and C.J. did some packing. We had another couple share our table
for dinner again; he was from France and was somewhat hard to understand. The
pork tenderloin was very good and so were the celery soup and shrimp salad.
Lava cake was a winner even though it was spelled “lave”
on the menu. We
thought our “Moscow by night” tour was leaving at 2130 so we weren’t ready when
the announcement came at 2045. We had to rush to get on clothing appropriate
for cold and wet weather. Fortunately, there was only a sprinkle of rain on the
whole trip. We bussed into Moscow center and went first to Victory Park which
had a big MOCKBA (Moscow in Cyrilic) spelled out in lights beside a huge clock. There was a line of
fountains lighted with red floodlights and many monuments to the soldiers and
battles of WW II. One was a very tall column with some symbol on top and then
some angels (It’s hard to remember all the details). As we got there it was
still sort of light but as the sky darkened, more lights came on. We re-boarded
the buses and drove along some of the route we had walked on the Moscow
Up-Close tour – St. Vladimir statue, Lenin Library,
 |
| GUM at night |
Revolution Square (?), and then down
the backside of GUM and near St. Basil’s. I thought we would park in the same
spot but instead we drove over the Moscow River, made a U-turn and came back to
park. Then we got off the bus and walked into Red Square. There were lots of
floodlights so St. Basil’s was all aglow as were the spires and towers of the Kremlin. GUM looked like a
giant gingerbread house. We didn’t get down to the other end to see what
Nikolevskiy Street with its hanging decorations looked like. Soon enough we
were back on the bus for the short drive to the boat landing. We had a wait while
two boats unloaded and loaded, then our boat arrived. It was small enough that
it fit our busload perfectly with everyone sitting on the upper/outdoor deck.
We had blankets to wrap up in, good thing because it was pretty chilly. I
pulled on my rain parka over my fleece and put on my wool hat from Peru. We
headed down (?) river passing the Peter the Great Memorial, the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior
 |
| Peter the Great Mon. |
 |
| Kremlin from Moscow River |
and the cantilevered
observation platform. When the boat turned around, we cruised past the same
stuff going the other direction and then continued a bit farther so we were
beneath the walls and towers of the Kremlin. The tour was pretty short – about
as long as the ride back to the North River Terminal and our Viking ship,
arriving around 0100.
6 July, Saturday – We spent some time in the morning filling
out our questionnaires and getting partially packed up for departure early
(0500) on Sunday. After lunch C.J. and I went down to Guest Services and asked
if we could reduce the amount that was set for gratuities to something like we
had paid per person per day on the Danube cruise. [Later, Paula told us that
they had done the same thing.] At 1430 we joined the group touring the Kremlin.
We got a good guide, Ksenya, who was easy to understand. I’ll
 |
| Huge Kremlin Cannon |
need to find a
guidebook to help remember what we saw, but among them were a bunch of cannon
barrels including a huge one in front of a palace meant to overawe some
visiting barbarians. There was also the largest bell in the world; but it was
broken and sitting on the ground so we didn’t hear it bong. The Cathedral of
the Assumption (Dormition to the Orthodox) was the largest church and we were
able to go inside. The walls and columns were filled with frescoes as was the
iconostasis (eye
 |
| Cathedral of the Assumption |
con AHS ta sis). We also went inside the Cathedral (?) of St.
Michael the Archangel which is where many of the tsars and princes of the two
Russian dynasties are buried (including St. Dmitry). [One fresco of a saint
showed a man with the head of a dog. St. Christopher was too handsome and women
kept following him; he prayed to God for help and received the dog head. Weird
story!] The other major building on
Cathedral Square was the separate bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral; it
had three architectural sections. We exited the Kremlin through the garden and
walked out of the Saviour Gate past St. Basil’s. Just as we got to the street
where our bus was parked it began to pour. We were lucky to have our raincoats
and a big, red, Viking umbrella. Even so, our feet got
 |
| Viking group leaving Kremlin |
wet. Our bus arrived in
a few minutes and we shook off as much water as possible so we could dry out
somewhat on the way back to the ship. Traffic was much better, only getting
backed up due to construction right near the North River Terminal. There was a
goodbye gathering in the Sky Bar at 1845 with Margo, and C.J. got an appropriate
drink – a Moscow Mule. We had dinner with Paula and Stephen and then went
upstairs to get packed up. We went to bed early and hoped for some sleep before
our alarm and a wake-up call got us up.
