Bit of a delay in getting the news out unfortunately due to atrocious internet connectivity. Instead quick update from my notes and a few photos now we have reached comparative good internet in Germany.
Ruth was crook for a couple of days. Started as a cold as we left St Petersburg, but after a day or two in bed, Dr visit, terrific bill ($'sss) to go with some meds and a quick whip around among friends for whatever they had in their bags she's back on top.
We've been cruising down the Volga/Baltic waterway over the past days visiting mainly smaller villages of Mandrogy and Khisi and the larger city of Yaroslavl on our way through to Moscow. We've seen close to a million onion domed churches, and interestingly they are building more as these are overcrowded. Since the fall of the Soviet regime and disappearing atheist repression/ destruction there has been a return to church by the population in general young and old.
We've seen some of the most amazing folk dancing, singing, cultural presentations and home visits with the locals. Breakfast moonshine with Vladmir and his family was abit of a throat scarifying experience. Genuine warmth of the locals is surprising and enjoyable. One of our guides was saying when she learnt French the hardest thing was getting over the muscle pain in her face caused by the need to enunciate words clearly. In Russian there are few facial expressions and very limited mouth/ lip/ tongue movement required to get the words out. It is rare to get a smile from people just because they don't tend to use many of the face movements we do do.
Anyway following are a few pictures from our travel interlude and then the magic that is Moscow.
Best Vodka tasted ...
Many many onion domed churches
Beautifully hand painted papier mache boxes.
Don Quijote in the garden
Typical fruit and veg market.
Our home visit with Vladmir started with some home - made moonshine and cakes interrupted with inspections of the very fine silver and porcelain work he does now since Gorbachev closed the watch factory that employed most of his home town of Uiglich.
The method of drinking his home brew Vodka was to blow on the contents of the glass, then down it in one gulp followed rapidly by a pickle and eye bread. I later found out you blow first because of you smelled The liquid you'd never drink it, and the idea of the pickle was to give your mind an opportunity to focus on potential alternative causes when your head explodes. The bread naturally enough was to deal with any possibility of reflux which could likely ruin all sense of taste for some days.
Took 3 goes before I had the technique sorted.
10,000 people from one town made watches - both mechanisms as well as the decorative exteriors - prior to factory closure. Gorbachev is now a most unloved person in Russia as a result of the economic ruin and starvation that came with Glasnost. We didn't hear much about that did we?
River cruising is very relaxed. Wonderful food; I've changed from being shaped like the letter "P" to the letter "b" 《sigh》 knew it was likely, just didn't realise how fast it could happen. Always something to see, someone to talk to, good book to read, a deck chair, a bit of nautical action with bunkering docking and lock navigation to watch, people on the shore, subtle and then sudden changes in the quality of housing as you get closer to Moscow. Very nice time indeed. And then always the welcome sound of the dinner bell :-)
Don't expect the modern Russia to be without all the mod cons...
Hard to eat properly with all the distractions ;-)
Stalin's waterway cost some 25,000+ lives as it was dug and built mostly by hand; some villages got lost forever.
This is some practical jokers holiday home (Dacha) done in the style of onion domed churches.
Approaching Moscow. All change for modern high density housing.
