Russia Poland July 30, 1998, Thursday

During the night we went through a couple of locks and in the morning a lock with the largest drop (about 25 feet). There were 16 locks from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Just before arriving in Uglich we passed through another lock. At each lock there was room for two boats at one time so one cruise boat had to wait for another before going through.

At the Captain’s party there were three couples sitting together, a Welch couple, a Scottish couple, and an English couple. They were good friends and friendly to me. They were in their 50’s. All the English I talked to were from the southern part of Great Britain. It must be more prosperous there. There were other nationalities on board. The German group had a guide who spoke German so I didn’t get to know any of them.

At Uglich we had a guided tour of two churches and a museum. On the way to the first church we ran a gauntlet of peddlers. They had booths with earrings, necklaces, dolls and doo-dads. People were walking around selling watches and post cards. The saddest thing was to see all the old ladies selling flowers no-one wanted.

In Moscow there seemed to be a shortage of merchandise and of buyers. The people were as well dressed as in any large American city. The malls were filled with women wearing fashionable clothes. Some of the younger ones wore mini-skirts just short of showing it all. Many walked around with cell phones in their pockets. Just as in America, a phone would ring and out would come a phone and shopper would be talking as he walked down the mall.