7 Jul, Sun – My mobile phone alarm woke me at 0345 and the
wake-up call from the desk came shortly thereafter. I stuffed my fleece vest
and pajamas in the rollaboard that I was going to check and took a shower while
C.J. put our bags out in the hallway before 0400. The usual continental
breakfast was available at the Panorama Bar right next to our room and Stephen
was already eating. Paula and I went downstairs to pay for our drinks from the
previous night. I paid in rubles. We said goodbye to Paula and
Stephen as they had an 0430 departure and they were going to a different
airport, SOV. We were headed to DME, about an hour away and on the other side
of the city. Our full-size bus left at 0500 [Paula and Stephen had a large van with only
a few other people; maybe they were all flying Delta to Paris, CDG]. We got
to DME around 0600 and porters unloaded our bags and brought them to the counter
and even lifted them on to the scales so there was a small tip expected.
Check-in went smoothly; our boarding passes showed our seats all together and
not in the dreaded center section. We had to go through a cursory
security check to get into the airport, but there was a serious TSA-type check
when we went upstairs to get to our gate. Then we passed through the green lane
for customs (nothing to declare). The passport control took a little longer as
they really scrutinized the passport and visa, even using a magnifier. But then
all we had to do is pass through a bunch of duty free stores to reach our gate.
Ray and Janet were on the same flight, as were some other Viking cruisers. We
got a meal on the Swiss flight to Zurich. Once there, we had to transfer to
another terminal and we took a train to get there. We were serenaded with
alpenhorns and cow moos as we made our way through the tunnel. We had only a
little over an hour in Zurich before we boarded a giant Boeing 777 for the
flight to Chicago. C.J. and I both watched the Wizarding World “Crimes of
Grindelwald” which had a non-ending. Clearly there are more adventures of Newt
Scamander to come. We were served two meals on this Swiss flight which took
nine hours (or was it crossing nine time zones?). In Chicago we had a long
layover – something close to four hours. Although we weren’t very hungry, I got
a McDonald mocha frappe after we cleared the Immigration, got our
bags and passed through Customs. The last flight was on United and was a
relatively small 737. This time we had a window seat but there really wasn’t
much to see and C.J. spent much of the time sleeping. We arrived around 2230,
collected all three of our checked bags (we had been seated near the rear of
the plane and boarded in zone 4 so most of our zone had to gate check our
bags). The shuttle arrived promptly and filled right up (and the next one would
fill up also because there was a group of nine waiting for a ride). The shuttle
took us into the self-park area where there was a tent set up for getting our
keys. Our car was parked just a few steps away. We got home before midnight and
had a good long sleep (although I had another session of being confused about
how to find the door to the bathroom one time when I had to get up).
We felt our long-delayed Russian river cruise was a great success. We had an excellent stateroom, the food was good, and we got to travel again with Paula and Stephen. Russia was surprisingly interesting, scenic and historic. Of course, we saw only a fraction of the huge country. We probably will never go back to try to see more but we do think an ocean cruise to the Baltic capitals might be in our future.
insky Theater. We didn’t stay very long as we had to
get ready to go to our shore excursion at the ballet – Le Corsaire at
the Mikailovsky Theater. It was interesting but a little frustrating as the
storyline was not too clear to us non-ballet people. The theater, however, was
very impressive, as was the dancing of the large company. We got back shortly
before 2300 and skipped the late-night snack of goulash at the restaurant. I
got to bed before 2330.
insky Theater. We didn’t stay very long as we had to
get ready to go to our shore excursion at the ballet – Le Corsaire at
the Mikailovsky Theater. It was interesting but a little frustrating as the
storyline was not too clear to us non-ballet people. The theater, however, was
very impressive, as was the dancing of the large company. We got back shortly
before 2300 and skipped the late-night snack of goulash at the restaurant. I
got to bed before 2330.
