Tuesday 17th July 2018
I woke up at stupid’o clock and at to wait till 7.30 for breakfast finally departing the Volga Volga hotel at 8.10 after strapping the bag on securely, a short downhill ride and I was at the river again but no boatman or anyone else around 🙁 a van driver said the nearest crossing was 35km away! I decided to give Vladimir of RCTC a call and sure enough 5 mins later a power boat turned up! He is truly a miracle man 🙂
Once on the other side I at to push the laden bike up the embankment an action I at to repeat many times as the first 40km was a sandy/stony track with many steep hills incredibly tiring in the heat with a full bike and the granny ring refusing to obey orders. I missed the RCTC truck and it’s table groaning with goodies & will definitely have to increase the bike weight even more carrying food as I didn’t pass a shop until finally arriving in Kineshma.
I bought a large ginger beer and only after nearly finishing it did I notice it had 7% alcohol 🙁 I eventually got the assistant to find me a Kvass which is turning into my favourite drink here.
Kineshma is obviously a lower class holiday town than Ples both on the banks of the Volga. I quickly found the boat hotel on the Volga the receptionist spoke English so 800Rubles (£23.20) later I had a room and promptly collapsed on the bed and slept for 3 hours! Later in their restaurant she helped me navigate their menu so hopefully I’m now better nourished than last night.
The most surprising thing so far is that all the shops take contactless payment even for things costing 15p in fact some insist on it as I suspect there is a shortage of change.
My Wahoo says there is 2,200km to go so today’s 63km implies I will need 35 days!
Meanwhile Germany seems to be a cash-based society. I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone else use a card to pay in a supermarket and we’ve twice found ourselves at petrol stations that don’t accept payment by plastic (Bertie has a big tank – we don’t always have that much cash!). That’s not to mention arriving at a motorhome parking costing €10 to find it can only be paid in coins. Crazy with today’s technology.
I’m very much in the camp of paying for everything by card (makes keeping track so much easier!), even if it’s only a few pence.
I remember going to Germany in the 70’s and being led up to the top floor as that was the only place you could use a credit card. I think it’s there privacy obsession like not even using online banking.