Waterways of the Czars – Final Journey

Article posted: June 11th, 2010 by Cruisepilot | No Comments »

Join Cruisepilot’s CEO, for the final leg of his journey from St Petersburg to Moscow on Viking River Cruise’s 13 day “Waterways of the Czars”.

Day 9 – Uglich

Founded in the tenth century Uglich is considered the oldest city in Russia, even older than Moscow. After Ivan the Terrible’s death, his son Dimitry moved to Uglich with his mother and was murdered 7 years later. The resulting uprising caused great destruction. But there was reconstruction of the city in the 17th and 18th century.

We are sailing (onboard the Viking Kirov) through the Volga this afternoon and into the Moscow canal. Tonight we have the Captain’s Dinner and the eagerly awaited passenger’s talent show. I’m sure there will be a lot of laughs, but none of them will be including me.

We dock in Moscow tomorrow.

Day 10 – Moscow

We are now cruising the Moscow Canal and you can see the river activity and built up areas becoming more regular. As you come to the outskirts of Moscow you can see new housing estates being developed and the homes look no different to a typical development in Australia. Moscow at this stage seems to be quite Westernised. We’ve docked at the Moscow Canal port and the port building is just beautiful, although it seems no maintenance has been done for years (see picture).

So, what about the Russian language! If you look at western names they are actually translated literally although they don’t look like the western word. What confuses us is that many of the Russian letters look like our alphabet letters, but they are not the same. If you look at the attached Russian McDonalds sign it gives you a very good idea of this because it is a literal letter by letter translation. For instance if you take the “S” on the end of McDonalds, it is replaced with the letter “C” in Russian. This fine when you are trying to understand a western word, but it is no help when you are trying to work out general Russian words because you have no idea what the word means anyway. That’s about the end of my Russian language skills. Not much I know.

We are off on a Moscow city tour today. Like any city the traffic is atrocious, but no worse than Sydney or Melbourne. However, the slow pace allowed us to take in all the sites. We saw the Whitehouse (Russian) that was fired on by troops many years ago, we went through the city centre that is actually well developed keeping the old and mixing it with the new. We went past Red Square and the Kremlin (tour tomorrow) and saw the colourful Onion Domes built under the direction of Ivan the Terrible. The Metro (rail) came as a big surpirse, what with its unbelievable decoration! It was like visiting a palace. The escalator going down to the Metro would have to be the longest in the world – I’d estimate 400 – 500 metres long. When you hop on and look down, you cannot even see where it ends. It is a strange feeling.

Tonight we went to a Russian Folklore Concert. What a night! It covered a very wide range of entertainment. There was opera, traditional folklore musical instruments as well as wind and percussion instruments. There was comedy that we all understood, no language, just actions. It was one of the best nights so far and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Day 11 – Kremlin tour

There are 14 cruise ships docked in Moscow at the moment. Four (4) of them are Viking River Cruise ships. It is quite a sight when you arrive back at the port. You need to be careful not to get on the wrong ship!

The staff onboard the Viking Kirof have been fantastic throughout our cruise. From passenger services, room service, waiters to tour guides, nothing has been too hard. You can see that Viking River Cruises and their staff take real pride in ensuring their guests have a 1st class experience.

We elected to be dropped into the centre of Moscow this morning and just do our own thing. Then at 3pm we met up for the Kremlin tour. It was a great morning strolling around Moscow at our leisure. It gave us time to catch up on some shopping. We visited a great restaurant and shopping area called ARBAT. It is a closed street that runs for approximately 1 Kilometre. Great food options and souvenir shops. Near Red Square is an area full of souvenir stalls which have a great range of products at fairly good prices. However, I will tell you that souvenirs are much cheaper at stops along the river during your cruise. We found some items to be 5 times the price in Moscow, so don’t wait thinking you will get a bargain in Moscow.

Also be very careful because some of the more furry items, like hats, coats, scarf’s etc are actually made from real Mink. They are very cheap, but I imagine if your principles don’t stop you, Australian customs may upon your return.

The Kremlin tour was great. The Kremlin is the walled part of the city that houses a lot of the Government. It has history that goes back many hundreds of years and includes many reminents from the Stalin and Lenin eras. There was some sort of meeting on the day we toured and the presence of Secret Service personnel on just about every corner was very obvious.

The tour guides said it is not like that every day. Red Square on the day was closed off because they were setting up for anniversary celebrations for the weekend.

Day 12 – Military Museum

It was off to the military museum this morning. When we arrived we were met by a guide from the museum to be escorted throughout the complex. We initially went outside to stroll through hundreds of exhibits of the whole series of MIG fighters right up to the MIG 29. There were tanks, artillery pieces, vehicles, missiles and even an armoured train from the 1800’s. Inside, the museum mainly focused on World War 2 which was a surprise to me. There was nothing about any of the other historical conflicts that have been a large part of Russia’s history. The museum was quite good and worth the trip.

Farewell to Russia and our Viking River Cruise

Well, we have had 13 days of surprises and a new appreciation for what Russia has gone through to get to where it is today. It is hard for an Australian to understand these struggles because we have not experienced conflict from within. The opulence that the Czars lived in was the complete opposite to how their people lived. The cruelty and suffering experienced during the St Petersburg and Stalingrad sieges during World War 2 is really unimaginable. The knowledge of the Cold War with the USA and the outside world by the people up to the end of the 80’s can’t be understood by us, but when information you are allowed to see is controlled, you only know what you are told.

Russia has come through all this now to become a very open democracy. The people are very friendly and helpful. The country is very safe – from what we experienced. Most of all it has a history that is as colourful as the Onion Domes. It has embraced democracy and the people are free to criticise, but mostly they don’t. They are proud people that will welcome you to their country.

Seeing that country via a Viking River Cruise really made it easy for my first visit. It was a country that I was cautious to visit, but the River Cruise was the best introduction to a country that offers a fantastic experience.

Give it a try yourself and call us to arrange your Russian Viking River Cruise. Don’t forget you can also book online.

Goodbye from downtown Moscow!

Missed any of the installments of the Waterways of the Czars Blog?
Day 1 – Waterways of the Czars with Viking River Cruises
Days 2-3 - Waterways of the Czars with Viking River Cruises
Days 4-8 – Waterways of the Czars with Viking River Cruises