|
British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
|
Home Copyright
© |
Take
to the Boats! Our Russian adventure started on 11 June at an extremely early hour, a taxi collecting us from my sister’s house and depositing us at Bridgwater bus station while it was still dark. The coach (I should say bus as it was a double decker because there were about sixty in our group) arrived on time and it was heigh-ho and off to Heathrow for the 8.55a.m. flight. There was nothing particularly different about our flight to Moscow; it was when we landed that the trouble started. It really wasn’t too bad. We hung about the airport waiting to be taken to our coaches then sat on the coaches waiting for our luggage. We had been told that we had to declare any articles above a certain value that we were taking into the country so a few others, and I filled in forms to cover our video cameras. I dutifully showed my form to a uniformed official who, if she knew what it was, was supremely uninterested. I smiled at her and passed on through the barrier. That was the last thing we had to do with the forms! I smiled at quite a few uniformed people we came across in Russia and, at the airport coming home, one almost smiled back, there was a faint movement of the lips as she turned her head away! Who says persistence does not pay? Where was I? Oh yes, eventually the coaches moved off and took us to our boat, the Viking Pakhomov, at the Northern River Terminal some forty minutes from the city centre. We were greeted by a little folk band as we queued up to get aboard and be allocated our cabins. Some Americans who had arrived earlier insisted on pushing their way up the narrow gangway as we were going down, which rather annoyed us, but remember it had been a long day! It turned out later that they were Canadians, but the parties didn’t mix very much. They had their own tables for meals and their own coaches for excursions. There were over sixty of us and rather fewer of them. The cabins were very similar to those on the Viking Rhone; the shower enclosure was a little larger. We were on the lower deck just as we had been in France; on the Rhone, however, we only moved during the day there. In Russia we sailed at night as well and the vibrations were rather disturbing when one was trying to sleep. Pam complained, and we were moved up a deck, no extra charge. On board we did not use roubles and the Russian authorities would not allow the use of dollars. So everything was priced in ‘units’. One unit equalled one U.S. dollar! Bills for drinks, postcards and souvenirs were settled by credit card before disembarking. Dinner was served soon after we had settled in and we were delighted to find that wine was served ad lib and free of charge with lunch and dinner (one had to collect one’s own champagnski from the buffet at breakfast!) Our tour leader from home, who was wishing to lose weight or rather not to gain any whilst away, decided not to drink any wine with her meals. She hadn’t realised that it was free, but, never the less, she stuck to her resolution (the wine wasn’t free on the Rhone trip as it was a ‘special offer price’). The dining room was staffed with students on their summer break: they spoke pretty good English and were very pleasant at all times; they could take a joke and give one back. Natasha seemed to be the most popular name but we had a delightful blonde waitress named Tatiana. The meals were well presented and, although they consisted of more courses than we would normally have at home, the servings were not too big and one did not leave the table feeling bloated. We could have reserved places in the restaurant but most of the party preferred to move around and sit with different people in the group. Next morning we had a coach trip around Moscow and got our first view of Red Square across the Moskva River. There was some sort of display going on with folk in peasant costumes and rows of field guns and army lorries lined up. We never did find out what it was all about! Near where we were was a very imposing monument to Peter the Great showing his interest in the navy; he was perched on the prow of a sailing ship. The whole edifice towered way up above us. We drove around seeing places and buildings that we had only read about and never expected to see in our lifetime, such as the Bolshoy, the Lubyanka, Gorky Park and the White House (Yes! The Russians have one as well!) The last mentioned was where the Russian Parliament met and Boris Yeltsin ordered tanks to fire at it when defiant opponents who were trying to unseat him held it. Then we drove up Sparrow Hill to where there was a view over the city and behind us the towering university, which boasts 32 storeys and then a tall spire. One of our party approached two policemen and gestured asking permission to photograph them. They refused until he produced an official looking card with an Avon and Somerset Constabulary crest on it. He was an ex-policeman - the card was for the social club! We then entered the first of several dozen churches that we visited. It was packed with people, as there was what we took to be a christening going on. Down in the city again we stopped to look at the Novodevichy Convent. We stood at the side of a rather neglected stretch of water with the Convent beyond. The best the pond could offer us was a pair of ducks; this from what we were told was the original Swan Lake! The convent was where Peter the Great imprisoned his half-sister and later his first wife on suspicion of conspiring against him. It is virtually a small walled city in itself and in 1997 twenty nuns moved in to revive the religious life of the convent. Some of the
party went to an art gallery in the afternoon. Pam and I had a short walk
