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Week 1 | Week 2 | Week
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Week 10
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| Week 15
Cheboksary
Day 63 - August 6
It was poised to be yet another hot day. When I started in mid-May, the temperatures were below freezing and now it feels like I am cycling in an oven Even with the heat, at least the wind has died down since earlier in the trip.
I asked for directions for leaving Kazan, followed signs, and still managed to take the wrong road. There are apparently two roads to Moscow, one that goes through Cheboksary and one that goes south of it. I continued to ask for the shortest way out of town and was told I was going the right way, but somewhere I missed the turn for the short cut. I expected a sign directing to Moscow, but here road signs are not always reliable. Twenty km out of town, one sign indicated 354 km to Nizhny Novgord; another 15 km later - on the same road, without any alternative roads before it -- was a sign indicating 400 km to the same place.
After lunch, my handle bar bag holder broke, so I stopped in Voldzsk to repair it. When I pulled into the auto garage to get the part, the mechanics regarded me with apprehension. What, after all, were they to do with a bicycle? When I explained the problem and the part I needed; their apprehension gave way to enthusiasm and after a quick repair, I was back on the road. As much as they admired my cycling endeavor, they maintained an affinity to the internal combustion engine and assured me that was the only sane way to cross Russia.
The town of Cheboksary has a strong emphasis on athletics. One of
the hotels is named "Sport"; throughout the city, there are billboards
encouraging sport; After arriving there, I spoke with some athletes
who said it was a great town for sports training. Cheboksary has
a nice waterfront along the Volga River and the people I met were
proud of the title of the cleanest city in Russia, awarded last
year. The city is clean and well kept, but like everywhere else
in Russia, litter lines the side of the roads and the clean areas
seem confined to the center of the city.
Nizhny Novgorod
Day 64 - August 7
Nizhny Novgorod was once the closed city of Gorky, where weapons were produced during the Soviet Union. The city's Kremlin sits on a hill overlooking the site of convergence of the Oka and Volga rivers, and maritime industry is predominant along the river banks.
I have some friends that live in Nizhny Novgorod and it was wonderful to see the city through the eyes of locals that are proud of their home. I checked into a hotel for the night, and had my first personal experience of xenophobia in Russia.
As I approached the hotel, which I was warmly greeted by two hotel workers who were impressed with the distance I have traveled by bicycle. They welcomed me in to the hotel and directed me to the reception area. As I filled out the necessary papers, I noticed a change in the attitude of the woman who had originally welcomed me: she was no longer friendly but genuinely afraid.
I do not perceive myself as an intimidating or threatening person, so her reaction caught me off guard. When I asked her what was wrong, she talked about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and that she was afraid I was going to blow up the hotel (mind you, the hotel had one cold shower and four toilets shared by the entire second floor!) I offered to find other accommodations if they would feel more comfortable, but since I had already paid they said I could stay.
Though my reaction was one of total surprise, the fear expressed by the hotel workers suggested a certain level of apprehension towards foreigners. I had been told that Red Square in Moscow was closed until September for security reasons and the fear of terrorism seems to extend beyond the national capital.
Vladimir
Day 65 - August 8
Today was one of the more challenging days since returning to Siberia. There was a steady headwind that added a few hours to my cycling day. Thus, I arrived late in Vladimir and was unable to re-visit a few of the "Golden Ring" towns I had wanted, such as Bogolubovo and Suzdal.
Vladimir is part of the "Golden Ring," a group of old towns north-east
of Moscow that offer some of the best examples of early Russian
architecture. In the 12th century, Vladimir was the capital of Russia
and some of the most important cathedrals (the Assumption Cathedral
and the Cathedral of St. Dmitry) of the early Russian Orthodox structures
remain. During the early 14th century, it was the center of the
Russian Orthodox Church, but now, outside of the historic center,
factories and apartment buildings are predominant.
Zhukovsky (southeastern suburb of Moscow)
Day 66 - August 9
I left Novosibirsk on the 24th of July; the group left Novosibirsk on the 18th of July, leaving me around 1000 km behind them when I returned from the Balkans. Fortunately, they had a couple rest days scheduled during that time, which made it easier to catch up with them by Moscow. August 9 became the psychological goal to which I tied my daily mileage and I left Vladimir with anticipation and excitement.
There was a slight head wind and a wet, overcast sky. The directions to Zhukovsky were vague, but I received more detailed guidance from gas station attendants with area maps. Ten km outside of the city, I got my first flat tire since returning to Novosibirsk, and gradually, my planned early arrival gave way to a frustrating search for foreigners on bicycles.
The police helped me find Lesnaya street, but they and ten taxi drivers were not able to direct me to number 7. I asked the residents of Lesnaya 6 and 8, and they assured me there was no 7.
After searching for over two hours, I went to the telephone office to try and call one of the group's satellite phones. After a half-hour of unsuccessful dialing, dusk was well upon me and defeated I went to a hotel, where there were no vacancies.
