Dec 132019
 


Despite not even being 5pm, it was completely dark, so I didn’t get to see too much on my shuttle ride to the hotel. When I checked in, fortunately, my big box of warmies was waiting at the front desk for me. I’m amazed just how many stickers it takes to ship a simple box….

After settling in, despite the -22 degree temperatures, I decided it would be nice to go for a bit of a walk. The temperature alone wasn’t awful, but it was snowing and a bit windy….probably 25-30kph gusts or so. Lovely night for a stroll, right?

Ended up walking nearly a mile, and by the time I arrived at my destination there was already snow crusted on my eyebrows. It was a nice brisk and fresh walk, but I was looking forward to warming up!

My destination was Northwest Territories Brewing Co. (NWT Brewing) which looked online to have not only a good selection of beers, but also a decent restaurant.

Inside, I was shocked at how popular the place was! It wasn’t huge, but every seat was taken and a few dozen people were standing around too. For a town of under 20,000, it seemed the whole town was here. First, a very nice beer or two to warm up…

I ended up staying almost three hours, mainly because it was cold and dark outside so there wasn’t much else to do, and because I met some fascinating people. Apparently, very few people are from Yellowknife, and many come there for work. It’s experiencing a mini tourist boom, and as a consequence it’s very hard to find labour – many people work a series of part time jobs to keep all the local industries humming.

I also met a couple of cagey characters – exactly the kind you expect to find in somewhere rather remote. They refused to say much about what they did beyond “work in the camps” or “government stuff.” Maybe Yellowknife is Canada’s Area 51…

Back to the hotel in what was now much heavier snow and wind, and was greeted by the obligatory polar bear statue in the lobby. I’m beginning to think it’s a requirement up north to have a stuffed polar bear hanging around.

After a good night’s sleep, I had a bit of time to get breakfast. Why have a boring hotel breakfast when you can wander the town a bit more. There seemed to be a Tim Horton’s, but I can get that anywhere.

There also seemed to be an intriguing local coffeeshop called Birchwood Coffee Kǫ̀ which means coffeehouse in the local language. Again, many of the employees seemed to be from elsewhere – at least one from Europe even – but they had delicious cinnamon buns and coffee so I was thrilled!

I decided to “push” things a little and take the 10am shuttle to the airport, having seen the night before that the airport looked tiny. As we left the hotel (on the left in the picture below) the sun was just starting to rise a bit after 10am.

I was forced to check my rolling bag, despite the aircraft being a 737, which was fine – who knew if it would even have overhead bins! Remember, just because you CAN carry it doesn’t mean it’s carry on!

The snow from the night before was still raging, but if anyone could handle it I figured it would be an airline called Canadian North!

The most fascinating thing is that there was one security checkpoint, but it was only for flights going “south” – meaning Edmonton or Vancouver. All the flights that went north from Yellowknife had no security at all! Only your checked bags were scanned.

It’s been years since I’ve been on a 737-300, and I was hoping for some good ole-fashioned retro goodness!

Canadian North flight 244
Yellowknife, NWT, Canada (YZF) to Norman Wells, NWT (YVQ)
Depart 10:30, Arrive: 11:55, flight time: 1:25, flight distance: 424 miles
Boeing 737-300, Registration C-GCNK, Manufactured 1998, Seat 2D
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 200,053
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,892,355

I had managed to finagle my way into an aisle seat in the second row at check-in (no business on this ancient bird!) and despite the load being about 75% today the middle seat stayed empty. Plus, I had an amazing view of the delightful old-school moving map on the bulkhead!

My seatmate was a very friendly and chatty local from Inuvik, who was impressed a tourist was visiting during the winter. She was a wealth of information about all the things I might see and do, including an annual arts and crafts fair which would be taking place over the weekend.

Despite only having a population of about 3,200 Inuvik is a bit of a regional hub in the north, complete with a modest teaching hospital and all. At least if I started feeling any worse there might be options.

