Intourist was my host for the trip through the Soviet Union. I was advised when booking the trip in Kabul that it was more appropriate to be a student than a broadcast engineer.

On my guided day trip around Tashkent I discovered that the city was home to the inventor of television. I was also able to watch some of the joint US/Soviet space mission on television in my hotel. It is remarkable how much better the NASA video was than that produced by the Soviets – despite the difficulties of doing the conversion from NTSC to SECAM.

This park scene leaves no doubt that the photo was taken within the USSR.

Uzbeks don’t need to subscribe to the paper to read it. Pravda and Izvestia are available in this functional open air display. Save a tree!

This photo captures the spirit of life in the city of Tashkent in 1975.

After Afghanistan, this sort of display of water was mind boggling. Here water was so abundant that it could be sprayed into the air in a public area.

Tashkent to Moscow was also on Aeroflot. I did not have a guided tour of this city but had some time to wander the streets and record two standard tourist images.

A familiar vista in Moscow. This is the apartment building that is one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters, a group of seven tall buildings. There is no connection in the name to the seven sisters identified as the major players in the oil cartel in that same era. It’s only the attraction of prime numbers and alliteration.

I suppose it is appropriate that a government recognizing only the material realm should preserve the material remains of its founders and display them for its pilgrims.

Moscow to London was by rail and channel ferry. Highlight of the rail trip was being hoisted along with the carriage to be placed on a new set of wheels to accommodate the different rail gauge at the Polish border. Sound like a bad Polish joke? Poland will never be invaded from the east by railway.

I managed to visit with two people that I had met on the 1973 trip. I ran across Jim McDonough quite by accident in Istanbul. Hilary English was back in Oxford visiting her parents and I got a chance to see some of the highlights of that city with her as a local tour guide.

The one photo from the channel crossing was based on my long standing interest in RF. These are the radar antennas on the ferry.

I still have the leather bag I bought for this trip. It would be harder today to pack for an international trip of indefinite length and carry only what fits into this bag.

London at Dusk

Industrial London

From the UK, it was time to travel back to the US. I would not visit Afghanistan again until July of 2011.