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Cruising Down the Volga River from Moscow to St. PetersburgNicholas and Alexandra RevisitedBy Susan Scott Schmidt“At the coronation that night, the Kremlin shimmered
with light and music. The gowns worn by Russian women were thought by foreign
ladies to be shockingly far off the shoulder. There were tiaras, necklaces,
bracelets, rings and earrings, some with stones as big as robin’s eggs.” Ever since I read the book Nicholas and Alexandra as a child, I’ve wanted to visit Russia. I was fascinated by the tale of the last czar and czarina and their opulent court life – the jewels, the carriages, the ballgowns, the intrigue. Reading, I wept over the Romanov family, its hemophiliac son, and its tragic murder In August, I stood in the Armory museum in Moscow, looking at the jewels as big as eggs which once adorned the Russian royal family. The museum was filled with remnants of the fabulous lives of the czars – Faberge eggs, coronation gowns, golden carriages, and bejeweled crowns. It rivals the Smithsonian’s hall of gems. Seeing the riches of the royal court made me think about the contrast between the crushing poverty of the serfs and the wealth of the nobility.
In January, we signed up to go. Our cruise travels down the Volga River from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Called the “Journey of the Czars,” the tour is run by a St. Louis-based company called Intrav. Headquartered on a 250-passenger river boat, the Novikov Priboy, we will spend four days in Moscow, touring the city. For five days, we will cruise down the Volga River, stopping at villages along the way. We will end up in St. Petersburg, touring the world-famous Hermitage Museum, Catherine’s Palace, and Petrodvorets Grand Palace and Park. We decided to stay two extra days in St. Petersburg on our own, so we could thoroughly tour the Hermitage. We made our reservations at the Renaissance Baltic Hotel in central St. Petersburg. The hotel was expensive, at $320 per night. Overcoming the Visa HurdleWe booked our flights from Pittsburgh to Atlanta on USAir, then continuing on a ten and a half hour nonstop Delta flight to Moscow. I approached the process of applying for a visa with trepidation. A friend told us she’d had to drive to Washington to personally get her visa at the Russian embassy. We are warned to fill our the two-page visa application exactly as instructed, not misplacing a period. They want to know odd things, like our community activities and every country we’ve visited in the past decade. Intrav is using a Washington-D.C. company called The Visa Center to expedite the application. We started applying three months in advance. Our visa fee was $310 for two people. Because our itinerary varied from the groups, the Russian government asked for extra documentation from the St. Petersburg hotel, in the form of a letter confirming our reservation. A month before the trip, our visa was granted. Touring MoscowThe Russian empire was founded by Ivan the Terrible and modernized by Peter the Great. Russia was governed by the czars until the 1917 revolution. The country spent the next 70 years under communist dictatorship. Everything in Russia has changed since 1991, when Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Soviet empire and launched a series of reforms known as glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring). It is a country in transition, adapting to a free market system. Moscow reminds me of Western Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley. There is a feeling of underlying industrial decay and a need for modernization. The public buildings look dingy. The former socialist country lacks the glitz of Western marketing. I felt disoriented because I spoke only one word of Russian and didn’t know the Cyrillic alphabet. On the first day, we visited the Kremlin, the center of
Russian government, culture and politics. This fortress was founded in 1382 and
expanded over the years. We saw the building where President Putin’s office is
located and the great Armory Museum.
The second day, we found ourselves on a citywide tour, looking at the colorful spires of St. Basil’s Cathedral. (Legend has it that Ivan the Terrible blinded the cathedral’s architect so he could never again build anything so beautiful.)
