Forgot to mention our toiletries: waMnyNb-KOMUINop shampoo and conditioner and Duru Gourmet cherry pie soup. Who needs L'Occitane?

I regret to inform everyone that there is indeed a plastic shower curtain. The horror. I will have to live with it.



It is not an s&s bathroom. Note the step down into the shower



And for the inquiring minds...

The toiletries - yum, yum, cherry pie soap!



Good thing we brought our own L'Occitane and Aveda soap and shampoo, the L'Occitane purloined from the Mariner

Love your pictures and your "checking in" with us - I just folded laundry and have to run errands in 100 degree heat so your updates make my day!!!

Loving the rivermail and pictures. Sounds like things have really changed in Moscow. When we were there several years ago, things were really inexpensive. It looks like you're having some good weather and everyone is having a great time. We're jealous that we're not there :(

Still loving the pics. Not sure I could handle the plastic shower curtain though.

Ngaire, if we have to fly AE, I always get row 12 too, and yes, they will give you free drinks and snacks if you are Plat. They changed the rule a couple of months ago to where they aren't supposed to anymore, but most of the FA's I have encountered still offer it. In fact, when we were flying back from Montreal last week, George and I both ordered a diet coke and the FA asked George if he wanted something in it. He said "Well, yes, ice." I just laughed.

Thanks for checking in with us, enjoying very much the reports and pictures.

Sorry ,but Leslie's shower pictures are disturbing (specially the one that shows the toilet almost inside of the shower enclosure!).

Yikes! I am with Maria, bathroom is "disturbing".Hope you all took nice looong showers before boarding! Is that typical of river cruise boats?
------------------
Helen

Typical bathrooms BUT Ngaire /Ken got upgraded to Imperial suite with BIG bathroom and tub and she is booking appointments. I will not have to go 10 days without a bath !

All unpacked (kind of) on the Anna Katrina having arrived about 3:15. Out suite is about the same size as a Regent small suite with a shit and shower bath but very large balcony. Our room is decorated in soothing shades of toast, sunny yellow and gold. We have a corner table and chair for Doug, replete with an orchid. There is a large two person desk, 2 chairs  with a mirror and a flat screen tv. There is another mirror over the bed and a musical bit of artwork and hairdryer next to the bed. Sadly, no robe, slippers, walk in closet, but plenty of hangers and two bottles of water. Our luggage was quickly delivered to our room and we were offered a pinch of bread upon entering the ship. Check in was quick and efficient and Brad, Leslie, Doug and I were hungry and went looking for food, which we quickly found on our floor. We tucked into our animal crackers, goldfish, spam sandwiches and cheese sandwiches, powdered hot chocolate, tea and coffee. Tonight's menu includes Mediterranean salad with tangy dressing, chicken consommé or zucchini soup, chicken breast, Russian vegetables and ice cream. Can't wait! After checking out the menu, we checked out the ship. There are two exercise rooms, 2 dining rooms, 2 solariums and 2 lounges. Well, off to our briefing and to find Ngaire, Ken, Yvonne and

I'm loving hearing all about your adventures and keep looking at the fabulous pictures.So funny about your itsy bitsy shower. Thank goodness Ngaire & Ken got the upgrade! (Andi, I'm a bath gal too).

My favorite picture is Andi and the Sputnik dog. Great job Brad.

I can't wait to hear more...

The bathroom reminds me of the ones we had many years ago on the Mississippi Queen. So small you basically could not turn around. The toilet was almost in the shower like Leslie's picture and once in the shower there was no way to even move and yes we had a plastic shower curtain too which would just wrap itself around you. Good luck with that!

Great pictures of Moscow Leslie it looks so amazing and much prettier than I would have imagined.

All I can say is that this bathroom is still better than my first mode of cruising.....a crewed charter sailboat in the BVI's. Leslie, I am loving your purloined toiletries from Regent!

