Zach and Cathy's Adventures: June 2017

We flew to LaGuardia and took the bus to JFK, for our first ever, Aeroflot flight to Saint Petersburg via Moscow.

There was an orchestra from Yale on the plane with us. They were going to perform in Moscow and several other cities. First time we’ve ever seen cellos in passenger seats. The students had to pay for the seats for their cellos. Also, this was the first flight we have ever been on a flight that didn’t have a safety briefing and still had people walking around finding their seats while the plane taxied. The walking around continued throughout the flight when the fasten seat belt sign was on.

We had two meals on the flight to Moscow. Dinner and breakfast, except breakfast was also a dinner. Ample servings of wine were in paper cups. Ok, Aeroflot does things a little different. Watching the sun set, then rise again a couple hours later was very strange, that’s what happens on this northern route though. It was just a preamble to the almost constant daylight we would be experiencing in Russia. By the time we arrived in St Petersburg it was dinner time. We weren't hungry after eating on the flight over. We did take a few pictures on the way to the hotel.

We stayed at the Radisson Sonya, which is conveniently located in downtown St Petersburg. Our 1^st full day, we went exploring downtown with our friends, Jerome and Ann. It was a full day! Our 1^st stop was the Faberge Museum. They have 9 of the 52 “eggs”, silver, plates and many other rare items from the czar days.

Next we walked down Nevada Prospekt, the main street of the City. We crossed over the Anichov Bridge, guarded by the 4 horsemen.

A short distance from there was Kazan Cathedral, a special place of prayer and devotion.

After a stop for lunch we went to the Church of the Spilled Blood, one of the most beautiful churches in all of Russia.

We ended our walk at the State Russian Museum. It has a vast collection of Russian only artwork.

By the time we returned to the hotel, we had walked 8 miles.

After a quick dinner in the hotel, our friends went to the symphony and we went to the Bagatitsa folk show, with a Cossack- themed dancing and singing.

The show ended at 1030pm and it was still light out. We had taken a cab to the theater, but couldn’t find one after the show, so, we walked the 2 miles back to the hotel taking pictures along the way.

Saturday was a typical Gate1day, up at 7am and out the door by 9am,checked out of our rooms and bags in the lobby. We were transferring to the ship later that day.

But, first we went to Peterhof. On the way there we took some pictures of several palaces, including Putin's residence in St Petersburg.

No pictures were allowed inside, but we did take a picture of the special shoes covers we had to wear. There was plenty of picture taking outside in the gardens with its 152 fountains and trees and flowers and canal. This is considered to be the French Palace of Versailles.

That night we transferred to our ship, the MS Mstislav Rostropovich. We didn’t leave the port till the next evening.

Our last day in St Petersburg started with a city tour, some of the sites we had already visited. Some of the new ones were Smolny Cathedral, Church of the Spilled Blood, St Issac's Cathedral, and Peter and Paul Fortress Cathedral where all the czar are buried.

After a nice lunch, we spent the rest of the day at the State Hermitage Museum, before returning to the ship. Large collection of Rembrandt, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Michelangelo to name a few.

The route to Moscow via the waterways was Neva River, Lake Ladoga, Avira River, Lake Onega, Volga Baltic Canal, Koha River, White Lake, Upper Sheksna River, Lower Sheksna River, Rybka Reservoir, Uglich Reservoir, Moska River and finally Moscow Canal. We passed through 15 locks before arriving in Moscow.

We passed through the first lock on our way to our first stop , the village of Mandrogi. Mandrogi, burned to the ground in World War I I, is a reproduction of a traditional Russian village. Almost everything for sale is handcrafted in workshops in the stores in the village. One exception was the Museum of Russian Vodka. It had over 2500 different varieties of Russian vodka displayed. Of course, they offered tastings and sold selected bottles of vodka. None of museum display pieced were for sale.

Later that day we went through lock # 2 and headed north on the Onega Sea, the 2^nd largest lake in Europe; the largest is Logoda, which we crossed the day before.

Our next destination was Kizhi, a UNESCO world Heritage Site. The Island is three miles long and half a mile wide. The site features the 300 year old, wooden church of the Transfiguration and surrounding building. The church has 22 cupolas and was built without a single nail. Legend has it that one man, named Nestor built it with an ax. It is undergoing some renovation work at this time. The week before we got there the Sea was frozen around the site and ships were not able to dock. There are caretakers for the Museum that live on the Island year-round. It was the coldest and most windy day of our trip.

After Kishi we went south on the Onega Sea to the 6 consecutive locks at Vytegra, the start of the Volga Baltic Canal.

On the way south we did a tour of the Captain’s Bridge.

Thursday we went to Goritzy and Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, which was founded in the 14^th century. It was our first rainy day! In English it’s St Cyrillic on the White Lake Monastery. It also served as a fortress for Russian defense back then. During the Bolshevik rebellion, the monastery became controlled by the state.

The next day, our last full day on the ship, we stopped at Uglich, a town on the Volga River dating back to 937. Along with its historical significance, the town is most noted for the murder of Ivan the Terrible’s 10 year old son, Dmitry in 1591. The Church of St Demitry on the Blood was built on the site of his murder. This tour included the Church of the Transfiguration of Christ, one of the most frequented tourist attraction in Russia. This town has 35,000 people and once had 85 Churches, now there are 14. The other churches were destroyed under the Bolsheviks.