Sorry for the unexplained absence; went on a Volga adventure

Before I left for my boat trip down the Volga River a week ago Thursday, I tried to hit an Internet cafe to post an “On holiday, be back later” message.  Unfortunately, the electricity was out and there weren’t any live computers, let alone working Internet.  Explanation?  Renovations somewhere had renovated a hole in the power grid on Kazan’skaya Street.  Typical.

To make up for the absence, I’ll be posting photos from each of the cities I visited in the course of our cruise down the longest river in Europe.  Stay tuned for episodes in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, Moscow.