Andi, get that bathtub appointment with Ngaire in writing, meanwhile, I am going to look at her suite on the website. No way I would even look at it as a booker ;)

Will fill in more later with pix, and I am sure Andi will remember every detail, but our touring day yesterday was fantastic. We had the best guide I would say we have ever had. She was just terrific. We learned so much about Russia today as well as in the past. Our guide, Anna, was fun, engaging, insightful and very willing to talk about everything. The Cold War nuclear bunker was so interesting, but also very creepy. More details on that later. The Novodevichy Convent was gorgeous and the cemetery fascinating - a veritable who's who of Russian history.

Lovely. Jealous I am.
More stories.

Tomorrow is an overall city tour in the morning with lunch on a river cruise and a river tour and a walking tour in the afternoon. There is an optional circus tour in the early evening or a city lights tour in the late evening. I talked Doug into the Moscow Circus and Guy and Yvonne will join us. Everyone else is saying on board in the evening. There are different walking groups and we are taking the fast group where you go faster, hear less and see more. I like all the facts, so am not crazy about the hearing less piece, but like the seeing more piece.

We found Ngaire and Ken for dinner but never found Guy and Yvonne again. We had a fun dinner, went to drool over the imperial suite and went our separate ways about 9. We're a wild crowd! 

Dinner was surprisingly ok. I really liked the Mediterranean salad, but thought the soups were mediocre. The vegetable stew was good and I liked the cheese plate. I heard the chicken was a tad over cooked.

Brad and Leslie are directly across the hall, Guy and Yvonne are two doors down from Leslie and Ngaire is down a flight.

Today, Brad, Leslie, Doug and I took a private tour beginning at 10. our Guide, Anna, was a petite, attractive, witty blonde who seamlessly whisked us away to our Mercedes Mini Van. She pointed out various key monuments and buildings, e.g.,  KGB headquarters, on our way to our first stop, a  top secret cold war bunker located 18 floors or 60 meters beneath Moscow in the Taganskaya area. It was located in a quiet, upscale neighborhood in a shell of a house that was adjacent to the metro. Decommissioned and sold off at auction, this ex-military communications post is now a museum dedicated to the Cold War. Complete with KGB rooms (now rehearsal space for heavy metal bands and Christmas parties ) we were led through kilometres of tunnels. The Cold War Museum is based in the former top-secret Soviet command post, N42, known more simply as GO-42. The role of this bunker included acting as the federal telephone/ telegraph communication center, the HQ for the Soviet leadership and the Ministry of Communications, as well as the Moscow area anti-aircraft defense communications center. In a global nuclear war, this communication centre would have been one of the main command posts of the Soviet Government. The tour itself travels 60m below ground and we were led through all the halls and the Duty officer rooms. Museum exhibits included the military communication devices of the soviet era and we watched an eerily produced film about the ‘Cold War’ between NATO and USSR and explore the 7,000 sq m of this unique underground area. The film made the Japanese look like victims and the entire experience brought chills to our spines as it brought home how close we were to a potential nuclear war. We even experienced a live raid and had the opportunity to dress up in actual gear and utilize the equipment. The bunker was first set up in 1951 and only ceased as a result of 1) the seepage of water into the tunnel 2) expenses too dear for repair and 3) the realization that it wouldn't stand up to current nuclear weapons. We were all pretty creeped out.

Needing something uplifting, we visited the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior and walked over the new bridge over the Moscow River. This Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox 2000 reconstruction  in a neo Byzantine style of an 1883 church. After the Revolution and, more specifically, the death of Lenin, the prominent site of the cathedral was chosen by the Soviets as the site for a monument to socialism known as the Palace of the Soviets. This monument was to rise in modernistic, buttressed tiers to support a gigantic statue of Lenin perched on top of a dome with his arm raised in the air. On 5 December 1931, by order of Stalin's minister Kaganovich, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was dynamited and reduced to rubble. For a long time, these were the only reminders of the largest Orthodox church ever built. The construction of the Palace of Soviets was interrupted owing to a lack of funds, problems with flooding from the nearby Moscow River, and the outbreak of war. The flooded foundation hole remained on the site until, under Nikita Khrushchev, it was transformed into the world's largest open air swimming pool, named Moskva Pool. However, the pool was damaging the impressionist paintings at the Pushkin museum.

