The last day here in this beautiful city.

We got a taxi into the city about 10am and got him to drop us at the Peter and Paul Fortress on the northern bank of the River Neva. This was the original settlement founded by Alexander Nevsky in the 1200s, but then made into a city by Peter1, more often known as Peter the Great in the early 1700s. He was the first of the Romanov dynasty and responsible for the main layout of the streets and canals. We walked into the fortress and along the Main Street until we came to the Peter and Paul Cathedral. This is where al the Tsars except 2 are buried and many of the nobility. It is a mausoleum and there is a chapel where the last Tsar, Nicholas 2nd and some of his family are buried. This has been closed as the other 2 members of the family, Alexi and Maria, were due to be buried on 18 th October but this has been delayed for further tests on the remains. We went into a side room and heard 4 men singing acapella including very deep bass. We came outside just in time for the 12 o’clock cannon being fired, which made me jump.

We walked on to the commandants house which was a museum of the history of Saint Petersburg from early archaeological finds up to the 19th century. We then walked over the bridge back into the main part of the city, along the river Neva,  through the hermitage square and went to the four seasons hotel for lunch. This was living like a tsar in a royal palace. We had a lovely lunch of Bortch served in a rye bread bowl, followed by lamb souvlaki.

After lunch we went into  Saint Isaac’s cathedral where there was a service going on in the left hand side chapel. The choir was singing behind the screen, presumably with the priest. In front there was a congregation who after every phrase, crossed themselves and bowed.

We walked back through the city to the Russian museum on the arts square to meet the coach at half past 5. Then a really slow journey back through the rush hour, only arriving back at 7.30 for our final dinner.

We went up to the sky bar for the last entertainment, Marinsky, which was a male tenor singer with a female accompanist on the piano. Very enjoyable.

Up and off early today for a trip out to Pushkin to see the Summer Palace. This was originally a small house where the Tzar and family went in summer but it was pulled down by Catherine 1sts daughter, Elizabeth and rebuilt in 4 years in a European baroque style in the mid 1700s.

The gardens in front of the palace were lovely, laid out in the French style with long avenues of trees. The gardens to the side were English style, with naturalised trees and grass areas. There were several buildings in the grounds. It sounded like whenever Elizabeth had an event on, she built another dining room often out in the grounds and there was a separate kitchen, where things were prepared and then had to be transported to whichever dining room was in use at the time

The palace itself was like nothing I’ve seen before, bling in the extreme, quite amazing but also quite gross.

Lunch back on the boat then a walking tour of the city in the afternoon.

Got a bus to the nearest Metro station which was proletariat station and caught the metro into the centre at Gorsky Dana. Walked along Nevsky Prospect which is the Main Street of St P and runs from the Admiralty building out to the Nevsky Monastery and thus was planned to join the Sea and Naval force with the church and Godly force in Peter the Greats day.

After dinner, we were treated to a Cossack song and dance show in a marquee on the pier. This was fun, a lot of raucous singing, a band with a couple of balalaikas, two accordions and a percussionist. The girls did a lot of twirling and stamping feet and the men did some very acrobatic dances, including sword play and kicking legs.

We arrived in Saint Petersburg in the early hours of the morning. Today we go to L’Hermitage museum, which is based in the old Winter Palace built by Catherine the Great.

What a palace, we went up the main marble staircase, I have never seen so much gilt and marble and ornamentation. Walked on through the palace rooms including the red throne room and endless large rooms with magnificent ceilings, marquetry floors and far too much to look at. Then we entered into the Hermitage, only went through some of the Italian rooms and some of the Dutch before we had to return.

We saw Leonardo’s 2 madonnas, both quite small but exquisite.

We saw Rembrandts parable of the prodigal son which was a massive canvas and his old man in red (self portrait?) His “Taking Christ down from the cross” had amazing light in it.

Other paintings that stuck with me were

the old lady by the fire

adam and eve

We arrived this morning in Mandrogy, a craft village, which I thought meant a tourist opportunity to part us from our money. It was not quite like that, more a village of very skilled craftsmen and women. I signed up to do the Matroysha doll painting. This was great fun although we were treated like naughty primary school children by Helen, Mother Goose, and we were her little goslings. We were told about the dolls and what all the different colours meant and then we started painting and time soon got the better of us. After this, we walked round the village and looked at some of the different workshops, including blacksmith, matryoshka painting, birch bark carving, dried flowers, weavers, lace making, linen work, artists, most of whom were very good artisans.

