GETTING TO KNOW RUSSIA ON A RUSSIA RIVER CRUISE

by Shirley Linde  

The feeling you come away with after a trip to Russia is the desire of the Russians to be friends. For those of us who can remember the Cold War days, they were afraid of us as we were of them. What a wonderful change.

Perhaps the most symbolic of the change was the day on the boat when the Russian staff who spoke English held a seminar and the passengers … from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Australia, France, Germany … were invited to ask questions of any kind about Russian life and were given straightforward answers. Also different from the old times was the fact that we could wander anywhere we wanted, not required to stay with a tour group unless we wanted to.

A boat trip is a relaxed and convenient way to see some of Russia. My companion and I flew Finnair to Helsinki, then a short flight to Moscow, where we were met at the airport and taken to the boat, MS Vladimir Mayakovski (named for a famous Russian poet). The Mayakovski is one of a number of riverboats run by Value World Tours. You use the boat as your hotel in Moscow for three days of sightseeing, cruise several days along the Volga River, Svir River, canals and lakes to St. Petersburg, and then use the boat as your hotel in St. Petersburg for visits to the Hermitage and other points of interest.

The Mayakovski has 155 cabins, all with private bath with shower. Most cabins have two twin beds and have windows that open for enjoying fresh air. Lower deck cabins will accommodate three passengers and have portholes. Some cabins are single. Main deck cabins are about 102 sq. ft.; middle and upper deck cabins are 120 sq. ft.; six junior suites are 150 sq. ft.; the Presidential suite is 300 sq. ft. and has a separate sitting room and a queen-size bed. The boat is air-conditioned.

The dining room has assigned seating and no choices of courses, although vegetarian meals can be arranged in advance. There is no smoking in the dining room, but smoking is allowed on one side of the lounges.

There is a piano lounge plus an entertainment lounge with a folk show as well as a dance band each night. The open top deck is the place for watching the shore, talking to others, and watching the sunset. There is a conference room on the top deck for lectures, seminars, and Russian language classes. There is a physician on board. There is laundry service, and several ironing rooms are available to passengers. Most of the staff and crew did not speak English, but two English-speaking escorts were there to help with any explanations or solve any problems. A gift shop had prices as good as shops on shore.

Many shore excursions were included in the fare; others cost extra. In Moscow the first day we had a city tour by bus, then a tour of the Kremlin grounds with its 17^th Century wall (expect a two hour wait in line), and a walking tour of Red Square with the group or on our own. Red Square was wonderful. There was a band playing Russian songs at a rally as we arrived, the Disneylike domes of Saint Basil Basilica had stripes and swirls and decorations of many colors, and a wedding party was having photos taken. It’s a tradition to go on a city tour after a wedding.

If you like monuments, you will like Moscow … they have something like 2,500 historical sites and architectural monuments. The Russian tsars and emperors were crowned here. It is a huge city, a mixture of old and new, massive grey apartment buildings and shiny gold domes of cathedrals next to department stores, skyscraper office buildings and trendy boutiques. Gypsy beggars and street musicians mingle with high fashion women walking in stiletto heels. Optional tours went to the State Armory with its garments and riches of the czars from the 12^th to the 20^th centuries, or to the Sergiev Posad monastery and religious center. That evening some people went to the Moscow Circus and/or a Moscow-at-night tour, and others stayed on board for the Russian folklore show and dancing. On day 2 we toured again by bus with time for shopping, and toured the Metro (subway) system. Escalators took us down and down and down where we found the stations to be lit by chandeliers and decorated with murals, statues, and stained glass art. Amazing.

That night we departed Moscow with a cocktail party on the top deck, with views as we cruised along of city parks and people relaxing along the river banks. And we went through our first of many locks, necessary since the digging of the Moscow Canal and the joining of the Volga and other rivers. Sometimes we saw the tops of cathedrals in the middle of the canal where towns had been flooded by the dammed water to create the waterway and a massive reservoir. It was a huge project that flooded hundreds of villages. At other times we saw farming villages, dachas (summer homes), or industries such as saw mills.

Our first village visit was to Uglich, a town on a bend of the river famous for the fact that the son of Ivan the Terrible was murdered there in 1591. At the cathedral we saw the Russian trompe d’oleil techniques of painting with shadows that made two-dimensional art seem like three-dimensional friezes and a flat ceiling look domed. I heard amazing bells in double and triple rhythms.

We arrived the next morning in Yaroslavl, larger then Uglich, and named after Prince Yaroslavl who it is said was attacked by a tribe’s bear here in 1010, which he wrestled and killed. The city had many wealthy merchants who built more than 50 churches, one of which had 13^th Century fresco paintings. Now the town is known for oil refining, manufacturer of rubber tires, and pickles. It was here that we learned the secret of the bells … the bell ringer has cords tied from his fingers to the clappers of a group of different-sized bells which he plays by moving his fingers to pull the cords.

In the cathedral we heard a Russian choir recital. “Music and prayer does not need translating,” the director said.

Back on board was a jazz concert, a Russian language class, then a bliny party with caviar and champagne.

At every village were small shops and street vendors selling clothes, Russian matryoshka nesting dolls, toys, amber jewelry, Faberge-style eggs, and religious icons … the new free enterprise system at work.

Goritsy was our next village stop where in small groups we visited a real Russian house and had tea and pirozhkis (pastries). We were graciously hosted by a local Russian woman Valentina who had baked blueberry and apple pastries in an old stone oven. Her husband, she said, was out hunting mushrooms. We walked about the village, waved to villagers, smiled at fishermen selling smoked fish, bought souvenirs from several shops and stands, and saw an old convent where in the past many women had been exiled (Ivan the Terrible even had his fourth wife exiled there), and now sisters tended gardens.