A construction fund for a new Cathedral was initiated in 1992 and money began to pour in from ordinary citizens in the autumn of 1994. In this year the pool was demolished and the cathedral reconstruction commenced. About one million Muscovites donated money for the project. About one million Muscovites donated money for the project. This cathedral is far more impressive inside than St. basils and i can't say i have seen uch an impressively built modern church in all of my travels anywhere. 

A footbridge across the river from Balchug was constructed between 2003 and 2004. From this bridge, facing the back of the cathedral, to the right, across the street, you can see the walls of the Kremlin (which means fortress in Russian and most Russian cities have them). Of course, in Moscow, this means the red walls and gold domes of the presidential palace. The president doesn't live here but greets heads of states here. To the immediate right, there is an old Bolshevik apartment complex and to  left, there is an impressively ugly statue of Peter the Great on a ship mast in the river. This was offered to be sold to the US as Christopher Columbus but we wisely turned it down,  and its head was changed to Peter's and sold to Moscow and it is now known as Peter Columbus. Buildings in Moscow are not high, as in Paris, as the Moscovites wish to preserve                   their skyline, but you can see impressive and attractive skyscrapers in the business district in the distance obviously being constructed outside of the center of the city. Before leaving, Brad insisted that Doug share his rubles to purchase some beer made out of bread (which Doug had seen on an episode of Anthony Bourdain) and apple mors. This turned our to be lunch. It was just okay.

We then drove through suburbs to Novodevichy  (New Maiden) convent and cemetery. Everyone seems to recommend a visit here. The convent was the home to many an outcast ex wife and was the final home to Sophia  (Peter the Great's sister who tried to prevent him from taking over from her when he turned 17) when she lost power from ruling and was exhumed. This fortress like place provided a chaste but elegant home whose purpose was to sequester daughters, sisters, and wayward wives or wives that got in husband's ways of the nobility. Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great sent their female foes here. There are lovely icons that decorate the walls. We saw car after car of brides here, which we thought was an unusual spot considering the origin of the place. The Hummer and Mercedes limos were decorated with two golden rings on the roofs, signifying 0-0 at the start of the marriage. This is kind of an interesting take of the years ahead! More interesting, and well worth the visit is the cemetery which has headstones from key Russian leaders and influential persons-scientists, dancers, musicians, clowns, writers, etc. The headstones are sculptures and works of art. Some of the famous located here are Chekov, Eisenstein, Khrushchev, Gorbachev's wife, Raisa, and Molotov.  

A fascinating a Red (which means beautiful) city! By the way the walls to the Kremlin were originally white until 150 years ago. I'll write more tomorrow.

Some pix from the Cold War bunker

Located a couple hundred feet underground, in an unassuming, quiet neighborhood - underneath the yellow apartment building, next to a church, across from a school. 2,500 people worked there in rotating shifts. I found it particularly disturbing that so many people were focused on the potential for mutual destruction 





Entry strictly controlled!



Our bunker guide shows us the model of the complex.  Note the church and yellow building on the surface.



Andi is recruited to work the communication equipment



Down through the many tunnels



Our guide took us further down to show us the water seepage? She briefly excused herself, then the lights went out nd the sirens sounded. Air raid! Note the fog in the passageways.

Andi & Leslie, great reporting and WOW super photos. Keep the trip mail coming, please!

How I am loving these posts! We have 2 of the best to keep us laughing and educated about this wonderful trip! Keep em coming gals!

thank you so much

Well that sure was a fun pictoral tour! Can't wait to see the convent pics!

Will work on more photos later. It is very time consuming on the iPad today we tour the Kremlin, go to the Armory museum where the fabrige eggs, etc. are, back for lunch, then metro tour and Arabat St. The ship moves tonight.

