Explore Russia

You know how Russia is always in the news lately for being...difficult? Well, I've been having my own personal struggle with Russia that has absolutely nothing to do with the Russians. My newest Geography Explorer book, Explore Russia, was set to be published in May, before our summer trip. In fact, I even submitted it for publication THREE TIMES, but it kept coming back with technical difficulties, which made it unpublishable. So, I decided to leave it alone over the summer and come back to it later. When we got back from our travels, I set to work trying to unravel the problem. Basically, I had to start over with parts of it. Finally, I got the technical issues worked out and ordered my proof. Unfortunately, it came back with some glaring mistakes, and I had try again. AND AGAIN! But, I am proud to announce that persistence does pay off and the book has finally, FINALLY been published. The truth is, even though it was a pain, it may be my favorite Geography Explorer book to date. If you have a kid in your life who likes to learn about far-away places, or if you would just like to read something positive about an amazing country, check out Explore Russia on Amazon.

Pictures, As Promised*

Moscow Waterpark

All Aboard!
(The sign pictured on the bottom left says "Peking" in Cyrillic, if you're curious.)

Russian Scenery

Russian Stations

Russian snacks purchased on the platforms

Mongolia showed us yurts and lots of livestock including cattle, sheep, horses,
saiga antelope, and camels (from top to bottom in the pictures).
Clay also got his photo snapped with a statue of the only Mongolian cosmonaut,
and we ate a nice meal in the beautiful Mongolian dining car.

Changing of the bogies.
(I love the instructions for how to put the train back together displayed in the shed!)

China

*If you missed all the words that go along with the pictures, you can find them here. You can also click on each collage to see the pictures enlarged.

Trans-Mongolian Train

I have had my first real shower and my first real cup of coffee in a week, and now I'm ready to relate the recap of our last day in Moscow and our Trans-Mongolian train journey.

On our last day in Moscow, we had to be out of our apartment by noon, but our train didn't leave until nearly midnight. While pondering this ahead of time, we knew we didn't want to be carrying our packs around the city in the freezing weather, and we knew we wanted the kids to have an opportunity to burn some energy and have some fun before facing so many days of being cooped up. A little online research produced a perfect plan: an indoor water park, complete with storage lockers. We spent the whole afternoon there and had a blast. Then, we bought a few groceries for the train and spent a couple of silly hours at TGI Fridays (of all places!) in the train station waiting for our time to board.

The train was old-fashioned and not at all fancy, even in first class. There were community toilets (two in each car), which left much to be desired (including toilet paper, at times), and cold water "showers" (a sprayer attached to the sink and a drain in the floor) in the washrooms, shared between every two rooms. And, there was a layer of soot over everything, from the coal used to heat each car's samovar (water boiler). Each of our three compartments consisted of a set of super-hard bunk beds, a small table, and a chair. I say all that only to let you know that it wasn't glamorous (because I think sometimes people have the mistaken impression that traveling around the world is always glamorous and fancy and a sort of lifestyles-of-the-rich-and-famous lifestyle, which it isn't. At least not the way we do it). But, we had an absolute blast! It was such a grand adventure, and we made some excellent memories!

The first five days of our journey took us through Russia (because Russia is huge), including part of Siberia, which was just as cold and white and vast as we imagined it would be. But, it was beautiful. (And, we were nice and warm in our train as we passed through. In fact, it was warm enough on the train that most of us wore shorts and flip-flops for most of the journey.) We enjoyed getting off the train at some of the stations to buy snacks from the little vendors (though we certainly put our warm woolies on then), and we were amused to see so many ice fishermen out and about along the way. We ate in the Russian dining car a couple of times and spent the rest of our time reading, napping, chatting with each other and our car neighbors, playing games, watching movies, talking about plans for the future, snacking, and watching the world go by. On our last day in Russia, we passed by Lake Baikal, which is the largest freshwater lake in Europe and Asia and the deepest in the world. It was frozen over, of course, and packed with ice fishermen. It was also surrounded by some lovely low mountains. In my opinion, that area provided the most beautiful scenery of the whole trip.

