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The Europe we missed

avril - mai 2018
  • Brad and Mandy Pearce
During our trip around Europe last year we did not manage to go to Italy and since we had cruise credits we picked an itinerary that took us around the boot plus a couple of other countries. While in Europe, we are adding the Russian river cruise. En savoir plus
  • Brad and Mandy Pearce
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  • Brad and Mandy PearceBrad and Mandy PearceThe Europe we missed
    Transfiguration Church - restoration works on the summer church
    Small church where the bell ringing display was performedCheck out how they construct fencesTransfiguration ChurchClose up of the domesInside the Winter church

    Kizhi Island

    20 mai 2018, Russie ⋅ ☀️ 40 °C

    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.    En savoir plus

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  • Brad and Mandy PearceBrad and Mandy PearceThe Europe we missed
    Old monastery
    Russian tea ceremonyRussian folk concert

    Goritsy

    22 mai 2018, Russie ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We don't arrive at our next stop until the afternoon so we spent some of the morning learning about Russian fairytales plus some information about the program when we arrive in Moscow.

    In the small farming village of Goritsy we visited the ancient Monastry of St Cyril - founded in 1397 and became one of the largest abbeys in Russia by the end of the 17th century. It is now a museum that houses decorative lacework, religious icons and embroidery. We have seen many examples of these already so won't go into any detail.

    Only a couple of hours at Goritsy before setting sail again. We experienced a Russian tea ceremony (pretty amateur) and in the evening they had a Russian Folk concert. They have very talented musicians with the singer having a very powerful voice. I think she was a bit too loud for some of the oldies.    En savoir plus

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  • Brad and Mandy PearceBrad and Mandy PearceThe Europe we missed
    My attempt at decorating a Matryoska doll
    Almost looks like a gingerbread houseInside one of the churchesBallroom at the Governor's houseWar memorialChildren rehearsing for a performance

    Yaroslavl

    22 mai 2018, Russie ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    Happy birthday to me!! I'm a few days late with my blogging but may have some time to catch up today. Our next stop is Yaroslavl, a large city of 600,000, but we don't arrive until mid afternoon, so we filled our morning with Russian language lessons and I even painted a Matryoska doll. It doesn't look too bad if viewed from a distance and you squint but compared to some other efforts it looked like something a preschooler would do.

    Our tours at Yaroslavl included the usual church - ancient with fresco paintings. We had a tour of the Governor's House which was done in a very entertaining fashion with pretty young Russian girls who acted as the daughters of the governor and they were showing us through their house. It finished with a live classical music (cello, violin, piano) with ballroom dancing. At another place we also sat and listened to a quartet who sang choral music. Beautiful voices but not something I could listen to for long.

    Dinner tonight was a pirate night - not sure what this had to do with Russia, probably just an excuse for the crew to dress up. Halfway through they come parading around to sing Happy Birthday to me and present me with a birthday cake. Very nice touch.    En savoir plus

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  • Brad and Mandy PearceBrad and Mandy PearceThe Europe we missed
    Church interiorDetailOne of our guides dressed upChurch spire from flooded town

    Uglich

    23 mai 2018, Russie ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    Very short blog. Uglich is a small town and is the last stop before Moscow. Once again another church to visit with its usual decorations, another choir singing with the usual CD that can be purchased, and a church that was built as a memorial to the son of aTsar (can't remember the Tsar but the church was called Dimitri, church of the spilled blood, or something similar) . Dimitri was about 8 and was playing outside with a knife when he had an epileptic fit and managed to stab himself in the neck 7 times (Oh yeah? More likely he was assassinated so someone else could take the throne.)

    Ran the gauntlet of market stalls but they did have some nice items reasonably priced. Set sail and went past a spire of a church rising out of the middle of the river. There was a whole town underneath when the area was dammed . Later that night we had the talent show where those of us who had been learning Russian, sang three songs, the Russian dancers gave a dance, plus a few other items. Amateur mike night but it was a bit of fun.    En savoir plus

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  • Brad and Mandy PearceBrad and Mandy PearceThe Europe we missed
    St Basil's Basilica
    GUM department storeMetro stationMetro stationStreet leading to Red SquareThe Kremlin behind the red wall

    Moscow by Night

    24 mai 2018, Russie ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Arrived in Moscow in the afternoon and had a bit of a panoramic drive around the city... but I will cover Moscow by day in the next blog.

    We chose to do an optional tour of Moscow by Night including the Metro. Moscow's metro stations are a tourist attraction in itself. Many of them around the city circle are highly decorated with statues, mosaics, stained glass, chandeliers and other decorations - pretty easy to explore too as you get on at one station, ride for one stop, get off, explore and repeat. The trains arrive about every minute and is probably the best way of getting around in the city as the road traffic is horrible and quite chaotic.

    We left the Metro and walked to the famous Red Square which is bordered on all sides by The Kremlin, St Basil's Basilica , GUM department store, and a rather nice looking building which I think is a museum (but I will have to look that up) The road to the Red Square - St Nicholas St - has a canopy of fairy lights all hanging down and gave the area a twinkling wonderland look. The GUM department store was outlined in lights and St Basil's was lit up as well - an extraordinary building. I know the photos won't do it justice but you get the idea.

    This tour was definitely a highlight even though it was a late night, arriving back around midnight. Even better, the weather was mild and clear with not a cloud in the sky.    En savoir plus

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  • Brad and Mandy PearceBrad and Mandy PearceThe Europe we missed
    St Basil's Basilica during the day
    The Kremlin (everything behind the Red wallMuseum opposite St Basil'sLarge cannon - Mr Putin's office in yellow building behindLarge bell - never been rungTraffic and road sign

    Moscow by day

    25 mai 2018, Russie ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    Finally we come to what is likely to be the last entry for this trip as we start travelling home on Sunday - Moscow-Frankfurt-Singapore (overnight)-Brisbane (Monday night) and home on Tuesday. So today was a very busy day touring the major sights of Moscow... well, actually it was mainly The Kremlin and involved quite a lot walking, queuing and standing around but not allowed to take photos inside the buildings.

    The Kremlin (which means fortress) is everything inside the Red wall. It's a city within a city and contains many churches, government offices including Mr Putin's, and the Armoury (treasurery). To enter the grounds there were security checks and no large backpacks permitted. There were guards that would blow a whistle at you if you walked on the road - you had to stay to the footpath. We visited another church (same old, same old), saw world's biggest cannon that has never been fired (probably too heavy to load the cannonballs), and a big bell that has never been rung because it had a crack in it when it was cast. The Armoury contained all the priceless objects from ceremonial garments, royal coaches, jewels and Faberge eggs (i really liked those) . We explored Red Square and the GUM department store... tried their world famous GUM icecream (very nice). Took photos of St Basil's Basilica with its colourful domes.

    Moscow itself is quite a green city with many parks and open spaces but they seem to think dandelions are a beautiful flower and leave them to flourish everywhere in the overlong grass. The traffic is horrible and is definitely not something English speaking people should even attempt. Check out the last photo and see if you can decipher the road sign. As with our entire holiday, we were fortunate to have beautiful weather and that certainly helped with our enjoyment of the places we visited.    En savoir plus

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