We just got back a couple of weeks ago from a trip to Russia.

We traveled on the Motor Ship Yesenin on a 15 day cruise from Moscow to Rostov on Don. The Yesenin is one of the ships operated by Orthodox Cruise Line. A very comfortable smaller ship, with capacity of 96. This trip only had 46 onboard.

We had a real surprise when we arrived on the ship and received an upgrade to the deluxe suite. When we originally booked the trip with Orthodox we received an upgrade from regular cabin to junior suite.

Every day we made stops along the way at the various cities on the Volga. The weather cooperated with decent temperatures and only a couple of days of rain.

>From Rostov we took the train back to Moscow and spent a few days. We then flew up to St Petersburg, for a few days then back to Moscow.

Next year in May, we are planning on traveling again. This time we will be going to Romania. We will spend a week or so and then board the Motor-ship Shevchenko, another one of Orthodox's ships. We will board in Constanza on the Black Sea. The cruise will make stops in the Ukraine, before it enters Russian waterways at Rostov on Don. We will travel on the various inland water routes through to St Petersburg.

It will be nice to travel when the days are long and the weather is warmer.

Best Regards to all!!

Gary Saunders Victoria BC