Russia Part 1. - 2016

While standing in front of very efficient person at the SAS Airlines counter in Stockholm airport weighing bags, checking passports, she carefully studied our entry/exit visas for the next destination, then innocently blurted out, “are you scared?”

We weren’t expecting and said, “should we be?”  With that she just shrugged, told us she had been there recently and simply left us hanging.  Great start but there was no turning back now and a few later we were landing into St Petersburg, and oh ‘nyet’ means ‘no’ in Russian.

We had grown up through a period when Russia was a communist State and there were stories of long queues for food and a dreary dull country full of very sullen people.  So our expectations weren’t very high BUT the Russia we experienced was nothing at all as expected.

Winston Churchill was once quoted as saying – ‘Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma’ and as we learned during our month in Russia… he may have very well been correct.

St Petersburg’s airport is very modern, their immigration process efficient with no documents to fill out, mind you, obtaining visas to enter Russia takes some effort and $’s, but once you have them, entry was very straight forward.

We had booked our trip through Eastern Europe Travel (Russian Travel Centre) in Sydney and their representative soon had us into a car amongst very fast traffic to the hotel.

So let’s get right to it.  There are 2 posts about Russia and this one is focused on a 1,770km boat trip from St Petersburg to Moscow as the map below shows.  The route followed rivers, crossed 2 of the biggest lakes in Europe, a dam and along multiple man made canals through multiple locks.  There were 3 phases to this journey being -  In And Around St Petersburg, The boat trip and In And Around Moscow.

The actual route we took from St Petersburg to Moscow

As soon as we started exploring St Petersburg until we left Moscow, we were constantly using many adjectives reacting to what we saw, so to make this easy for everyone, below is a list of quite a few, so when you see a photo or description of something there will be ‘[WOW]’ inserted.  You can then think of any adjective for yourself but you’ll get the idea as you read further.

So now for many of the example adjectives that popped into our heads:

Breathtaking        awesome           beautiful           gorgeous                      stunning

Unbelievable        amazing            jaw dropping     incredible                    outstanding

Astonishing           mind boggling   staggering          incomprehensible        fantastic

Magnificent          impressive         grand                majestic                      imposing

Stupendous           &*^%$! – made that one up!

…so hopefully by now you’re getting a feel for it!!

Example of Cupolas

Before continuing, let’s briefly talk about ‘cupolas’ and will apologise now if you see too many cupola photos.  

Cupolas are the onion shape domes atop Russian Orthodox churches and there are a LOT of churches in Russia.

We never tired at looking at these interesting pieces of architecture and did learn why the cupolas on different churches are of various colours, designs and numbers.  



Gold means they are wealthy and other colours either mean they follow the apostles, the Virgin Mary and so on.

Originally gold plate was used on many cupolas but during various wars it was removed and replaced with gold coloured paint.  Most were painted black during WW II to protect them from aerial bombing.

The numbers of cupolas on top of each church varies dramatically and the number has a specific meaning, for example one simply means Christ or 12 symbolizes the number of apostles and so on.  In the Russian churches we also heard much about their ‘icons’ which are highly revered and protected and quite often they were extremely old painted timber panels of saints, kept in a particular church over many centuries.

In And Around St Petersburg

Rob enjoying the Segway in St Petersburg

We had an extra day in St Petersburg, so rather than doing a hop on/off bus to familiarise ourselves with the city, we spent 2hrs zipping around on Segway’s along pathways and narrow footpaths, crossing busy intersections and bridges amongst the traffic and pedestrians.  

We quickly had some locals displaying their displeasure at our presence amongst them, mind you; Russians don’t initially seem to smile much anyway.  

This city has some very impressive buildings but more on that later.

Zipping around amongst the architecture, St Petersburg

We also went and checked out a very modern and massive shopping centre filled with stores, just like any we would find back in Australia and many good coffee shops.

Inside shopping centre - St Petersburg

McDonalds in Russia

The MS Chernyshevsky

Boarding our boat, the MS Chernyshevsky, named after a radical Russian journalist and social theorist, we went through the check-in process and found our ‘twin cabin, single occupancy’ accommodation for the next 10 nights.  

This simply means, we both had a cabin with 2 beds in each but only one was made up, but at least our rooms were next to each other. 

Good friends made during the cruise

The stoic Russians seem to love processes and punctuality, so we were allocated a dining table and informed we must sit at the same table for every meal, but we got lucky.  

So at the first meal we met our dining companions for the trip, Bridget and lover of everything Italian, Linda the Queen of Chemistry, Mary the anaesthetist but certainly not by nature, and Madge the Amazing.

Very soon into the voyage we were joined by Ukulele Diane, who had changed tables to join us, which certainly upset Russian processes leading to a small politburo meeting of dining staff convened near our table and after some head scratching, it was sorted out!  Then there was me… the token male.