We toured the Moscow subway, which is considered one of the finest in the world. The beautiful marble subway, clean as a whistle, is decorated with socialist-inspired murals and sculptures of the working man. We are headquartered on the docked Novikov Priboy. All our meals are eaten either on the ship or at Moscow hotels. Although we were cautioned to expect slow service on the boat, we found the Slavic waiters and waitresses – some no more than teenagers – to be prompt and efficient. The food is homey and basic, featuring entrees like chicken kiev, beef stroganoff, brown bread and ice cream for dessert. A strolling waiter circulates during dinner, selling vodka drinks. The ship features two bars, two dining rooms, a beauty salon, wide decks for lounging, and a souvenir shop. The cabins are small. Our cabin has two beds a wide picture window, storage shelves and a mini-refrigerator. The bathroom turns into a shower, when you pull the curtain to cover the toilet and convert the faucet. Souvenir ShoppingAfter two days in Moscow, I had the lay of the land on souvenirs. At nearly every stop, outdoor kiosks are selling souvenirs. The museums have gift shops. (We thought the best shops were at the Armory in Moscow and The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.) At the outdoor kiosks, bargaining is expected. The markets are selling carved wooden toys, fur hats, Russian traditional costumes, handmade dolls, sewn goods, icons, vodka and caviar. The museum shops and our boat boutique are selling enameled eggs, amber in every combination (some of it quite expensive), fabulous jewelry, lacquered boxes and peasant shawls. The handpainted wooden matrushka (nesting) dolls are everywhere. We also found some beautiful porcelain. My favorite purchase is a handmade children’s doll with its own removable fur hat and flaxen braid for $10. We are told there are two prices for everything – the foreigners’ price and the Russian price. Most kiosk vendors accepted dollars. Before leaving the United States, we were told to notify our credit card companies that we would be traveling in Russia. Traveler’s checks are discouraged. Five Days Cruising the Volga RiverAfter a visit to the Tretyakov Art Gallery in Moscow, our boat set sail for a five-day cruise down the Volga River. We cruised through locks. We were given a small book which details the scenery kilometer by kilometer. We stopped at the village of Uglich, which was the center of a princedom in the 13th and 14th centuries. It became famous in 1591, when Dmitry, son of Ivan the Terrible, was murdered here. In our walking tour, we explored the Church of St.-Dmitry-of-the-Spilt-Blood, built on the spot where he was murdered. By the second day on board, rumors are brewing of a nasty gastrointestinal bug which is sweeping through the ship. Several people in our group felt queasy and visited the ship’s doctor. By Day Three on the river, Intrav called a special briefing with the ship’s doctor. He told us that two infected people boarded the boat in Moscow with this flu. He is handing out antibiotics and injections. We are urged to use antibacterial wipes frequently and avoid shaking hands. The boat’s daily programs include lectures and videos on Russian history, Russian language lessons, Russian cooking lessons, and a daily cocktail hour. Can Kizhi Island Prevent Root Canals?
Two of Russia’s most beautiful wooden churches are here, including the 1714 Church of the Transfiguration, with 22 cupolas in three tiers. It was built as a summer church entirely without nails. The shingles are made of aspen wood. We enjoyed a brisk hike on the paths around the island. Mosquito repellant was highly recommended. St. PetersburgOn Day Nine, our boat docked in St. Petersburg, Built on canals near the Baltic Sea, the city reminds me of both Paris and Washington, D.C., two other planned cities with wide boulevards. Wanting ocean access to Western Europe, Czar Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg, where he constructed the new city on former marshland, costing thousands of workers’ lives in the process. In 1710, the royal family relocated from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We are visiting in mid-August, on the tail end of the summer’s endless “white nights,” where the sun never really sets, because we are so far north. With its population of 5.5 million, St. Petersburg is Russia’s biggest port, filled with gorgeous 18th century buildings. In contrast, on our city tour, our guide pointed out the high rise apartment buildings on the city’s outskirts which house local people. The 1960’s-style buildings look like East Liberty public housing. On our first night in the city, we saw a performance by the Hermitage Ballet. It is delightful.
