May 2

The shower at Prince Vladimir Hotel looked like something from Star Trek. It was sort of capsule shaped and had a remote control device inside with all sorts of buttons to push. I don't think anyone on the trip was bold enough to try it. My fear was if I pushed the wrong button, I might eject from the room. Another Russian buffet breakfast. Unlike the Peking Hotel in Moscow, this hotel did not have granola, only corn flakes and cocoa pebbles. There were the vegetables, eggs, and my newly found like "curd pudding" which is actually a baked cottage cheese dish with all the ingredients that would be in a cheese blintz that tastes really good with jam and sour cream.

I had thought when we drove all the way to other side of Vladimir that we would just be heading out in the AM, but we drove back into the city, parked near the Golden Gate, listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO, and met our local guide Catherine. The day was beautiful with blue skies. Vladimir takes us back to the Middle Ages and its founder Vladimir Monomakh (1113-1125) and his son Yury Dolgoruky ("long arms") (1154-1157). Andrei Bogolyubsky (1157-1175), Yuri's son, developed it into the center of the Vladimir-Suzdal principality beginning the city's Golden Age, which lasted until the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1237. During this time Vladimir enjoyed immense growth and prosperity, and Andrei oversaw the building of the Golden Gates and the Cathedral of the Assumption. The Golden Gate, originally a tower over the city gate, is a big archway attached to fortress walls. The fortress is gone. From reading the guide book, it appears as if one could go inside and see an exhibit of weapons and historical military exhibit that features the Tatar-Mongol conquest and occupation of Vladimir. As I may continue to reference, we were not given the information about what we were missing or any time or option to visit.

Nearby are the thick dirt ramparts that encircled the city. We visited the exterior of the five domed Assumption Cathedral, originally built in 1858, walked behind it and found ourselves standing on a high embankment overlooking the Klyazma river which looked something like a jigsaw puzzle as a wide expanse of water with many small islands. We heard the bells of the cathedral play as the hour struck. We walked on the path on the high cliff overlooking the river and behind a building dating back to 1790, former regional government building now used as a children's museum (how a "one room school" used to look and a showcase for modern toys from around the world) and art gallery (Russian art from the 18th century to the present, with the most recent work coming from the renowned Vladimir school of landscape painting.). Unfortunately we were not given time or the option to visit this or any other museum in Vladimir. The other museums which I would have been most interested in as well are the Museum of Crystal, Lacquer Miniature Painting, & Embroidery and the Museum of Old Vladimir in a water tower.

Opposite the other end of the building housing the children's museum is the Cathedral of St. Demetrius built 1194-97. It is one of the best examples of white stone carving in Russia. After being closed for 30 years for restoration work, the interior of this cathedral was reopened to the public in June 2005, but we did not go inside. Its walls are decorated with about 600 reliefs, depicting saints, mythical and real animals, most of which are original. The cathedral was built as a private chapel of Vsevolod the Big Nest and was consecrated to his holy patron, St. Demetrius of Thessalonki.

Back to the bus which was parked at Cathedral Square next to the park area in front of the children's museum and next to a children's playground. There is a Soviet-era monument in honor of the city's 850th anniversary which depicting an ancient warrior, an architect, and a modern worker. Our guide pointed out that, in fact, the locals state these are really the three laziest men because for years and years they have done nothing.

We drove out of town again the same way we had gone the night before to the hotel and buildings from historic Vladimir were pointed out as we drove past, but difficult to really see or get much of a feel of the history. As we drove out, we passed a heating plant. What was quite interesting is that the pipes that carry the hot water from the plant to the various buildings are above ground, sometime forming unusual configurations.

From Vladimir we drove to Suzdal which is only 25 km. As we entered Suzdal, we passed many shiny domes of many churches and the central market square on the left. The right side of the road was lined with traditional Russian homes generally in a good state of repair with decorative woodwork around the windows and often painted in bright colors. The bus parked at the far end of the small town and we met our local guide Anatoly and had a tour of the Spaso-Evfimievus monastery and fortress dating back to the 14th century. The complex of building is surrounded by stone walls, 9 meters high, 6 meters thick, built at the end of the 17th century. We viewed the exteriors of the monk's quarters, the seven-domed Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Saviour. We were fortunate enough to hear a concert of the bells from its bell tower which occurs hourly. A short while later the bell ringer appeared and demonstrated with a small set of bells on the walkway how they are played. Each bell is connected to a wired and he holds all the wires in his hands and using his fingers to control the wires plays the bells. We were told bell ringers tend to lose their hearing which is quite understandable. There is also the Assumption Church facing the bell tower and connected to the old Father Superior's chambers. In the back was an area used as a prison set up in 1764 for religious dissidents by Catherine the Great. I wandered back there and saw there was some sort of museum which, of course, we were not told about and which required separate admission. Later I read that it houses a fascinating exhibit on the monastery's military history and prison life, including displays of some of its better-known prisoners. The monastery contains a large garden area where planting and tilling was being done, probably for vegetables. The guide pointed out several stands near the entrance where bottles of honey based drinks were being sold. We were able to determine some could just be drunk, some contained a concentrated syrup, and some were alcoholic (like mead.) I bought a small bottle of the non-alcoholic drink and later had some with several meals and found it to be rather good, but couldn't drink it in large quantities.

