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We arrived in Samara at 8:00 AM on our 10th Day on board.  It is getting warmer: 95°IF (35°C).  The city of Samara is situated on the high left bank of the Volga River, where the river Samara flows into it.  It's a large transport station, river port and airport.  The population is 1 million people.  It was founded as a fortress in 1586 to protect the lands from the raids of the Tatars of Crimea.  Samara was first mentioned in the chronicle in 1623.  It was a trading center of bread, wool and leather.  Modern Samara is an important social, political, economic, industrial and cultural center of European Russia which in May 2007 held the European Union — Russia Summit.  Everybody knows its chocolate, a famous product of the chocolate factory "Russia".

Samara's Coat of Arms

The architecture of the buildings was quite  beautiful

The big interest for us was the fact that Stalin had made a bunker here, and we would be going into it.

Next to the entrance, which you would never have noticed just walking by
on the street, as it was very discretely located, is this souvenir kiosk.

For a price, tourists could don a collection of Russian military uniforms and have their photograph taken.

This is a diagram of the bunker.  In the photo below we are standing in the entrance to the bunker
(top right hand chamber, which is at street level.  The bottom level (in red) is 50 meters (approx. 160 ft)below the surface.

Our guide explaining a bit of the history of the bunker and it's use during WW II.

We begin the long decent to the tunnel that crosses over to the central shaft.

Entering the tunnel leading to the central shaft to a large chamber which contained memorabilia and historic photographs on the walls.

This map did not exist in 1941, but was added in more recent times.

This is a large room for lounging and relaxation.  It is adjacent to the main bunker safe room.

Pete taking an urgent telephone call from president Bush, notifying him
that the economy is collapsing.  Gee, I never would have guessed.  LOL

This is the main bunker safe room.  I holds a long table where presumably the politburo
and generals sat, with Stalin at the head of the table, discussing the progress of the war.

Large portraits of Karl Marks, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin adorn the entry wall.

We watched a video showing mostly war scenes of Russian and German troops in combat during WW II.  I would not have wanted to spend much time in this cramped space.  There were no facilities for food preparation, nor any bathroom facilities.  It was just a safe concrete bunker safely down deep enough beneath the earth's surface to protect the main man from any bombs that might be dropped on his head.  We probably have something similar to this for Bush to hide his sorry ass in.  I apologize to those who might think I'm being disrespectful of the current leader of the free world, but nearly 8 years of watching the image of American the eyes of the rest of the world become so tarnished that we are now hated in nearly every land, it is just a little more than I can take without voicing my feelings.

Moving on to cheerier things, there are some rather impressive monuments in Samara.

We visited this museum, and I took only one photograph of a painting that I liked.

I know, there's no accounting for taste, but this photo doesn't do it justice.

While in Samara we were given the opportunity to do some shopping.  Pete and I stopped in a supermarket to see what is available to the Russians.  We were astounded by the cost of caviar.

We were told that caviar has become so expensive because there are so few fish in the river snow.  The government is trying to control the amount of fishing in order to rebuild the stock of fish.  In the meantime those who can't live without it are paying a real premium

The shelves in the supermarket looked very much like any supermarket in the U.S., or Buenos Aires.

We had everything we wanted in the way of food stuff on board the ship, so all we purchased here was some gin for the cabin and some Squirt like drink for a mixer.

It was a lazy Monday afternoon in Samara, and I snapped this photo of a young couple just hanging out.

 I was very surprised to see just across the street was "Mama Chta", an Argentine "Big" steak house.

Note the gaucho in the window.  Argentine beef is in every corner of the world I suppose.

I was also very pleasantly surprised to see how clean the streets were kept.

We were back on board by 1:00 PM for lunch, and at 2:00 PM when the ship set sail for Saratov, we enjoyed a lecture on Vladimir Putin.  It was very interesting, especially to see how he has bargained for his continued hand in government by getting his long time friend Dmitry Medvedev, his handpicked successor, elected as president of Russia, who by the way, promised to appoint Putin as Prime Minister.  But that's history now.  According to an article in Newsweek, "Russia's Mighty Mouse", Medvedev may turn out to be a welcome surprise.  Here's the URL for the article if you're interested:  http://www.newsweek.com/id/112769/page/1    Since our visit I've become more conscious of Russian politics.

As we pull away from Samara we notice that the Samarans are enjoying the summer with sunbathing and swimming in the Volga River . . .

. . . while Pete and I enjoy the cocktail of the day on board the ship. It's called a "Caspian Breeze".  We've broken our tradition of not ever drinking a blue drink, after our experience with Pete's Uncle Eddy in San Francisco when we drank too many "Snow Shoes" and got pulled over by the Highway Patrol at the San Francisco Airport.  They were nice enough to make us pull into the parking garage and sleep it off, rather than giving Pete a ticket.  This was in the years before the big crackdown on driving while intoxicated.  It was a lesson well learned, fortunately.

Tomorrow we will arrive at Saratov, our last stop before Volgograd.  Saratov has a wonderful park with a huge monument to the war, and an impressive war museum with planes, tanks and other military machinery, plus some objects from Russia's space program.  This will be in Chapter 6.  I hope these images in Chapter 5 have not been too dull.