Such a Rough Life

Yesterday was a long day and in addition to walking so much, I have also caught the cold Walt just got rid of. My throat is red and scratchy and I've been sneezing and sneezing, and my perennial cough is worse. I am also not sleeping well. So I took today off.

Walt, Mike and Char went off to a tour of a military museum (here is stored Gary Powers' U-2 plane, for example). I just wanted to sit around the ship and relax. And I did.

I started relaxing in one of the deck chairs, with my book ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"--excellent book)

After awhile, I went downstairs and found our room had not been cleaned yet, so I sat in the library and chatted with Lynn, from St. Louis, who is on this trip with her 30-something daughter (Lynn's husband of forty-something years died three years ago). She was delightful and I enjoyed getting to know her.

When the room was clean, I took a nap, then had a shower, and was getting dressed when Walt and Char returned (Mike had stayed downtown). We went up to lunch. We are getting so stuffed that we have started just getting stuff from the salad bar and passing on the soup and main course, but heading straight for dessert. I was sorry I forgot to take a picture of my "Hot Love Sundae," which was ice cream with hot cherry sauce and whipped cream.

Then it was time for another nap for both Walt and me.

I woke up in time to get upstairs to the Panorama Bar's afternoon Tea Time, while Walt took a walk in the park nearby to see if he could find the metro station.

(fortunately I did not discover this cornucopia of pastry
delights was served every day until yesterday)

I sat there at the back of the ship, reading my book, eating pound cake, and looking out over the pier where we were docked.

Unfortunately I missed a shot of a party boat that passed by with a whole bunch of people doing a conga-line led by a guy wearing a gold and red jester's hat. I did get a picture of the boat decorated with balloons, though. Party boats seem to be a big thing on the Volga.

I also had a nice chat with these people from England when I saw that one of them was reading a Michael Connelly book. It was their first experience with his books and I went on to tell them what a glorious trip they had ahead of them if they continued reading.

Oh....in case anybody was wondering, they have Starbucks in Moscow too (pic from yesterday)

After resting up from the strenuous tea and cakes, it was time to join Mike and Char in the Sky Bar to finally open our bottle of champagne from Viking and toast our 45th anniversary.

By the time the champagne (and a Black Russian) were gone, it was time to go to dinner. Seeing that Elk was on the menu, Walt had to try it (and decided he likes "cow" better).

(Though he did like the large tater tots!) Char, on seeing that Elk was on the menu got a fit of the giggles as we decided the name of the Elk must be "Lena," (which our children will understand). Then she decided she needed to explain the giggles by telling our waiter, who is from the Philippines and for whom English is not his first language, the plot of The Fatal Glass of Beer. Anybody who doesn't understand why this is all hysterical needs to get to Netflix (or YouTube) right away and rent the movie.

Over the course of the day, my throat has gotten worse, my cough is slowly creeping down into my chest, and I've added a constantly dripping nose. The status of our tickets for the Bolshoi tomorrow is still iffy and I decided that I really wouldn't enjoy it--especially not at 144 Euros per ticket, so we have backed out and will let someone else take any tickets that become available.

I really considered if I wanted to do the Lights of Moscow tonight, but since it was going to be a bus tour, with no walking, I decided that I really did want to see the city's lights, and if I hadn't gone, I would have missed sights like this.

And now my cough and I are going to bed. One other things I learned on the Moscow by Night tour is that half of the bus was also coughing, so I guess it's time for all of us to get the heck outta Moscow and home to our beds and medicines!