Word at breakfast is that some of the city lights were not turned on last night... the Moscow at Night tour people spent a lot of time in traffic, returning after 1AM. Doug reports that the circus was good. More later.

Dupe

Wonderful photos and descriptions. Fascinating trip. Thanks for taking us along!

Leslie, great pix! Andi, you make the pictures fun!!!!

Photos from Saturday

The Cathedral of Christ the Savior plus brides posing there and some cars with the double rings on the roofs

Sorry. Impossible Internet. Dupe again.

Thanks, Leslie! Great, as always! What is the groom carrying in the fourth photo?

kathy an umbrella/parasol???? guessing :lct:

"The Hummer and Mercedes limos were decorated with two golden rings on the roofs, signifying 0-0 at the start of the marriage. This is kind of an interesting take of the years ahead!"

Hmm, Andi, what an "interesting take" you have suggested on what really seems to be merely a symbol of two wedding rings, not of a score at the beginning of a competitive game. Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar. ;)

Leslie - great photos. Are all of the young Russians you've seen so annoyingly svelte?

Agree Joanna. Looks like one of those clear plastic umbrellas to me.
Andi and Leslie - Loving all your river mail & photos. Keep them coming.

Think you're right Betty - the shadow of the hook threw me off; think it's time to clean my glasses? :D

The double ring, "even score", comment is a local joke.

Passing through a series of locks this morning as we head north. Today is mostly a "sea day". We will be in Uglich from 6:30 to 9:00 PM for a walking tour and dinner In local homes. There are history and art lectures on the schedule along with Russian language lesson 101.

Sporadic mostly no existent Internet so not sure when next batch of photos will be uploaded. Yesterday was another very interesting day with our visit to the Kremlin Armory Museum, the main cathedral, metro tour. Our last stop was a shopping stop in Arabat St. that I could have easily skipped. Our "active walker" group had a terrific guide for our two full days in Moscow; so far we give the tours an A plus.

The traffic situation in Moscow was not bad. Our first day was a Sunday but yesterday morning, while a bit slow, was OK
and mid day and around 5 PM traffic was moving fine.

No doubt Andi will provide lots of details. She was even taking notes on her iPad on the bus while our guide talked.

We have been in Moscow 5 days and have left this impressive city. This morning, we were all discussing whether we would recommend Moscow to folks and decided that we would. However, this is probably a city for a one time visit and with heavy caveats. As grand as this city is, its 20% per year inflation rate renders most things undoable for the average tourist or unlivable for the average Moscovite.

The city's residents seem to be well dressed, but all may not be what it seems. We love to travel to learn more about everything alien to our normal sphere of reference and to broaden our understanding of others. Sometimes that means deepening our knowledge of current affairs, food, culture, modern history or a bit of ancient history. When I write these trip blogs up, I try to bring my trip to life to retain the memories but to also add some perspective of the country and the people.

I think I'll start historically and bring us into the current environment and hope to keep it interesting.

As with any European country, Moscow was founded about 900 years ago as a feudal castle within a walled city with a moat around its walls. These walls are the walls we now refer to as the kremlin (which just means fortress) and are triangular in shape. As opposed to other cities of its time, everyone, not just the royal family, could live there. As the city grew, however, circular walls continued to be built around the original kremlin. Later on, these walls were replaced with ring roads.

Now, the Moscow River runs through the city and a tremendous amount of city life exists along the river just like in New York, London and Paris...dinner cruises, boat cruises, amusement parks etc. And you have to readjust your perceptions -- the famous Gorky Park of spy book fame is just a children's amusement park.

I always pictured the kremlin as a harsh militaristic place. It isn't. It is more like a walled in Central Park. It houses a modern shopping mall, a church complex, a cathedral, Stalin's and Lenin's resting places among others', government offices, museums, parkland, Red Square (which becomes a skating rink in the winter), and a presidential palace. It's a joyful place. We always called the Communists "the reds". Well, red means beautiful in Russian. So, Red Square means Beautiful Square.

