A detailed account of Russian cruise journey by our customer RJ Fensterman |
| 06.08.2008 Summing Up: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Russophile If I were twenty years younger and could speak the language I'd go back there to live... | |
| 06.07.2008 Epilogue: A Tale of Four Cities His name was Andrei, and he drove a black Toyota Avalon. As a Russian cab-driver there were two interesting things about Andrei: he spoke very good English, and he had actually been a professional wrestler... | |
| 06.06.2008 The Black Stag And The Blue Hummingbird The black car was a 1991 Volga; that was the year the car became the choice of cab-drivers, rather than of members of the Nomenklatura... | |
| 06.06.2008 I'm Going to Ruskeyland! Kizhi would be the northern-most point on our journey, being just north of the 62' Parallel... | |
| 06.05.2008 Lake Onega: Peter's Foundary and The Kizhi Necklace The Belinsky sailed on through the night, continuing north and east into Lake Onega, and the next morning we found ourselves off the coast of Petrozavodsk, the capital of the Republic of Karelia... | |
| 06.03.2008 A Spring Morning in Svirstroy In the morning, we arrive at Svirstroy, a small Karelian Village located on the Svir River, which links Lake Ladoga with Europe's second largest lake, Lake Onega... | |
| 06.02.2008 A Farewell Tour of Peter's City Anna arrived about 10 AM; we had already packed and checked-out of the Hotel Moskva. The car was a Renault Migane, the standard black... | |
| 06.02.2008 Rollin, Rollin, Rollin on a Rivah! The ship Vissarion Belinsky was part of the former Red Star fleet, a service of Soviet-run Intourist... | |
| 06.01.2008 Pavlovsk: A Beautiful Place For an Ugly Tzar Pavlosk was just a few kilometers south of Pushkin, and the palace itself was quite beautiful... | |
| 06.01.2008 Petersburg Obituaries For The Year 1881 Anatoly let us off on Nevsky Prospekt, in front of the Hotel Grand Europe | |
| 05.31.2008 Peter the Great Showcase: Saturday at Peterhof The Peterhof fountains are spectacular from any angle, but this shot from base is one of the best of them all... | |
| 05.30.2008 Pushkin, Tzar's Village, and Catherine the Third We drove out the former Imperial Highway to the small town of Pushkin, renamed in the 20th Century from its former name of Tsarskoe Selo... | |
| 05.30.2008 Cruising the Nevskiy Prospect It was just 3 PM when we got back to the city -- in the midst of an enormous traffic jam... | |
| 05.29.2008 The Mother of All Museums It is 24 hours after our arrival to Peter's magnificent city. We have had a good sleep, a good breakfast and a good drive to Palace Square... | |
| 05.28.2008 Colorful Day and White Nights The train left Novgorod at 7:30 AM on the way to St. Petersburg... | |
| 05.27.2008 A Very Old "New Town" It was 6:20 AM when we disembarked at the Novgorod station... | |
| 05.26.2008 Dasvidanya, Moscow Part II Inside the Kremlin is a city-within-a-city, over 14 acres of parks, palaces, churches, museums, artifacts... | |
| 05.26.2008 Dasvidanya, Moscow By the time we got back to the Marriott Courtyard, it was raining. We had a quick American-style supper, and ordered a cab at the concierge desk... | |
| 05.25.2008 A Moscow Sunday: Two is a Group 'The Cathedral of the Intercession of the Virgin on the Moat ' (more familiarly known as St. Basil's Cathedral) is one of the most recognized structures on Earth... | |
| 05.24.2008 Search For a Perfect Pastry On the way back to Moscow, as the M10 entered the rows of grim Soviet-era apartment blocks, Feliks pointed out a monument beside the road... | |
| 05.24.2008 The Loneliest Man on Earth It seems that the Russian and German commanders of the battle both had a "gentleman's agreement" to not destroy the Tchaikovsky villa... | |
| 05.23.2008 The Longest Day Part II Abramtsevo, although it is only 5 or 6 miles from Sergius Posad, is definitely "off-the-beaten track"... | |
| 05.23.2008 The Longest Day Part I Time certainly flies when you're having fun...here it was already the last day of our Golden Ring excursion... | |
| 05.22.2008 Rostov-not-on-Don As we were leaving the city, we made one last stop: the Transfiguration Monastery... | |
| 05.22.2008 The City of Yaroslavl The Wise In the year 988, when Yaroslavl was ten, his father, Saint Prince Vladimir of Kiev, converted the tribe of Rus to Orthodox Christianity... | |
| 05.21.2008 Russia's Switzeland It is called "The Switzerland of Russia", and it certainly lives-up to that appellation... | |
| 05.21.2008 The Romanovs Slept Here Russian Monastery were built as fortresses, that kept out not-only the distractions of the World, the Flesh and the Devil, but also invading armies and maruauders... | |
| 05.21.2008 Along the Volga Kostroma was more than a journey; it was an adventure... | |
| 05.20.2008 The Jewel of the Golden Ring Part II Suzdal sits like a gem atop a green copse in a bright rolling landscape... | |
| 05.19.2008 Five Golden Rings Part I The car was a black Mercedes 220E, obviously the car of choice for the tourist industry; certainly a good choice. Dima loaded our luggage into the trunk and we were on our way to the M7, heading southeast... | |
Russia by rivers ....