Westworld Alberta

A journey into fairy-tale country, from Moscow to St. Petersburg BY JANETTE GRIFFITHS Russian Reverie As I sip tea and gaze out of the café window, I see that the Russia of my fantasies has sailed into view during the night. For the fi rst three days, we were moored in Moscow. On the fi rst day of sailing, the capital's modern outskirts, with their new, prosperous housing developments, looked unsettlingly like North America. Now I'm beginning to fi nd what I was looking for. Our Waterways of the Tsars cruise is something of a cocoon, taking us to a succession of villages and rural landscapes that would be hard to reach by other means. We eat all of our meals on the boat, and sleep in our cabins every night – never ashore. The meals, cooked by a German chef, are excellent. Our ship, the Viking Kirov, was completely refurbished two years ago. My standard (Viking Kirov) Viking River Cruises, (dancers) Planetpix/All Canada Photos stateroom has a private bathroom, a big window with fine views of the passing countryside and a fl at screen TV. However, I soon find that the cruise provides so much of interest, not just in scenery, but in revelations about Russian culture, history and geography, that CNN pales in comparison. And judging by the attendance at the lectures offered along our route, it would seem that the other passengers (mainly Americans and Brits, with a sprin- kling of Canadians and Australians) feel the same way. "Just which Russian river will you be cruising along?" asked a geographically inclined friend when I mentioned my plan to sail from Moscow to St. Petersburg. "The Volga," I replied, because it sounded suitably Russian. WESTWORLD >> NOVEMBER 2011 23

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