Leaving St. Petersburg we entered into the water system that connects to Moscow. Lake Ladoga, Europe's largest lake, lies in Northern Russia near the Finnish border. It is ice free only 6 months of the year. We visited a quaint Russian village called Mandrogy, it had cobble stoned streets and unique architecture. It is a village made for tourism with craftsmen showing their crafts. Very interesting. and of course lots of Handmade Russian Crafts to buy......... We continue our cruise along the 139 mile Svir River into Lake Onedga.
Lake Onega has 1650 islands and 59 rivers entering into the lake. It contains over 40 species of fish. We docked at Kizhi our northerly most point. There we visited the most ancient habitated sites in Russia, today it is an open air architectural museum and a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Transfiguration Church is built completely of wood without a singel nail and boasting 22 timbered onion domes. It was a pleasant day and the guide commented how warm it was because of no wind. (4'C).
Our next stop was Goritzy after passing through several more locks, 18 in total from St Petersburg to Moscow. In Gortizy we visited the Kirillov-Belozersky Monastery founded in 1397. Set on the lake shore of Lake Siverskoye this is a beautiful site especially since we have clear skies.
As we cruise down the river we are treated to mile after mile of orange, yellow, and red colours of the trees changing and then there is another church with onion domed steeples.
Yaroslavl was our next port of call, it is one of the golden Ring cities. It just celebrated its 1000 year anniversary so the city was it fine display. We visited another Greek Orthodox Church that was founded in the 11th century by Prince Yaroslal. The city is 18 miles on both banks of the Volga River. It has a population of 600,000 people.
During our down time we have Russian History and Russian Language lessons.
Today we had to sit in the middle of the river for several hours as the fog was too thick for us to continue, Russian regulation. We were treated to spectacular scenery when it lifted. Uglich a small town on the Volga was our next stop. We took a walking tour. The town dates back to Ivan the Terrible, 1148. Great shopping.
Well I think I have caught up, just too busy taking photos and enjoying the scenery.
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