Laraslavna in traditional dress

For the entire voyage, we were well looked after by Laraslavna, a caring and attentive young lady with good sense of humour as did Svetlana, the person servicing our cabins every day.

But back to Madge and why she was amazing.  For a start she’s tiny, very spritely, always up front of any tour group and was travelling alone.  

We tried numerous times to find out her age but were refused, no matter how hard we tried, but our best guess would have been over 80.  She lives in a house alone, looks after her own swimming pool and next trip she has here eye on Cape York!

On the boat there were also Romanians, French, Italians, Americans, British, a large bunch of sole female travellers from Australia travelling through a tour group called ‘Twos A Crowd’… almost the UN of travellers!

We learned as we progressed that almost everything we saw had some sort of direct influence by a Tsar or Tsarina and keep also in mind, that Russians are a quite religious group through the Russian Orthodox Church.

Memorial to Peter the Great, St Petersburg

For 2 nights whilst moored in St Petersburg, we enjoyed organized tours visiting the many [WOW] sites this city offers and some of them left us quite in [WOW]!  St Petersburg is a relatively young city built over multiple islands and founded by Tsar Peter The Great around 300 years ago.  

He drove Russia to modernise and shift its old culture by brute personal drive and his goal was transforming Russia into being more European as well as to expand its territory.

Peter The Great loved boats, so until after his death, there were no bridges allowed to be built between the islands in St Petersburg and when they were built build, most were opening bridges.  

As a result, currently every day from around 1am till 5am all the bridges are opened letting larger boat traffic to move around.  Bad luck if you haven’t made it home after a big night!

Peter The Great had a very active mind and personally tried many things including learning boat building and carpentry, tried dentistry including practicing on his servants by pulling their teeth out and forced Russians to cut off their traditional long beards, even doing this personally if seeing one on a resident in the street.

Over 2 days during some organized tours, we gazed upon very large numbers of [WOW] buildings with [WOW] facades and there seemed to be palaces everywhere.  There were massive buildings originally built for specific functions like shipbuilding, weapon production, coin production and then there were the churches and cathedrals with those [WOW] cupola shapes on top.

Former palace and now Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

We were also told what Russians believe the colours of their flag symbolise… white stands for generosity, blue for loyalty and red for courage.

During the tours we visited The Church of Spilled Blood where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, Peter & Paul’s Fortress and Cathedral with 30 tonnes of gold in it which also houses the graves of many Tsars and their immediate families, including the last Tsar and family murdered during the revolution.

The Church of Spilled Blood

Burial place of the Tsar's, Peter& Paul's Cathedral, St Petersburg

There were three palaces we visited which are now museums.  First the Hermitage Museum, the equal of any of the great world museums and spread across multiple [WOW] ornate buildings housing 3 million objects, 10% of what was originally stored and displayed in it until the Bolshevik revolution, when most were sold off.  

Inside the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

The internal architecture and colours of the building were simply [WOW] as were works of art in all forms including paintings by DaVinci, sculptures by Michelangelo, pottery, clothing and even Egyptian artefacts. 

Carved from a single block of marble by
Michelangelo, St Petersburg

There was the colour of gold everywhere and were amazed to discover multiple very large [WOW] vases seen throughout were made of malachite.  This is a green mineral and these vases weren’t each sculptured from one large chunk of it, they were created from very small pieces of the mineral like a massive 3 dimensional jigsaws.

HUGE vase made from malachite, St Petersburg

Catherine’s Palace came next in the town of Pushkin, named after Russia’s revered poet, and it was the place everyone wanted to visit.  No wonder there was a revolution because it was [WOW] with its blue and gold coloured exterior and as we walked from room to room we were constantly again surrounded by the colour of gold, much of it real. In the corners of most rooms were furnaces used to heat them made from Dutch Delftware pottery, it was a [WOW] beautiful place.

About to enter Catherine's Palace, Pushkin, St Petersburg

Dining room with Delftware furnace in corner

Soft shoe cover shuffling in ballroom, Catherine's Palace

Sneak photo of Amber Room wall (darker)

Everyone on the cruise wanted to visit one room especially in Catherine's Palace called the Amber Room.

The walls of this room are completely covered by amber, a tree resin and was the only location in the entire palace we were not allowed to photograph.

The amber is very ornate, intricate and multi-coloured.  

It is an exact copy of the original room walls which disappeared during WWII probably at the hand of the Nazis and have never been found.

Words cannot describe just how [WOW] the workmanship is and must have been.

