Volgograd

Day 123 Monday 1^st August 2011

Time to leave the Hotel Slovakia in Saratov.

Hotel Slovakia

We thought through our options about having to wait for registration papers and went to the hotel reception and asked if it was acceptable for hotels to accept faxed or emailed versions. “Da” (yes) was the reply and so we asked the receptionist to telephone the Hotel Stalingrad in Volgograd just to double check that they were in the same accord and, to our surprise, it was all OK. We also asked for copies to be emailed to us, said our thank you’s and got going along the R228 which from time to time hugs the Volga River on its way south-west.

On the R228 between Saratov and Volgograd

 

It was blisteringly hot again – way into the 30’s – and as long as we were moving it was cool enough. A few big bugs hit us full on and splattered over us and our bikes and I was glad to be wearing all my protective gear even though it has the effect of creating its own little sauna. Even though we had made the arrangement with the receptionist time was getting on as we left Saratov so we did not arrive in Volgograd until around 4.30pm. I could not get the exact address of the hotel to come up when inputting location details and my trusty device dumped us on the right road but nowhere near what was to be our hotel. A quick look at the functions of the sat nav showed local hotels and there it was – Hotel Stalingrad – 2.3 kilometres behind us.

Directions were perfect and landed us in the hotel car park in the shadow of the great Mother Russia monument which can be seen atop the hill Murmaev Kurgan for some distance. Check in went well and the dreaded double bedded room thankfully had a pull out sofa which Mark graciously took.

Hotel Stalingrad

We met a local Russian chap in the car park who was waiting for his daughter and her new English husband (from Manchester) to return from their visit to the monument and he asked us to hang around to say hello. This we did but the young lovers had no time to talk to two old men and it was the husband’s poor mum who was sent to talk to us for a short while – a pleasant lady with whom we left our usual calling cards with blog addresses.

All showered we went next door to a small Kafe type place decked in Stalin memorabilia where the girls were dressed in army uniforms. We took on board a couple of beers and a kebab before setting off in the last light of the day to have a gander at the huge monument that was sat upon our doorstep. 

Our waitress

Crikey !! it is big too – a huge reinforced concrete structure rising to over 280ft and dwarfs the people walking around beneath it. We took a few pictures in the fading light but we knew that a second visit tomorrow would be necessary to get more light. It was still hot as we walked back to the hotel so we had to dip into the Kafe again for another beer to finish the night off.

Mother Russia

The Eternal Flame