MIR Corporation's Travel Log:
Volga River Cruise with the Russian National Orchestra
Join veteran MIR client Moonyeen Albrecht on a cruise from Moscow through some of Russia's lesser-known Volga River towns, accompanied by a soundtrack from the world-famous Russian National Orchestra. 
Days 4-5: Saratov and Victory Day
May 8-9, 2008 We arrived at Saratov around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 8th. By the way, the weather was wonderful - pleasant temperatures and sunny or a little cloudy. Still on the boat, at 12:15 Lena treated us to a lecture about lacquer boxes and jewelry. She was one of the two young Russian women in charge of the gift sales on the boat.
After lunch we started the city tour of Saratov. We saw another memorial to fallen citizens. The monument's inscription translated from the Russian is: More than 300,000 Saratov(s) (citizens) did not return from the Great Patriotic War. Far from native shores they lay (down) in the ground, their own (land) and foreign (lands). To you, to our fellow countrymen, to fathers, to our grandfathers, to comrades, to comrades in arms (serving in the same regiment), we, the living, have raised this monument. We walked to the concert hall in Saratov where we heard two Rachmaninov pieces, "Capriccio on Gypsy Themes" and "Aleko." I was particularly excited about hearing "Aleko" because 1) I love it, and 2) I never thought I'd get a chance to hear it in person. This was an exceptional performance! Very exciting. Singers were all excellent and we would get to hear the piece again in Kazan! Evening concerts started at 7:00 (more or less!) and on those evenings dinner was served after our return to the boat - usually around 9:15 - 9:30. A little late for our American tummies . . . but you haven't heard anything yet!
We spent the entire day on Friday on the teplokhodbecause of the travel time needed to sail from Saratov to Samara. The bad news is that we were not able to witness Victory Day festivities/parades etc firsthand but we had special events and time to relax on the ship. At lunch today our servers donned special costumes in honor of Victory Day and Ilonna and Volodya presented a folk music program. We started to learn how to sing "Kalinka" and "Katyusha" in Russian. At 4:30 our small MIR group had a special meeting with our wonderful tour manager Katya where we asked her all kinds of questions about life in Russia now. Katya's "hometown" is St. Petersburg but she has also lived elsewhere including Minsk in Belarus. She is very knowledgeable and graciously answered all our questions in superb English! Photos from this leg of the tour:
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