In memory of the late Sean Connery, here’s a glimpse of a Cold War submarine from the era of The Hunt for Red October encountered during an exotic river journey in Russia aboard Scenic Tsar. This story originally appeared in The Cruisington Times in 2012.

At times today I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland–as though I’d suddenly gone through a warp in reality and was in another place and time.

Getting off the modern Scenic Tsar at a deserted dock, I passed through a gateway and found myself walking an idyllic dirt path lined with birch trees whose falling leaves were turning the ground into a golden carpet.

It’s the main route from shore to the town of Vytegra ((pronounced witty-graw), whose population numbers tell a story. Population in 1989: 12,900. Population today: 10,400. And even though it’s Sunday afternoon, I’m the only person on Lenin Street, the main drag in town.

Read it all in The Cruisington Times