June 17, 2010 – Donna

We had our real farewell dinner last night with Missy, Karl and Joan. We went around the table to declare our favorite moments from the trip, which included (amongst others):

- the bike ride day with John Roseman
- the dinner at Nikolai and Svetlana’s house in Suzdal
- the summer palace at Peterhof
- the Kirov ballet and it's marvelous lead male dancer
- the amber room
- the memorial to the siege of Leningrad- the grand Soviet sculpture of workers
- learning about the transition to a market economy
- the two minute subway tour

Today, the three of us woke up at 4:00 am for our flight to Yekaterinburg, as the others slept in and then headed back home. Our guide, Slava, met us and we checked into our spectacular, new Hyatt. It’s quite modern, and totally world class. As we drove around the city, I was amazed at how great it looked compared to when I was here over 15 years ago. There were many new apartment buildings both finished and under construction. There were tree lined avenues, and several pedestrian walkways filled with people. Marina reminds me that I was here in the winter before, so it was dark and cold, making a different impression. But I had expected to see some modern buildings in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and saw very few … but they exist here in Yekaterinburg, which is the 4th biggest city in Russia, so not a small town. I think they should spend less money renovating churches in Moscow and St. P., and start modernizing apartments instead.

Our first stop was a memorial where a few years ago they found a mass grave from the Soviet Stalin era. It was sobering to look at all the name of the people shot in 1937 and 1938 for no apparent reason. We didn’t find any Dubinskys, but did find one name that was close.
Then we went to the place designated as the border between Asia and Russia (with “scientific evidence!”). We happily lined up with one foot in each continent, just as we have done on the equator and on the prime meridian.

They also had one of those wedding stop places here where the couples tie ribbons on a fence.

 
Next was a very strange place outside of town where in the last ten years they built a memorial church complex in memory of the last Tsar Nicholas II, who was murdered in Yekenterinburg with his wife and 5 children. The Bolsheviks dumped the bodies in a mine shaft here, and the place now has these churches, one for each member of the family, although named for various saints.

 It was strange because it was a working monastery, although very few monks were around, and the interiors of the all wooden churches were decorated with fresh, new icons, sometimes just photocopies of paintings from elsewhere. Ladies had to dress in modest clothes to visit this sacred site, which basically meant putting on an apron-like garment over our jeans and a head scarf.

 The most interesting part was the wall of black & white photos of the Tsar and his family – definitely from better days.

 
This huge complex needs some work to attract visitors … when I asked for the bathroom, the driver pointed me towards the woods – which is where I went! By the way, I should mention that the woods are beautiful, full of white birch and very tall pine trees.

One last stop was a store -- in honor of Joan, we decided to do some shopping -- where we bought a few items made from stones of the Ural mountains.

We’re all feeling a bit under the weather today – seems we caught Karl’s cold of the last few days. We’ve taken it easy this evening – using room service – and hopefully will be all better in the morning.