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This Woman Was Here

A Do-It-Yourselfer's Life Journey

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Category Archives: Russian River Cruise

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Russia River Cruise

I found another great deal from Gate 1 for a twelve day river cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow with stops in Mandrogi (reconstructed 18th century Russian village), Kizhi (Church of the Trasfiguration), Goritsy (Monastery of St. Cyril), Yaroslavl (Transfiguration of the Savior Monastery and Cathedral), and Uglich (Church of St. Dimitry-0n-Bood and Transfiguration Cathedral). It is the same itinerary that Viking Cruises do, but our cruise was half the price ($3,000 with airfare). We cruise from Sept 15-25 so we are hoping the weather will be nice. The most difficult part of planning the trip was getting the Russina visa, which is a long and cumbersome process. GenVisa has a very helpful example page that will walk you through the process.

In spite of hurricane Florence, we flew out of Gainesville and Atlanta without a hitch, and our flight from Paris to St. Petersburg was also easy. A Gate 1 representative met us at the airport and drove us to the MS Chicherin on the Volga River. The biggest surprise was how warm it is (my guess is 70’s), no need for a jacket. We arrived on board around 3:30 pm. Luckily, this first day is simply unpacking. The rooms are very tiny, with hand held showers like you might find on a sailboat, but hey, we’re in St. Petersburg! So far the food has been quite good. Here is a map of our route. We pass through two of the larges lakes in Europe, Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega as well as White Lake and the Ribinski Reservoir (which was an ecological disaster that flooded hundreds of villages).

cabin

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Day 1, St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg, founded in 1703 by Peter the Great after his war against Sweden gained him an outlet on the Baltic Sea, is called the Venice of the north because it is a city of canals (but also streets). Today it is a city of 5 million people (officially) but 12 (unofficially, including the suburbs). Surprisingly, in spite of its great beauty, the city is losing population because it is expensive and does not offer the job opportunities of cities such as Moscow. It is visited by more than 12 million tourists each year (already more than 20 million this year because of the FIFA World Cup).

We were lucky to have fairly warm weather and only scattered showers while we were here because St. Petersburg is as far north as Alaska and only gets an average of 30 days of sunshine a year.

St. Petersburg is a beautiful city, one designed by Christopher Wren, whom Peter the Great met in 1697 in London. It was built on swampy ground, so buildings could not be tall, and by decree not taller than the Winter Palace, (67 ft). Muscovites were skeptical of moving to the new city, but Peter the Great (henceforth PTG) decreed that they could choose St. Petersburg or Siberia, so the city grew quickly. PTG also decreed that stone could be used as a building material only in St. Petersburg (and nowhere else in Russia). The city is architectural very European. By turns, I felt like I was in Paris, London, and Venice.

St. Petersburg is built along the Neva River that empties into the Gulf of Finland.

St. Petersburg was renamed several times. In 1914 at the outbreak of WW I, it was renamed Petrograd, in 1924, after the death of Lenin, it was renamed Leningrad, and in 1991, citizens voted to rename it St. Petersburg. It was the cradle of the October, 1917 socialist revolution.

Our first stop was the Smolny Cathedral (1748-1769), a blue and white cathedral designed by the architect of all the royal buildings.

Next, in the middle of a downpour, we stopped at the  Church of the Resurrection, renamed the Church on the Spilled Blood after Alexander II was assassinated here in 1881. Alexander had initiated a number of reforms, including freeing the serfs. The towers were being restored, so I didn’t get great pictures, but here’s one from the St. Petersburg guide that I bought.

 

 

The Hermitage Museum along Nevsky Prospekt, the main avenue of the city, is five buildings, including The Winter Palace, the Small, Hermitage, the old Hermitage, and the Hermitage Theater.

