Email us at:
pej@pejnron.com
ron@pejnron.com

Click the sun to see the
weather in Buenos Aires!

Our 11th Day on board finds us arriving at Saratov at NOON.  Saratov, or "Sary-Tau" means "Yellow Mountain".  It was given to the area by Step (or "Big Prairie") people — nomadic tribes who had inhabited it many centuries ago.  the first inhabitants (around 1590) were warriors.  Fish like sturgeon and beluga, and later salt production, caused the rapid growth of the town.  The city today stretches for 30 km along the Volga River, which is 3 km wide at it's narrowest place near the city.

As you can see, the Volga is quite a large river.  Saratov was also the home of the Volga Germans.  Until 1941, Pokrovsk, known today as Engels, Russia, and located just across the Volga from Saratov, was the capital of a separate German republic.  TheVolga Germans numbered 800,000 in the early 20th century.  At the outbreak of World War II, half of the Volga Germans were exiled to Siberia and Kazakhstan, and few ever returned to the region.  Beginning in the 1980s, many emigrated to Germany

Saratov is not without it's beautiful churches, it is also where the Yak-40 aircraft is produced.

 Saratov is also a place that honors it war heroes with beautiful monuments, and a military arms museum.

An eternal flame burns in remembrance of those who died in WW II

Just one of the many heroes that gave their lives for Mother Russia.

Quite an impressive monument stands atop this hill where a major battle was fought.

This was quite a moving experience, when you contemplate what happened here in 1941.

The outdoor museum here had a very extensive array of military machinery.  It seemed to go on forever.  This next series of photos I expect to be boring to most people, but I'm including them anyway, so I hope you'll bear with me.

A modern day rocket launcher.

An early Russian tank

A more modern Russian tank

Russian Torpedoes used during World War II

This is a 2 man mini submarine.  It flooded with water and the crew wore scuba gear.

There was an impressive array of amphibious vehicles

I'd hate to be looking down the barrels of this attack helicopter.  I think this is their equivalent of our Blackhawk attack helicopter.

This is one huge bomber, as you can see . . .

. . . from this photo.

They had some interesting camouflage techniques.

This looks like a huge diving bell for undersea work, but it's actually . . .

. . . the "Vostok" re-entry vehicle.  The Russian's space missions returned on land, not water as our pre Space Shuttle U.S. astronauts did.  Here, Pete is demonstrating how the astronaut might have looked inside this contraption.

This is the "Souz" re-entry vehicle.  Now tell me, would you feel
comfortable plummeting towards earth inside this thing?  Not ME!

Well, I feel that I should apologize for possibly boring some folks to death with these photos.  But it is an interesting part of Russia's history.  Now we return to the city, and visit this beautiful Russian Orthodox cathedral.

As we pulled up in our tour bus, I think, oh no, not another church.  But actually they
all had their own uniqueness, so the level of boredom was low.  Honest!

We sat in a little outdoor cafe across from the Mac Donald's and enjoyed a beer while we watched the people pass by.  The Russian people seemed very much like people in the U.S., or in Argentina.

As you can see from their attire, it is a very pleasant summer day in Saratov.

This guy looks like a real power shopper.

This I thought was a rather pretty fountain.  They're all over the world I think.  I saw my first one in Christchurch, New Zealand.

It seems like in the 5 hours we were in Saratov we actually accomplished quite a lot.  The Viking Lomonosov set sail towards Volgograd at 5:00 PM, and we attended our second Russian language lesson.  This was to be our last night on board the ship, and there was mention of a Guest Talent show.  Little did we know that those "guests" were to be selected from the folks attending this Russian language class.  You guessed it, Pete and I were both chosen, along with six other unlucky souls.  A few of those even volunteered.  We kept avoiding eye contact, but that was to no avail.  There was to be a little play where Pete was the handsome Prince who was to save the Princess from the evil duke.  I was the tree to which the evil duke tied the Princess.  Here, your imagination can run wild if you like.  Needless to say, it was very funny, and the rest of the passengers had a good belly laugh at our expense.  We also, as a group, sang a few Russian songs.  They were familiar, so it wasn't too difficult to carry the tune, but pronouncing the words in Russian was a bit of a challenge.

Tonight was the "Captains Dinner", so Pete and Pat dressed up a bit.

The wait staff was especially cordial tonight, and the host had them choreographed like well trained soldiers.  They marched from the kitchen carrying plates for 2 tables at a time, so everyone at the table was served at the same time.  It was impressive.

The appetizer was smoked salmon.

The dramatic duo, fresh from rehearsal, and dreading the hour after dinner when we'll be IN the Talent Show instead of just enjoying it.

I think this was our salad.

Valaria and Pat were enjoying the dinner.

Valaria had a great sense of humor, and he told us jokes about some of the more "memorable" passengers, like the lady "Dr.", evidently a professor at Columbia University.  There's always at least one remarkable character.  LOL.

And here comes the train of wait staff, very efficiently serving whole tables at a time.  I make it sound like this is unusual.  Well, it was.  They normally served one or two people at the table, and we waited while the other plates are brought, sometimes after an unreasonable delay.  I think the maître d' must have gotten more than a few complaints about that.

And what's a Captain's Dinner without the traditional Baked Alaska paraded through the dining room before serving it.

The Baked Alaska was actually pretty good.

After dinner we had the "Talent Show", and mercifully I have no photos of that.  After the show we headed for the bar for a nightcap, and to attempt to recoup a little of our dignity. 

This is Andrey, the bar tender, and he became a good friend before the end of the cruise. The Lomonosov will be arriving at Volgograd at 1:30 PM tomorrow.  Our experiences there will be told in Chapter 7.  I know there are a lot of photos in this chapter, and I apologize, but we did so much, and I don't want to cut any of it out.  Hope you enjoyed it anyway.