We stopped at the Russian/Mongolian border for passport checks, cabin searches, and a change in the dining car. I don't care who you are or how much you've traveled, you always get a bit of a knot in your stomach when some official someone you can't really communicate with takes your passport out of your possession for any length of time. That's especially true when you're in Siberia, in the winter. There was nothing difficult or concerning about the process, though, so after only a minor inconvenience and a few hours, we were on our way again.

It was late at night before we set off into Mongolia, and what a surprise to wake up the next morning to a completely changed landscape. The white snow and mountains had given way to the brown, flat, dry, Gobi desert, where we got to see herds of camels and saiga antelope, as well as yurt dwelling ranchers and their many sheep, horses, and cows. At one of the stations, there is a statue of Mongolia's only cosmonaut, which Jeff and Clay dashed out to see. Coming from the barren landscape of Mongolia, space probably didn't seem too odd to that man. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal in the fancy Mongolian dining car, but we found it funny that they presented us with a very extensive menu and then proceeded to tell us that there were really only two choices--the beef dish or the beef and egg dish.

At the Mongolian/Chinese border, we repeated the passport checks and a change in dining car, but we had the added bonus of getting the bogies changed on our train, because the gauge of the rail changes once you enter China. This truly was an interesting process, and we all enjoyed watching from the window. What happens is the train is brought into a shed and the cars are separated from one another, which is done with much thumping and bumping and lurching, which little boys absolutely love! (That, and being able to see the track while flushing the toilet.) Then, each car is lifted into the air with a hydraulic lift (while the passengers remain on board), and the old bogies (wheels) are rolled out from under it, and new bogies are put in place. Then the cars are reattached to each other, with more thumping and bumping and lurching, and the train goes on it's merry way, just as if it had always been a size smaller than it started out.

Western China provided some lovely vistas of mountains and half-frozen rivers and lakes. We did not really love the food in the Chinese dining car, where they offered no menu and only one choice, but we did love the experience of eating there. Because of our early arrival time, lunch had to be eaten between 9:00 and 10:00 am, which we all thought was quite funny. We also got a kick out of watching Clay and Max try to master chopsticks.

We arrived in the crowded Beijing station, right on schedule, tired and ready to stretch our bodies, but happy. The kids were actually a little sad to see our train journey come to an end, and some of them wished out loud that the trip could have lasted a few more days. They all behaved themselves fantastically, and, contrary to my fears, never became bored or restless during the whole trip. (And, neither did I, for that matter!) We had such a great time and are so thankful we had the opportunity to do something so unique! We will never forget it!

I didn't intend to chatter on so long. I guess I just needed to share the whole experience. Thanks for indulging me. Since I have so many words, I will save the pictures for a separate post.

Iconic Moscow

Today, we braved the snow--because that's pretty much what you have to do when you have decided to visit Russia in February and you only have three days to see everything--and headed over to The Kremlin and Red Square. The buildings are really gorgeous, and it was such an interesting experience. Plus, it provided a wonderful opportunity for some great conversations with the kids. After we got back to the apartment, our train tickets were delivered, so we are all set to hop on the Trans-Mongolian Train tomorrow around midnight and head to Asia. Just so you know, we will likely be incommunicado for the next week or so, but I'm sure we'll have tales to tell when we come back online, so stay tuned.

State Historical Museum

St. Basil's Cathedral

We couldn't resist a selfie with this iconic building!

The Senate Building and Lenin's Tomb

All bundled up against the Russian winter

Tsar Cannon

Tsar Bell is the largest bell in the world and weighs over 200 tons

The Kremlin

The Armory Chamber Museum
We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was really impressive to see
all the tsars' wealth on display. 

Max and Clay couldn't resist the Russian nesting dolls
and have been having a ball with them all afternoon.

