Russian River Cruise - Getting there

schipol (Amsterdam Airport) from our hotel window
The picture in our cabin
Moscow from the airplane
Amsterdam from the airplane window

We left home on the 10th of May, spent an overnite in Amsterdam at a hotel in the airport.
The next afternoon we flew out to Moscow. We flew business class but the Amsterdam to Moscow did not seem to have a business class arrangement. I don't remember what kind of an airplane it was, or who's airline it was.
The photos are taken through the dirty airplane windows, so they are not exactly the best.

We were met at the airport by our Uniworld representative and taken to our ship, the Litvinov. The Picture on the wall of our cabin was the best part. I was pleased to see that I had a similar shot from the air.

Our Uniworld material had said that the Russian ship was not up to the standard of the European River cruise ships... for instance the River Duchess that we were on in 2005 was luxurious compared to this thing. We had a noise window that let in cold air, and a heater that we could not seem to get them to fix. The shower was contained in the bathroom but worked rather well, except for the sudden change of temperatures when others were showering. We must try not to drink the water. We were told to brush our teeth with bottled water. They did not give us this water, but we had to buy it. The walls were thin with no sound barrier. We had bunks with a tiny table between them. As we had booked late, this was the cabin we had. There were very few luxury suites or larger cabins on board, anyway and no chance for an upgrade. I could hear the person on the other side of the wall from me breathing. The food was adequate, but not very inspiring.