Born Under a Wandering Star: Cruising from St Petersburg to Moscow on Lev Tolstoy

M/S Lev Tolstoy

Travel Dates 4th-11th June 2011

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I have culled the pictures to keep this post reasonably brief, just a few representative pictures of the journey.

After boarding and checking in we went on a bus tour of St Petersburg ending with a tour of the Hermitage. We departed that evening towards Mandrogui via the Neva River and lake Ladoga. The Lev Tolstoy was a comfortable boat despite showing its age. Nine years later I notice it is no longer being used for international tourists and is now providing shorter Russian-only cruises.

This was the route we followed, a series of lakes, rivers and canals with several locks. We stopped along the way to visit Mandrogui, Kizhi, Goritsy and Uglich. Those are all standard stops for almost all the cruise boats.

I have arranged river cruises using local agents twice on my travels. Both times I was assured my fellow passengers would be English-speaking. Despite that I cruised down the Nile on a boat full of Germans and a month before my Russian cruise, too late to change, I was informed all the other passengers would be from France. Oh well, c'est la vie. The Russian tour agent offered two benefits to compensate: a personal guide and arrangements that the others on my table at meals would be able to speak English.

My personal guide was a lovely girl and tried very hard in a situation unfair to her. Over the course of the week she became more helpful but on the first day at the Hermitage it was a disaster. Instead of directly acting as my guide she trailed the French guide and attempted to translate from the French announcements to English for me with an inaudible voice amid noisy crowds. In the quiet afterwards I learned she was effectively an intern on her first work experience. The poor girl had been thrown in at the deep end. After I made it clear I wanted her not to follow the French but to tell me what she knew herself, even if it was less detailed, things improved.

My dining companions were pleasant and friendly but we only met at meals. One couple were multi-lingual Russians and the others were French who spoke very good English.

An interesting fort we passed in the Neva River as we left St Petersburg.

We went ashore for several hours at Mandrogui, a village described as a "wooden living museum". The most interesting exhibit was the vodka museum. I tried several tiny tasting shots but I must admit I need tonic to mix with my vodka; not straight. Lunch was a tasty outdoor shaslik barbecue.

I enjoyed lazing in a chair on the deck watching the countryside go by.

We continued via the Volga Baltic Canal to the northern end of Lake Onega. The tiny island of Kizhi is renowned for its open-air Museum of Architecture, which includes over 80 monuments of wooden architecture from various areas of Russia restored to form a glimpse of the past.

While eating lunch on board on the fourth morning the silvery appearance of Kizhi cathedral in the dining room window as we slowly docked was magical. It is the Church of the Transfiguration or Preobrazhenskaya featuring five tiers of 22 domes. It was built in 1714, on the site of a previous church destroyed by fire, without the use of a single nail, only an axe and pine trees. The legend goes that the carpenter threw his axe into the lake when it was completed because "there will never be another like it".

Not just a demonstration, he is preparing pieces for renovation and repair work.

The obligatory visit to the bridge.

Several members of the staff and crew had double roles as entertainers. This was showing us how to cook blinis.

The entertainers provided some variety, not just folk songs but also classical and popular music pieces. Songs tended to be in Russian or French, none in English. They were OK but faded a little towards the end of the tour.

This is the ship Peterhof in front of us in one of the locks; a tight fit. We were of a similar width. Obviously the boats were designed to be as wide as possible in the space available.

St. Cyril on the White Lake Monastery near Goritsy.

A plan of the monastery. Very self-sufficient and built for defence against marauders.

Excellent a cappella singers performed for us at Goritsy and later at Uglich. Their harmony and choice of Russian songs were wonderful. I could have listened to them longer but, of course, there was another tour group waiting for us to move on in both cases. For most of the 7-day trip we were not rushed or crowded, just unfortunate for the crowds to arrive at those moments.

At the time we passed by Cherepovets it had the unfortunate distinction of being one of the world's most polluted cities. According to wiki it still is. Several hours before sighting it the air became smoky and sulphurous, intensifying until we passed. Several passengers donned masks to aid breathing.

Uglich was our last stop before Moscow. The town was founded in 1148 as a small princedom bordering on Muscovy and much of it is preserved as one of the towns of Old Russia. The view of the town as you approach it from the Volga River is breathtaking with the Cathedral of the Resurrection and St. John´s Church rising up on the horizon.

This street performer played some amazing tunes on partly filled glasses of water.

St. John´s Church, Uglich.

In the icon museum.

The history of the town is interesting. At the end of the 16th century Maria Nagaya, seventh wife of Ivan the Terrible, lived in exile at the Kremlin in Uglich. In her garden 10 year old Prince Dmitry of the Rurik Dynasty, heir to the Russian throne, was murdered by Boris Godunov who wanted to seize power for himself. The Church of St. Demitrius of the Blood was built on the spot of his death. The death of Prince Dmitri brought on the start of the Time of Troubles, a dynastic and political crisis and one of the most tumultuous periods in Russian history which ended 15 years later after the election of a new Tsar Mikhail Romanov, the first Tsar of the Romanov Dynasty.