around the North Terminal buildings built in the 1930s. In the evening
it was off to the circus. In the foyer there were several animals and
one could have one’s photograph taken with a camel or some other
beast. I was told off for pointing my video camera at the tigers! The
interior of the theatre was magnificent, if you like that sort of thing,
a sort of Hollywood art deco gone mad. Opinions in the party were rather
mixed; some people did not like to see animals performing at all, some
others thought that the chimps were rather harshly treated by one of the
performers and very few were enamoured of the snakes and other reptiles
that were part of the show. The costumes were outstanding and the acrobats
and high wire acts were good; the clowns less so. An interesting evening
rather than a very enjoyable one. We passed out of the square near where there is the red brick building of the State History Museum. By the side of one of its doors is a brass plate bearing the words, in English, ‘Stuff Only’! Round the corner there was a walled garden through which we walked to queue up and enter the large complex known the world over as ‘The Kremlin’. Actually kremlin means a fortress or walled city and there are many in Russia. It would take far to long to itemise all the buildings in the Kremlin. They include several cathedrals and churches, which served the Tsars from birth through marriage and coronation to burial, all of which had multiple onion domes mostly gold. There is also the president’s office, a conference hall and another part of the university. Apart from the buildings, there is a bell that has never been rung and a cannon that has never fired. The 200 tonne bell cast in 1733 was cracked in a fire before it could be hung in the bell tower and a large piece fell out. The gun has cannonballs over half a metre in diameter, and was originally designed to use stone balls but it is doubtful if it was ever fired. We walked across Victory Square where there were rehearsals for a pop concert were going on, very much amplified, along to the Moscow version of the Arc de Triomphe, as seen from the other side so to speak! From there we took the Metro back to the boat. We were most impressed by the Metro stations, as are most people who visit Moscow. We had to make a change so we saw three of them. They were spotlessly clean and litter free and all different with vast historical mosaics, panels of semi-precious materials and chandeliers that would not be out of place in a ballroom! We were mostly senior citizens and on one crowded train, young folk gave up their seats. We cast off after lunch and began the cruise to St Petersburg. The first port of call was Uglich. It was rather cold and wet as we got ashore and four of us did a dance on the quayside as we were waiting for the guide. Unfortunately one dancer tripped up over a tree root and we ended up in a heap; we were all over sixty so we were lucky no one was hurt! We walked along a double line of stalls selling tourist bait of differing qualities. A factory in Uglich produces five million timepieces a year some costing about $20 will sell for $200 in the States, or so we are told! A long way to go to make a profit! Other watches can be had for about $2; these are home made from parts stolen from the factory! Near the town centre there was a building which, had it been a few hundred miles nearer the sea, we would have said was a lighthouse! It was tall and slim and painted bright yellow with a vertical line of windows and a little sort of gallery on top. It turned out to be the fire station complete with lookout post! Next day we sailed a little way down the Volga to call at Kostroma and at Janoslavel. The market in Kostroma was the real thing, not aimed at tourists, and there was no shortage of farm produce and even a large section of stalls selling fish; it was all very salted and looked awful. The first thing we saw as we sailed to Yaroslavl was a large statue of Lenin pointing into the distance. Our local guide said that although a lot of Russians had removed Lenin’s statues from their towns, they had decided to keep theirs because like him or not he was part of their history. And incidentally he was pointing to the local nightclub! We walked through Yaroslavl noticing the terrible state of the roads. There were gaps below the tramlines where the surface had been eroded away by about a foot in depth and twice that width! We did all our sightseeing on shanks’s pony! We paid a visit to the Puppet Theatre and we had a short talk and a walk around the display of puppets, but rather disappointingly no show. St. Elijah the Prophet’s church was the next visit and very impressive it was. It seemed strange to us to call the Old Testament prophets saints and name churches after them, but we came across several examples on our tour. We attended a folk concert before we left Yaroslavl, which included dancing and singing as well as instrumental quintet accordion, percussion and various string instruments, including some rather strange triangular shaped ones. On board again for dinner and a vodka tasting; those who went did not seem to remember much about it the next day! We turned north and left the Volga to sail across the large Rybinski Reservoir. The reservoir was created by damming the Volga. All next day we sailed through the Volga-Baltic Waterway, which is a series of rivers, lakes and canals that links the Volga with the Baltic Sea. From the reservoir to St Petersburg is about 700 miles. The crew dressed up as pirates at dinnertime and there were appropriate flags and draperies in the dining room and a pirate band marched through, playing sea shanties. Kizhi was the high spot of the next day. We cruised to it across Lake Onega , the second largest lake in Europe. Unfortunately there