Outside the monastery were some tables with souvenirs, a traditional log house which may have been a souvenir store. Past this point one was on hill overlooking the Pokrovsky convent founded in 1364 the original structures are gone with the current buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries. This was a place where Russian tsars would send noble women, with whom they bad relationships, especially first wives, including those of Vasily III and Peter the Great's first wife Evdokiya Lopukhina. Some horses and buggies were parked just across from the bus.

We drove back into the town, departed from the bus, and then walked a block or so to visit the Suzdal Kremlin (fortress). This included the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin built in 1225. The interior has many frescoes from the 12th to the 17th centuries. We walked back the block or so to where we had been dropped off which was at the corner of the town trading square. There was a lovely display of quilts along the way and on the opposite side of the street were parked a variety of horses and carriages available for hire. My favorite was one that looked as if it came from Cinderella, pumpkin shaped. We were then given some free time to walk through the market which was mostly souvenirs including boots and Russian fur hats, but also had some food vendors. Suzdal is apparently known for cucumbers so there were some people with large jars of pickles. A very kind woman had a large jar filled with dried mushrooms and she offered me a taste. I, in turn, took her picture. I loved looking at the men and women, young and old, in the market, so representative of more rural Russian life.

We then drove to the museum of wooden architecture with traditional wooden churches and houses which we walked around. It was interesting and picturesque. We then ate lunch at Café Kalach just outside the museum.

Then back into the bus to head to Kostroma. After a couple of hours we stopped for a well-needed bio-break at McDonalds in a shopping mall in Ivanova. We drove through the city and learned that its primary industry in the 19th century was textiles. The workers had horrible living conditions and that a workers' strike there in 1905 led to the first Russian revolution. There are many monuements to the Russian revolution there. The city is known for its youth (25% of the population) and in the 1980s the area became one of the largest student centers in European Russia. The city supports youth cultural, sporting, and entertainment centers and awards an annual science competition prize. The city is multinational with over 100 nationalities represented in its population of about 400,000.

Finally late afternoon, we arrived in Kostroma, another city in Russia's Golden Ring. Kostroma served for grand dukes of Moscow as a place of retreat when enemies besieged Moscow in 1382, 1408, and 1433. After crossing the Volga River, we stopped at the Volga Hotel to pick up our local guide. We took a driving tour around the city and had many sights pointed out. A high shutter speed on the camera when the bus wasn't moving too fast allowed for some pictures of the beautiful 18th century architecture. This would have been a nice city to have had some time in. The guide shared with us that in 1773, Kostroma was devastated by a great fire. Afterwards the city was rebuilt with streets radiating from a single point near the river. It is said that Catherine the Great dropped her fan on the city map, and told the architects to follow her design for the city streets.

The Ipatievsky monastery was founded in in the early 14th century by a Tatar prince, ancestor of the Godunov family. Michael, the first tsar of the Romanov family lived there . We were able to stop there although it was just 5 PM so everything was closed. We did walk the grounds. This was the first place we had seen "wrap around skirts" at the entrance for women to put on when entering the churches in addition to the head covering. I tried one on for good measure. Hard to figure out why a woman would have to wear such a thing if her legs were covered by pants,but this is just another of the great mysteries of the Russian Orthodox church. The area around the church looked interesting, but it seems as if our arrival was 1 ½ hours late, so no time. We stopped at the waterfront and had a few minutes to walk around. I saw a statue up on the hill and walked up the path to find a park on a promontory overlooking the water and a statue of Lenin and then a quick jog back to the bus so as not to be late.

Then back to the Volga Hotel for our group dinner in the second floor restaurant which did have some nice lounge areas and a good view of the river. Dinner over, back in the bus and on to Yaroslavl.d there We checked in for the first of two nights in a large hotel Hotel Yubykyenaya. on the banks of the Kotorosl River, a tributary of the Volga,