The Winter Palace was constructed on the Palace Square between 1754 and 1762 by Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli (who designed all the royal palaces in the area). It was the main residence of the Russian rulers. It holds 3 million pieces of art. We had a tour that took us through all the major rooms in a little over an hour. Needless to say, it was overwhelming. Art by every major name. Huge malachite vases, inlaid floors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each room is designed to compliment the art.

replica of apartment in St Paul’s cathedral

portrait gallery of generals for Napoleonic war

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a Greek room, with the largest collection of Greek vases in the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fontina River (a man-made canal built to feed fountains of the summer garden) once marked the boundaries of the city. The city has a mixture of modern architecture and traditional.

modern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral, built in 1703 on a small island, is the first building completed in St. Petersburg,

The interior is ornate. It is the burial place of all the Russian rulers, from Peter the Great to the Romanovs.

 

Egyptian sphynx with St. Issacs in background

St. Isaac’s Cathedral, with its huge golden dome, was built between 1818 and 1858. It is the largest cathedral in Russia and the fourth larges single dome in the world.

 

 

 

 

That night I went on an evening cruise of the canals, which was gorgeous.

 

St. Petersburg seen from the water is very reminiscent of Venice.

 

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Day 2, Catherine Palace, Peterhof Park and Gardens

Pushkin, also known as the town of the czars, is about 40 mins from St. Petersburg, and home to the Alexander Palace and the Catherine Palace. We first passed the Alexandre Palace, which was a gift from Catherine the Great to her grandson Alexander, who is the ruler who defeated Napoleon when he made the mistake of invading Russia.

The Alexander Palace was the favorite home of Czar Nicholas II. The family believed that the best way to keep it secret that their son, Alexis, was a hemophiliac was to live away from the capital, which turned out to be a tragic mistake. The family spent only 11 days in St. Petersburg, which contributed to the czar’s lack of understanding of the political situation in the city. When he was forced to abdicate, he and his family were placed under house arrest in the Alexander Palace, and it was from there they departed, never to return.

The Catherine Palace or the Summer Palace was named after Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great (PTG), who ruled Russia for only two years after his death.

PTG got the idea for summer houses from the Dutch, therefore the name, dacha for summer house in Russian. PTG gave the land to his first wife, Catherine, and while he was on one of his tours of Europe, she had a 16 room wooden summer house built on the land. When PTG daughter, Elizabeth ascended to the throne, she had it rebuilt into a 300 room Baroque palace, completed in 1756. It was intended to rival Versailles, and indeed it does, but on a smaller scale.

Our first glimpse of the palace was of the gold domes of the Royal Chapel (not yet restored, but due to be opened in 2020). The blue and white exterior is decorated with hundreds of statues that were covered in gold leaf in Elizabeth’s time.

 

 

 

 

The primary architect was Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who also designed the Winter Palace, the Peterhof Palace, and many other palaces in and around St. Petersburg.

Elizabeth was the great enlarger of all of PTG’s palaces. She had 69 palaces and is said to have owned 15,000 gowns. Her coronation gown weighed 80 pounds, and the ceremony for which she had to stand, lasted 7 hours.

When Catherine the Great ascended to the throne after her husband’s death. She disliked the ornate style of the palace and had it redesigned in neoclassical style and had the gold removed from the statues.

In spite of Stalin’s 1939 nonaggression pact with Germany, Hitler invaded Russia in 1941 and reached the outskirts of St.Petersburg in  6 weeks, beginning the 900 day siege of St. Petersburg, in which an estimated 2.5 million people died of starvation and of bombing. During the worst winter on record, (1941-42), 6 to 7 thousand people died each day in the city.

Before the Nazis reached The Catherine Palace, most of the paintings and precious objects were removed, but the most famous room, the Amber Room was not evacuated. The panels of mosaic amber were originally presented to PTG by the King of Prussia, but were stored and forgotten until Elizabeth rediscovered them and had them installed in the Catherine Palace. When the Nazis took over the palace, they promptly took down the amber panels and packed them in crates and shipped them out to Koenigsberg. The panels that made up the Amber Room have never been located. When the Nazis retreated, they destroyed most of the Catherine Palace, just as they did the Peterhof Palace.

