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.