We broke up into different tour groups to see the kremlin. We opted for the most active group, labeled the yellow group. The slowest group was labeled the pink group and there were all sorts of assorted colors in between the two groups. For some reason, our bus combined the pink and yellow groups, but we did break out into two different groups for the walking bits. Yesterday, we didn't walk too much, but mostly took a riding city tour, had an hour to ourselves in Red Square and had a boat ride. Later on in the afternoon, we visited an art museum and Sparrow Hill. It seemed that no matter whether you were in the fast or slow group you went at the same speed. However, for some reason today the pink group didn't show up? We think we killed off the pink people.


So, what were all these sites we saw and learned about yesterday?
Moscow was settled in the 1100's and became the capital in the 1500s. Eventually, the Kremlin took its rightful place as the home of the royal residence until 1918 when the Bolsheviks closed it down to the public until Stalin opened it back up again in the 1950s. As a first stop, we had the opportunity to visit the GUM Mall if we wanted or anything else in the kremlin.

To give you some background: The Gum department store in Red Square was built in 1893 in the "eclectic" style with a glass roof and elegant marble balustrades and it is prominent at the entrance of the Red Square. We were given an hour to wander around Red Square. Now, Brad, Leslie, Doug and I had been here for a couple of days and had been able to wander around the square and had been to St. Basil's and the Diamond Fund, but not to the main GUM. When we arrived Sunday morning, all of the square has been fenced off in preparation for a concert next month. The Diamond Fund was closed and all there was to do was wander through GUM. (Russian: ГУМ, pronounced as goom, as abbreviation of the Russian: Главный универсальный магазин Glavnyi Universalnyi Magazin, meaning "main universal store") is the name of the main department store in many cities during the Soviet Union years. We all wanted to see this famous store because of it's past.

So, a little history for you...By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the building contained some 1,200 stores. After the Revolution, the GUM was nationalized and continued to be used as a department store until Joseph Stalin converted it into office space in 1928 for the committee in charge of his first Five Year Plan. After the suicide of Stalin's wife Nadezhda during 1932, the GUM was used briefly to display her body. After reopening as a department store during 1953, the GUM became one of the few stores in the Soviet Union that did not have shortages of consumer goods, and the queues of shoppers were long, often extending entirely across Red Square. At the end of the Soviet era, GUM was partially then fully privatized, and it had a number of owners before it ended owned by the supermarket company Perekryostok. During May 2005, a 50.25% interest was sold to Bosco di Ciliegi, a Russian luxury-goods distributor and boutique operator. As a private shopping mall, it was renamed in such a fashion that it could maintain its old abbreviation and thus still be called GUM. However, the first word Gosudarstvennyj ('state') has been replaced with Glavnyj ('main'), so that GUM is now an abbreviation for "Main Universal Store".

It is still open nowadays, and is a popular tourist destination for those visiting Moscow. Many of the stores feature fashionable brand names familiar in the West; locals refer to these as the "exhibitions of prices", the joke being that no one could afford actually to buy any of the items displayed. I can attest to that. We found that, while the stores were the same as ours, the prices were two to three times that of our NYC retail prices. In fact, our guide told us that tour companies frequently arrange shopping trips to Turkey or Egypt because it is cheaper to travel abroad to buy clothes than to purchase here. We were told that the higher you go in the mall, the cheaper things get. It didn't help. I bought some tea bags and some beef sticks and we discussed amongst ourselves how the Moscow infrastructure could support this ridiculously expensive mall.

We have been been blessed with weather in the mid to high 70s and a lunchtime boat ride was next in store for us. The mix of modern buildings with classical with Stalininistic Architecture is quite impressive. I never grasped the magnitude of Stalin's Seven Sisters...currently two hotels, one office and the rest residences. When Marc Levin suggested we visit one of these places, I hadn't a clue what he was talking about, so we never ventured over to the Hilton. Now I understand. These buildings are what ine thinks of when you think of 50s USSR but never of such a magnificent magnitude. These buildings are the largest I have ever seen and are powerfully striking. So, what are they?

