2011-8-4-to v nogorod

011-8-4-to v nogorod

Left Holiday Inn-Moscow very early in morning to get the magic shot of the vehicles in front of St Basils,

 then returned to breakfast before heading out to V Nogorod, a delightful town with a beatiful kremlin.

Metro station indicator.



rush hour





No Passing



The three lane road had continual passing lanes shared along it's length.We passed lots of new housing out from town.

We also saw lots of old houses extended with a simple ridge shed for the winter shelter of animals and wood. Though we did see the tidy woodheaps typical of the country. The houses are still well insulated as witnessed by some new buildings with walls about 0.3m thick probably filled with sawdust?.



reading the destinations





Checking street lights



We are on our way to St Pertersburg but is quite a distance and after a few hectic days in the capital it was great to finish a bit early and wander down to this delightful town square and listen to town's band welcome the 'soldata' back from Chetna ?.

Had a nice meal though the waitress would not speak english to us and wandered back past the kremlin to the old part of town past the river bank beach with volleyball players.

The sun was very low and the lighting quite unusual. The old buildings were a delight.

Inside Kremlin

mwper's photostream

mwper's photostream on Flickr.

moscow photos & china

Moskova wed 3-8-2011

Moskova wed 3-8-2011

Off to town for the bus tour of the city highlights. Very cold, Georgie sent back for wrap.

We travels 6 stops on the metro, another first for veronika, and we even made

time on the way back (2pm) to view a few ornate stations without nausea,
dillerium or palpatations, but could not be convinced to have a second go
when I went off to Victory Park. Celebrates the winning of WW2, with a local loss of 20M people.

Wandered in Red Square to see

the man and St Basils, the onto

the bus.Met some Aussies

 from the Gold Coast,

'Here's to you kid'.

Nunneries are often good value for the rulers of the time to solve power

succession, poligamy, and just plain stroppiness, however, the peasants were

revolting and 15,000 ran away !!. today the volunteers number about 40 good souls.

Finally, managed to skype Carol, 2pm = NZT 10pm, yes we will see each other

for 3 Days before she goes to Vietnam avec sa soeur.
Then chatted to Bob & Pam, refugees on the Wet Coast, about a must to drive a land rover thru the Gobi.

Hopped back on the Metro to Victory Park, changing lines along the way with

confirmation from fellow local travellers, got it sussed !!.
The locals still view the slaying of the Nazi Dragon and eagle with great

passion and rejoice their freedom.

Met some happy campers with furry new hats

 on my way to the military

exposition.

 

Nasty stuff, this machinery of war. Loved the rail track ripper-upper,

thingie.
A few 'lend-lease' beasties there too, we were allies back then !!.

A few flowers to brighten your day,
cheers Maurice

2011-8-2 Tues to Moscow in the rain

2011-8-2 Tues to Moscow in the rain
It rained in the night and we left the Volga river city around

9am having a r-roulette lunch in a local roadside cafe after

first getting the tanks close to empty and then trying to find

the lowest price without having to resort to Euro Diesel about

RR4 dearer.

The russian menu didn't suit the boys in truck 3 but the rest

of us took pot luck and had a great meal, we should have

phographed our previous meal as we had a truck driver's meal to

 indicate the same would be good.

They however took comfort there at a big M on the highway (we

must be near Moscow, god help us) and still managed to keep up

as thet hadn't told us they were stopping. The benefits of fast

food !!.

A local L/C got stopped by the ANC 2 or 3 times so must have

cost a fortune.

It was great to be on a dual-lane highway most of the way as

the spray off the trucks would have been tough if the traffic

was head-on.

The Garmin GPS Nav is good as it reminds you what the speed

limit is in the area and supplements the signs. Generally a

yellow diamond is 60Km/hr but 40 is normal for a lot of

villages, very slowwwww.
A lot of police checkpoints abound with the boys out in their

Great-Coats today as a wet 16C.

We arrived on the outskirts of the Big M and took nearly an

hour on 5 Lane roads to battle our way in to the hotel (Holiday

Inn Sokolniki), pretty scary but I did it with Greg's nav and

quiet calm directions.

We mingled with trucks, large and small, tractors, trams,

trolley buses, cars, boy racers and a whole range of buses,

plus tram tracks, bus lanes, no turning lanes, traffic lights

etc.

But we're here safe and been out for a Sausage and bier and

bought an external hard drive to backup the pics,

Bon Nuit, mes amis, Paris a bientot ?.

The Kremlin - Karzan - Tatarstan

Visiting 'The Kremlin" - Karzan in Tatarstan 1-8-2011

This would have to be a 'Jewel in the Crown' for any city.A

medieval walled city.

'Ivan the Terrible' built a tower 7

stories high to show his love to a woman who didn't love him

but agreed to marry him if the tower was built in 7 days.

She ran up the tower and threw herself off, so a sad ending.

You will note the tower is not vertical, so may have had some

overhang !.

We found more cabages in the flower gardens !.

There is oil in the provinces as we passed the pumps
along the road.

The drive thru to H Novogrov was uneventful save for a lot of
trucks. We had lunch at a roadside cafe and had soup and
rissols and potato-mashed.

Now on the Volga River, where the hotel staff wear sailor suits !!. Had to register again, so hope to get away asap in the morn.

2011-7-31-Perm-cosmanaut

Sunday, not a day of rest for the wicked who have 700+Km to go
2011-7-31

Said goodbye to the 'space-man', The First Russian Cosmanaut-Uri ?, national holiday 20 April, but have to work..
Kataryna our Breakfast waitress, ex Chicago & LA, entertained us with her lovely US accent, and info on the space programme.
Part of a US sponsored scheme to foster US-Russian relations for youth to stay with host families in the States.

 

Ventured out on super Highway, downgraded to Bi-way, highway, road, ruptured carriageway and then back up again, down again till it repeated itself so many times we just take what we get.

Loverly countryside, driving in mist 'til mid morning with a little play to get to morning tea and back onto the road, diff locks in.

Had lunch in a wheat field, already headed for silage, see adjoining pics. There is green pasture silage but we also see grain silage, where the crop is cut 200mm long for feeding cows.

Milking cows being sheparded on the roadsides from their long sheds back on the farm, nice to see them getting a bit of vitimin E from the sun.

We had a little transgression driving and passing a truck on a bridge which the nice man in the very fast VW Passat was able to point out that a contribution to the drinking fund would solve.
Mumble grumble,mg,mg, so a quiet drive into town.

The hotel smimming pool is great so makes up for the lack of wifi in our rooms, we are all huddled in the hotel foyer, tapping away.