Uglich and Yaroslavl

October 14, 2019

Happy Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day.

Ever since we have arrived in Russia the weather has felt like the middle, late November back home.  It has been windy, rainy and generally damp with temperatures in the low to mid 40’s. We are probably missing Indian Summer in Michigan.

To refresh your memory, on Saturday we left Moscow cruising through the Moscow Canal.  We passed through a series of 7 different locks before sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning  entering the Volga River.  Our Russian guides have told us that the Volga is the longest river in Europe.  They may very well be right but given how they have told us how everything Russia does is better than anyone else, there is reason to have a bit of doubt over that claim.

On Sunday our first port of call on the Volga River was Uglich, a town of 35,000 people. The first destination on our tour was the Kremlin of Uglich.  Unlike the Kremlin in Moscow, the Kremlin in Uglich did not have walls surrounding it anylonger. On the grounds of the Kremlin were two churches, the Transfiguration Cathedral and the Church of St. Dymitry. 

Church of St. Dymitry

The Church of St. Dymitry was named after Dymitry II, the son of Ivan the Terrible.  He died when he was 10 years old when he had an epileptic seizure while holding a knife resulting in him stabbing himself to death.  There is serious doubt about this legend with the prevailing opinion being that he was murdered. There was nothing particularly remarkable about the Transfiguration Cathedral. While in the Kremlin we also went into another building where we heard a quartet of men sing two Russian folk songs. They were accompanied by balalaika and  bass balalaika players. As with the concert we attended in Russia, the playing and singing were outstanding.  Tim could have listened to more.   Unfortunately, the two songs were a tease to get us to buy one of their CD’s.

From the Kremlin we boarded buses, 15 passengers to a bus, each bus taking us to a different home for a home visit with a real Russian.  Our hostess was a divorced women who served us sandwiches made with homemade pickles and locally produced goat cheese, and homemade vodka that our guide as well as the hostess called moonshine.  Nadia's house was a lovely one bedroom home with a living/dining room, kitchen, and bedroom/bathroom.  The house was surrounded by a garden where she grew her own vegetables and also contained a green house where she raised her own roses and other bedding plants.  We spent a delightful hour with our hostess.  She told us about her family and each of us talked briefly about ours. She also showed us the beautiful dolls and aprons she sewed and gave us the opportunity to purchase them.

Lynda & our Russian host, Nadia

This morning we docked in Yaroslavl, a city of 650,000 situated at the confluence of the Volga and Kotorosl Rivers. Here we took a walking tour that our cruise director called an “ABC tour”, Another Bloody Cathedral tour.  For a country whose Soviet government for over three quarters of a century attempted to suppress organized religion, Russia has an amazing number of churches.  After walking along a beautiful promenade along the Volga River, we visited the Cathedral of the Assumption. 

Cathedral of the Assumption

This church was destroyed 4 times, the first three by fire and the fourth by the Soviet government in 1930. A wealthy Russian businessman paid over 130 million rubles to have the cathedral rebuilt in time for the 1000 year anniversary of Yaroslavl in 2010.  The interior was beautiful but there was a service being conducted when we visited so we were unable to take pictures.  Like all Russian Orthodox churches, there were no chairs or pews with the parishioners standing for the entire service. There are also no organs in the Russian Orthodox churches.  All singing is done a cappella.

Church of Elijah the Prophet

Altar at Church of Elijah the Prophet

From the Cathedral we walked through a lovely park arriving at the main city square.  Here stood the Church of Elijah the Prophet. In the 1930’s the local communist party leader called for the destruction of the church.  Fortunately, before this occurred a new communist leader rescinded the order. Three of the interior walls of the church were vibrant frescoes painted in the 1700’s. The artist mixed the paint with egg yolks and fish glue made up of crushed bones from the fish so that the frescoes retained their original colors. The front alter, carved from Linden and Birch trees contained many beautiful icons framed in gold. After leaving the Church of Elijah the Prophet,  we were given an hour free time where we joined the Johnson’s in a café for a cappuccino then browsing in the local market before returning to our boat.

We are once again cruising through scenic forests occasionally passing by picturesque villages.