Monday, 31 July, The rest of the way to Moscow

Written 1 August 2017

Of course, we were pretty tired by the time we made our connection at CDG, and the 3.5-hour flight to Moscow provided discomfort enough. I was wedged into a middle seat with no leg room, but at least they fed us a hot lunch (Alaskan pollock baked in a mild curry sauce with couscous).

We were among the last to get in line for passport control in Moscow, and we were definitely in the slowest line (I think we drew the trainee inspector again), so when we emerged into the main lobby, we found no Viking rep waiting for us! Drat again. Not sure what we do, we circled the wagons (i.e. luggage) in the middle of the lobby and waited around for a while, and sure enough she reappeared. She had thought everyone was there and had conducted a group around the corner in the parking lot to the bus, but when she ran her checklist we found four of us were still missing and came back to look.

Traffic is apparently a perpetual nightmare in Moscow (15 mph on a six-lane divided highway is now considered about normal), so it took a while for the bus to get us to the ship. Here are a few things our guide (Alexei; driver is Sergei) told us on the way:

• The airport was built in the 70's and named for the little village on the site of which it was built.
• The airport now has six terminals; we came into terminal "E"
• About 20 daily domestic shuttle flights come and go from other Russian cities
• About 15 TGV trains a day leave Moscow; it's about 2.5 hours from Moscow to St. Peterburg by TGV
• Russia is the largest country in the world; it spans 11 time zones (sometimes we were told 9, sometimes 11; apparently two were recently added).
• The drive from the airport to the ship is about 45 minutes
• As elsewhere, as the cities grow, the countryside is being depleted of 0opulation and is more and more deserted
• In Moscow people accept 8-hour-a-day jobs that require 4 hours of commuting daily; tough on family life
• Moscow's ring road is 12 miles long
• Late in the season last year, Viking needed the assistance of an ice breaker to follow its route from Moscow to St. Petersburg
• St. Petersburg is at the latitude of the central part of Hudson Bay
• Our program director on board is Margo

Dealerships we passed on the way: Hyundai, Mitsubishi, Ford, Volkwagen, Renault, Subaru, Infiniti, Citroën, Nissan Datsun, Skoda, (I think the guide said that most of these foreign makes are actually manufactured in Russia for the Russian market)

Franchises we passed on the way: MacDonald's (two), KFC

At the left here is the lovely port building, empty and abandoned now, and alas still awaiting restoration. At the right is the view from the bow of our ship, moored at the quai. Another Viking ship is moored outboard of us; the two in the photo are of some other cruise line. Far beyond them (just to the right of where the righthand guy line of the mast meets the top deck of the right-hand boat), you can just see the tower of the port building with its decorative star on top. That gives you an idea of how many other cruise ships we had to drive by to get to ours after driving around the port building!

Once we reached the ship, check-in went very smoothly. We were immediately shown to our staterooms, and our luggage was delivered about 15 minutes later. I unpacked and put everything away, then went out to explore the ship briefly. When I got to the "Panorama Bar," who should I find but Rachel, already deep in conversation with a couple of fellow cruisers with whom she had already traded life stories—the woman's amazing!

At 6 p.m., we all convened in the "Sky Bar" for a briefing on our stay in Moscow. Margo, our program director, outlined all the optional tours for the people who hadn't yet made their selections (this was the routine we went through individually and in small groups in 2015, while waiting in the hotel lounge for our hotel rooms to be ready in Lisbon). We had already made all our choices on line ahead of time, so this was just a useful review (and we finally found out exactly what the differences were between the Kremlin tour we chose and the other option that excluded the armory).

Then it was straight to dinner in the main dining room. The chef has a Greek name; we'll have to watch for Greek influences in the food. I followed the chef's recommendations—I started with chicken wings with a soy-honey-chili dipping sauce (left; the circular object on top was an onion-flavored beignet), then had the beef Stroganoff with spaetzl, shredded and salted cucumber, lightly sweet and sour shredded beets, and "Russian smetana," which turned out to be a yummy half-soured cream (right).

For dessert, I had chocolate pots de crème with pineapple-thyme salsa (left). David had the same menu except that he got a Caesar salad (right) instead of the wings.

Rachel had the same except that she had ice cream (a rich custard-based vanilla) with chocolate sauce for dessert.

Ev started with the cheese plate (left; Gorgonzola and an amazing chewy smoked Russian cheese called "Chechil spaghetti" that looked like tiny bread sticks, with bread, crackers and fruit; the stuff in the spoon is mango-thyme chutney). For his main course, they made a special onion-and-garlic-free version of the poached tilapia with saffron rice (right).

Then he had ice cream with caramel sauce. All excellent.

The other starter choices were "mixed salad platter" and "beef bouillon with beef strudel" (marked as a local specialty). The third main course choice was a vegetarian gratin of cannelloni.

On the "always available" menu were Caesar salad with grilled chicken, poached Norwegian salmon, grilled chicken breast, and beef tenderloin.

After dinner, we didn't stay for the music and dancing, but I was told that I could tune it in on channel 18 of the TV in my stateroom if I wished. They also offer a pair of movie channels on which the two movies of the day are repeated all day at two-hour intervals.

Before turning in, David and I did go up to the sun deck to look around. No pool or putting green as there had been in Portugal, but I found potted herbs: bay, thyme, oregano, lavender, basil, and pepper plants.

Strangely, in a section where we weren't allowed to go, I spotted this spare ship's propellor lying on the deck. If they chew up a propellor on a sand bar or rock, can they really change it in midstream? If so, I'm impressed!

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