Oh, and as my view during boarding showed, the snow was still howling outside and people were trekking it in.

The flight to Inuvik would stop in Norman Wells on the way, and despite the barely 80 minute flight time of the first segment a small meal was offered to all passengers. I went with the sandwich which was pretty good, and all passengers got a bag of chips. Of course, the one person to get Cheetos was the American. I think it was politically-motivated…

When we touched down in Norman Wells only a couple dozen passengers got off, and only a few got on. We were invited to disembark and stretch our legs if we wanted, and I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see a new airport!

The entire airport had no security, and I was able to walk around freely and explore for about ten minutes. The check-in area:

There was a waiting room with a comfy couch for local elders…

After about 10 minutes it was time to board again. Much less snowy, but colder in Norman Wells. About -26C this morning!

No pictures were allowed on the tarmac in the north, so I had to take the pic above from the terminal, and the one below from the aircraft once I’d boarded. Don’t worry Pearson, I don’t think Norman Wells will be competing with you any time soon for global hub status!

The plane was still about 2/3 full out of Norman Wells, and it was time to continue on our way for the short 40 minute flight up to Inuvik.

Canadian North flight 244
Norman Wells, NWT, Canada (YVQ) to Inuvik, NWT (YEV)
Depart 12:30, Arrive: 13:18, flight time: 48 min, flight distance: 278 miles
Boeing 737-300, Registration C-GCNK, Manufactured 1998, Seat 2D
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 200,331
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,892,633

While I love using the Great Circle Mapper website to plot my routes, it’s even more fun when they’re displayed on the bulkhead…complete with both segments!

This segment would be too short for a snack, but fear not – Canadian North did have pretzels as well as water, coffee, or tea available for everyone! Impressive!

Arrival in Inuvik’s one-room terminal was right on time, and while I waited for my checked bag there was of course the mandatory polar bear in the terminal waiting to greet me!

Bag acquired, it was time to pick up my rental car and start my adventure. It was a balmy -32C outside, so hopefully it would start!!!

Mar 152019
 


As regular readers will know, I’ve been to Moscow many times going back all the way to 1988 when it was still the capital of the USSR. When I went back for the first time post-Soviet Union about 10 years ago, it was hard to believe it was the same country…but in some ways it still was. The familiar sites were still there: Red Square, the Kremlin, St. Basil’s, GUM, etc, but all the western stores and hotels made it feel the same…just more globalized.

In the years since then, I’ve traveled all around Moscow, seeing all the major sites many times. This trip, we really wanted to take the advantage of having a long period and explore some of the more out of the way and less usual site, starting with the Central Air Force Museum way out in Monino.

Now, saying “way out” is a bit relative, given the museum is only 40km east of Moscow, but it’s nowhere near a metro or train station, so this means either multiple bus and tram connections or taking a taxi. I checked Yandex and it was only about 1200 rubles (less than $20) so we opted for convenience. Unfortunately, the traffic was brutal that morning and it took us nearly two hours to get to the museum!

The Central Air Force Museum in Monino is absolutely huge, with over 170 aircraft on display, some indoors in two large hangers, and many outdoors. There are also over 100 engines and other aircraft related memorabilia on display. It was an absolute airplane geek’s paradise.

Few words if you’re considering it: the staff speak absolutely no english at all (though I’m guessing if you speak no Russian they can do the basics like toilet, go here, etc) but that said, they were some of the nicest, friendliest, and most helpful people I’ve ever encountered at a tourist venue in Russia. More on that as I go along.

After purchasing our tickets, the first stop was the hanger with older WWI and WWII aircraft. Upon entering, the ticket taker very helpfully explained the layout of the museum to us, and gave us all the details about the layout of the museum. She clearly loved her job, and slowed down her speech speaking very clearly so we could understand every word. I was impressed – it’s not common that non-English speakers in Russia make an attempt to make it easier on tourists, and she gave a super positive first impression!

