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Today is Sunday, the 17th of August 2008, and our 9th day on board the Lomonosov.  As we move further south, we can feel the temperature rising.  Today it is 86°F (30°C) and lots of sunshine.  While we were enjoying breakfast we watched from the dining room window as the ship pulled up to the dock at Ulyanovsk, which is the birthplace of Lenin.  The city of Ulyanovsk lies on the banks of the Volga River and was founded in 1648, but was named Simbirsk then.  It was named Simbirsk until 1924 when it was dedicated to its most famous son, Vladimir Ilic Ulyonov (Lenin), after his death.

It was a huge docking area, capable of holding 3 or 4 ships the size of ours.

Today our excursion began with a tour of Lenin's family home here in Ulyanovsk where Lenin grew up.

This is the front of the house, which today is a museum.  I would have loved to have taken photos inside,
because there were some great photos on the walls of Lenin and his brother as they grew into
manhood.  But photography was not allowed, and I was afraid of getting my camera confiscated.

This is the back yard, after we finished the tour inside the house.  It was very cramped and hot inside with
all the people crowding in to see everything.  It was refreshing to have it end in this spacious back yard.

This is a monument to Carl Marx and it is near the Lenin Memorial.

Karl Heinrich Marx, a German philosopher, was born in Trier, Prussia on May 5, 1818.  His approach to history and politics is indicated by the opening line of the first chapter of The Communist Manifesto (1848): "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles".  He argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction.  Well, we've certainly seen lots of internal tensions lately, but I don't think this alone will lead to the destruction of capitalism.  Sorry Karl.  Better go back to Philosophy 101 and try again.

There was some sort of fair just getting set up when we passed through Lenin Square.

This interesting sculpture reminded me of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It wouldn't be Lenin Square without an appropriately commemorative statue.

Lenin Square was huge, and on our walk to the Lenin Memorial building we passed by this Local Lore Museum.

Across from the Local Lore Museum was this monument to a letter in the Russian alphabet which our
guide said has almost completely fallen out of use these days.  I don't actually know how true that is.

This memorial with it's eternal flame I believe commemorates the fallen in Russia's GREAT WAR.

Our next stop was at the Air Museum.  This was really impressive.  It was huge, and the planes were especially interesting to me, because when I was in the Navy I had to memorize silhouettes of these planes from a recognition chart, because many of our missions involved flights very close to the Russian mainland, and we often encountered Russian aircraft on our flights.

The counter rotating props were huge.

There were a few planes here that were not on my Navy recognition charts.

 It was totally amazing to me to now be seeing these aircraft in the flesh so to speak.

This helicopter was quite unique, as it could lift a load so heavy that I think it holds the world record for lifting.

This is the Russian version of the Concord.

This medium bomber was definitely on my recognition charts.

And so was this MIG

Well, I guess that's enough airplanes.  We set sail at 2:00 PM for the port of Samara.  The tour had offered optional Caviar Tasting and Vodka Tasting events, both of which Pete and I had signed up for.  I think we were the only names on the lists, because both events were canceled due to lack of participation.  Were we ever bummed.  But that's what you get when you travel in an older circle.  LOL

At dusk we were approaching the Lock of Tolyatti.  You can see from
Pat's face that she was loving this trip.  But then, so were Pete and I.

It takes quite a bit of time passing through these locks, as you might imagine.

It is well after dark now, and the down stream gates are just opening for us to leave the lock.
The volume of water that has to pass out of the lock to get us to the lower level is quite staggering.

Tomorrow in Samara we will visit Stalin's bunker.  It was an optional tour because there were a lot of stairs to get to the bottom, something over 200 steps down a spiral shaft.  But I will cover this in Chapter 5.