Back on board for more lectures and a late dinner…the promise of an early night was too good to miss so the late-‘night-soul-music’ concert start ing at 2100 we gave a miss. Both of have had the trots even though we are carrying and using immodium. This, coupled with a heavy head cold and, swollen feet from all the walking on cobblestones, makes for a very dull boy and I feel so off colour that a beer is not attractive! Now that must be a first! This morning, it is now 1115; I have had two cappuccinos and the thought of a cold beer makes my nose start running again…I have run out of clean handkerchiefs and also used up the cabin supply of tissues. Fortunately, this morning after a good night’s sleep and four stiff vodkas last thing last night, my cold has somewhat dried up…I wonder if it is the sleep or the vodka that is doing good?
Everywhere we have travelled in Russia; there are hundreds, if not thousands of onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches and cathedrals. Many have one or more of their domes gold plated. We are wondering, where does all the gold come from, mining or alluvial; who puts it on the domes (we have not seen a single one with scaffolding, etc, around any domes) and, in the end, who pays for the gold? (Later: We are informed that Russia has been, is, one of the richest gold-producing countries on earth…Gold was available in alluvial streams and readably accessible in shallow mines. The Tsars simply demanded ‘gold’ for taxes and the peasants were able, mostly, to supply it!)
Similarly, o Europe, where during the middle ages hundreds of gothic cathedrals were built, many taking decades to be completed; Russia’s peasantry were subjected to slave labour conditions and the time consuming building of churches, plus the gilding of their domes and interiors kept the population in continual poverty with an appalling low standard of life! Religion and its leaders, along with the so-called nobility really have a lot to answer for including all the wars, slavery and poverty of the peasant populations of both Russia and all Europe.
Russian cities, towns and their churches and monasteries were established at different times since 900 AD, with the majority beginning in the 13th to 17th centuries. The Tsars and the structured nobility on the one hand and, the Russian Orthodox Church on the other dominated Russian life almost equally. The peasantry were mostly bonded serfs serving the nobility or the church as virtual slaves.
Cruising down the Volga River is a recall to yesterday when the Volga was the highway of Russia and many European countries. The Volga has many names and is the longest river in mainland Europe covering some 3.5 thousand miles from St Petersburg in the north of Russia and flowing all the way to the Black Sea above Turkey. The Volga is also joined by over a hundred other rivers over its length.
Where we are (right now) is a small town called “Goritsy” famous for linen products as well as its churches (again!) Here the Volga is about a kilometre wide with a two-way shipping channel and besides the numerous ‘cruise-ships’ there is an unending flow of ocean-going freighters and tankers up to about 10,000 tonnes. Additional river-traffic uses long (300 metres) river barges, usually two tied side by side with a purpose built ‘pushing-tug (with a square, flat bow) churning the water, pushing the barges along at a steady 12 knots! At one stage, early in the 20th century there were over 100,000 barges working in the Russian section alone of the Volga River. The enormous Russian railway network now carries much of this earlier river traffic!
Goritsy is a small, Artisan-based, factory location-town created simply to supply Tourists with traditional Russian artefacts. 90% of their production is the same as anywhere else in western Russia as far as Tourist souvenirs are concerned. However, we did buy something different – a chromed-metal plate, etched with a picture, and then plated with gold highlights showing a really, traditional, Siberian landscape. This is the first time we have seen this type of artefact, let alone the superb quality of work! We couldn’t resist!
On the way again, steaming up-river and through many lochs, some dropping us up to 74 feet! In one hit! Fortunately, most we passed through in the middle of the night. So, here we are, on the last leg into St. Petersburg, we are due to berth at 0800 and so we did! Pouring rain, overcast skies, howling wind and a temperature of about 6 degrees Celsius.
Away then, on the compulsory St Petersburg Scenic Bus Tour! Everything ‘grey’, wet and miserable but the grass is an unbelievable, emerald green! We were advised to look at no less than thirty buildings, which look all the same simply because they were all designed by Katherine or Peter (her ancestor) the “Great(s)” all blue and white or yellow and white external paintwork with tons of gold gilding internally…very rococo. Then there were the usual churches and cathedrals again very rococo and gilded to the max! Always, always, there is the constant stopping at ‘selected-quality’ Tourist-traps! But after traipsing around the museums and churches, when we are delivered to the Tourist-Bargain outlets, we are only allowed ten minutes to so-called, ‘shop!
Katherine’s Summer palace was an overkill in baroque ugliness. Acres of gilt covering hundreds of plaster, wooden and marble statues, friezes and simply anything that didn’t move when the guilders were nearby! It appears that she changed her mind daily about whatever she was looking at, consequently, all and every building was continually being modified, added to or simply being replaced! Her Summer Palace covers more than 300 acres with hundreds of small ‘grotto’ buildings and larger, garden pavilions – even a special pavilion where she buried her whippet dogs, one-by-one, as they died during her life.
Away to the Bolshoi Ballet, being danced at the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum, which contains Katherine’s private theatre and seats a tiny four hundred people plus a symphony orchestra and three performing members of tonight’s ballet “Giselle”. The ballet company has a cast of thousands who practice and rehearse every day…then each day there are two performances of different ballets meaning that the Giselle we saw, will not be repeated by the company for about two months!!! The ballet troupe in St. Petersburg is classified as ‘second-string’ which is a long, long way from second rate…the reigning prima-ballerinas are dancing all around the world as well as in Moscow HQ…after some five years of this, these much danced and travelled ladies are ‘retired’ to resident ‘city’ companies throughout Russia. Most of those we watched were in their early thirties having been dancing since their early teens! Fantastic show!
Final day in St. P and we are whisked off the cruise-ship and away to the airport, security vetted including being forced to have an ‘X-Ray’ to prove that I wasn’t carrying bombs in my hips! Then, two hours wait whilst everyone else was baggage-searched, security / customs / immigration / whatever checked and finally we were flying to Budapest via Vienna. On the way into Vienna we encountered a huge thunderstorm, one of many besieging Austria and causing huge floods causing the Danube to break its levees and banks! For a while there was a lingering thought that we may be stranded at the Vienna airport due to the rain but no, away again in a Dash Eight, of which I am now positive, has propellers that slow down when we go around corners…well, it certainly looks like they do!
