City Travel Agents Back From Soviet Tour

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29952, 13 October 1962, Page 13

City Travel Agents Back From Soviet Tour

Russia is easing controls on tourists, in a drive to’SEUS more, and conditions for •ounst* are very good, according to Mr D. W Mel- °? e °/ two Christchurch travel agents who have just returned ?rom a two-week visit to Moscow and Leningrad with a group of Australians and New Zealanders.

A tourist was now allowed hlm>eK through Russia, ne said yesterday However, before a visa was isued it was necessary to H* V rnf he .itinerary approved by Intourist, and the tourist the Intourist offices along his route, a normal procedure j n any country. y

Because tourists had to follow an approved itinerary and could stay only in hotels specially for tourists, visiting Russia was much more expensive than travel in other European countries. However, Mr Meldrum considered, it was well worth the expense.

There is a wealth of things to see,” he said. The standard of comfort in hotels was good, although the furnishings were old fashioned by New Zealand standards There were no radios in hotels, but there was television.

Feed Good The food was good. "We were travelling in a group

and were catered for as such. We did not see a menu. It came as a surprise that lemonade was on the table for three meals. Water is there, too, but it is not drunk to the same extent.”

Relatively few persons in Moscow could speak English, he said. During a tour of the underground, the Metro, “which is a sight in itself with its glittering chandeliers lighting up the mosaic patterns and marble walls,” Mr Meldrum and one of the party became separated from the rest of the group. “It was quite a business getting back to the hotel,” he said. “We spent more than an hour gesticulating at policemen and taxi-drivers before they finally understood we were lost.”

There was not the same amount of consumer goods, especially luxury lines, available as in New Zealand, Mr Meldrum said, but he felt that the people did not mind this and were reconciled to waiting until the building programme had caught up with the demand for housing. “They seemed quite happy. The only time I saw queues was at vegetable stores and at Lenin's mausoleum,” he said.

In Moscow most of the motor-vehicles were taxis, the streets were wide, and the main roads excellent. The older buildings were being demolished to make room for large blocks of apartment houses, and wide streets were a feature of the new planning.

Mr Meldrum said that although he did not visit any Russian homes, two women reporters in the group saw a middle-class apartment. “They were quite impressed with the conditions, although they found it crowded with five persons in two rooms, but the Russian people are confident that in another five years they should have more than enough room.” he said. Soviet Theatres Mr D. G. Garrick, the other Christchurch travel agent, saw “Swan Lake” at the Bolshoi Theatre, and found it an entirely different version from that seen in New Zealand.

Mr Garrick said they attended a spectacular opera, "The Golden Cockerel,” at the Palace of Congress, a theatre seating 6000. During the intervals fast escalators took patrons to the top floor for refreshments. They worked very smoothly and everyone was catered for. The group saw the exhibition of the U.S.S.R. economic achievements permanently situated in a park of about 590 acres. All the Soviet States were represented. Fountains and lighting were spectacular, especially the illuminated trees in their autumn foliage. "We visited Moscow University on the Lenin Hills, where there is also a tremendous modern building project housing thousands,” said Mr Garrick.

Mr Garrick was impressed by the restoration work going on in Leningrad. At Pushkin Park the palace of Catherine was being restored. It surprised him that the Russians were doing this type of restoration.