Back  to the boat for lunch and sat with the couple from Leicester and two ladies from Washington DC.

Went to the final question and answer session on modern Russia, with Misha, Andrey and Alexey although had heard most things discussed in some way before on this trip. We sailed on past miles of wooded shores, all in their autumn colours, with small groups of wooden houses every so often. Another great sunset before we entered Lake Lagoda but then the ship began to rock as we got ready for dinner. I opened the door to the balcony and there was a fierce wind blowing.

A captains farewell dinner tonight, 7 courses, and we thought we were going to sit on our own but after we had ordered, a couple came in late and joined us. They were Viccy and Lazarus of Greek extraction from New Jersey. They were Greek Orthodox and he was a professor of politics with economics in a university, still working a couple of days a week. It was his 78th birthday 2 days ago and they produced a cake for him as he had been unwell on his birthday. We had a good discussion about theology and faith and religion.

We went through 6 locks overnight and woke up around 7am to the ship being rocked about by the waves on Lake Onega. This is the second biggest lake in Europe and we are travelling up here today to Kizhi Island. This is a small island about 1 mile by 2 miles and is the site of a 300 year old wooden church, built without any nails or screws holding it together. There are many other wooden structures here some dating from the 15th century and it is a unesco world heritage site.

In the morning we had a tour of the bridge with the Captain telling us about life on board ship. There are always at least two people on the bridge round the clock and they work 4 hours on 8 hours off continually. It was quite windy today and the lake was choppy, this is considered as being at sea in a large body of water and therefore they could use automatic pilot.

We then went for a talk by Alexey on the up to date political situation,  the time of Yeltsin and Putin. Then it was lunch followed by docking at Kizhi island.

We went on a walking tour first of all to the Cathedral of the Ascension, which is in the process of being remade. The walls are made of pine logs and are being repaired or replaced. The shingles on the domes are made of Aspen and have to be replaced frequently. The church has a metal structure inside it for support until this process is finished. Next door the people had built a winter church as they could not afford to heat the big church. This had the usual icons and screen inside and is still used as a church during the summer season.

We then looked round a farmhouse which had one big room on the ground floor, where the family lived, cooked and slept. There was a big stove at one side that was used for heating and cooking. The opposite corner was the red (beautiful) corner which had the family icon in it. The first floor was where they kept the animals, the hay for winter feed and used as a workshop. There were wooden logs in a ramp up to this level to let the animals go inside.

We walked on to the end of the island, a quiet, beautiful place.

Returning to the ship, we went to another Russian lesson before dinner. As the boat set sail around 5pm the sun came through under the clouds and we had a wonderful sunset as we sailed on down the river.

At dinner, we sat with a couple from Baltimore, Maryland, Rob and Cressie. He was a recently retired burns surgeon and she had trained as a teacher, but been a homemaker for many years. After dinner there was a quiz based on Call my Bluff with Katrin, Joachim, Evelyn and Alexey. We won a bottle of champagne, yeah.

We have been sailing across the Rybinsk reservoir overnight and arrived in Kuzino this morning.

We went by coach into Kuzino and visited a high school. Two 15 year old girls who were dressed in folk costume that they had made, sang for us and we looked at some of the handicrafts that the pupils had made. One of the girls said that she liked lacemaking as a hobby. We looked at a display about the Second World War and then went into a classroom where we were told a little about the school system. Children here go to school at 6 or 7 and stay until they are 17, they have three tiers of school like the American system. The junior school wear uniform but not middle or high school, although there is a dress code, no bright colours and no jeans. They all have to take exams in 9th grade in Maths and Russian and two other subjects that they choose. After 11th grade they can go to university but this means going to the big city and places are hard to get.

We visited the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, which was founded in 1397 by St. Cyril. This was a big walled area with several churches and at its height had 700 monks living and working there as well as many other people, in effect a large village. There are still a few monks living and working here, mainly helping poor people. The monks are the black priests who took the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. In Stalins time, most of the priests were killed or sent to prison and a lot of the treasures were confiscated. We saw some of the treasures, including precious silver items, carved wooden statues and icons. These included one of the father, son and Holy Spirit which was banned as it was considered wrong to depict God as a man. This icon was discovered 8 years ago during renovations to the roof, someone had wrapped it in linen and had hidden it away where it remained for 300 years. A lot of the silver came from coins that had been melted down to decorate icons and make chandeliers, incense burners and candle holders. Our guide said that in the Russian orthodox tradition, icons were theology expressed in colour and their music was theology expressed in sound. He said the worst ruler was Catherine the Great who had come from a Catholic background and who banned them from trading and said that they should concentrate on prayer instead. Andre was a jokey guide, talking about his love of fishing and his cherry tomato which is what he called his wife.

