Kizhi Island

We arrived at the small area of Kizhi Island along the banks of Lake Onega - 2nd largest lake in Europe . Kizhi is basically an open air museum of wooden architecture. There are well preserved wooden houses, windmills and churches dating back to the 14th century. There is a magnificent three tiered Transfiguration Church which has 22 domes and supposedly built without using a single nail. The truth is they may not have used nails made from metal but they did use peg nails made from timber. (Metal nails were extremely expensive at this time and 1kg of nails would cost as much as a cow). There was actually a Summer church and a Winter church. The summer one was in the process of restoration so we were not able to go inside but the Winter one had plenty of icons typical of Russian Orthodox churches.

It was interesting walking around the site to see how people lived. The houses were large enough for the animals to live indoors during the bitterly cold winters. There was even a small church where a campanologist (bell ringer) gave us a bell ringing display - something I don't think i have seen before.

Back on board, Brad attended the Captain's bridge tour, then we had our 2nd Russian lesson - apparently we shall be performing a couple of Russian folk songs later in the week. After dinner, the crew photographers who are actually talented musicians, gave a performance on the accordian and the balalaika (thing that looks like a lute). Very entertaining.Read more