Only 20 of the 300 rooms have currently been restored. The Light Gallery or Throne Room was used as a ballroom and reception room and was lit by over 2 thousand candles.

Even though the Catherine Palace is a summer palace and was not used in winter, most of the rooms were heated with floor to ceiling blue and white porcelain heaters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Amber Room is the most famous room. It is a replica of the original, begun in 1979 and completed in 2002 at a cost of over 28 million Euros. No photos are allowed in the Amber Room, but I was able to take pictures from a guidebook I purchased.

The Picture Gallery contains paintings contributed by CTG, but not her favorites, and the paintings were used much like wallpaper to cover every inch of the walls.

 

 

 

 

Each room is very different. The Cameron room, named after the man who designed it (also the man who excavated Pompeii) is also called the Wedgwood Room for obvious reasons.

The Gardens of the Catherine Palace are also quite spectacular.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peterhof Park and Gardens was PTG’s official summer residence. It is surrounded by 2 parks with 700 acres. Like the Catherine Palace, the architect was Bartolomeo Rastrelli, and it was significantly enlarged by his daughter Elizabeth in the mid 1700’s. Also, like the Catherine Palace, it was destroyed by the Nazis during WW II. The restoration of the gardens was completed in 2003.

We didn’t see the interior of the palace, but it is not supposed to be as grand as the Catherine Palace. Catherine the Great did not like the Peterhof Palace because she and her husband were deficit prisoners here when Elizabeth wanted her to get pregnant (after 8 years of marriage). She did get pregnant, but there is speculation about whether the father was her husband or one of the handsome guards.

The main attraction at Peterhof is the gardens.

Even though it was rainy when we were there, the gardens and many fountains were lovely.

 

 

 

Catherine the Great’s greenhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The garden is located on the Gulf of Finland across from St. Petersburg, and we saw catamarans arriving and departing, undoubtedly from the city.

 

 

 

 

 

To create this extraordinary chamber, Rastrelli used the panels of amber mosaic originally destined for an Amber Cabinet at Konigsberg Castle and presented to Peter the Great by Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia, and surrounded them with gilded carving, mirrors, more amber panels created by Florentine and Russian craftsman (comprising a total of 450kg of amber), and further mosaics of Ural and Caucasus gemstones. The room was completed in 1770. Due to the fragility of the materials used, a caretaker was employed constantly to maintain and repair the decorations, and major restoration was undertaken three times in the 19thcentury. The room was used to house a substantial collection of amber-work and Chinese porcelain. In 1941, when German troops took Tsarskoe Selo, the Amber Room was dismantled in 36 hours, and shipped to Konigsberg in a tawdry pretence at historical fidelity. As the Nazi war machine crumbled, the panels were crated up and moved out of danger, but their eventual fate is unknown.

 

 

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Day 3, Mandrogi

There was a storm on Lake Lagoda last night, and the boat rocked quite bit. The morning dawned bright and clear and cooler (high 40’s). We were in the narrow Svir River with birch trees lining the shores and occasional small fishing settlements. We heard that the slightly smaller ship we began in St. Petersburg with had to anchor last night because of the storm and had to miss Mandrogi.

We went through the first of several locks that morning, rising 15-20.

Mandrogi is a small village on the north shore of Svir River that was settled in the 18th century but completely destroyed in WW II. After the fall of the Soviet Union, a group of Russian businessmen bought the land and invited local woodworkers to restore the town using traditional methods. Between 1996 and 1999 the traditional buildings were rebuilt.

Many of the buildings were moved from other northern villages.

 

There are several dozen buildings that house wonderful artifacts .

 

Today the village houses traditional craftsmen.

At lunch we were entertained with Russian folk music.

The architecture varies from authentic to fanciful.

There are a dozen private houses that can be rented, and Putin has his own house that he has used only twice.