The "Seven Sisters" is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. They were built from 1947 to 1953. While each of these "skyscrapers" was built by a different architect, they look essentially the same? The are just as wide as they are tall and look like something out of ghostbusters. From the out side, they seem to have high ceilings and the decor is akin, but an exaggerated form of Rockefeller Center on a much grander scale. These buildings looked to be more 30s style than 50s.

Another stop was Sparrow Hill. Today, it is the home of the huge Stalin style university building which overlooks the city. The highest area in the city, And now a university area and cheesy vendors, the views of the city could have been those of any city and was hardly worth a visit.

It broke my heart that we missed the Pushkin, but, as part of our scheduled AMA tour, we did get to visit The State Tretyakov Gallery, which the Russians consider the national treasury of Russian fine art and one of the greatest museums in the world. It is located in one of the oldest directs of Moscow – Zamoskvorechye, not far from the Kremlin. The Gallery's collection consists entirely of Russian art and artists who have made а contribution to the history of Russian art or been closely connected with it. The collection contains more than 150 000 works of painting, sculpture and graphics, created throughout the centuries by successive generations of Russian artists. The little we saw was absolutely incredible. I think, in retrospect, I could have added on two days just for the Pushkin and this museum. While interesting, I would have replaced the cultural history museum we all visited on day one, which was too overwhelming.

This is the end of Moscow Day 3 of touring.

I should mention ... Day 1 was no touring, just our arrival ; day 2 the 4 of us did our self tour day I but day 2 in Moscow ; day 3 in Moscow was our private tour day 2 tour with Anna. day 4 in moscow was our 3rd touring day, but first with AMA as described above. We have one more day in Moscow which I haven't yet written about.

This is Moscow Day 3 of touring, but it is really day 4 of our days in Moscow. As I write this, it is a lazy day on the river. We set sail last night at 6:30 from Moscow. The weather had been exceptional. I slept late and awoke at 10:30 to grey skies. Doug has been wandering in and out all morning and reports the rest of the group is out and about. Brad, Leslie, Ngaire and Ken have been playing hearts, Guy has been reading on deck and Yvonne is on her computer.

Yesterday, we took a walking tour the kremlin in the morning and retuned to the ship for lunch. We took in the fantastic armory, filled with royal treasure...carriages, china, coronation thrones, crowns, silver, faberge eggs, etc. Magnificent and well worth the visit. It was such a lovely day, the walk was terrific as well. There were hoards of tourists and we bobbed and weaved get our glimpses of these works of art.

We returned to the ship for lunch and I was treated to the best hot Siberian borscht I have ever tasted. So good, that I requested it for dessert and made a request to have it again for dinner. We also had a very tasty beef stroganoff - even better than the one I had at the $350 restaurant in Moscow. Service has been willing but spotty with some of us served and others of us waiting eons before the kitchen is ready with the other's entrees. I feel we are on an episode of Hells Kitchen.

Only Ngaire, Ken, Leslie, Doug and I ventured out for the afternoon tour to the subway and Ararat street. Doug and I had heard so much about these subways we had to see it. They are all individually and artistically decorated so as to make the common people feel that they were living in a palace. We visited three individual stops and they were very nice and then we visited the highly touted pedestrian Ararat street which was nothing more than an ugly street with a McDonalds, a Hard Rock Cafe, and lots of souvenir shops with the same junk. I wish I had gone to the art museum again. Ngaire reports that the McDinalds was well priced!

The Captain's cocktail party was last night and I would have been embarrassed to have served the hors d"hoevres they had out...mystery meat and pineapple on a skewer. Guy and Yvonne tucked into the well done, nicked filet, but Doug, Brad, Ngaire, Leslie, and I just couldn't bear to see such nice meat destroyed as such. So, some opted for the chicken Kiev, others for the ratatouille and I, the borscht.