Amber Room (Source:  Stock photo in Google Photos)

Amber Room (Source:  Stock photo in Google Photos)

Finally we visited Peter The Great’s Peterhof Palace(s) located facing the Finland Sea supposedly to allow him to watch the battles with Sweden.  It is also known as the ‘Russian Versailles’ and for very good reason is a UNESCO site.  With rain steadily falling, we spent time only walking through the lower gardens spread across 102 hectares.  These gardens are renowned for their fountains, turned on at 11 am each day and fed by dams solely using gravity through 50kms of pipes.  These photos may assist in demonstrating the [WOW] of this location.

Lower gardens of Peterhof Palace

Lower gardens of Peterhof Palace

St Petersburg is also a city containing many man made canals and it was through these we cruised one night during our final tour and it was easy to understand why this city has also been described as the ‘Venice of the north’.

Cruising the canals of St Petersburg

The Boat Trip

The MS Chernyshevsky is one of 24 in the fleet plying these waterways, has a crew of 100 and carries 300 passengers.  

A sister ship following us at sunset

We were fed very well, too well perhaps, and every day we would visit a new town town or iconic location.  

During daytime sailing periods, we attended Russian language lessons, or enjoyed vodka tasting and others tried their hand at Russian singing, dancing or some other activity.

Vodka tasting during the cruise

We also attended 3 video sessions produced by National Geographic called ‘Land of the Tsars’ which was excellent in helpinf us understand Russia’s violent history through a timeline of the Tsars.  

There were numerous attacks on Russia by Tatars (Muslims), France, Poland, Prussia, Germany and Sweden to name some.

Russia also attacked other countries to extend its own territory, especially to gain access to all wether sea ports in both the Crimean Black Sea and St Petersburg.  

The country in many ways started with an invasion by Vikings when it became known as ‘The land of the Rus’, later on being called Russia.

There were also multiple assassinations of Tsars, or by them of their own family members, and we learned of Russian willingness on multiple occasions, to withdraw forces from battlefronts back deep into Russia whilst destroying everything as they went.  This forced enemies to extend their supply lines to breaking point and lead to the defeat of both Napoleon and Hitler. 

Napoleon for example reached Moscow that had been partially destroyed by the Russians, only stayed 1 month and left, most of his troops then dying when a severe winter hit them.  This preparedness by Russians to make severe sacrifices to protect their motherland may provide some insight to their character.

Old building, Mandrogi

During our voyage, we stopped briefly at Mandrogi located between the 2 largest lakes in Europe, Lakes Ladoga and Onega on the banks of the Svir River.  

It is a faithfully reconstructed historical village showcasing traditional buildings and arts & crafts by local artisans.  

Whilst Rob looked at jewellery and lacework, I enjoyed looking at nearly 3,000 different labels of vodka and naturally sampling a few.

Vodka museum, Mandrogi

Hand painting babushka dolls, Mandrogi

Another day we stopped at the museum island of Kizhi, the whole island a non smoking area and UNESCO World heritage Site and below is the reason why!

Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Island

There was the Livonian War against Sweden during the reign of the Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the early 1700’s and the [WOW] Transfiguration Church was built in 1714 to commemorate Russia’s victory.  The church is made solely from Aspen timber without a single nail being used and the nine cupola Intercession Church was built next to it also solely from wood in 1764… [WOW]!

Transfiguration & Intercession Churches, Kizhi Island

After travelling along the White Lake and past the remains of Krokhino Church consumed by a soviet built hydroelectric dam, we stopped to visit the grounds of Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery to see some of their Russian Orthodox icons.  The monastery exists after one of the Tsars exiled his wife there for the rest of her life.

Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery

Russian kids heading back to school

Further on was the Mother Volga statue and the old city of Rybinsk, having traversed yet another of the many locks on our journey, we pulled into Yaroslav, one of Russia’s oldest and well known towns founded in 1010 by Prince Yaraslov and this town plus the next one we stopped at, Uglich, were all filled with more [WOW] churches and [WOW] buildings.

Statue of Mother Volga

War memorial, Vaxholm

Park at meeting of 2 rivers, Yaroslav

Uglich was founded in 937 then seized in 1238 when the Mongols killed most of the population.  After Ivan the Terrible’s death, his son Prince Dimitry was sent to Uglich with his mother and were then killed.  In 1611, Polish invaders destroyed the town. On both Kizhi Island and in Uglich, we heard the most [WOW] singing by monks producing a style of sound we have never heard before and very touching.

Singing monks, Kizhi Island

As we came closer to Moscow, we passed all that remains of the church Kolvazin or St Nikolay’s Tower, built in 1654, both now having succumbed to dams supporting the huge canal system and locks. 

Nikolay's Tower

To complete our ‘on water’ experience, the Captain hosted a formal farewell dinner that the Russian crew went to town for by dressing up very formally.  Our table was right at the centre back of the restaurant and I happened to be standing next to the back windows when the Captain and his entourage arrived.  They took up position right next to me and with microphone in hand, the Captain started talking. 