Munching in Moscow

Today was mostly all about food. We all woke up very late, because of our long travel day yesterday and our late night last night. So, our first act of the day was to walk over to a cafe we had carefully selected weeks beforehand, a type of Russian Luby's, where we would be able to see and point to our choices, instead of ordering blindly off a menu. When we got to where we thought it should be, we couldn't find it, so Jeff asked a security guard in the metro station where it was, and he pointed to the parking lot next door, where the restaurant used to be. So, we decided to go with Plan B: the very next restaurant over from the newly paved parking lot. It wasn't very Russian and even had English menus, but it did provide us with sustenance. However, the portion sizes were fairly small, and our group was still a little peckish after that meal, so we walked across the street to another cafe for "second breakfast," which was happening well past lunch time. We lingered for quite a while over our food and drinks, enjoying each other's company and observing the locals. Eventually, it was time for our cooking class with Taste of Russia, which we had set up a couple of weeks ago. We met our facilitator at a shopping mall and then headed over to the local market, where we picked up all the super-fresh ingredients for our dinner, which we were to prepare in the class. The market was amazing, and we had the best time looking at all the wonderful fresh foods and tasting samples the Russian vendors happily handed out in abundance to our "very large family." From the market, we headed over to the cooking school, where we spent several hours preparing and enjoying three incredible Russian dishes. It was such a great day, and we had the best time!

Russian pancakes for breakfast or lunch or whatever

The domed roof of the shopping mall was beautiful!

Fish Face

Moscow Market

You are not supposed to take photos inside the market,
so I really felt like I was living on the edge when I took this photo
with my cell phone, while discreetly holding the phone at my hip.

Ready to start our Russian cooking class

Kneading the dough for our Siberian Dumplings

The boys (big and small) were really interested in grinding our own meat.
(Meanwhile, Ruth was working on the strawberry sauce for our dessert.)

Rolling out the dumpling dough

1st Course: Solyanka
Broth-based soup with sausage, pork, potatoes, carrots, onions, salted pickles,
olives, and fresh dill, chives, and parsley

2nd Course: Siberian Pelmeni
Dumplings filled with a mixture of pork, beef, onion, and salted pickles,
topped with cream and fresh herbs

3rd Course: Syrniki
Little pancakes made with cottage cheese, sugar, eggs and flour,
fried in oil and topped with cream and homemade strawberry jam

True to form, we got every dish in the kitchen dirty while cooking.
But, we got to have all the fun of cooking, without having the burden of cleaning up!

We all successfully graduated from the class and had a great time doing it!

Made it to Moscow

We said "good-bye" to our (second) faithful Eurocar (Percy) this morning and then made our way to the extremely chaotic and crowded Geneva airport. As luck would have it, we arrived an hour earlier than we had expected, and thank goodness we did, because we just barely made it to our plane on time. Air travel is always the hardest, in terms of what it takes to actually get you moving towards your destination. Of course, we also chose to spend some time shopping for a new cell phone for me, since I learned the hard way that cell phones can truly die dead, in less than thirty seconds, when submersed in toilet water. It is just not a good idea to carry your cell phone in your back pocket, especially when you are distracted and aren't thinking about it, and more especially when the material of the pants is a little slick to begin with. You may consider that your public service announcement. You're welcome.

Once on the plane, we were finally able to relax, which was easy since it was such a nice environment. Swiss Air gets a thumbs up from our well-traveled group. The Moscow airport was quiet and clean, and filled with nice people, like the stranger who bought dinner for the kids and me, when I had a problem with my credit card while Jeff was gone to the ATM to get some rubles. (Honestly, though, it wasn't so much a credit card problem as a communication problem.) I offered to pay him back when Jeff returned, but he wouldn't hear of it. Don't tell me the world isn't filled with good people!

After a fairly long taxi ride, we finally made it to our apartment, which is lovely and has excellent Internet. (Woohoo!) What we could see of the darkened city from the taxi also looked lovely. I never thought I would visit Russia, and it's exciting to be here. We are looking forward to exploring Moscow and having some fun during the next few days.

