This shower’s not so bad.

Sunday-  9/23

Nick woke me up this morning saying” there’s something wrong with this picture.”  He NEVER wakes me up—I am the early riser, but not this morning.  He tried out the shower facility first and declared it  not as awkward as we were told.  It probably helps that we’ve used camper showers and this one was quite efficient and adequate.  Picture a small bathroom with a sink which has a hand held shower nozzle on the wall above it.  A switch turns the water from the sink to the shower nozzle.  A shower curtain keeps the water in that side of the small room.  Your towel and clean clothes can be hung on the other side of the shower curtain.  No big deal.    Our room has 2 built in style twin beds on each wall with a small table between.  We have shelves along one wall and a fairly spacious closet area. We even have a small fridge.  I’m guessing the room is about 8 ft wide by maybe 20 ft long.  Our electrical adapter works—we’ve already charged the phone (which I didn’t sign up for international use for—more about that later)

Breakfast was good with the only “European” touches being hot dogs, rather than sausage, and lots of tomato, cucumbers, and peppers in evidence.   Their breakfast tea is good, but not very hot—think tepid tea.

For those who don’t know, N had lap band surgery in May and the new Nick is doing quite well eating just a small amount.  I’m not sure he’ll lose  much if any during this trip, but I’m fairly sure he won’t gain a bunch.

We were given a boarding pass when we gave the desk folks our room key.  It is sort of our ID when out and about in the city. We have a huge number of Collette folks on this boat – about 115, so we have two tour guides and two translators. 

Our tour this morning was a bus trip around the city of Moscow.

Moscow is thought to have been founded in 1147 by a Prince Yuri, who first mentioned it in his record keeping.  The name means place of swampy water.    Moscow has been the capital of Russia several times as it is today.  It is the largest city in Russia—it is difficult to know how many residents there are because of constant illegal immigrants coming and going.  The average salary for the middle class is $45,000 Euro per year ( multiply that X 1.3 or so for American dollars)  Our tour guide Leonid says this is the most expensive city in the world.

From the bus, we saw leaves changing to oranges and golds, a crystal bridge over the Moscow river and a power plant.  An average Muscovite pays only the equivalent of $2 a month for electricity.  Leonid, tour guide, says this will change with upcoming EU regulations and changes.  Gasoline costs about 33 rubles per liter which equals out to about a dollar (X 4 for a gallon)  Folks here think that is way too much because they are a large producer of gasoline. 

New Maiden's Convent

We stopped at a lovely park where we saw from a distance the New Maiden’s Convent.  This is a 500 year old place where the wealthy Russians of old got rid of unwanted wives and troublesome women.  There was no divorce, so the only methods to pave the way for a man to have a new wife was either murder, or “putting her away” in the convent.  Peter the Great sent his sister Sophia there for plotting against him.  She died there. 

Edda and Barbara Bush's ducks

At the park we saw some statues of ducks presented to the children of Russia by Barbara Bush in 1991.  

As we walked in a tourist herd thru the park, serious runners came barreling at us and the through the group yelling at us in Russian.  I’m guessing they were saying “MOVE , or get out of the way”.

University of Moscow

In 1947 Stalin built 7 skyscrapers.  Two were apartment complexes, some were office buildings and one was the Univ. of Moscow.  About 30,000 students study there with the building housing classrooms, auditoriums, housing for students and professors, dining halls, entertainment, and shopping.  University is free to students who have exceptional entrance scores, others must pay approx $10,000 (equivalent) per year.

From the bus we saw the only space shuttle that was not made in the U.S. placed in a park for everyone to see.

  We were told that the river beside this park freezes in winter to allow skating.

We exited the bus again to tour Red Square.  I remember pictures of  armies marching and tanks in Red Square and I suppose I thought it would be a clear open space between buildings.  But it was in preparation for an upcoming “light show” and all sorts of equipment was strewn about with cables and temporary fencing.  The buildings are amazingly beautiful.  The most beautiful was St Basil’s church, with striped and colored turrets in  many lovely colors.  

St Basil's Cathedral- Red Square

  After a long look around Red Square, we headed to GUM department store (Gum is pronounced with a oo sound  of long U- and stands for Government International Machine – or maybe merchandise—not sure about the M )   It is a 3 story enclosed mall with all sorts of shops.  The most expensive are on the bottom floor.  Toilets on the bottom floor cost 80 rubles ( $2.40 or so) and the ones on the top floor are free.   In this building escalators go up, but a person must walk down.  There is one elevator (lift) for the entire building.  

GUM department store

Apple store!

 Lots of café’s are found here with patio seating.  We even found one that advertised free WiFi.  And an apple store.

Lets talk about WiFi—I was told -as you read earlier- that there would be a computer on board the ship and that the WiFi was spotty.  When I mentioned this to the tour guide, she laughed out loud.  She said there aren’t enough towers for there to be wifi where we’re going and the only places you find computers are in the cities.    This isn’t the only thing I feel we were misled about on this tour.  I don’t think the misinformation was intentional, but from lack of knowledge on the part of the person giving us the trip information.  So… I may be able to post some of this as we go along, some at the end at St Petersburg, or may have to post it all when I get back home.  We’ll see. 

As we were heading back to the bus the tour guide was asked why the service people- (lady at bank, waitress, etc) were so unfriendly.  Leonid explained that it is only in the last 20 years that Russians have felt comfortable talking to Americans at all.  In Soviet times (a phrase he uses often) Russians who were seen  talking to certain foreigners could be sent to prison, because all Americans were spies trying to harm the country.  It is the way many were brought up and it is a hard attitude to change.  He said Russians don’t smile much, nor do they seem friendly to strangers.  Politeness, he said, was not taught to young people.

We drove by the Duma- or parliament building.  The word Duma means to think, which he said does not happen much in that building.  I’m guessing if he said that “in Soviet times” he might have been imprisoned.  Altho, I doubt if the Duma had any power then, if it existed at all. 

We saw a building that housed the 20 year old Gorbechov (not sure that’s spelled right) Foundation to assist with childhood diseases.

Back to the boat—we decided not to do an optional excursion today, but just sleep and write.  I’d kinda have liked to do the Moscow by Night, but they won’t get back to the boat til midnight and I’m not ready for that—I still need more sleep before I feel normal.  Maybe we’ll do some of the optional stuff in St Petersburg.    Today we’re napping and catching up. 

Tomorrow the Kremlin.