Travel Notes

Digital Hermitage

Pointing and clicking through the museum’s halls

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ith approximately twelve miles of exhibition halls, the Hermitage can intimidate even the hardiest of travelers. Now, however, with the help of IBM, the Hermitage is attempting to make itself more visitor friendly. 

The museum has just installed six touch-screen terminals designed to let art lovers pick what they want to see, and then supply them with the necessary directions through the laby-rin-thine museum. You can even print out a copy of the route, complete with written directions giving additional in-formation on what you will pass on your way to your destination. The system is still evolving and adding information, however; not all paintings and works of art are yet in the system’s database.

For those interested in planning prior to departure, IBM has set up www.hermitage.ru. The website features over 2000 downloadable images from the museum’s collection.

Where Russians rest

Domestic tourism boon expected

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ast year’s ruble crash has many Russians taking a new look at domestic vacation travel. 

According to a recent opinion poll, the “middle class” has not been cutting back on spending as much as one might expect, but, when they do, vacations are first in line. Or at least foreign vacations.

So it is that regional sanatoria in places like Saratov, Tver and Ryazan are regaining some of their Soviet-era popularity. Many regions are also making much-needed investments in infrastructure. 

Kommersant-Daily newspaper published these listings of the most popular Russian destinations and sanatoria this year:

Top Five Excursion Destinations in Russia

1. St. Petersburg 4. Kostroma-Yaroslavl

2. Vladimir-Suzdal 5. Pskov

3. Novgorod

Top Five Spas and Sanatoriums*

1. Podmoskove 4. Mineralnye Vody 

2. Sochi (Krasnodar Krai)       (Stavropol Krai)

3. Anapa (Krasnodar Krai) 5. Tver Oblast

* Crimea, Ukraine was actually ranked third. Kommersant noted that, “by tradition, it is still considered a domestic destination.”

Lenin doesn’t cut it any longer

The world’s first nuclear ice-breaker, Lenin, is being turned into a museum of the history of the fleet of ice-breakers. The museum will boast a hotel, a restaurant and a conference-hall. The Lenin was decommissioned nine years ago and is now anchored in Murmansk harbor. Russia is the only country in the world to have a fleet of nuclear ice-breakers. 

New customs rules are to come into force in late summer, Sevodnya daily informed. From now on, anyone crossing the Russian border will not only have to declare hard currency and drugs, but also “objects of flora & fauna,” “strong poisonous elements and drugs,” “radioactive materials,” “high-frequency electronic devices and means of communications,” “goods on which customs duties are levied,” printing materials and other information carriers and more. The customs declaration form will change accordingly.

In 1986, Moscow had 650,000 cars on the road. Today there are 2.5 million. With a 30-year-old road system, traffic jams are inevitable. So the city is constructing a new, third ring road. The eight-lane road will be finished by 2005 and be 56% above ground.

A new high-speed commuter train produced by the Demi-khovsky plant is being broken in on the Moscow-Tula route. Meant to compete with bus services, the train features individual seats instead of benches and the first-class cars will feature video monitors and an extra provodnik (attendant). In the near future, Demikhovsky trains will be put into service on other routes, including Moscow-Kaluga, Moscow-Ryazan, Mos-cow-Vladimir.

European Airbus and Russia’s Euro-Russian Aviation Conso-rtium have begun co-development of the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the A3XX. It will be a two-storied, 555-seat plane, and be in service by 2005.

Sibir and Vnukovo airlines are slated to combine their resources to become Russia’s largest air company in terms of air traffic volume. The joint company would control at least 40 of the country’s 150 main air routes and have over 10% market share.