A horse drawn carriage will take you around the island if you don’t feel like walking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vodka museum has two thousand kinds of vodka, and for 150 rubles, you can sample two different kinds. We had lovely weather. Mandrogi is an artists’ paradise.

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Day 4, Kizhi Pogost

I woke up this morning and looked out our window to see this as we arrived in Kizhi pogost (enclosure).

The island of Kizhi, in Lake Omega in Karelia, is 4 miles long and contains the best examples of Russian wooden architecture, the Church of the Transfiguration (summer church, built in 1714), the Church of the Intercession (winter church built in 1764), and an octagonal wooden bell tower built in 1862.

Picture of church without scaffolding

The island was settled by Karelians and Veps (Finish people). We are close to Finland and close to the arctic circle. Russians settled in the 13th century and built the Russian Orthodox churches to impress and convert the pagan natives. The churches served the 3,000 people who lived on the island at the time and the population of the surrounding islands. Today, only 70 people (and 2 thousand vipers) live on the island year round. In summer, a hydrofoil comes every day from the nearest city, but in winter, a helicopter comes only once a week.

Legend has it that the Church of the Transfiguration was built by one man, Master Nestor, who built the nail-less church with only an axe. Apparently, axe cuts are more resistant to water. Both churches are built entirely of aspen. The summer church (undergoing reconstruction) has 22 domes and 33 thousand shingles. It is the largest and most complicated wooden church in the world.  Both churches burned down after being struck by lightning in 1693 and the currently existing churches were built on the very site of the former ones.

The interior iconographic paintings were done between the 16th and 18th centuries.

 

 

The next building we toured was the 1876 farmer’s house (House of Oshevnev) where an extended family of  fifteen lived. The exterior trim is ornately carved. The living quarters were one room that could be heated with a large stove. The family ate, cooked, worked, and slept on the floor here.

Behind the living space for the family was a much nicer guest space with chairs, oil lamps, and beds.

Behind that was a huge workroom where carpentry and even boat building could be done in winter. 

 

 

Next, we watched a craftsman creating the aspen shingles used on the cathedrals. He also had watercolors painted on a shingle for sale, and I bought one. Ellie and I also bought small framed oil paintings from a window beside the winter church.

Each house also had a sauna for winter months.

The next small church had a series of bells that were played like a xylophone by a local musician.

The windmill was used for grinding rye (primary crop on the island) and could be turned to take advantage of winds from different directions.

The small Lazarus chapel was a built by St. Lazarus in the middle of the 14th century and later moved here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Ellie sat down to paint the churches, I explored the many other barns, granaries, and several houses line the paths of the area. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we got back to the boat, we enjoyed a vodka tasting party.

We sampled 5 different vodkas with an assortment of Russian appetizers and blinis with caviar while we enjoyed Russian folk music.

 

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Day 5, Monastery of St. Cyril, Goritsy

The first thing you see as you approach Goritsy is the Goritsy Nunnery, where Russian rulers sent their wives when they wished to remarry. Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great both contributed first wives. 

The monastery we visited was in Krilov, 8 km away, the Kirillo-Belozerskiy monastery or the monastery of St Cyril on the White Lake, which dates back to 1397.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is one of the largest in Russia. In the middle of the 1600’s, the monastery served as military bastion that protected Moscow from the largest military power of the time, Sweden. It once held 1,200 inhabitants including monks, soldiers, and artisans. The monastery reached the peak of its power in the middle of the 18th century when it owned 20,00 serfs, 400 villages, huge amounts of property, and a salt mine.

The monastery was turned into a museum after the revolution, but since 1998, it has been an active monastery, today housing 17 monks.

The frescoes on the entrance gates were painted in 1545.

It sits on the banks of the White Lake.

 

 

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Day 6, Yaroslavl

We crossed the Rybinsk Reservoir, created by Stalin by damning the Volga and the Sheksna rivers and flooding 700 villages. We entered the Rybinsk Waterway marked by a colossal statue.

