( Overview
/ L2: It's not a midlife crisis
The Alexander Nevskogo Cathedral - amazing interiors
We arrived in Nizhny Novgorod (NiNo) after 14 hours on the train - during the day, thankful for downloaded movies and books.
Our cabin mates for the trip were Illiana and Sascha who were going on a pilgrimage to NiNo, and then on a 5 day river cruise. Sacha was a river captain (he showed us a photo of him in his uniform), and they had a very very very detailed map of their cruise.
Their English was of a similar quality to my Russian, so once again Google Translate stepped up. The funny thing was that Sascha hadn't put his glasses on, so he kept speaking into his version of a translation app (it wasn't Google) and it would translate - so a talk and type affair. The only thing was it kept coming up with some very strange translations... at one stage he offered to buy our daughter!!!! When I think he was asking whether we had photos of Sydney. At least our Google Translate has just developed a potty mouth!
As seems to be the way with these interactions, we try and talk, we exchange pleasantries, and then we show each other photos from our phones. Then they remark on how cold it gets in Russia and we say how it doesn't in Australia. I am glad I took a couple of Cronulla beach the day before we left (it was beautiful and sunny) so I could say "this is winter in Australia". Thankfully we both have sufficient photos on our phones to have pictures of the Harbour, and Luke even has some of me feeding a Wallaby at Symbio (to add to the myth that they are just in the street, and we feed them as standard).
It was a World Cup City, so once again we have FIFA to thank for the English signage on a lot of things.
Anyway, we did a lot of walking in NiNo.
There were cathedrals to see, mansion houses, a couple of attractive walking streets, a trip on a cable car across the river and a Kremlin. This the beginning of the Kremlins part of the trip.
We had a nice couple of days in NiNo, but nothing remarkable.
We saw quite a few domestic tourists here, noticeably more than in other places, but we still haven't seen backpackers. It seems we continue to be a rarity.
Next stops are the Golden Circle towns of Vladimir and Suzdal.
Our cabin mates for the trip were Illiana and Sascha who were going on a pilgrimage to NiNo, and then on a 5 day river cruise. Sacha was a river captain (he showed us a photo of him in his uniform), and they had a very very very detailed map of their cruise.
Their English was of a similar quality to my Russian, so once again Google Translate stepped up. The funny thing was that Sascha hadn't put his glasses on, so he kept speaking into his version of a translation app (it wasn't Google) and it would translate - so a talk and type affair. The only thing was it kept coming up with some very strange translations... at one stage he offered to buy our daughter!!!! When I think he was asking whether we had photos of Sydney. At least our Google Translate has just developed a potty mouth!
As seems to be the way with these interactions, we try and talk, we exchange pleasantries, and then we show each other photos from our phones. Then they remark on how cold it gets in Russia and we say how it doesn't in Australia. I am glad I took a couple of Cronulla beach the day before we left (it was beautiful and sunny) so I could say "this is winter in Australia". Thankfully we both have sufficient photos on our phones to have pictures of the Harbour, and Luke even has some of me feeding a Wallaby at Symbio (to add to the myth that they are just in the street, and we feed them as standard).
It was a World Cup City, so once again we have FIFA to thank for the English signage on a lot of things.
Anyway, we did a lot of walking in NiNo.
There were cathedrals to see, mansion houses, a couple of attractive walking streets, a trip on a cable car across the river and a Kremlin. This the beginning of the Kremlins part of the trip.
We had a nice couple of days in NiNo, but nothing remarkable.
We saw quite a few domestic tourists here, noticeably more than in other places, but we still haven't seen backpackers. It seems we continue to be a rarity.
Next stops are the Golden Circle towns of Vladimir and Suzdal.
Luke and a frieze of Lenin - right in front of the FSB (KGB) building
Bank of Russia - pretty spectacular
The theatre in NiNo
Rukavishnikov Mansion, now a museum
Grand ballroom in the Rukavishnikov Mansion
Mirror selfie for a change
The entrance hall Rukavishnikov Mansion
View from the Rukavishnikov Mansion over the river to the cable car
The confluence of the Volga and Oka Rivers at NiNo
Got to love a Soviet Monument
Us
Luke from the Kremlin
The Kremlin walls
Dmitrovskaya Tower of the Kremlin
A better Luke and Lenin - NiNo
The trading hall
The Stroganov Church
View up to the Kremlin
Chkalov Stairs connects the upper and lower towns. Luke counted over 400 steps
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