Sunday, 21 July. During the night, the boat had left Lake Onega and entered the Svir River. When I got up at 7:00 to go for a run, we were approaching the Upper Svir Lock (@km 1040). It took about nine laps around the deck to log a mile, and after twenty laps, it was so monotonous that I gave up. After breakfast I went to the presentation on departure procedures at the end of the tour. This was followed at 10:00 by the Professor's last lecture, this one on topics suggested by the passengers: medicine; education; religion; and Chechnya.

At 11:00 the Tolstoy docked at the tiny village of Svirstroy (@km 1086). There was no organized excursion here, and Jane and I went ashore at noon to look around. There was the ususal cluster of vendors near the dock, but some of their wares were quite different from what we had been seeing. Many people were selling fruits and vegetables grown in their gardens, home-canned goods, and even large smoked fish. All of the houses were very small, and most of them had gardens. They probably were dachas, used only in the summer. We bought another watercolor near the dock. Then, after pushing our way past a scrawny, very old-looking woman in shabby clothes, aggressively trying to sell us some fruit, we felt enough remorse that we went back and bought some blueberries from her.

Darrell passing dacha & garden

Svirstroy residents

Jane in Svirstroy tourist area

We were back on the Tolstoy in time for the shish-kebab lunch served buffet-style. We sailed at 3:00 and soon entered the Lower Svir Lock (@km 1087), the last of the 18 locks on our cruise. A short time later we entered Lake Ladoga (@km 1166), the largest lake in Europe, 670 feet deep in places and covering 7,000 square miles.

By then it was time to settle our bills for everything we'd charged on the boat. From here on, everything had to be paid in cash. It was such a beautiful day that we spent the next couple hours reading and relaxing on deck. The Captain's reception was at 6:30, another excellent affair. This time I was determined to drink a vodka the Russian way, so with a brave Na Zdorovye, I threw it down. Smooooth! But I resisted the waiter's efforts to get me to follow it with another.

Following dinner, we attended the "Tolstoy Show" at 9:00, featuring performances by some of the passengers and some of the boat's personnel. The highlight of the show was a group of about 20 passengers from Marina's language class singing "Kalinka," a catchy Russian folk song we had learned in the class. "Kalinka, Kalinka, Kalinka maya!" The cruise had been great -- pleasant and relaxed, but tomorrow we would be in St. Petersburg and back to the frantic tourists' pace.