Along the way we saw numerous onion domed churches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Yaroslavl, a city of 650,000 people, located on the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl Rivers, at 3:00 p.m. Yaroslavl is a lovely city of classical buildings, parks, pedestrian streets and lovely old churches. It is one of Russia’s oldest cities, tracing its roots back to the days of the Vikings. It was officially founded in 1010 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise and was a major commercial center from the 11th century onward. In 17th century wealthy merchants built 50 cathedrals in the city, a tradition carried on by today’s oligarchs, one of whom just built a new Cathedral of the Assumption decorated with ceramic mosaics 8 years ago, and another of whom built a park with colored fountains at the confluence of the two rivers. Yaroslavl was the home of the first professional theater in 1750. Yaroslavl is also considered an outstanding example of the urban planning Empress Catherine the Great ordered for the whole of Russia in 1763.

The Alexander Nevsky Chapel is surrounded by classical buildings.

We got to see a couple taking wedding pictures with antique cars.

 Church of Elijah the Prophet with its detailed frescoes and icons, a real masterpiece of ancient Russian art.

The Church of St. Nicholas was the first stone church in Yaroslavl.

It’s interior is richly decorated with brightly colored frescoes. The ornate altar doors resemble stage curtains, largely because one of Yaroslavl’s professional actors was involved in its design.

 

 

 

 

 

Just two years ago, the 16th century frescos in the antechamber were discovered. They are more muted in color and depict the story of Adam and Eve and of Noah’s Arc.

The depiction of the saints is similar to Byzantium style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yaroslavl Museum of Russian Art housed in the 18th century Governor’s mansion. We were given a tour by a costumed daughter of the 18th century governor who explained the collection of Russian paintings and many of the customs of the day. At the end of the tour we were treated to a ball in the ballroom with music and dance demonstrations, which the visitors were welcome to join.

On our way out, we saw a display of laquerware from various provinces.

Afterwards, we walked through a park and saw the eternal flame commemorating soldiers and workers with the brand new Cathedral of the assumption behind it with the moon coming up in the corner. It was a lovely temperate evening, with flocks of starlings in the trees.

We were also treated to a Russian musician singing in the park.

 

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Day 7, Uglich

Uglich is one of the prettiest cities to approach from the water, with five or six onion-domed churches right along the waterfront. It is on the Volga River and was founded in 937 during the reign of Prince Igor, the ruler that united Kiev Rus. Uglich became a principality in 1218 and survived the Mongol invasion. By 1328 the local prince sold his right to rule to Moscow, joining the town to future Russia. Despite this, the ancient settlement was a favorite target of any faction that sought to attack the Muscovite principality, including Lithuanians, Tatars, and Poles. Today, it is a small town of 34,000 people, 10 churches, 2 nunneries and a monastery. As is the case all over Russia, many of the churches are now museums. We had lovely weather, mid 70’s, and clear skies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The architecture of the old town is classical.

The Cathedral of the Transfiguration of our Savior has six tiers of icons. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures because a service was underway. The first church was blown up during the Polish invasion. The murals that date to 1811, illustrate scenes from the New Testament and are rendered in the Italian style popular at the time. The cathedral was the summer church.

Directly behind it, the Epiphany Cathedral was the winter church. Today, it is a museum of Russian art. We were treated to a beautiful acapella rendition of several traditional Russian songs. Although 80% of Russians identify themselves as Russian Orthodox, only 3.5% attend services regularly.

 

 

Next, we saw the Church of St. Dimitry-on-Blood, built on the spot where Prince Dimitry, youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, was killed as a young boy. He was killed by those trying to control the throne and led to the Time of Troubles, that ended n 1613 with the election of the 16 year-old Michael Romanov to the throne and the beginning of the Romanov dynasty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beside the church stands the oldest building in town, the 15th century remnant of the red brick palace of local princes. The rest of the town was demolished in the Time of Troubles by the second pretender to the throne.