Lines can be long outside the museum. We stood in line about 20 minutes before entering the museum. In the staterooms of the winter palace, I was taken with the huge malachite, jasper and lapis lazuli vases. Although the size of the museum is overwhelming, we concentrated on the very large Impressionist painting collection. The royal apartments and throne rooms are magnificent, and worth the trip to Russia to see. There are famous da Vincis and Rembrandts, and representative pieces from all eras in the history of art. Tourists are permitted to take pictures of the rooms, but not of the paintings. There is a good museum café, where you can have lunch for about $10 each. The Hermitage also has a modern coffee bar and computer stations for the public. Catherine’s PalaceThe next day, our group traveled to Catherine’s Palace, originally designed by Rastrelli in 1752 for Czarina Elizabeth. Most of the rooms, including the famous Amber Room, were destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. However, the curators found time to pack up the contents and ship them off before the Germans arrived. The palace was meticulously restored after the war by outstanding Russian craftspeople. Set in a 1,400 acre park, the palace has an aqua façade decorated with gold and white ornaments. The Amber Room is amazing. The original amber panels were a gift in 1709 from Friedrick Wilhelm I of Prussia to Peter the Great. I also loved the Great Hall, with its mirrors, gilded carving and ceiling painting. Expect to pay both an admission fee and a camera fee at the palaces, if you want to take . Renaissance Baltic HotelLeaving the Novikov Priboy, we checked into the Renaissance Baltic Hotel, a luxury hotel near St. Isaac’s Cathedral in the heart of St. Petersburg. It is a good central location for exploring St. Petersburg on foot. The service was swift and the rooms modern. Our sixth floor also had its own bar and balcony. On our last evening in St. Petersburg, we had our finest meal of the trip at the Customs House restaurant. We started off with red caviar and vodka, served in a cocktail glass. Waiters are in tuxedos with white gloves. A jazz band played in the background. We enjoyed a good roasted duck and some crème brulee for dessert. Our guide told us that members of the Russian mafia were dining at the next table. The next day, we rose at 4 a.m. to start the three legs of our journey back to Pittsburgh. It was a 27-hour journey, flying from St. Petersburg to Moscow to Atlanta to Pittsburgh. Our “Journey of the Czars” is over. ### by Thomas M. Schmidt If You’re Going: Delta Airlines, phone 1-800-221-1212 or www.delta.com Intrav, 1169 Westline Industrial Drive, St. Louis, Missouri, phone 1-800-825-2900. Renaissance St. Petersburg Baltic Hotel, 4 Pochtamskaya Street, St. Petersburg, phone +7-812-380-4000 |
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TM
Russia had long been on our list of places to visit.
Everyone we talked to recommended that we tour Russia by boat. Hotels are
expensive. We were told that auto travel is dicey, as roads are potholed and gas
stations infrequent. 
The heart of the place is the ancient royal
palace and three magnificent cathedrals, filled with famous icon paintings. A
men’s choir sang powerful Russian hymns. At night, we attended a performance of
the Moscow circus.
Walking in Red Square, which we have all seen on
television, is a thrill. Lenin’s tomb, designed in 1924, remains across the
square. An amazing sight is the huge, white gold-domed Cathedral of Christ the
Savior. Stalin was annoyed because the original dominated the view from his
Kremlin window. He had it dynamited. In 1905, the Russians rebuilt it exactly
as it had been at a cost of several million dollars.
On day four, we stopped at the mystical Kizhi Island on
Lake Onega, one of the most ancient inhabited sites in the country. Legend has
it that a visit to Kizhi Island, an early pagan center, will change your
fortunes for the better. Taking a bath on the island will guarantee marriage
within a year. The Kizhi Island natives allegedly allow snakes to slither in
and out of their homes freely. 
Kizhi Island has a Museum of Architecture, opened in 1960,
and a collection of distinctive wooden 18th century buildings. . Even better
for me, the victim of numerous root canals, rubbing against the logs of the
Archangel Michael’s Chapel allegedly cures toothaches. We hiked there and I
spent five minutes with my hands on the building, wishing for healthy teeth. My
husband then reported that its magical power had been diluted because the wood
was treated with preservatives.
We spent the better part of three days inside the Hermitage
Museum. The largest art museum in Russia, the Hermitage was originally
establishedin 1771-1787 as a private museum for Empress Catherine the Great.
Catherine reportedly said, “all this is admired by mice and myself.” To set up
the Hermitage, Catherine the Great bought 2,500 paintings, 10,000 carved gems,
and 10,000 drawings. Today the museum contains 2.7 million works. The
Hermitage has five buildings, one of them the winter palace, the former
residence of the czars.