The Golden Ring

So, my prrrrrrrecccciouseseses, my trip around the "Golden Ring", a series of towns near Moscow known for being ancient... I was following the itinerary suggested on Way To Russia.

First stop on Wednesday was Vladimir, which at first I thought was a mistake as the outskirts weren't too pleasant to look at, but once I reached the historic centre it was very nice. Ancient, white stone, carved churches and plenty of trees made it very calm, and as it was on a hill top there were good view of the surrounding countryside. I finished the visit off at the bus station café, which was disgusting, but only cost 60p.

Then it was on to Suzdal, a tiny town that has government protection from industrial development, so it is full of traditional Russian wooden houses, several convents and monasteries, and a church for every five houses (or so it seems). And goats. I had a brief look around the outside of one monastery but as the sun was getting low in the sky I decided to find my hotel.

Eventually I found it, and it was pretty posh, my room was small but clean and decorated with painted wood, and having my own bathroom made a nice change after 10 days of hostels. I booked it and accommodation in the other towns through Real Russia, and they're really very good, I just had to present a piece of paper and it was all taken care of, but if there had been problems there were telephone numbers to ring including and 24hr emergency hotline, so that was reassuring. The room also had a TV, but only Russian channels. I watched a bit of some American rubbish though, because it was dubbed in a really bizarre way, you could here the original voices behind, as if it was being done live.

I got up early hoping to see Suzdal as the sun rose, but unfortunately it was overcast so it wasn't so picturesque. Also my camera batteries ran out so I couldn't take as many photos as I'd have liked. I think Fujitsu cameras use batteries far too fast, though maybe this was a good thing as I've been taking far too many photos, I need to cut down. I saw plenty of free-range chickens though, wandering willy-nilly around the backstreets. After breakfast I got some new batteries and walked around the kremlin, which here consisted of a grass covered earth mound, but inside there were more beautiful wooden houses. I don't see how they can be warm enough for the Russian winter.

The itinerary I was following suggested going through Ivanovo as an example of an old Soviet town, though in the end I had no choice as I had to change buses there. I woke up (as I normally fall asleep when put in a moving vehicle) to see razor wire and grim burned out looking buildings, worse than anything from any dystopian science fiction film, you could smell the pollution. So I got out as soon as possible.

In Kostroma I stayed at an old Soviet hotel, which was pretty charmless, but had a great view of the Volga. In the evening I went for a long walk to the town centre, which was all quite old and grand, then along the river. I got a great view of the sun setting behind a monastery on the opposite bank as a sailing boat went past. I had hoped to get a hydrofoil on the Volga from Kostroma to Yaroslavl, but I couldn't find it on the timetable and the ticket office was closed, so I went by bus.

Yaroslavl is a big city, but off the main streets it's pretty calm and quiet. Right in the centre there's a monastery which is very peaceful. Some of it was covered in scaffolding, but it was wooden scaffolding so it didn't spoil the atmosphere. I was only there for a couple of hours though, before having to stand for over an hour on the bus to Rostov Velikiy.

It was worth it though, Rostov seems like a quiet village mostly, with tree lined streets, lots of carved wooden houses, the odd derelict grand looking building with a Lenin statue (the school apparently)... Then, at the centre, just before you reach the lake, there's a huge beautiful Kremlin, enough for a large city. Further along there were several monasteries, I walked to one in the evening along the lake shore as the sun set behind it, it was pretty idyllic. And the hotel was the nicest, in an old manor with a big room, though no international TV this time.

For once it wasn't overcast in the morning, so I had another walk around Rostov, going inside the Kremlin and so on. After that I decided to go straight back to Moscow to have a bit of a rest from churches, churches, and more churches. I went by train in third class, which wasn't so bad, all the compartments are open to the corridor. Unfortunately there was some kind of radio playing, and Russian pop is as dreadful and irritating as pop anywhere else.