To put it simply, I decided to be part of the entourage and simply stood there with them all.  The Cruise Director did a sideways glance at me as if to say, “what the ^&%$ are you doing here” but I stayed trying not to lose it as people in the audience slowly began realising I shouldn’t be there and started laughing.  Eventually it was stage left for me and for them to complete their formalities.

In And Around Moscow

Moscow is big… VERY big with a population of ~12M and around 16M if including the urban areas, has 5 million cars being used in it and 10 million people using the underground Metro system.

Moscow was nothing like we were expecting.  By now we had learned that most towns have a ‘Kremlin’ or fort and Moscow’s Kremlin is huge with high red walls, many tall towers and specific ones with large illuminated red stars atop them.

Wall of the Kremlin, Moscow

Tower of Kremlin after sunset, Moscow

Moscow has its own interesting history, but one story we heard perhaps best describes many Russians pragmatic cultural approach to life.  Hitler intended to destroy Moscow and flood it by opening all the lock and dam walls and wanted a massive red granite monument built to him.  He organised trainloads of red granite to be sent to Moscow but when he didn’t win the war, the Russians simply said thanks and used the granite to create buildings like the one below.

Older Russians in front of 'Hitler' red granite

Inside the grounds of the Kremlin, apart from the political offices of many, including President Putin, there was the very [WOW] Dormition Cathedral and associated buildings, with construction commenced by Ivan 1 in 1324, with all Tsars being crowned there, the final Tsar Nicholas II being crowned in 1896. 

Dormition Church on right, church of Archangel on left

Atop one of the churches in Kremlin

In this cathedral as in all others and churches we entered, there is a dominant multi tier ‘iconostasis’ or wall of very old icons (saints, apostles, Virgin Mary etc), painted either by official icon painters or in some cases, untrained locals.

Example of 'iconostasi' in a church

Near the cathedral is a huge canon, plus a massive but fatally cracked bell that never tolled, with tonnes of gold and silver used in its construction.

The canon in the Kremlin, Moscow

We took ourselves to ‘The Armoury’ inside the Kremlin, akin to the Tower of London and were just [WOW] [WOW] by what we saw.  A [WOW] collection of old and exceptionally ornate horse drawn coaches, silver, gold and pearl inlaid gowns from bygone eras, intricate silver and gold collections of tea sets, plates, fountains… think of something and the [WOW] ornate swords, scabbards, armour, including that of the horses adorned with jewels of many types.  Haven’t seen anything quite like it before!

Source:  Google Photos

Then there was the famous Faberge collection, so fine in detail and so valuable.  Unfortunately they are very strict about no photography but heh… nothing ventured nothing gained, although an attendant did come searching for me!

Part of Faberge collection

Faberge collection (Source: Google Photos)

There were also night tours where we thoroughly enjoyed the Russian National Dance Show ‘Kostroma’, chronicling the history of Russia through dance.

Dance of the Cossacks, Kostroma, Moscow

Travelling through Moscow’s famous and very deep underground and ornate Metro system, where trains arrive approximately every minute, but will again let some photos tell their own story.  

Moscow's famous underground Metro

Ceiling decorations at one of many ornate stations in Metro, Moscow

Rob under another Metro decoration

The city night tour also showed off just how [WOW] Moscow really is and we also tried to imagine what it would look like during winter.

Moscow at night

We visited the simple but [WOW] Novodevichy Convent and Cemetery, wandering the gardens, visiting the very old and [WOW] painted churches then wandering through its [WOW] cemetery of sculptured headstones to important people, including those of Nikita Khrushchev responsible for the Cuban missile crisis and Boris Yelstin, the first President of the Republic of Russia.

Novodevichy Convent

Grave of Boris Yeltsin

On our own extra and final night in Moscow, Rob and I took ourselves back through the famous Red Square just before sunset, enjoyed a celebratory drink as the sun's glow dimmed before fronting up yet again to take even more photos of this…

The incomparable St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow

St Basil’s Cathedral.  Words are not enough but it was commissioned during Ivan the Terrible reign and unlike any other Cathedral in all Russia, its designer sought to capture the flames of a bonfire in both the design and colours of the copulas… it truly is one of the [WOW] sights of the world.  Sadly… the designer was made blind after its completion so it couldn’t be repeated!

Again we were picked up promptly by a guide and driver, given tickets for the start of our next sojourn within Russia away from all the splendour across what some locals told us would be ‘another side of Russia’, so until then and the next post… go well!

Just click on any of the link(s) below if you want to see a few more photos covering Part 1. of our time in Russia:

CLICK HERE for more photos of in & around St Petersburg

CLICK HERE for more photos - St Petersburg to Moscow

CLICK HERE for more photos In & Around Moscow

As always... go well everyone!