An Ilyushin 10M from World War II – 1944. The displays (mostly in Russian only, although some had English as well) not only had details on the plane, but on the types of missions they flew, and often about Hero Pilots who had flown them. Really cool!

After spending about 45 minutes wandering the two large indoor hangers, it was outside and maybe a 200 meter walk until we got to the outdoor part of the museum. Sure, it was a little cold, maybe about -15C and super windy, but how bad could/would it be. Wrong thing to question…

After walking the first part of the outdoor section, there was another non-climate controlled hanger with some larger pieces. Like this “Volga Stratospheric Balloon Car.”

Back outside, and an Aeroflot Mi-2 Helicopter:

Myasischev M-17 Stratophera – aka what happens when you forget to de-ice the plane before takeoff…mainly took this photo because I loved the look of the plane with huge sheets of ice hanging off the wings.

Posing in front of a Tupolev Tu-144 aka Concordeski…it was cool to see this given I had just seen another one in Germany the month before. 17 were built in total, two suffered fatal crashes, and only five every saw passenger service. At this point I was absolutely freezing, and it was “take hands out of pockets for two seconds, snap quick pick, and move on.”

Mi-12 Heavy Transport Helicopter…one of the most unique looking aircraft on display :

After walking around outside and freezing (dozens of more photos I didn’t share here) it was time to head inside and check what I expected would be a very dangerous giftshop. But first, I had to take a flight…

Fortunately, the gift shop wasn’t too dangerous, although the proprietor was quite a character. She was extremely chatty, impressed by Americans who spoke Russian, and wanted to make sure she showed us every possible thing in the gift shop, as well as telling us all about upcoming special events at the museum. She even encouraged us to come back in the summer when we might enjoy it even more!

Overall, a super cool experience, and if you’re an aviation geek at all I recommend it very highly!

That night, out for more delicious Georgian food. Starting with a jug of house wine…which apparently is poured into a bowl for drinking! Chug, chug, chug!

Khatchapuri again, this one being way more delicious than the previous restaurant.

We decided to branch out for after-dinner drinks, and found another pretty cool pub. Craft Republic was kind of in the basement of a building, but they had a Pac-Man machine, awesome beer list, and even some Cypress Hill blasting from the speakers!

The next day, it was off to Bunker 42 to see where the Soviet Missile Command would retreat to if Moscow was under nuclear attack in the Cold War days. I’ve been to Canada’s version, the Diefenbunker, but figured the Soviet one being right in the middle of Moscow would be super cool. But first, you walk down 16 flights of stairs to get to the depth which engineers calculated could withstand a direct hit from the earliest nuclear weapons:

At the bottom, through a metal-clad corridor into the bunker itself:

Guard-post at the entrance to the bunker complex:

The Anteroom to Stalin’s personal chambers in the bunker. I was cracking up at all the mannequins:

Da. Comrade Stalin is right upstairs:

Oh, hey Joseph! Ironically, Stalin never even ended up visiting the bunker, as its construction wasn’t complete until after he died. Oh well!

Meeting room for officials in case of nuclear attack. The room was only used one time, however, during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

A mock-up of the Soviet Union’s first atomic bomb…although our guide assured us it was real…

Missile command center…we even got to press the button and then watch a simulation film of missiles screaming towards the US…it was the ONLY time on the tour we weren’t allowed to take pictures…supposedly the consoles were the original ones, although the electronics were not.

After the launch room, we were told to go down the next corridor while the guide closed the doors behind us. Of course, he locked the door, turned out all the lights, and the red lighting came on while air raid sirens blasted. It was a pretty cool thing to see!

Standing outside the Bunker.

We ran into the metro right at rush hour, where it was packed…yet orderly in that way that people looking out for everyone else is. In DC, the metro is a disorderly mess with people stopping at the bottom of escalators, cutting each other off, and generally having no communal motivation at all. There’s a reason why it’s at capacity at a much lower point than Moscow, Tokyo, etc…

Next up our last few days in Moscow!

