Today was our first day of rain. The rain was intermittent and it was still a warm day (24ºC) with no wind to speak of.

As we headed out of town the traffic jam for commuters coming into Moscow was unbelievably long and virtually at a standstill; worst one either one of us had seen and, according to our guide, may have been partly due to today being the first day after a long weekend. Luckily we were heading the other way to our next visit. On the way we stopped to look at an ornately decorated house along the road.

After fending of the dogs we headed off to the Holy Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, another UNESCO World Heritage Site. This site is considered by many to be the Vatican City of Russia, however our guide was not happy with this label; he did not elaborate as to why. The site began in the 14th century when a monk, Sergius, built a simple church and then a simple hut. Other monks came when they heard about it and it evolved into a much more significant religious site with a religious school, which it still has. At present there are over 1,000 monks in training, one of which accompanied us on our tour of the facilities. It has survived centuries of the persecution of the Christians and was allowed to continue practising during the Soviet period. It effectively became a walled city. Part of the facility was not open to the public and while we were tourists, we mingled with the numerous local countryside people who there for prayer and to offer their services (gardening, painting, cleaning etc) to the monks and their trainees. Their dress was very interesting, simple yet colourful.

The story goes that Sergius built his own very simple coffin as he thought he was about to die. He then died within days of its completion. Many years after his death his burial plot had to be moved and upon digging it up they discovered that not only had the cover not deteriorated but his body was in perfect condition. His original coffin was on display in one of the churches as was his most recent coffin with the body. We could not get near the more recent one due to the number of locals surrounding it praying. It appears to be a sort of pilgrimmage for them.

The architecture of the buildings covered a few different design periods. Older churches had a steep pitched roof however the Tsar thought these were old fashioned and had the design of newer churches constructed with round domes which then evolved to the onion shape in use today. We went through 3 of the churches; one was very simple, the second was ornate with silver fittings and the 3rd, the Cathedral, being the most ornate with paintings and a lot of gilded fittings. We were not able to go behind the front screens of any of the churches we had visited during our tour but we were allowed behind the screen in the cathedral. All we can say is that it was very ornate and very gilded.

There was also a fountain with holy water in one of the squares. Many of the locals and monks would wash their hands and faces with the water and others would fill up water bottles as did our guide on an earlier tour. When a member of our tour party went up to wash his hands and face the water stopped running. This appeared to bother him and he thought he would have another attempt after our visit to the Cathedral. When he went back to the fountain this time the water kept running but it surged out of the opening and soaked his trousers and legs. We don't think he is particularly religious but think will he be wondering about this event for a few years to come.

We were given some time to wander around and also get some lunch as we would not have time before our next appointment. We wandered into the local village through a small market to a bakery and had a few pieces of pastry before having a look at the stalls where a few last minute acquisitions would be made – this being our last opportunity in Russia.

The rain had held off while we visited St. Sergius but started up again as we got into the coach to head for the next visit on our itinerary today. This was the Novodevichy cemetery where many important Muscovites have been buried. Most of the graves had large headstones and carvings associated with them and, had we been able to read Russian, or had they at least used the Roman alphabet, the visit would have been more interesting. That is not to say it was not interesting. As well as the number of statues and large headstones we have never seen so many trees in a graveyard. With the dampness and darkness (overcast and being under the trees) it was an interesting eerie experience. As well as graves of famous musicians, actors, circus performers and scientists were those of politicians such as Kruschev, Yeltsin and the wife of Gorbachev. Many of the Russian political leaders were buried at the Kremlin. Kruschev was not buried there as he was one of the few Russian leaders who forced out from office instead of dying in office. You may recall that many Russian leaders were into their 70s when appointed. Yeltsin on the other hand resigned from the position as he thought someone younger was needed to make the changes necessary. We mention Gorbachev's wife here as she was the first wife of a Russian/Soviet leader to be in the public eye. A lot of people thought that the wife of the President should not be seen with him and did not like her for this.

Again the rain held off for our walkabout and started up again as we got on the bus. This time we were off to the Victory Square and Museum of the Great Patriotic War. As the bus approached the Museum the skies opened. We sat on the bus for a while hoping the rain would stop but eventually broke out the umbreallas and waded off to the Museum. We were later arriving at the Museum than we had planned due to some traffic problems and waiting on the bus. The end result was that the museum closed while we were in it and we were not able to visit all that we should have visited. This was a shame as what we saw was good. We managed to visit 6 dioramas of some of the WW2 battles that the Soviets had with the Germans. These were good as was the explanation from our guide. One of the rooms was the Hall of Remembrance and Sorrow which honors the Soviet people who died in the war. The room has tens of thousands of tear drops hanging from the ceiling symbolising tears shed for the victims. During the war Russian casualties numbered 6 million military and 20 million civilians including 2.5million Jews.

This night we ate in the coffee shop of the hotel with 16 others from the tour as we needed an early night for our early start in the morning. Bruce had a (very well done) hamburger and Anne some (very nice meat free) pasta. Just needed something without potato in it.