Cruise on Volga River in 2003

During most of my 2 weeks in Russia, my home away from home was the river cruiser Viking Pakhomov. Our Circumnavigator group used it as a hotel in Moscow and St. Petersburg except for 3 nights. We also spent a week cruising on the boat between Moscow and Saint Petersburg while stopping to explore some of the historic cities of Russia.

Click to enlarge the map to see our route. We departed Moscow on September 26th and transited a number of locks to visit Uglich. Then we turned south on the Volga to visit Kostroma, then turned north visiting Jaroslavl and after 2 days sailing visited Kizhi. From Kizhi, we retraced our path across Lake Oneda to cross Lake Ladoga, Europe's largest fresh water lake, and arrived in Saint Petersburg on October 2nd.

We visited many Churches and monasteries and all of us enjoyed the singing! Typically the singers were 4 men who are not priests, but musicians earning a few dollars and selling their CDs. You can also see that the standard of living is lower than in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. Most people have an income of about $150 a month and one in six homes lacks indoor plumbing. In Kostroma, we saw people buying huge sacks of potatoes for the winter.