From Russia With Love, Part 4

Stan and I really liked the small city of Yaroslavl on the Volga River.  If we were ever retiring in Russia, this would be our first choice.  Legend says it was founded by Prince Yaroslavl in the 11th century, on the very spot where he killed a bear.  We walked around town for awhile, then met our guides for a tour of the Governor's House, a living museum of Russian art, history and culture.  A lovely young woman who introduced herself as the "Governor's daughter" showed us around and then took us into the ballroom, where three musicians played and young people demonstrated dances of the 18th and 19th centuries.  Lovely!

The gadget she is wearing around her neck is part of a great system of guiding a tour.  We all had "listening devices", which we were reminded to bring along on every tour and to put in the charger in our room every night.  Our device had an earpiece and the guide's had a microphone, so we could hear the guide perfectly, even when we weren't close by.  If you dawdled behind to take photos, or got separated from the group, it was comforting to hear the guide talking while you worked out where they were.  I could even hear when I dashed to the "WC", so I knew they weren't leaving without me.  The guides counted us often and said they hadn't left a tourist behind yet.


Here are some street scenes of Yaroslavl.  I really like the pastel colors with white trim.  We bought some chocolate made in Yaroslavl, which you find in the liquor store along with the vodka.

There are many churches everywhere in Russia, and many have been rebuilt after having been destroyed during World War II.  It seems no expense is spared on the reconstructions regardless of needs elsewhere.

We toured the Church of Elijah the Prophet below - amazing inside!  In many of the churches photography was forbidden and in others you could pay an extra fee to take pictures.  We usually opted not to. (btw - for any of the places that required an entrance fee, ours was included in our tour.  We bypassed lines for tickets and entered quickly as a group.)

Here we are sitting with another couple at dinner.  Can you see my beautiful dessert??  The dining room was rather formal but not stuffy.  It was always set up beautifully and the servers were efficient and pleasant to chat with a bit.

What a lovely way to see a country where it would be difficult to travel around by ourselves!  Viking has a similar river cruise on the Yang Tse River...  just thinking.

From Russia With Love, Part 3

After three days in St. Petersburg, our ship set sail for Moscow.  We would travel through several rivers, lakes and waterways, and go through many locks along the way to adjust to the levels of the various bodies of water.  We went through the locks fairly quickly and we were the only ship, not like the circus when many small boats jam together in the locks from Lake Washington to Puget Sound.

As we cruised along it was fascinating to just watch out the window at the Russian countryside.  For the most part, it was just trees.  And more trees.  Most of the Russian population is centered in the two largest cities, St. Petersburg and Moscow, with very few people in small towns in between.  To the east of Moscow are the Ural Mountains, and to the east of the mountains is Siberia.  We were told the population density in Siberia is one person per square kilometer and much of the land is covered in permafrost.  Two of our waitresses were from there and had families there, and actually I am very curious about what that large part of Russia would be like.

We saw many places where logs were being cut, and many ships carrying them up the rivers and waterways toward St. Petersburg.

Mostly, we just saw the trees.  Beautiful white birch trees for the most part, and occasionally a big ship like the one below.

We stopped in the little town of Goritzy and had a chance to walk around some of the streets.  The houses were small and simple, but really cute, with distinctive trim that a guide said was made by the homeowners themselves so no two were exactly the same.  The houses don't have indoor plumbing, and most are heated by wood.  It is not permitted to simply cut wood in the forest; one has to pay for a permit and only take the amount allowed.

We later toured the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, founded in 1397, a fortified complex with several churches built in the 15th to 17th centuries.  In earlier times about 200 monks lived and worked here, but today only six live here.

We also toured a school, where three 9th and 10th grade students came in on Sunday to tell us a bit about their school and play some music for us.  The school looked much like schools everywhere, although there weren't any computers or technical equipment in sight.  Students go through the 10th grade and then can choose whether to go to trade school or continue for two more years and on to university.  They are allowed to choose, not tracked according to grades or test scores.

Here is my lunch that day, vegetable-beef soup, salad bar, and lovely dessert.  Uh oh - you can see I had a glass of wine at lunch, too.  I varied my lunch beverages between wine and hot tea, and I drank the water, too.

Here's the view from the dining room window that evening as we started out to our next port.  What a life!

From Russia With Love, Part 2

On our second day of touring in St. Petersburg, we saw Catherine's Palace, the summer home of Empress Catherine the Great in the 1700s.  It is hard to imagine people actually living in such an ornate manner!  The palace was destroyed by the Germans after the siege of Lenningrad in World War II, and restoration has been taking place ever since.  Our guide made a point of saying "restoration", which means recreated in exactly the same way as the original, not "replacement", which could mean using modern materials and methods.

The palace is situated on a lake with beautiful lawn and gardens.

This is the ballroom.  I especially liked the white staircase with beautiful blue pottery displayed.

This is the dining room.  The gilded apples were eaten with the gold still on them.

Delft fireplaces heated the rooms.

Catherine the Great preferred lighter colors instead of all the gold of Catherine the First, so she had some rooms redone in her own taste.

This is a model of one of Catherine the Great's dresses.  When she died and her things were removed, she had more than 1,000 gowns.  It was mentioned that she only bathed once every few months, so perhaps she didn't wear each outfit very often!

Later that evening we walked a bit around St. Petersburg and watched a show of Russian Cossack dancing.  Amazing!  They could do the traditional kicking out of legs in a squat, and one of them could also have only one hand on the floor and kick both legs out to the side, parallel to the floor.

This is a spot where many couples come to have their wedding pictures taken.

This lovely bridge near our ship is fairly new, and allows traffic to cross the river at night when the older, lower bridges in the city are opened to allow ships to go through.  In both St. Petersburg and Moscow, traffic is just as big a problem as it is here.

Here is what I ate that night.  The appetizer is a Russian pasta similar to ravioli with meat inside.  The meat is beef with a bread crust and the dessert is apple tart.  Will not mention weight, and the gaining thereof, until the end of the trip!