on the river between St Petersburg and Moscow....

So we've learned a bit about Russia, and the Russians- some of it good, some not so- but all of it fascinating. We are currently locked within a "lock", one of the 17 we will pass through on our way to Moscow and as we wait to be expelled on the other side (and as we wait for dinner, even MORE important!) I'll write a bit....

First off, as we found in the Mekong Delta- river cruisers are TRAVELERS- there's just no doubt. Ask them anything. They've been to Egypt, Africa, So. America, Europe (of course, very tame)- these are not people who book a trip into the Marriott in London and have bus tours to everything....we just came back from a special "Captains Cocktail Party" for those of us onboard who are "Viking Explorers"- in other words, who have traveled on Viking before. The jokes on them- this is our first but we qualify because when we disembark in Moscow we fly to Shanghai for the Yangtze cruise- a cruise, by the way, that EVERY SINGLE PERSON THAT I'VE TALKED TO ONBOARD has already taken....better late than never,in our case!

Today we had to get a wake up call for dawn as we docked on an island that boasts 60 permanent residents and the "Cathedral of the Transformation"- a church built in the 1700's with 22 domes, 2 storeys and a bell tower- completely out of wood but without a single nail, screws or adhesive of any kind. Amazing. Built from the millions of aspen that grow here- we have spent 3 days passing by forests of the stuff- who knew that Russia was so wooded? Not me.