Feb 192018
 


First, sorry for the delays in continuing with this trip report. It will probably come as a surprise to absolutely nobody that I’ve been traveling the last week.

Jetlag was finally wearing off by this point, and I was starting to adjust to the time zone so woke up at a relatively normal hour. I know I’ve sang the praises of the Sheraton Frankfurt Airport multiple times, but the executive lounge I find to be one of the best anywhere in the world. Grabbed a “light” breakfast after getting in a quick workout:

Off to the Frankfurt Airport long-distance train station, where I caught an ICE to Frankfurt Hauptbanhof, which according to the train maps was the same one which would continue to Dresden. What wasn’t clear to me is that when it arrived at Frankfurt Hbf my train would be joined to another train, and I would have to run down to the other end where my car was. Slightly confusing, but worked out just fine in the end.

The train ride to Dresden was nearly four hours, and the would be the second longest of my trip. Time passed pretty quickly catching up on some tv on the iPad, but there were some “gaps” in tv to look out the window:

Given the length of the train ride, there was definitely time for a snack and a beer…plus a good opportunity to practice a little German. DB crews overall speak really good English, but for some reason seem much more willing to tolerate my poor attempts at Germany than other service-oriented businesses Two flams, one greek and one traditional bacon and onion:

According to Google Maps my hotel seemed to be closer to the Neustadt train station in Dresden than the Hauptbanhof, so I got out there and started trying to find my hotel. Fortunately, it was very easy, and a short 10-15 minute walk just as Google Maps predicted. Got to the Westin Dresden where the place was buzzing with activity. Turns out there was a giant olympic-qualifying cross country sprint ski race going on in town that weekend, and turns out they were all staying at my hotel. This was going to be absolutely awful 😉

Full hotel meant they needed to upgrade someone, so I ended up with an absolutely giant suite. The living room:

Another shot of the living room – it was absolutely massive:

Bedroom:

There was also a newspaper waiting in the room, full of the latest news from America where I got to learn some very useful German vocab:

Out for a wander after checking in mid-afternoon. The races had just wound up for the day so I missed that, but went for a walk. First stop was the Catholic Church:

Great DDR mural on the side of the Concert Hall:

It was actually cold and windy, with a bit of light snow falling during the walk, so I soon had to stop – where else – Starbucks for a nice hot coffee and snack to warm up. It seemed to be the most happening place on a Saturday in Dresden, with a line 50+ people deep out the door. It was absolutely crazy.

Warmed by coffee, I wandered around the city a bit more, eventually stopping in a shopping mall to buy a warm hat and gloves to stay warm. I had expected it would be cool, but with temperatures about five degrees below zero it was cold even for me and definitely required warmer clothing. That said, I miss having “real” winter living in Washington, DC, so one of my goals was to get some good cold weather this trip. (Foreshadowing: I would regret this by the end of the trip)

Now warmed with hat and gloves, I began the walk back to my hotel for a short rest. Panoramic of the Schloßplatz near the cathedral.

The Courthouse am Schloßplatz:

After a short rest, it was time to wander in the opposite direction – into the “new city” to try and find a restaurant/bar I was looking forward to trying out for dinner and drinks. Statue of King Friedrich August the Second also known as the Goldener Reiter:

After about a 20 minute walk I finally found the place I was looking for, Zapfanstalt, which had a very impressive beer list full of German and imported craft beers. The bar staff spoke absolutely zero English, so it was a wonderful opportunity to practice my German – made easier by a few good German beers:

Had a delicious Haloumi Cheese “burger” for dinner, and then it was time for the long cold walk back to the hotel. When I’d arrived at Zapfanstalt around 8pm it was pretty empty, but by the time I left around 10 it was absolutely packed wall to wall so – in proof that I’m getting old – it was time to head out and get some rest to continue trying to adjust to the local time zone. I wanted to get up early to try and catch some of the races as well, plus I had an afternoon train to continue my trip to Leipzig!