Paula joined us. Then we took a bus to the
village of Pushkin and the palace of Catharine (Ekatarina) the Great (aka
Tsarkoe Selo). (With our guide Alexandra (Tascha or Alex). It wasn’t as crowded
as the Hermitage, but there were plenty of tour groups there. We
had to check
our wet raincoats and umbrellas, use the WC, and go through security again.
Then our guide showed us the restored (the original building was pretty well
destroyed by the Nazis) rooms. When we got out at 1100, we walked through the
gardens to Catharine’s Hermitage with its complicated system of dumbwaiters.
From there we walked to the old stables and got on 
Akun. We had lunch and then got ready to go on the walking 
Garden. When the group reassembled
we headed west toward the Neva embankment and passed along the southeast side
of the Winter Palace (Hermitage) to the entrance porch whose roof is held
up by
cyclopean (5m tall) Atlantes (rub the toe and make a wish).To the south we
could look across the vast Palace Square to the arc of the General Headquarters
Buildings and the triumphal arch/gate (topped by a chariot and horses) and the
tall Alexander Column. We made our way back to the embankment and then through
a park with a monument that everyone refers to as “The Bronze Horseman” (from a
Pushkin poem). The park appeared to be a favorite place for teens in prom dress
to photograph each other. Our last sight was St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the largest
church in Russia, completed in 1858, 400 kg gold in the interior decorations
(which we did not see). Most of us dropped into the Four Season’s hotel to use
had to check
our wet raincoats and umbrellas, use the WC, and go through security again.
Then our guide showed us the restored (the original building was pretty well
destroyed by the Nazis) rooms. When we got out at 1100, we walked through the
gardens to Catharine’s Hermitage with its complicated system of dumbwaiters.
From there we walked to the old stables and got on 
Akun. We had lunch and then got ready to go on the walking 
Garden. When the group reassembled
we headed west toward the Neva embankment and passed along the southeast side
of the Winter Palace (Hermitage) to the entrance porch whose roof is held
up by
cyclopean (5m tall) Atlantes (rub the toe and make a wish).To the south we
could look across the vast Palace Square to the arc of the General Headquarters
Buildings and the triumphal arch/gate (topped by a chariot and horses) and the
tall Alexander Column. We made our way back to the embankment and then through
a park with a monument that everyone refers to as “The Bronze Horseman” (from a
Pushkin poem). The park appeared to be a favorite place for teens in prom dress
to photograph each other. Our last sight was St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the largest
church in Russia, completed in 1858, 400 kg gold in the interior decorations
(which we did not see). Most of us dropped into the Four Season’s hotel to use
Orthodox churches in the
Balkans. As we continued along, we passed a man who was carving the curved
aspenwood roof tiles with a very sharp broadax. We next toured a large house with a
living room with a “red corner” for the house altar or icon where only men
could sit [“red” in Russian means beautiful or sacred]. The kitchen was big,
too, with a large
we don’t dock at Moscow until 1300. We dressed
in our best clothes for the Captain’s Farewell Toast at 1900. We clinked
glasses with all the department heads and then continued to our tables for
dinner. Terry and Norma from Ontario near Niagara Falls joined us. C.J. had the
chateaubriand and I had a miso marinated cod. The steak was very good and the
dessert, a chocolate-cherry surprise was excellent.
temperatures. We wore our down jackets and carried our rain parkas. We
took a bus just as far as the top of the hill leading out of the North River
Terminal, then we walked about a kilometer through a park, under the Leningrad
Highway, and along a closed-for-construction park to a small shopping area and
the Reknoy Metro station. We took Metro (much noisier than the St. P Metro) seven
stations to 
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