Last Day of School

Before we left on our trip, we sat down with the kids and talked about our travel school schedule. We presented several options and listened carefully to the kids' feedback to come up with a system everyone would be happy with. Together we decided to do things a little differently this year (which is saying something when you are already homeschooling and doing things in an out-of-the-box sort of way). We decided to break our school year up into sessions and to do school when it made sense to do school and to take off when there were other things we wanted to do. Everyone agreed that it would be great to finish all our school sessions before we got on the Russian train. So, we had our first day of school in June, and we have been working hard to accomplish our goals. Today, we finished everything we had assigned ourselves to finish this school year (including an addition of the SAT test for Ruth*, which we hadn't originally planned on), and we all feel good about what we accomplished. We will, of course, still be learning through life, as always, and we will have weekly mini-sessions, to make sure we don't forget anything over the long summer break. But, other than that, we will purely be focusing on enjoying the last bit of our big RTW adventure. Serendipitously, we received our passports back today with our Russian and Chinese visas, which means everything is in order for our upcoming train trip. It was a great punctuation mark for our last day of school, since that was the carrot we had dangled for ourselves from the beginning. We celebrated our last day by throwing all of our school papers away, hosting a tea party for our neighbors/landlords, and going out for dinner.

School's Out!

Last Day of School Tea Party

*If you're curious, Ruth did fantastic on her SAT. She scored 1970 and qualified for a special summer camp, which she will attend in Saratoga Springs, NY, at Skidmore College, from June 26 to July15. We are so proud of her and excited about this opportunity!

What's the Deal?

We arrived at our new home in Deal, England, late Monday afternoon, just as the sun was preparing to call it a day, so we didn't really have a chance to look around. During the night, crazy rain, wind and fog set in, literally cutting off our view of our surroundings. It only let up this morning, so we were finally able to take a good look around and get the lay of the land. Deal is an adorable little sea town, and our house sits just across the street from the rocky beach and the English Channel. This afternoon, we drove over to St. Margaret's at Cliffe for tea. We also got to visit a lovely garden and walk a coastal path up to a lighthouse, which offered us nice views of the white cliffs of Dover, the Channel, and France. When we got home, Weston made a spectacular steak dinner for us, which was the perfect end to the day.

We only occupy the bottom floor on the left side of this townhouse,
but with three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and a large well-equipped kitchen,
it feels like a mansion compared to the last several places before this. 

This sits about ten paces from our front door!

One advantage of having the same address for more than a week
is the ability to have packages delivered.
It was like Christmas around here when our Amazon package
containing our Russian train entertainment arrived!

We had tea at the tea room on the right this afternoon.
You can see the white cliffs on the left. 

We enjoyed a day of sun, taking in some beautiful sights!

I was taking a picture of the Winston Churchill statue,
but when Clay saw me with my camera, he stopped to pose.

Simple Beauty

If you look closely, you can see France in the distance.

We enjoyed a wonderful walk along the White Cliffs of Dover.

South Foreland Lighthouse

Where in the World Are The Watts: Part 3

My sister has put our travel itinerary in her calendar, so that she can easily see where we are at any given time. She told me the other day that she was entering in some appointment or event in December and realized she didn't have any notes about our whereabouts at that time, and she admonished me to send her an update. I thought some of the rest of you might be interested in an update, as well, so I'm sharing it here. If you want a recap of the first part of our journey, check out the first two parts of "Where in the World Are The Watts:" Part 1 and Part 2. Those two posts will show you where we've been since May and where we'll be through November. The chart that follows will tell you where we will be between the end of November and March, if you're interested.

When	Where
November 29-30	Tours, France
November 30-December 7	Bordeaux, France
December 7-12	Canillo, Andorra
December 12-26	Barcelona, Spain
December 26-January 2	Valencia, Spain
January 2-3	Consuegra, Spain
January 3-10	Benalmadena, Spain
January 10-12	Seville, Spain
January 12-13	Alcanena, Portugal
January 13-20	Porto, Portugal
January 20-21	Santander, Spain
January 21-22	Ferryboat from Spain to UK
January 22-25	London, England
January 25-February 4	Brighton, England
February 4-11	Paris, France
February 11-20	Orieces, France
February 20-23	Moscow, Russia
February 23-29	Trans Mongolian Train
February 29-March 6	Beijing, China
March 6-13	Xi'an, China
March 13-14	Hong Kong
March 14-15	Bangkok, Thailand
March 15-16	Train from Bangkok to Koh Samui
March 16-31	Koh Samui, Thailand