We carried on in the buses to rejoin our ship at Gorinsy, where there were lots of market stalls as we walked to the ship. Some were selling furs, chinchilla and mink, a mink jacket was 850 dollars. After lunch went to a talk on Mickael Gorbachev and perestroika. In 1990, he brought in reforms and 12 countries separated out beginning with the 3 Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. They were joined by another 9 states who chose to become independant, leaving Russia on its own. There was vast inflation, shortages of food and many people suffered at this time.

I then went to a demonstration of how to make Russian Pelmeni, which are like ravioli by Joachim, the Head Chef. They are served with smetana or sour cream.

We then had dinner which was a Russian evening starting with Borscht, then Salmon  in puff pastry with a herb stuffing. The staff were all in Russian dress and afterwards we had vodka tasting where we sat with a couple from Leicester.

A morning visit to Uglich which is an ancient  town if 33,000 inhabitants on a bend of the Volga river. We started early this morning with a walking tour from the Kremlin (fortress) around the riverside highlights with a middle aged Russian lady who was a music teacher.

We saw the Transfiguration Cathedral where they were just preparing for a service at 9am, there was a girl chanting out of a book. We caught a glimpse of the priest through the icon screen in a yellow cope getting ready for the service.

We also went into the church of Dmitri on the blood, which was painted red on the outside with blue domes. The frescoes told the story of Dmitri, the 8 year old last son of Ivan the terrible who was murdered in Uglich by his fathers enemies. The floor was made of pressed iron tiles. There was a new statue outside of Dmitri, there had been a big celebration this summer with all the children of the town when this had been erected.

We went on by mini bus to Tamaras home in a back unmade street in Uglich. There were gas pipes running along the street, propped up on supports about 5 feet off the ground.  She showed us her home and was very hospitable, we sat at a long table in her living room and ate tomatoes, gherkins and potatoes from her garden, rye bread from the local bakery, drank vodka made by her husband Nikolai, then Black Russian tea and home made apple cake. She had three children and one grandson who lived with them and they had lived here in a brick built house for 12 years. We talked about family, jobs, health care, President Putin, the old USSR, holidays, education. She then showed us her garden including a sauna in an outdoor shed and many old artefacts that she had collected. She also had done a lot of craft work and had examples of Russian dolls that she had made for all occasions. We returned to the riverside and walked back to the ship through the park with many stalls of local handicrafts. We bought socks for 300R, a scarf for 800R and some Christmas decorations for 400R.

After lunch, there was a talk on Russia after the revolution, about life under Lenin, which was generally good and then life under Stalin, which was not. The Second World War, which for the Russians was from 1941-1945 was disastrous with 27 million Russians dying either from the war itself or from cold and starvation or from their own regime in the Gulag.

At dinner we sat with 6 Americans, Tom and Louise from Portland, Oregon and Robert, his wife, her sister and brother in law from Dallas, Texas and had an interesting? evening talking about Obama care, Donald Trump, drugs, the law system, the Royal family.

Travelling on this morning by ship to Uglich after a change of plans as there was not enough water in the canal to get us to Yaroslavl which should have been the next stop on the journey after Uglich. Instead we are staying overnight in Uglich, and going on a coach trip to Yaroslavl this afternoon. We then see Uglich tomorrow morning before sailing on in the afternoon. Bit complicated but the captain told us this last night before dinner and his word is law on the ship.

After breakfast we went to a talk on the Romanovs and this reminded me of history lessons with lots of names and dates. I do seem to remember that Peter the Great was the beginning of the Romanov dynasty in the 1680s and he was the one who made Saint Petersburg the capital of Russia as it was a port and he wanted to have control of the Navy from his palace. There were lots of strands of the family with girls having no place in the succession but more  than one wife was allowed and then the sons from different mothers became rivals for the throne. The dynasty ended in 1918 with Nicolas 2nd and his family, the last Tzar and his family all being killed with the start of the Russian Revolution.

