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A brief listing of the itinerary is as follows:
28 June - depart Washington DC overnight flight to Paris
29 June - pass through Paris airport and fly on to Moscow, board the N.
Chernishevski and have and excellent dinner
30 June - excellent full buffet breakfast (repeated every day) and then bus
tour through traffic with photo stops including the Novodevichi Convent and
Cathedral of Our Savior, then walk through Red Square to lunch at fine
restaurant built into the Kitai Gorod wall. After lunch, walk through Kitai
Gorod and then metro back to ship for dinner. After dinner bus to marvelous
performance of Boris Gudunov at the Bolshoi Opera.
1 July - Bus trip to Tretyakov gallery, after tour and box lunch we took metro
to see several stations up close. After dinner on board, we attended the Moscow
Circus
2 July - Morning tour of the Kremlin Armory museum and then Cathedral of
Archangel Michael and grounds. Back on board the Chernishevski we started the
cruise around dinner time. We passed through the first two ofthe 6 locks on the
Moscow-Volga canal before dark.
3 July - The ship passed from the canal to the Volga, by mid-afternoon we
reached Uglich. We departed town at dinner time and continued down the Volga
all night.
4 July - Morning we arrived at Yaroslavl for a half-day tour. Back on board the
Chernishevski after a too-short visit to this wonderful city. In the afternoon
we passed the Tolgski Convent and the many lovely churches in
Romano-Borisoglebsk, then around 6 PM reached the hydroelectric plant, dam and
locks at Rybinsk. After dinner, while cruising across the Rybinsk reservoir we
had a special treat with a reception on the sun deck complete with fireworks in
honor of Independence Day.
5 July - We cruised along the Sheksna River, passing the Resurection Convent at
Goritski.. On board we had Russian language classes and Vodka tasting.
6 July - During the night we passed through the canal between White Lake and
Lake Onega. During the morning we crossed Lake Onega and arrived at
Petrozavodsk in the afternoon. We had a bus tour of the town and then attended
an excellent performance ofa Karelian folk show. The evening dinner on board
was a real 'surprise' party. During the night the ship cruised to Kizhi Island.
7 July - At dawn we were at Kizhi Island fora full morning walking tour of the
architecture museum. During lunch we started cruising across Lake Onega. There
was another class in painting Matroshka dolls. Then we had a Russian tea party
before dinner. The ship entered the Svir river for a slow all-night trip.
8 July - at dawn we were at Mandrogi, a relatively new tourist stop. We
departed at 1 PM. That evening the captain hosted his 'farewell' reception on
the sun deck. We entered the Neva River around 2AM.
9 July - We docked at St. Petersburg around 8 AM. After breakfast we had a bus
tour of the city with stops along the Neva and for a guided tour of the Peter
and Paul fotress and cathedral. We spent the rest of the day walking around the
downtown and visiting the Naval Museum and Artillery Museum before evening mass
at the Church of St. Catherine in Nevski Prospect.
10 July - We spent the entire day in the Hermitage Museum - Winter Palace.
Then, after dinner, we returned to attend a performance of Giselle at the
Hermitage Theater.
11 July - We took a morning bus ride to Peterhov for a 1/4 day tour of some
sections of the huge grounds including the 'Catherine block". In the
evening we attended a fine symphonic performance at the Marienski Theater.
12 July - Another morning bus ride took us to the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoye
Selo and after lunch a tour of the Pavlovsk Palace nearby.
13 July - Before dawn we departed the N. Chernishevski for the airport. We flew
back to the US via Paris.
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