had been thick fog in the night and the boat had to stop for two hours, so we were rather late in arriving. Kizhi is an architectural museum and reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You have probably seen pictures of the Church of the Transfiguration, built entirely of wood without a single nail and boasting 22 onion domes. There are other largely wooden buildings brought here from all over Karelia and reconstructed here. A notice warned of snakes, but we believed it was just a way of making visitors stay on the paths! Pam and I walked farther than most folk and had to race back to the boat, otherwise we would have had to stay all night! We cruised along the Svir River next day and entered the beautiful Lake Ladoga, which at nearly 700 square miles is Europe’s largest lake (remember that for the pub quiz). There were times when no land was to be seen. It freezes over in the winter and that is how Leningrad, as it was called then, was supplied in WWII, by supplies being dragged across the ice. That evening the guests entertained the crew and each other one of our number wrote a topical song to the tune ‘Cruising Down the River’ and the Russian band were able to pick up the tune from our ‘la-la-ing’; we were most impressed. Early next morning we tied up in St Petersburg. Then we had a trip around the sights of Peter the Great’s city built to impress the West and the Finns close-by. Imaginatively designed, Peter had not allowed for modern traffic; you cannot really blame him, but if he had constructed a bypass we would not have been late for the ballet! It was the Kirov second team doing Swan Lake; the seniors were on tour in England! All the traffic bound for Finland and the Baltic has to pass through the city. We had to abandon our coaches and run about half a mile through the streets. They held the curtain for a while but the show had started when we arrived there and we were marshalled into any vacant seat irrespective of the numbers on our tickets! Our seats, when we found them, were next to the Royal Box. Pam likes to have a left hand end of row seat, but we found old dining chairs had been added to the end of each row! We had a female sergeant major type in charge of our section who barked out orders if anyone got too close front of the balcony. We sat down to see a chap in stocking feet trolling through the woods, I believe he should have had a crossbow, but I couldn’t see it, although he appeared to have something stuffed down his tights! Perhaps the first team had all the weapons! Most of the group seemed to enjoy the show. The coaches arrived about an hour and a half after curtain–up. Day 10 saw
us going to the magnificent Peterhof Palace. It was pouring with rain
when we arrived and we had to stand in the rain for about ten minutes
when there was a large entrance hall behind the closed doors. We were
entertained by a small orchestra in period costume and with period instruments
and just as soaking wet as we were, at least we had waterproofs and umbrellas.
Fortunately the rain stopped shortly after, as there was a passing out
parade of young soldiers taking place on the terraces outside. It concluded
with a firework display and then the three waterfalls and 64 fountains
of the Grand Cascade were turned on, a very impressive sight. We had packed
lunches (a unique happening on the cruises we have been on) to eat on
our way to visit the Hermitage back in St Petersburg. As you might expect,
a couple of hours were not enough for such a large museum, but we were
privileged to see a collection of Impressionist paintings not usually
on show. It was suspected that many of them had been ‘liberated’
from the Germans who had pinched them from real owners. We had some free time in St. Petersburg and Pam and I walked along the riverside to the Royal Porcelain factory shop where we bought a complete tea service. I really do not know what we were thinking of! Anyway we had this rather large heavy box, everything was beautifully packed, which we had to get back to the ship and then home! It was with some trepidation that we boarded the Russian plane for Moscow then transferred to a B.A. flight for London. I cannot believe that no-one on either flight even mentioned this large box I was carrying in addition to my hand luggage! Fortunately it just fitted into the overhead lockers. My last memory of the trip to Russia was standing in the queue for the aircraft loo chatting to Sir Malcolm Rifkind about the changes in the country since he was there last. Well! After all that, what did we think of River cruising as opposed to taking a tour by train? Well with the train, assuming you travel from Waterloo as we did, you avoid the hanging about in airports. It is much easier to walk about and the views from the windows aren’t of the top of clouds or map-like countryside and your luggage is with you all the time. On the other hand you have to lug it on and off trains and unpack and pack at each hotel you stop at. Cases were taken from the station platforms to the hotel rooms. Once you are on the boat for a river cruise you can unpack and you don’t have to pack again until you leave for home. On the French river cruise we tied up near the town centres, but in Russia we were well away from the sights. I think it all boils down to where you want to go to and what you want to see. I suppose the ideal would be to take a train to a ship, but I think this is only available for cruises on the Seine. We have done another river cruise, the Elbe, and we plan to go on the Danube next year. At the same time we have eyed some rail trips. We are not getting any younger so we will keep doing what we can by boats, trains and planes as long as the knees and the money hold out! First published in VISA issue 64 (Dec 2005) |