The island of Kizhi was our next stop. No smoking is allowed on the island because of the many wooden structures. Highlight is the Transfiguration Cathedral built in 1714 with 30,000 shingles on 22 cupolas. Built of aspen, the cupolas shine in the sun by day and shimmer in the moonlight at night. Nearby is the Chapel of the Resurrection of Lazarus built in 1391, the oldest wooden church in Russia.

Mandrogi was our final village. It is a re-creation of a typical Russian village with workshops showing artisans at work. We had an outdoor Russian barbecue (shashlyk) there and folk performances and games.

On day 9 we arrived in St. Petersburg, especially interesting to me since St Petersburg, Russia is celebrating its 300^th anniversary and St. Petersburg, Florida where I live is celebrating its 100^th. We toured the city by bus (the many flower gardens fresh for the 300^th birthday were beautiful), then went sightseeing by boat. St Petersburg has 70 rivers and canals and 300 bridges that crisscross through the city, giving a Venice-like feeling. Then we visited the Hermitage Museum with its opulent décor and immense art collection. Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, amassed much of the art. The rooms have dramatic domed ceilings, ornate chandeliers, sweeping staircases, sculpture and paintings by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Monet … it would take days to see even a fraction.

St. Petersburg is a city of palaces. Highlight the second day was Peter the Great’s Summer Palace, with gorgeous gardens, gold statuary, and 180 fountains in various shapes and configurations, all powered by gravity.

We had come hundreds of kilometers, through locks and reservoirs, rivers, canals and lakes, sometimes the boat within narrow banks only a few feet away, and at other times going across huge bodies of water with no land in sight for hours, all connecting the two major Russian cities and villages in between, and giving us a glimpse into a different culture.

The fare for the 10-day cruise was $1,398-$1,798 for cruise only, plus port taxes. There are discounts for third passengers in a cabin and for children, and occasional specials. The company also offers cruises from Moscow to Samara and Volgograd and to Siberia, as well as a 10-night 5-country river trip from Vienna to Bucharest, and river cruises in the Ukraine, on the Nile and the Yangtze.

Advice: Apply for your visa as early as possible, it takes a while. Check that the dates are accurate. One family was stopped in the airport because their visa date was wrong by one day. Bring a parka or heavy sweater and windbreaker, and an umbrella because there were cold and rainy days between the sunny warm ones. Bring a washcloth, tissues, and toilet paper unless you like the harsh kind, a converter for electrical appliances, and binoculars to see things on shore. Exchange some dollars for rubles because many shops, services, and bathrooms only accept rubles. If you like chocolate, be sure to buy some Russian chocolate bars.

A STOP IN FINLAND

As long as you have traveled all the way to Russia why not spend a little more time to discover some more new sights? Since Finnair from St. Petersburg makes a stop in Helsinki, this was the perfect place to extend our vacation after our Russia cruise.

It made a wonderful contrast. Helsinki was light and bright and clear and felt grounded to nature.  It was like a sorbet after a heavy meal. One example of contrast -- the Rock Church. Instead of the gold-covered domes of Russian cathedrals with jewel-encrusted figures and icon-covered walls, the Rock Church was hewn from massive granite rocks, with a simple but impressive ceiling of copper in concentric circles reaching up and out. With excellent acoustics, it is often host to jazz and classical concerts.

Helsinki is greatly connected to the sea. We spent time at the waterfront, where10,000 private boats are moored, Baltic ferries come and went daily, and ship-building facilities are common. In fact, the bow of a new ship under construction loomed partly across a main waterfront street overhanging the cars driving beneath. From Market Square at the waterfront you can take a ferry over to Suomenlinna Fortress, built in 1748 to protect the then Swedish Empire from Russian attack, and where there are museums, galleries, restaurants, parks, and beaches.

Street signs in many areas are in Swedish as well as Finnish since about 6 percent of the population is Swedish. There are narrow streets with old buildings and other streets with modern architecture, including buildings designed by architects Alvar Aalto and Eliel Saarinen (his son Eero Saarinen designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis). The clean lines of Finnish design are in products in shop windows all over town. Then amid the modern architecture and stylish shops is a place along the water where men and women scrub carpets with soap made of pine tar and rinse them in the sea “to keep them fresh and smelling of the forest and the sea.”

The best way to get around the city is to buy a Helsinki card, which gives you a pass on all trams, admission to museums and other attractions, and discounts in restaurants and shops. We stayed at the Scandic Hotel Continental which was on a major tramline and convenient to get around. It also had a business center so I could catch up on my now several hundred email messages.

One evening we went to VanHan Kellari Dance hall to see the Finnish-style tango that we had heard about, but there was no tango, only polka, waltz, swing, fox trot and an occasional rumba and cha cha. (The Finnish tango is reported to be a mixture of the Argentine tango combined with Slavic romanticism and German marching music, usually in a minor key. There will be a tango festival in Finland in July 2004.)

The third day we took an all-day cruise on a historic 1912 vintage steamboat J.L. Runeberg (named after Finland’s national poet) that went to the village of Porvoo, founded in 1346. The village had many wooden buildings including landmark red warehouses along the river, part of early sea trade. (You can also drive there or take a bus or train.) In the spring there is a festival of gypsy music.

 Book a trip on the Vladimir Mayakovski.

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