Today, we are planning to dock mid afternoon for a walking tour and a visit to a Russian home. Let's hope the tours continue to be as interesting as they have been!

As far as the ship and AMA..Brad keeps saying "it's all your fault" whenever he sees me ... Ngaire keeps saying " we're doing this because of you" whenever she sees me", so read into these comments whatever you will. I am just grateful that they upgraded Ngaire to the Imperial suite so I can get my bath. I may not have been so jolly otherwise. I am used to having an en suite and not taking my towel and going down a flight. How one must rough it these days!

Dupe

The final chapter in the Moscow trilogy:


A few afterthoughts about Moscow and family life. We had a lovely, intelligent 27-28 year old guide, Olga, whose father was also a guide and fluent in Japanese. She was a University graduate, a divorcee for three years now who had moved back home with her family. She shared it wasn't easy living with mom and dad again and many of her friends married early to pool resources and get out on their own. I wonder why they just didn't live together? She says most of her friends are now divorced.

The average small apartment is about $1000 per month and that is the monthly salary of educated person. So, a couple gets to go out to dinner (with dinners being $100 an evening at least, it doesn't go far), get some groceries, pay utilities, transportation ... There is nothing left over. In fact, to make ends meet, most young people live with their parents and most young couples hold down several jobs. Life has dealt older couples a cruel blow as well. Sold the idealistic life under socialism, folks didn't need to work for money. Things were taken care of for them. They couldn't own anything and didn't make much, but medical care, education, housing and even vacations were supplied free of charge. They were even able to save money over their lifetime - enough for a little dacha and to retire at age 55. Then, the new Russia came about and the ruble was recalculated and essentially devalued and pensioners found themselves with nothing for retirement as their savings were devastated. They now went from government subsidized living to a life were they had no savings and had to support themselves in an economy with a yearly inflation rate of 20%. Pensions? They can only count on about $200 per month. Hence, most, if still alive, still work well past retirement. Sadly, many never make it to retirement age as the median survival age for men is 57 and women, 72. Men's lower age versus women's is a combination of stress drinking and no medical care. Women tend to succumb to illness caused by lack of inability for early diagnosis of the overburdened medical system, with long waits for appointments, or women so busy with working for survival that they neglect their own health.

Russia is certainly a land of conundrum. It offered gender equality much earlier for high level jobs, but neglected to offer the right to freedom for any gender. The one comment all lecturers and guides bring up is "what is the best period in Russian life? Communism? The New Russia?" it seems that the answer is "whatever the person's era was when they were young and in love and had no responsibilities." Quite honestly, they seem to have gone too much into capitalism without a thought to a place for the middle class. The wealth I have seen far exceeds that of the US and the struggles are far greater.

Moscow is pure grandeur. It is quiet, elegant, clean. It's people have a laid back, yet cynical humor. There is no pushing in the subways, no honking in the streets. At the circus, there was sheer delight. If someone took someone else's seat, a person, would just smile and take another. There was no aggression towards one another. However, there is passive aggressive thievery. Our guide, Anna, told us matter of factly that apartment managers become extremely rich by taking mark ups on everything that needs to be done. Our Hyatt hotel was impeccably maintained and exquisite. Yet, we received a letter of apology for it's appearance and were told that a total renovation would be undertaken. When we mentioned this to Anna, she laughed and said "of course! How else would we afford our new roads and be able to justify charging even more for our rooms?" Gosh, the rooms are already $1300 per night for a basic room!!!!

Russia has so much history and so much to offer. But at $100-$300 per meal, $1300 per room, $300 per person for a guide per day and entry fees everywhere, are they taking capitalism so far that they will drive tourists away?

Traveling along the Volga river today I am struck by the mansions, lovely river towns with very genteel towns. This is not the Russia I expected to see, nor the Russia that the average Russian obviously experiences, no matter how superficially lovely.

Dupe

Photos from the Novovedicy Convent 

I've been out of town for a while and just spent the morning catching up on the fascinating, informative reports and the beautiful photos! Thank you so much!