V: 31 May

It is raining on and off and definitely getting colder. We are very appreciative of the central heating in our flat. We visited Schonbrunn palace. Just the gardens, we needed a rest from lavish interiors. Yours truly suggested we return by bus to cut down on walking, not such a good idea when I had no idea where the bus was going. It appeared to be going the wrong way after a while so took another bus and tram and ended up a bit further away from when we started but at least on a Ubahn line. All was well and it wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t wet and cold.

We took a tour of the opera house (Staatoper), - the stage was huge. They proudly explained it was the world’s largest.

Visited the Naschmarkt with AMB in pm to buy food whilst J&L went shopping, this involved a bus ride from near our flat and a 1km walk by a little river. The Naschmarkt is quite an interesting place with a string of market stalls selling all sorts of fresh food. We cooked dinner that night but kept the menu simple as our lack of German restricted our understanding of what to buy. We washed down dinner with a very good Argentinean red.

W: 30 May

I bought provisions for breakfast at the little corner shop near the flat. Being Sunday everywhere else was closed.

J&L came to our flat and we walked into the museum quarter. The Kunshistorisches museum was very impressive and very pleasant and relaxing as there were no crowds. This was such a contrast to St Petersburg last week. We saw great collections of Egyptian, Roman and Greek antiquities and then paintings including some Rembrandts. We rested for a while over coffee and cake in the museum konditerei.

Suitably rested the next stop was the Hofburg Palace for a sausage and wander around the grounds. We sat and listened to an open air concert and then did a guided tour of the Spanish stables.

Highlight of the day was dinner at the Croatian seafood restaurant near our flat. This was good and compensated for the let down last night.

X: 25 May - Mandrogi

Early morning Qi Dong (after hearty breakfast), followed by tour of Mandrogi after we docked at 9.30am.

This is a mosquito infested tourist spot on the Volga-Baltic Waterway. Its in the middle of nowhere and as I understand was a ghost village until repopulated in the 90's as a sort of Pushkin fairytale theme park for kids with a vodka museum added on.

We took a manually turned rope ferry to cross into a zoo area with caged native animals. Racoons an owl, a stork, and foxes.

In pm we had history lesson on Yeltsin, Putin & democracy. Interesting and well presented.

During our Russian lesson yesterday, we did something totally out of character and signed up to act in a little show not knowing this was the main guest talent show of the week. Alison was a wild boar and I (why did I put my hand up??) was the white horse. At 5 pm we had or rehearsal and at 10 pm we put on the performance. Extra wine with dinner helped.

Y: Mon 24 May, Kizhi Island, Lake Onega

We have traveled over half way on our 1528 km voyage. Nights are cool and quite light - doesn't get fully dark and is very light up to 11.30 pm. The latitude here is not much different to north of Scotland. The time zone (same as Moscow) is 3 hours behind London.

Today we had a few more diversions on board in addition to breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, etc. Russian lessons again and some sales presentations on other cruises.

Weather a bit greyish and visibility not so good early on.

We arrived and disembarked at Kizhi Island in Lake Onega in the late afternoon and did the tour - no buses, all walking. More churches , but this time they are wooden and supposedly the only example of this design around. Wooden shingles 6,000 on main building. We went inside an authentic house and were shown how they lived and how some people slept on the stove. It gets very cold here in winter. When the ship was here 10 days ago the lake was still frozen around the island and the ship couldn't dock. Guess we are lucky.

Managed to buy a better map than the one I bought on board ship. Gives much better information on the locks and water levels in he various lakes.

STOVE WITH BED ON TOP:-

Z: Sun 23 May 7th day afloat

At 9.30 am we landed and disembarked at Goritzy a remote wharf on the edge of a forest. We were taken by bus to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monestry. Yep; more churches 11 all up in the compound. This is a huge place with a 2km perimeter wall. Its the largest in Russia.

Again the weather was near perfect although a bit nippy at first - 9 deg. Its a very photogenic place, but again crowds of tourists made it hard to get an unobstructed view.

The place was frequented and favoured and funded by the Tzars. The nearby houses (seen only from the bus) are all wooden. We are advised they are heated by giant stoves in the middle which occupy 25% of the floor space and need refueling twice per day. There are plenty of trees around for the fuel.

Not much opportunity for shopping today. Alison had hoped to get some leather gloves which are produced somewhere near here.

The monastery buildings appear to be all of brick with copper roofs. Maybe the copper is a recent embellishment.

We hit the waterway again and soon were almost out of sight of land crossing the White Lake to join the Volga - Baltic Waterway. Tomorrow is Kizhi Island in Lake Onega.

ZA: Sat 22 May Yaraslavl

We arrived early at Yaraslavl and started our tour at 8 am. This came as a bit of a shock after our previous lazy starts. Yaraslavl is a large regional centre with lots of government buildings. The region it governs has 1.3? M people. This place is famed for its boxes with fine artwork

and we went to a "museum" to view them and other artworks. We succumbed and bought a box in the shape of a turtle.

We returned to ship for lunch followed by a Russian language lesson. A history lesson came next which I skipped - Alison went and found it very interesting. I should have gone.

Dinner was a multi course Russian affair with full waiter service. Quality was excellent, but same old house wines, - not complaining - they are quite drinkable. There is even Russian champagne for breakfast but haven't seen any takers.

Movie in the evening was From Russia with Love, Alison was nicely asleep for the last 1/2 hr.

ZB: Fri 21 May - Uglich

Morning began with for me at least, Qi-Gong exercises on the Sun deck. Designed for geriatrics I think. This lasted 15 mins and fully justified extra bacon on the breakfast that followed.

A boring lecture on the Romanovs came next on the agenda. Reminded me of history lessons at school. No wonder my history knowledge is so awful.

We landed at Uglich at 2 pm and took a tour of the Uglich Kremlin. The cathedral had an interesting cast iron floor (see photo detail).

Once back on the ship we immediately set sail for Yaraslavl. We went through some big locks which had room for 2 ships at once. Some locks have swinging gates and some which retract into the abutments.

There were a few very modern apartment blocks recently constructed and a few Kruschev era

older ones. Population of Uglich is about 35,000. I believe they depend mostly on the river boat tourism to survive.

We crossed the Rybiskoye reservoir during dinner. Amazingly we lost sight of land on all sides. The weather has been clear skies and warm sunny days.

When we are not eating or drinking or blogging - or sometimes when we are, we get briefing lectures on the next port of call. Tomorrow is Yaraslavl.

We passed by a church tower sticking out of the water. This is all that shows of the village that was flooded when the reservoir was constructed. The waterways are mostly man made from the Volga and its connecting rivers for various purposes, - flood mitigation, navigation, water supplies (incl Moscow), and hydro electric power.