May 7 Another breakfast buffet to start the day and then a short drive in the bus crossing the river to Velkily Novgorod's Kremlin. We passed a monument to Rachmaninoff which is a statue of him as a young man complete with fedora. No chance to get a picture from the bus and we never came back this way.The bus then pulled into a large parking lot, and we exited . The parking lot had stands around the perimeter selling souvenirs and local crafts. We only had enough time to walk by. This area is known for products made from the birch trees. The history of Novgord: This most ancient of Russian capitals was created by a great Varangian, or Viking, named Rurik. Rurik lived on Lake Ladoga which is north of St. Petersburg. He went south and constructed a new fortress and then gradually built a city which became Velkily Novgorod (the great Novgorod or New City). There was a city on the site dating back to 859, three years before Rurik arrived. In 882, Rurik's successor, Oleg of Novgorod, conquered Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus'. Novgorod's size as well as its political, economic, and cultural influence made it the second most important city in Kievan Rus'. The earliest buildings were wooden and were replaced by stone buildings. The oldest stone building is St. Sophia's cathedral built in the 11th century. In the city itself, many of the sights are centered on the ancient Kremlin of Novgorod, called the "Detinets." Apparently named for Prince Vladimir, the "child" ("deti") of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, the fortress was built to protect his newly constructed St. Sophia Cathedral. For much of its history, the fortress served as an ecclesiastical center. A monument built in Tsarist times commemorating the millenium of Russia in 1862 still stands near the cathedral within its walls The Kremlin is located on the opposite side of the river from Yaroslavl's market place and the long red brick walls of one side sit on the river embankment. We walked up to one of the gates crossing over a large moat, now dry, and then entered the Kremlin. The present walls with nine massive towers date from the 15th Century, As we entered we passed a group of people very involved in planting flowers, carefully measuring the distance between the plants, and certainly in preparation of the upcoming May 9 holiday. We walked by some buildings and went to the center of the Kremlin to view the Monument to the Millenium of Russia. was unveiled on September 8, 1862. It is the work of Mikhail Mikeshin, an eminent Russian sculptor active in the second half of the 19th century. It is quite an impressive sculpture with figures around the monument at three levels that recreate the history of Russia. The kneeling figure in the upper tier of the monument personifies Russia. Below, around the sphere, there are six groups symbolizing different periods of Russian history up to the first quarter of the 18th century. Represented, among others, are Prince Rurik who, according to legend, was invited in 862 to rule Novgorodian lands; Princes Vladimir, Dmitry Donskoi, Tsars Ivan III and Peter I. The high-relief frieze in the lower tier of the memorial depicts military heroes, statesmen, educators, poets, writers and artists - 109 figures altogether. During the World War II , the Nazis dismantled the monument and prepared it for transportation to Germany. Luckily, they never succeeded to accomplish this plan. After Novgorod's liberation, the monument was restored and in November 1944 once again unveiled to the public. Just after we left the monument a whole group of dignitaries including some military officials came up to the monument to have their picture taken. St. Sophia's cathedral is based on the design for the St. Sophia cathedral in Kiev (which is a Slavic version of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul) According to the legend, in 1570 when oprichniks of Ivan the Terrible dealt cruelly with Novgorod, a pigeon sat on the Sophia cross. It saw the bloody battle and turned to stone in fear. Then the Virgin Mary said to one of the monks that while the pigeon was sitting on the cross the city would be under its protection. During World War II, a Spanish division fighting with the Germans took the cross from the cathedral as a trophy after it was hit in an airstrike. The Minister of Defense of Spain returned it to the Patriach of Moscow in 2004 and now it is back on the church and with a pigeon on it during our visit. The cathedral has bronze doors covered with relief scenes of biblical figures. The cathedral is white, but was originally a huge mosaic of irregularly shaped rocks and flagstone. There is are areas of the wall with the original appearance. We went into the church (orangutan scarf in place on my head) where pictures could not be taken as there was a service occurring. Just after we walked out, I saw on the opposite side of the church the priest walking out followed by the worshipers. Three men were carrying staffs, one with a cross, one with a light, and one with an icon. There was singing. . The whole group stopped on each side of the church and when this happened the priests would chant and then they had a basin with water in it and put something in it that looked like a small broom and then they shook water over the people. It was quite fascinating to watch. Across the walkway from the cathedral is the cathedral's belfry or bell tower. The original bells are on display on the ground in front. Although we did not do this, one can climb up to the current bells and, I could imagine, have a wonderful view of the Kremlin and out over the river. We walked out of the Kremlin and over the Alexander Nevsky Bridge. It was a beautiful sunny day and the views of the Kremlin walls, Yaroslavls's Marketplace, and the wedding locks on the bridge were spectacular. We could look back at Vladimir's Tower, one of the earliest gatehouses of the wall with a colorful river cruiser in front. We walked around Yaroslavl's marketplace where I had been the day before. The war memorial now had its paint job finished. There were some military dignitaries there also having their pictures taken. This time around Yaroslavl's Marketplace with our local guide. St. Nicholas Cathedral is the only standing building from the original marketplace and was its centerpice . Its foundation-stone was laid by Prince Mstislav in 1113, following a successful campaign against the Tchuds, the neighbouring Ugro-Finnish tribe. The Church of the Holy Women (1508-11) and the church of St. Procopius (1529) were built on the site of a wooden church destroyed in the fire of 1508. The construction of both was financed by the Moscow merchant Ivan Syrkov (the Church of the Holy Women) and his son Dmitry (St. Procopius Church). The Syrkovs were among the fairly great number of families that settled in Novgorod by order of Ivan III to replace the deported boyars and merchants suspected of anti-Moscow sentiments. We were then to return to the hotel for lunch, but I and a few others wanted to go back to the souvenir stands near the Kremlin since the items they had for sale were very different than anything we had seen and were unique to the area - all sorts of things made from birch bark - boxes, collage pictures, baskets. I had seen something that looked like a cornucopia in various sizes which it turned out was a horn and I bought one. My plan (as yet unfilled) was to train my little doggies to come when I blow the horn. We were given like 15 minutes there because the bus could only stay in the parking lot a limited time for free. So after our brief shopping spree we did go back to the hotel for lunch, then bus got packed up and we headed back to St. Petersburg. We passed the war memorials again along the highway; there were people at the one where the bodies that had been recovered were reburied. We had one stop at the Russian version of an AM/PM Mini mart. Our hotel in St. Petersburg for the next five nights was almost across the street from the train station we had arrived at. The rules for the bus at the hotel were that the bus could not stop in front of the hotel, so the bus had to find a place in the large square about ½ block away that it could stop in. We all piled out and gathered our luggage and walked back to the hotel, later learning that the bus driver got a ticket for about $100 anyway. How bizarre is that to have a hotel that caters to tour groups and nowhere for the tour buses to stop, let alone park. Well, that is the Russian way. We turned in our passports once more as we checked into our rooms at the Park Inn Nevsky and then we regrouped for dinner in the hotel's restaurant. It was fairly large and quite busy, opened directly to the street on the opposite side so seemed to have a lot of Russian non hotel diners.