Rzhev

The driver was right on time to pick us up from our hotel. Surprise! He came with another passenger, our interpreter, in a very small vehicle. VERY SMALL.

We shoe-horned what baggage we could into the trunk and then squeezed into the back seat only have the remaining luggage heaped on top of us. We sat that way, absolutely squashed, for the 3 hour journey to Rzhev.

For the first hour we traveled at a good pace and I had hopes of arriving in Rzhev with blood still circulating in my legs. Then we left the District of Moscow and the road quality went precipitously down hill. While we were driving on a 4 lane highway, there were times that we were going 30 km/hr to avoid potholes that would have totaled the car.