13 September

I was awake at 0720 but resisted the temptation to get up straight away. I finally gave into temptation by 0730 and got myself ready for breakfast.
Breakfast began at 0800 and this morning Scott was present but only for a short time. After the other three of us had finished breakfast it was nearly time to meet in the reading room. We had a meeting for 0930 about activities for St Petersburg and I had decided to do the tours to the Yusupov Palace and Canal Boat ride and then Pushkin – the palace of Catherine the Great and paid for them in US dollars as I have run short of Euros (I need to get some more in St Petersburg).
Our sailing was quite smooth and we arrived in Goritsy (early) at 1000. After the obligatory gauntlet of tourist kiosks (fewer of them here, and no obvious beggars this time), we left on a bus with our Russian-speaking-only guide and Katya to translate at 1015 for Kirillo. We arrived at the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery soon after and our tour headed out on foot. I thought the monastery was quite well preserved (partly because it was closed down so late and partly because it became a museum so soon after. It currently has three monks, but they live in a section we did not visit.
The main part of the museum is concerned with the icons from the church. Although we had explanations before, this was perhaps a little more complete because of the number of icons present and the explanations could be given in front of them. However, I can take just so much and by the time we finished the circuit I was just about “iconed out”. The ground floor of the museum had relics from the monk who founded the monastery and other items from its daily life, including weapons to defend it.
We had a look at the outside, and then through more material, this time of a more mundane variety – jars for storing, cooking and serving food and a large barrel for preparing beer. I asked about children drinking it and was told just teenagers, although I know in many older times, children were raised on beer because it didn’t have the health problems associated with water. Here I succumbed to temptation and purchased a musical bear (by blowing into it and covering up holes, a musical tune can be made – BUT NOT BY ME!).
We returned to the bus via a lakeshore walk. The monasteries were set up beside water to provide fish for food, but unlike some English monasteries, they didn’t divert the rivers/lakes under the monasteries to provide year-round fishing.
We were back to the bus by 1230 and returned via Goritsy onto the ship by just after 1300, despite shopping opportunities created by the many kiosks set up at the bus station. Very soon it was time for lunch at 1350 and the M/S Glushkov was away from dock at 1410, while we were still enjoying lunch..
After this I read and finally finished the second book I had got from the Reading Room. I won’t get another because there is limited time left, I can’t see the scenery at the same time and I ca’t spare the time to read at night while I should be writing this up.
At 1640 the English-speaking group se tout on our wheelhouse and engine-room tour. Only about twelve participated, but the bridge was interesting, for a number of reasons.
The ship was being controlled remotely by a river pilot, so the officer of the watch was really just making sure nothing went wrong. Controlled were triplicated for control of the ship, with a set each side for fine manoeuvering. The ship wad two sets of radar for checking other ships and th eshoreline. She was built in Germany in 1983, equipped with three large six cylinder Russian marine diesels which directly drive the screws, auxiliary engines for power, electric engines for bow thrusting propellers and heat exchangers for the cooling system and to heat water for the ship’s use. She is about 3500 tonnes, with 240 tonnes of diesel fuel and 60 tonnes of water. She can carry about 250 passengers and has 100 ship’s company (plus guides, receptionists and sales staff). Maximum speed is about 25 km/hr. Originally she sailed in the Ukraine on rivers, but then moved to the Moscow-St Petersburg run. She winters in a river berth south of here, where the river freezes but not as much at as St Petersburg. After getting all from the bridge, we went down to the engine room and had a quick lok around. Our tour of the boat then finished and I went back to the Panorama Bar where I got to chatting with a Belgium couple and showed them pictures of Australia. They seemed to like them (little did I know what was to follow). At this stage, quite of few of the others were off at a vodka-tasting party and I emulated what I thought they would be like while waiting for dinner, much to the amusement of the kiosk girls and a pair of older English ladies. I saw the slide show of Moscow-St Petersburg and decided to order one of the DVDs.
We had dinner and our now customary chat during and after dinner, so I didn’t get back to my cabin until 2130, washed out some clothes.
It was then a matter of transferring and processing photos, writing up this blog and then the sleep at some time after 2300.