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.

We arrived in Moscow yesterday at Domodedovo airport where we were met and taken by bus through the middle of Moscow to our boat, Viking Truvor. This took a long time, more than 2 hours as it was rush hour, although the traffic in Central Moscow seems to always be terrible.  Kept drifting away but was aware of lots of concrete apartment high rises then as we came nearer the centre, big classical buildings with retro fit air conditioning units spoiling the lines. We arrived at the boat about 7pm, quickly unpacked and went for dinner, which was good, but a long day from 3.30 this morning. Ready for bed.
Woke up to a view across the river of a sea plane, a submarine and snow! We are at the Northern river port terminal off the M10 next to Park Druzhby. We went out for a little wander in the park and the snow, beautiful but cold.
We went on a walking tour of Moscow after lunch. We set off with Lara to walk through the park to the nearby metro station. We are at the end of the green line and travelled 7 stops into the city before getting out to look at the mosaics on the ceiling of one metro station and then the bronze statues of “the workers” in another. Our guide made a great deal of us getting on the metro and off quickly but it was nowhere near as busy as the Tube. There was a Russian lady in a red coat who kept smiling at me and people generally seemed chatty and friendly. We then went on 2 stops to Red Square in the centre of Moscow.
Looked round the square, went into Saint Basil’s cathedral, listened to four guys singing tingly spine music. Small rooms but beautiful and full of painting, icons and colour. Met up with the others and walked up to the Bolshoi theatre and then on to Christ the Saviour cathedral, built between 1995 and 2000 mainly by public subscription. Our guide said that there is a great renewal of religion and depending on who you listen to approx 80% plus of the population identify as Russian Orthodox. Inside the cathedral, there were many worshipers including a lot of young women writing prayers and lighting candles which they placed in front of whichever of the icons they wanted. The icon of the Trinity was there along with an icon of Seraphim Sarovsky who was a Russian Monk born in 1754 He had a kindly face. I asked a young woman who he was as she was kissing his icon. I also wrote a prayer and left it on the desk but wasn’t brave enough to buy a candle and light it which I think was the idea.

We returned to the coach to eat a picnic tea and then walked across the bridge to a concert hall for an early evening of Russian folk music starting at 7pm. This was the Moscow folk orchestra with several dolmens, 4 balalaikas including a very large one, two table top stringed instruments (gusli), an accordion (bayan), a flute, a percussionist and a conductor. There was a young woman soprano with a cutting edge voice who came on and sang a couple of songs. There was also a fool who came and played the pipes and various other instruments and did a bit of dancing, rather superfluous as the music was really good without any other entertainment. A great time then back to the coach and the boat for dinner about half past 9.

What a year this has been!
We had put down a lot of our responsibilities towards the end of 2013, with the intention of taking a “gap year”. There were two significant birthdays, Graham November 2013 and Judith August 2014, as we both turned 60. During the summer of 2013, for many reasons, we decided to take a break between these two dates and have a break from as many things as we reasonably could. Towards this end, we ordered a caravan in October 2013, despite all that Graham has ever said about them, with the intention of doing some travelling in the spring and summer of 2014. This we did.

We began our “gap year” with a celebration of Grahams birthday at the beginning of November. All the family joined us for a weekend at Langdale, which has always been a special place for us. We had a wonderful weekend, including a mammoth game of Ombudsman, which is a Sutton family version of Pictionary, a Liquorice Allsort cake and a walk in the rain (what else!) among many other things.
However, it was harder to finish things off and leave things behind than we thought at first, not least because we started having a new kitchen fitted in November.  Graham was involved in removing the old kitchen and then doing the lighting and electrics and the kitchen fitters mostly finished about two days before Christmas. In the New Year we then had quite a bit to do in terms of decorating. Judith unpacked many treasures that had moved house with us 5 years before, but we had not had room in the old kitchen for them.
With the New Year our new caravan arrived and we started to prepare and equip it ready for our travels. Unfortunately, there were many problems, interruptions and unexpected requests that got in the way of us setting off, including Grahams first year end accounts of him being Church Treasurer at St Marys. One good interruption was the childrens present to Graham for his birthday, which was a green woodworking day in January, where Graham came home the proud owner of a bench, made without any screws or nails.

However, finally in March we did get away in the caravan, although we had another false start where the caravan mover wouldn’t work, which held us up for a couple of days. Anyone who knows where we live will realise that the only way to get a caravan down our lane is with a mover which actually turns a caravan into a massive remote control toy, great fun!

Our first trip out was for three nights to Haltwhistle and Hadrians Wall country, where we tried out all the systems on the caravan and Graham got used to towing, we did manage a couple of windy and wet walks, which Ellie the dog was grateful for, even though we endured rather than enjoyed.  We returned home for a few days and then set off again to Seahouses and the North East. We gradually began to relax with long, cold, breezy walks on the beaches, a freezing trip out to the Farne Islands and a beautiful sunny day on Lindisfarne or Holy Island. Our dog, Ellie, thought she was in heaven, especially as on returning to our little home, there was a cosy rug in the caravan with a hot air heater. We were toasty. We moved on down the coast to Alnwick and then on to Durham and went exploring. We found many things of interest including a trip into Newcastle and to see the Angel of the North, which I thought was magnificient.
We have seen and heard so much about the world around us on television but there is nothing to beat the first hand experience of being there in body, mind and spirit.
Further travels to follow, to Dorset/Devon and Ireland over the next few months.

Moving on to the school summer holidays, we had Joe and Austin to stay as usual for three days a week. At the beginning of August, we took them away for a weekend in the caravan to Hadrians Wall, which was a great success. We went to watch a Roman re-enactment at the Vindolanda fort which included the “Roman” soldiers starting their display of military manoevres and battle formation just as the heavens opened. They carried on for about 20 minutes as brave soldiers do under a torrential downpour until the commander called quits as he said that their armour would go rusty if they didn’t get dried off soon.

In August, we celebrated Judiths birthday during a week with all 10 of the family in a chalet in Chamonix, France.  The chalet had a large deck outside the living room and we sat out there in the sun and the rain looking out at Mont Blanc or the cloud depending on the day. This was a really great week in a beautiful place and it was so good to have everyone together, which doesn’t happen very often these days. The “children” planned and delivered a party on the Wednesday including silly games, decorations, old pictures, music and dancing followed by a fantastic meal including butter pies and parched peas and fish and chips, then macaroons and Ice cream.

September saw the end of the “gap” and a re-assessment of what we were to be involved in and a re-engagement into life in Ambleside.  Some things had not gone away such as the Treasurers job for Graham and running Cedar Counselling Cumbria for myself but for a while we had both managed to step back from a lot of day to day things, thanks to help and support from others. We returned to counselling, took on a new church study group and generally restarted a lot of our involvements with life in this community. My birthday present from the children was a day’s painting course in October and a set of watercolour paints, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

So Graham is pursuing woodwork and Judith painting as new interests. We have kept reminding each other how good life is, despite all the difficult and hard things that happen and there have been some of those for sure. We do realise how fortunate we are to live in this place and at this time and we are grateful for what we have and the opportunities we have not only to enjoy this good earth and our time here but also to share what we can with others in our own unique way.

And finally a phrase that has stuck with me over the last year.

“God is good, all the time, God is good”.