[Magdalen] Back from the Iron Curtain

[Kate Conant]

Nice!

"What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk
humbly with your God?"
Micah 6:8

On Sat, Sep 13, 2014 at 10:19 PM, James Oppenheimer <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com
> wrote:

> My beloved spouse has decided that we need to travel now while we still
> can.  If this year is an index, we are going to be doing a lot of it.
>
> We were in Scotland a while ago, and now are just came back from Russia.
>
> We landed at Sanktpeterburg (Saint Petersburg), toured there for a few days
> and then took a cruise from there to Moscow.
>
> We must have visited a dozen palaces, all of which had absolutely stunning
> interiors. We saw the interment location of the Russian Emperors, and
> several monasteries and one town, Kizhi, which is sort of the equivalent of
> Sturbridge Village, in that they have brought buildings from various
> locations to this spot for preservation. People there continue to work at
> the old trades: blacksmithing, lace-making, weaving rugs and various cloth,
> etc.
>
> We spent most of our time on a river cruise liner, the Volga Dream. The
> crew took excellent care of us.  I had a lot of anxiety about the trip, but
> none of my concerns turned out to be factors.
>
> Talking with our guides has given me a lot to think about. I was only dimly
> aware of how star-crossed the history of Russia has been.
>
> Each time the Volga Dream left a port, the sound system would play a
> wonderful little waltz, which just seemed perfect as a farewell tune, and
> here we go!
>
> Turns out the melody is by a very well-loved composer, Georgy Sviridov, a
> student of Shostakovich.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXjCrUUtpi4
>
> I had never heard of Sviridov prior to this, and I'll be listening to a lot
> of his stuff in the future.  He wrote in practically every genre.
>
>
>
>
> James W. Oppenheimer
> *“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
> for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
> on this Earth.”  -- *Roberto Clemente
>