Friday 25 August 2017

9. Russia


Sandra and I have just returned from a fantastic visit to Russia. We flew to St Petersburg and joined a river boat which was our home for the next 10 days. After 2 days of extensive sightseeing there, including numerous churches, historical monuments, museums, palaces and a magnificent performance of the ballet “Swan Lake” at the beautiful Mariinsky Theatre, we set sail for Moscow. We stopped each day at a different location for sightseeing including the wooden village of Mandrogi, where among other museums and craft centres there is a vodka museum housing over 2,500 different bottles of vodka (and the opportunity to taste several !). The following day we stopped at Kizhi Island where there are numerous wooden churches, including one with 22 domes, and many other buildings. On to Goritsy to tour an ancient and majestic monastery established in 1397, then next day to Yaroslavl visit a 12th century white walled monastery and a 17th century church with amazing icons and painted frescoes of biblical scenes.

The next day we visited the Uglich Kremlin within which are an amazing church and cathedral. Finally we reached Moscow where we went on an initial city tour and later a tour of Moscow by night. The latter included a visit and ride on the Metro with its fantastic architectural styling and fascinating design which make the stations more like an “Underground Palace”. No visit to Moscow would be complete without a tour of the Kremlin. The churches, cathedral and other buildings are truly mind boggling. Finally we attended a “National Russian Show” consisting of 2 fantastic hours of music, drama and dance in fabulous costumes and amazing stage sets. After all that it was nice to fly home and relax!



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