Having pity upon me, the desk clerk told me to wait for 15 minutes and she would see what she could arrange. Graciously I was offered a room and given directions to an internet cafe, so I could send an e-mail to the group to organize a meeting point in Moscow. But as one would expect, the internet cafe was closed. The reunion for which I had hoped seemed lost.
Walking back in the dark, I saw five men approaching who were not speaking Russian. As they passed, I realized it was some friends from the group and my smile returned. Laughing and with the joyous air of friends reunited, we went to Lesnaya 7, which was a school building off the road and without a number, in the immediate vicinity of where I had been three hours earlier.
In spite of the frustrating search, it was good to see everyone and to mark the end of the heavy solo ride from Novosibirsk with congratulations and greetings from my fellow cyclists. It was good to be back.
Zhukovsky
Day 67 - August 10
Every time I have visited Moscow, I have found more reasons to like
it. It is a large city that is so different from my last two months
in Russia that it is difficult to imagine what, beyond language, a
Muscovite and a Siberian villager would have in common. Here, close
to eight million people have indoor plumbing. Here, you can buy anything
that can be bought. Here, you can see the corpse of Lenin, rather
than a mere statue.
Moscow is one of the places Russians come to "make it." Despite its far western geography, it is clearly the center of the country and it is to where all regional centers look (regardless of reluctance by some to do so.) And the center of Moscow leaves an impression of progress, something not as readily apparent in the villages of Russia.
On my one rest day, I went in to the city to re-visit a few of my favorite places. The first place I went to was the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was (re) opened in 2000. Stalin's perversion brought about the destruction of the cathedral -- blowing it up as a gift to the people from the atheist state -- and the eventual construction of a swimming pool on the site of the former cathedral. Independence brought about the eventual rebuilding of the cathedral to resemble its initial grandeur, and it is a beautiful display of Orthodoxy.
The rebuilding of the cathedral is at some levels symbolic of the church's role in forging a Russian identity that is more than Leninism or Stalinism. Recently, I was watching the news in a cafe and saw President Putin with a high-ranking church official. While maintaining the authoritative stoicism like that of his predecessors, it was the first time I had seen a Russian or Soviet leader make religious gestures indicative of an affinity, or at least respectful familiarity, with the church.
In some ways, the theme of the day could be one of "places where people gather." It was Sunday, so there were many people at the cathedral. There were also many people at the weekend Izmaylovsky Park market, which has almost anything Russian that one could want -- fur hats, matroshka dolls, Soviet posters and metals, even a man doing tricks with his pet bear.
The third place of gathering was Red Square. With the Kremlin at one side and the colorful onion domes St. Basil's Cathedral (currently under renovation), Red Square -- the site of innumerable military parades and the locus of political power -- feels like the heart of Russia .
People sit around fountains and leisurely walk around the area adjacent to Red Square (as mentioned earlier, the central part of the square is closed -- some say because of terrorist threats; officials say for renovation.) It proved a delightful place to end my day in Moscow.
Near Istra
Day 68 - August 11
For the last leg of the trip, from Moscow to Scheveningen, an additional 13 cyclists have joined us. That increases our number to 33 cyclists and makes the logistics of getting through a city more complicated. One of the sponsors, however, was able to arrange a police escort through the city, making the ride from Zhukovsky to Red Square all the more incredible.
Before leaving Zhukovsky, there were more television interviews and camera crews accompanied our ride into the city. But our unending appreciation went to the police, who did an amazing job. We followed the lead car and as we got closer to the city, the police had closed roads and were manually turning traffic lights green as we approached intersections. They went with us to the Kremlin and Red Square and waited while we took photos and later went to the Netherlands Embassy for a brief reception.
The escort then continued another 40 km outside of Moscow, until we turned onto the road towards Latvia. The police departure coincided with the end of the densely populated Moscow area and where we camped, a further 20 or 30 km down the road, was sparsely inhabited.
For those of us who had been cycling in Russia for over two months, the approach to Red Square was hard fought and reveled in. And for the new group, it was a magnificent introduction to cycling in Russia.
Zybtsov
Day 69 - August 12
The cyclists that joined us in Moscow have given the group new life. Those cycling since Vladivostok see this as the last leg of the trip, whereas for the new cyclists it is the beginning. Their excitement has revitalized the old group as we again have the opportunity to interact with new faces that have different stories.
And while we continue to get to know each other, the honeymoon excitement ended today. After a wonderful ride through Moscow, today we were on the open roads under a sky that refused to stop raining. From the time we left camp to the time we found a place for the evening, rain was the only constant. It was cold and as the group tried to find a comfort level in cycling together, the rain complicated it all.
The new smiles were traded for wet serious looks and when we looked for a place to camp, we could not find any place that was dry enough to put up a tent. Cycling further, we found a town with a hotel with four available rooms for 33 people. Some slept in the hallway, some slept near the bar. But the smiles had returned, for now we were dry and a significant step towards solidifying the group had been taken.
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