May 25 – Senic Waterway & Mandrogy, Russia. I forgot to mention yesterday that Kizhi is only about 300 miles south of the Arctic Circle so it will be cooler and the day will be long. I took a picture at Midnight, you can see that the sun has just set, the red glow is still visible just below the heavy cloud cover. I'm not sure when it got light but when I woke up a 4AM and looked out it was full daylight. I don't think it really got dark, just a few hours of twilight.
Today we will be cruising until 10AM, very civilized. We left Kizhi Island on Lake Onega yesterday and sailed a bit back the way we came until we came to the Svir River on the western shore of the lake. We sailed down the Svir to Mandrogy. This will be an unusual stop as it's not a real village. It's sort of a 15th to 19th century Russian Disneyland. The man who built it has another one near Saint Petersburg and decided to build this one specifically to give the river cruise ships a place to stop for part of the day. It worked; there were five cruise ships here today. Fortunately we were the first and had a pretty good look around before the others arrived and the place got busier. They easily handled the people from the ships and it never seemed crowded.
It's an interesting place because there are not only shops and lots of old style buildings. One area has craftsmen working at their trades. Mostly they make things to sell but some of the items are for use in the village. For example, the blacksmith makes decorative wall hangings, knives and iron roses as well as other dust catchers for your home. But he also repairs the old wagons and shoes the horses that give you wagon rides around the property. There's a baker, glass maker, jeweler, scrimshaw artist, weaver, wood carver, silk painter (she had some beautiful scarves), a potter and a lace maker. Everyone is using techniques and methods from the appropriate period.
In another building artisans were painting matryoshka dolls, children's cloth dolls or fancy eggs. Of course, Diana wanted to shop and I was indifferent to that activity. So I stalled around looking for photo opportunities. Some of the artisans were in the middle of interesting projects so I shot some of them. I hate to bother someone when they're working or concentrating on something so I don't use a flash and I don't ask them to pose. I just try to catch their activity at a good point.
I did find the village bakery and the table of goods they had out front was very nice. Mostly filled pastry but the fillings were interesting. They had both sweet and savory choices. There were fish, chicken, beef, vegetable, cherry, cranberry, several cheeses, apple, blackberry, green onion & egg and custard filled pastries. They had a blackberry open-faced tart that they had sliced like a pizza. Diana loves cherry and I like cranberry so I bought one of each for the princely sum of 140 rubles, about $4.50 for two large fruit filled pastries. When you figure that we're in a tourist place, that's excellent. (We ate them for breakfast the next day and they were really good.)
It was fun watching the craftsmen work, especially the blacksmith, a very active profession. Some of the later ships are eating lunch in the large, covered picnic pavilions. I saw the chefs preparing some large shish kabobs on a huge grill set between the two seating areas. Looked and smelled delicious.
Just before we sailed they had the "Taste of Russia" on the Sky Deck. They set up 6 stations with different Russian foods from sausages and cheese, to dumplings that looked and tasted a lot like Chinese dim sum. One was almost exactly like shu mai. They had chicken legs and of course blini (those crazy pancakes that they sell as street food in St. Petersburg) with fruit.
We're taking off for Saint Petersburg and it's a long way to go from here. We have to cross the largest lake in Europe (14th largest by area in the world) to get there. We sailed down the Svir to Lake Lagoda as the Captain's farewell dinner was starting. For some reason, totally unknown to me we have been invited to eat at the captain's table. It wound up that there was one other couple there, the Captain, his translator, the hotel manager and the cruise director, a pretty young girl named Oxana. Diana was seated next to the captain and I was seated next to Oxana so I guess we did all right. Usually this honor is reserved for people who have been with the cruise line the longest or are staying in the best rooms. It's our first cruise with Viking and we're in a nice room but not nearly the most expensive. We're the only people that are sailing back to Moscow on the ship and from what I've gathered back to back sailing is just not done on river cruises. Maybe the captain just wanted to evaluate these strange Americans who've decided to do that. Don't know but there we were and it was a fun evening. The captain is a personable man who understands some English but would rather speak through an interpreter. One of the ship's guides was filling that role.
One thing I have noticed about Russians. They apparently love Texans or at least the idea of Texas. I'm sure they relate it to western movies but they always smile and nod while repeating "Texas!" which sounds great with a Russian accent. Diana wore a Russian pheasant headdress to dinner. It was a big hit. Even the captain had to smile when he saw it.
At 10PM we had the guest show. Diana was in the play Cinderella as the left curtain.
No comments:
Post a Comment