Volga Dream (The Ship) was to be home for the next six – or was it 5 ? nights.     Stopping at a different location each day for a guided excursion.   The first port of call was …

Uglich

Uglich is another town in the Golden Ring.    Its main claim to fame is that on 15th May 1591 Ivan the Terrible’s 8 year old son Dmitry died in extremely mysterious circumstances which still to this day many conspiracy theories abound.   Most probably on the order of Boris Godunov who was challenging the Ruriks to become Tsar.    This plunged Uglich and the whole of Russia into the “Time of Troubles” accompanied by a number of “False Dmitrys all claiming their right to the throne and needless to say there are numerous churches, cathedrals and monestaries.   The obligatory Kremlin and the Church of St Dmitry on the Blood.     It seems that to qualify for sainthood all you had to do was to be murdered !!   But first we passed a flooded bell tower and several quite dramatic locks

A Statue of the ill fated Dmitry and then a slew of onion domes etc..

Of the course Golden Bling everywhere !!    Then back on board and we set sail for Yaroslavl

Yaroslavyl

Yes I know we have been here before as part of the previous weeks Golden Ring Tour so I wont bore you with repetitive blurb.    Just a few more photos……

A visit to the local market (they wont starve !!) and a statue (well sort of !!) of Don Quixote – Don’t ask because I didn’t ………….

A bizarre costumed performance in one of the old palaces and then back on board to sail onto Goritsy..

Goritsy

A few churches that we passed on the way, another lock and a statue of Our Lady of the Volga..

A pair of monasteries including the Kirillov Belozersky Monastery of St Cyrill (as in developer of the Cyrillic alphabet – another shortcut to sainthood !) on the edge of Lake Siverskoye.    The largest monastery in Russia.    Both needless to say crammed with amazing frescoes, icons and assorted golden bits.

Oh yes and a sleeping dog……….

Missing “the kids” so back on board to sail off to Kizhi Island.

However as I struggle to keep up with my blogging its off to Novgorod for a 2 day visit after several days in St Petersburg with fantastic weather.   A beer beckons so will post this now and get to Kizhi when I can……..

R