Russian Cruising at Speed

By Sally Branston

Day One started with Phantom of the Opera; Day Three was Emanuelle.  I didn’t recognise our early morning wake-up music on Day Two.  And although Day Three’s excursion wasn’t scheduled until 4.30pm, it was still compulsory to rise at 7.30am for breakfast, to enable us to fit in the obligatory briefing, history class, language lesson, boat drill, four course lunch and craft demonstration first… another relaxing day on board MS Vasily Surikov, floating along the beautiful River Volga (not really).  We skipped the language lesson and handicraft session for scenery watching. 

St Basil's Cathedral

Day Four involved rising at 6.30am for breakfast before departing on a trip round the city of Yaroslavl at eight.  Back on board for our 11.00am sailing, we thought we might nip to the bar for a cup of coffee.  The barman was quite busy and it took a while to get served, so quite a few of us were still sitting there when Polina, our on-board guide, came to round us up for the compulsory 11.30am briefing.  A few people tried to hide, but they were out of luck and eventually we were all herded to the ship’s conference room so that they could tell us about our upcoming arrival in St Petersburg in three days’ time – and sell us some excursions. 

Moscow had been quite hectic.  Those of us flying from Birmingham and Manchester had risen in the early hours to check in at 4.00am, arriving at the ship at 7pm for dinner, briefing and excursion sales.   But there was to be no leisurely lie-in the following morning.  Our tour of the city started at 8.45am and, unfortunately, we were in the hands of a guide who just loved to talk.  The city was spacious, light and clean: the temperature was knocking on 30 degrees.  But our guide’s volubility left us with a mere 30 minutes ‘free’ time in Red Square to poke our noses into GUM and photograph Lenin’s Tomb and St Basil’s Cathedral from the outside.  Then it was time to get back on the bus and return to the boat for lunch.  Our waitress was a young, sweet student, eager to please, but slow, and we had to abandon our plates part way through in order to get back on the bus and return to the same spot we’d left 90 minutes earlier to continue our tour with a visit to the Kremlin.  By the time we finished at the Armoury Museum, many in our party were wilting in the heat and anxious to get back for a shower before dinner and the evening’s optional tour of the Moscow metro system.  We decided to give that one a miss and have a quiet drink in the bar instead.  Next morning, we ducked out on that day’s tour too, walked to the nearest station and did our own metro tour at our own pace.  The system is similar to the London Underground – apart from the artistic nature of the decorations - and very easy to use, especially if you have a smattering of the language. 

We were woken at 2.30am on Day Six by a series of lurches and loud bangs as the ship entered a lock.  I tweaked back the cabin curtain and could see nothing but a high wall.  The vessel exited more gracefully than it had entered and the next time I awoke was to the motion of small waves.  The shoreline was no longer visible from the middle of Lake Onega and I had apparently slept through another five locks.  Our scheduled stop was Kizhi Island, a two hour stop crammed into four.  The island was green, the approach picturesque and we enjoyed a sunny, breezy walk, but the hour long exposition by the guide was wearing and there wasn’t actually much to see aside from the Church of the Transfiguration, or Church of the Restoration as it is popularly known, on account of lengthy, ongoing conservation work. 

Day Seven saw a Russian revolution by the other nationalities on board – Italians and Portuguese.  When we received our daily programme, we could see why.  ‘Lunch’ was to be at 11.15am onshore and there would be nothing else until dinner at seven.  We were supposed to be in the ship’s conference room at 8.30am for a question and answer session on ‘Russia Today’ with Alexandra, the on-board history lecturer.  The three lectures we’d attended with her so far had  been both informative and entertaining, but at 8.30?  Please.  We tried to stay in bed, but were thwarted at 7.15am by music that Ennio Morricone might have composed for one of the Spaghetti Westerns if he’d been experimenting with electric violins played by demons on acid.  So much for a lie-in!

The final destination was St Petersburg, where the weather was cloudy and overcast, but where we encountered a much more sympathetic guide.  She told us about each place while we were on the bus, in transit and then let us off to do our own thing.  We also avoided the need to return to the ship at midday by being given packed lunches, although the square where we were dropped off to eat them left something to be desired, being picturesquely populated by Russian drunks, spark out on the benches.  Some of our party donated their picnics, but I’m not sure that food was actually what these guys were desperate for. 

In the afternoon, we queued to enter the Hermitage Museum and see what we could from the centre of a surging crowd, each visitor eager to get that ‘must-have’ selfie in front of a Leonardo or a Rembrandt.  In the evening, we went to a Cossack song and dance show, strictly for the tourists, but nevertheless, extremely entertaining.  The following day, a trip to the water gardens of the Peterhof Palace concluded our stay in this city. 

Was Russia interesting and welcoming?  Yes.  How was the scenery?  Attractive.  Was this cruise relaxing?  No.  What was the August weather like?  Very changeable.  How was the food?  Good, but not gourmet.   Would you go there again?  Yes, certainly.   And we actually brought some holiday spending money home, because there was never any time to stop and spend it!

First published in VISA 131 (Feb 2017)