Anna, one of our guides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uglich turned out to be one of the best shopping stops. Vendors were willing to bargain because it was close to the end of their season.

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Day 8, Moscow, Moscow University, Novodevichy Convent, Red Square, , St. Basil’s Cathedral, The Kremlin, Moscow Subway

Last night, we had the captain’s dinner with champagne.

We landed in Moscow around 1:00 p.m. and began our tour under cloudy skies. The port is about 20 km from Moscow, which can take two hours with traffic, but since it was Sunday, there was little traffic. Unfortunately, there was a bike marathon scheduled, so much of downtown Moscow was closed off. We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to get to Red Square, but had our fingers crossed.

On our way into town, we passed the castle Peter the Great built as a stopping place on his way to Moscow from St. Petersburg. We learned that Russians are a mixture of Slavic and Finish peoples, and that Moscow was founded or first mentioned in 1147. We learned that the word Czar came from Ceasar, the word red means beautiful (so Red Square is beautiful square), and Kremlin means fortress.

We passed the skyscrapers of downtown. My favorite is the Tower of Evolution, inspired by the DNA double helix.

We stopped at Moscow State University, on Sparrow Hills, one of 7 sister skyscrapers built under Stalin. From the vantage of the hill, the weather over the city looked daunting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we stopped at Novodevichy Convent, where the sister of Peter the Great was confined and where she organized a rebellion against him while he was in Europe after he became emperor. When Peter the Great got word of the rebellion, he returned home and put over 2 thousand conspirators to death in two days.

Next to the convent is a brass sculpture donated by Barbara Bush in the 90s based on Robert Mcklusky’s book Make Way for the Ducklings.

old and new

When we received word that  we would be able to make our way to Red Square, the weather had cleared. On our way downtown, we passed a mixture of old and new architecture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

old KGB building

We passed the former headquarters of the KGB, now disbanded.

 

By the time we reached Red Square, the sky was clear and blue.The spires of St. Basils Cathedral were not always so colorful. Originally, they were white with silver domes.

 

 

Gum department store

History museum

 

 

We learned that the onion domes are an adaptation of the domes of Hagia Sophia in what was then Constantinople, but the snow of Russian winters collapsed the domes. When they were elongated into the onion dome, they withstood the winters better, and the onion dome became the symbol of the Greek Orthodox church all over the world.

Church of Virgin of Kazan

We did a tour of Moscow by night, which included a tour of the subways. Each station is a different work of art.

One was dedicated to artists, musicians and engineers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One station was dedicated to Bellaruse.

Another was dedicated to Ukraine and celebrated the riches of the country when in fact the people were starving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Square at night is quite gorgeous.

Gum dept. store

 

After Red Square, we visited Victory Park, which commemorates the war dead, primarily of WW II. The spire (not lit that night) and the red fountains honor the number of days Russia was involved in the war and the blood spilled by the Russian people.

 

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Day 9, Walking tour of the Kremlin

The Kremlin (which means fortress) is the original Moscow, a settlement first mentioned in 1147, and founded by the prince of Kiev, the city state that ruled Russia until the 14th century.

The Kremlin is the former residence of the Czars (until Peter the Great moved the capital to St. Petersburg). It houses a number of famous cathedrals on Cathedral Square as well as government buildings.

The first building we saw was the former Communist Party Congress built by Khrushchev.

The next building is the Russian Senate, where Putin works when he is in Moscow. 

 

 

 

 

 

We was the 1586 Czar Cannon,

the 16th century Czar Bell, which weighs 200 tons and was too big to move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Cathedral Square, we saw the Cathedral of Assumption, where coronations took place (no pictures allowed inside).

The Cathedral of Annunciation was the private chapel of the Czars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roof of the tiny Church of the Disposition of the Virgin’s Robes is gorgeous.

The Cathedral of Michael the Archangel was where 56 members of royal family were buried (before they began to be buried in St. Petersburg). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

doors to Church of Archangel

 

The Kremlin gardens