We had lunch and then travelled by coach to Yaroslavl, through countryside fields and woods, mainly birch and pine trees. As we travelled, our guide told us a long story about a bear, which is the symbol of the city. There were some tiny villages along the road with mainly wooden houses painted in greens, yellows and blues, with beautiful white fretwork surrounding the windows. Some places looked very poor and as we entered the outskirts of Yaroslavl we drove through suburban wooden houses then very scruffy industrial areas with workshops. As we came nearer the middle of the city, we saw very new and glossy car salerooms and garages. Then we came to the older classical buildings with the Russian churches in the centre. We stopped at the governors house, which is now a museum and were met at the door by the “governors daughters” who showed us round the house. There were portraits in the salon and then we went into the ballroom which was beautiful. They entertained us with music on the grand piano with a violin and cello and then danced for and with us. We then looked at the Governors office and they told us about the language of flowers and fans and asked us some riddles. This could have been any 18th century salon in Europe.

We moved on to the church of Elijah the Prophet which was unusual with its frescoes telling the story of Elijah and the shummanite woman. This is very unusual for a Christian church to be dedicated to an Old Testament prophet.There was the usual iconography screen with the doors in the middle that leads to the High Altar, where only the priest goes.

We then walked onto the Assumption Cathedral, built by a local wealthy anonymous donor in 2007-2010. This was built on the site of a cathedral from the 11th Century which was destroyed during the soviet era. It was all brand new inside, but followed the exact same layout of many of the churches we have seen. The walls were still mainly bare although the donor was arranging to have frescoes painted.

We walked into the town and went to the market where they had arranged a tasting session for us of pickles, ham, cheese. We bought some chocolate, mint tea, and dried fruits at the market and then went to look at some of the shops along the Main Street. We then had an hour and a half bus ride back to the boat, the roads were very bumpy on the return journey and we got back for a late dinner.

The final day in Moscow and a trip to The Kremlin in the morning. However as we got out of our coach and walked down to the gates, the snow started along with a fierce wind as we walked through the security and up into the kremlin. We paused to look at the presidents palace and then round the corner to cathedral square. We retreated from the snow into one of the cathedrals, which was warm and full of people.

We returned to the ship for lunch and then set sail at 2pm, with all the crew outside letting go of balloons and banging tins with spoons. It is their last trip of the season.

We had a snoozy Sunday afternoon travelling up the canal watching the skyscrapers of the Moscow suburbs surrounded by woods then moving further along the banks, a few country houses or Dachas, people out on the tow path at picnic areas.

We had a talk about Russia and then a language lesson, then went to get ready for dinner. There was a drink in the bar with the Captain, Alexander Voronin, who was a big guy, with no English. Then another good dinner with good company.

We travelled from the port into Moscow by coach this morning at 10am. We went into red square and joined the queue for Lenins tomb. It was very dark inside in polished black and red marble with steps down into the mausoleum. Lenin was in a casket which was brightly lit from above, he looked very small.

We then walked through the Guum (RYM) department store into the back streets, walked into a toy store which was empty apart from security guys on the doors and a couple of shop assistant

We wandered a bit further and came to the old KGB headquarters (now the FSA?) the joke was that you it was very tall as you could see all the way to Siberia from the top.

We walked back to the Alexander gardens in time for 11am to watch the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. The precision of the goose step was brilliant and would have been very funny if not so seriously done. There were two guys behind me and one tapped me on the shoulder and said something in Russian, he was telling me my bag was open, very grateful for this.

We then headed over the river and the canal to the tretakov art gallery, which cost us 400Roubles each, with another 450 for an audio guide. We walked up an impressive marble staircase to a first floor of paintings, many portraits, a few landscapes, but not many with English commentary. Downstairs, there were mainly icons, some of which dated back to the 12th century. We had lunch in the cafe downstairs, I picked what I thought was a fish cake but it was a meat sausage cake and some beetroot, Graham had a small veal steak with sour cream and potato salad. We had a black tea and a pink juice drink which was thick, slimy and a bit sweet but didn’t taste of a lot else. This all cost 550R (£5.50 approx).

We walked down again through the basement and through into the back of the building where it said Temple Museum. This was quite a grand and very ornate church, where I had to wear a head scarf. The only English translation was about an icon of Mary and Jesus which was very old, supposedly from Constantinople, which is where Christianity came to Russia from in 889AD.

we wandered back towards red square and looked at the market stalls, there was a queue so as we understood this is the way in Russia, we joined the queue and found ourselves in front of a massive cake, which the girls were cutting up and handing out to everyone. We watched the blacksmiths doing some metalwork, with customers bashing horseshoes and nails into shape. We went back into Gum to get an ice cream before getting back on the bus at 4pm to return to the ship.