Eventos

 With Rex Fritschi

This one on Tuesday, March 1, at 3 PM in the Biblioteca’s Santa Ana Theatre.

Rex Fritschi, the States-wide noted, expert travel consultant is at work in his “winter office” in the “paradise” of San Miguel.  He admires the great works of the Biblioteca and offers his contribution by giving these travelogues to very unusual corners of the world.  (All ticket proceeds go to the Biblioteca).

This presentation is on a very interesting and decisive area of Russia that is hardly visited by tourists:  The Volga river, a grand waterway that once served as the principal connection between Persia and Scandinavia, the “Great Portal”, connected the people of Asia and Europe for centuries. The Volga basin bore witness to some of the most significant events in Russian history: the emergence of the Golden Horde, Ivan the Terrible’s overthrow of the Asian Khans,  the founding of a string of fortified cities by Catherine the Great,  the naval battles of the Russian Civil War,  Stalin’s  slave-labor built dams and locks,  the and the terrible battlefields of World War Two. From Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages to the rise of the Slavic principalities and beyond, the Volga has long held majesty over Eastern Europe.

As one travels south from Moscow – the most expensive city in the world – towards Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea transportation facilities and hospitality services rapidly deteriorate. Therefore, this area is best explored on a comfortable river boat.  Present day Russia is a 21st century version of our old “Wild West” – a stunning, chaotic hodgepodge of the expensive luxuries of Moscow and the serf like peasants still existing in primitive squalor.

Mark your calendars for Rex’s next two offerings on March 11 and 18.