Day 4 - 2/7 Uglich to Myshkin

Only a short day ahead of us, so breakfast started at 8.  The day dawned another wonderful hot and sunny one.

Porridge with prunes is a great way to start the day and Real Russian Cottage Cheese – supposed to go with a dob of jam… now who does that remind me of!

There was a bit of bike maintenance to be done by some, but they were all securely wired together, so we had to patiently till they were set free.  I had to reverse my front wheel…  I had put it on back to front and so that involved releasing the brake cable with a lot of hassle.  Timothy helped me with that and it was an easy matter to turn the wheel, put it back in… but then struggle to get the brake connected again.  With the help of Mark’s strong hands, we eventually got it back, but not after them fiddling with the cable, so now I haven’t got much leeway in lever.  Must speak to Vladimir about that…

We had only 35km to ride today, to the Volga, so we were in cruise mode.  It was great riding weather, tho it is so dry and am getting a little sunburnt as is everyone else…  but the wind!  It was often coming from behind!!  but it wasn’t that strong, tho a few sideways gusts kept one alert.  Mixture of road surface – basically good and bad sealed road.  Still managing to ride on my own for most of the time, which is how I like it.

We had lunch at a bus stop, they really are most convenient, tho not very shady and this time I arrived early enough to park Maggie in the bus stop and to take advantage of shade.  Then we turned right and headed for the small township of Myshkin which is on the banks of the Volga.
The scenery is similar to Finland now, thicker forests, still not much sign of large farm lands.   Svetlana said after the fall of USSR, these were abandoned and so by now a lot of that land is returning to forests.  The small villages still have their traditional housing, which is what was missing along the Baltic.  I really truly just love the decorative window frames on these dark unpainted wooden buildings.  The large farm dogs are as they should be – chained up near the gate and they berate us as we pedal past.  The women were occasionally seen watering their extensive veggie plots with a watering can.  There were kids out playing, it’s probably school holidays now and they were quick to smile at us.  Though I am sure a lot of the locals were thoroughly perplexed about why one would want to ride around like this.

Our tour guide, Nadia, was a beautiful woman, with such Russian expression and gesture - a strong woman indeed.  First she led us onto a boat to have the traditional Mouse greeting.  We didn’t know what was going to happen – certainly didn’t expect two saucy mice, dressed in traditional best dresses to give us a dance performance.  They were really fun!  Hopefully I caught them on gopro!

 Nadia gave us brief history of this fairly recent town – only about 240 years old.  Apparently one of the dukes of this region crossed the Volga to do some hunting in the forest.  He lay down on the bank to have a snooze and was awoken by a mouse running over his face.  Just as he was to get cranky about the mouse, he saw a poisonous snake nearby, so he was very thankful for the mouse waking him up, hence the name of the town, Myshkin – meaning mouse.  A small little village was built on this spot and it expanded due to taking advantage of its situation on the convergence of the Volga and another river which connects St Petersburgh to Moscow and beyond.  But the a railway was planned and the town councillors decided they didn’t want to be a part of that, as the River Volga had been its lifeblood and they didn’t want to try anything new.  Of course, the railway was much quicker and cheaper and eventually Myshkin disappeared off the trade map. concise hey?

However, it has returned to life due to tourism.  At first the cruise ships just passed by, but forward thinkers decided that the town should become a museum town and convinced the cruise ships to stop by.  And so the town has sprung back to life again.  Due to the many locks on river, there is quite a tight schedule of when a cruise ship arrives in town.  In many ways we were blessed because it wasn’t a cruise ship sort of day, so the town wasn’t crowded by tour groups galore.  But it also meant that the market stalls weren’t really up and running.  I searched everywhere and could not find a Mouse king for my little LBC King!  Next stop maybe.


We went into a felt museum and I bought myself a pair of scuffs.  $13 – red ones!  She explained the process of creating felt and we saw and felt the finished products.  These felt boots were hard and thick as – and could be really beautifully decorated, but I could see no real reason why I should buy a pair except that I really longed for some….  So I went past by….  But…..  oh well too late now!

Nadia then led us down to the mill.  She explained it was still a working mill, if anyone had grain to grind.  At first they used steam as plenty of wood to burn, then they upgraded to oil and now its driven by electricity.  But we were going into the museum exhibit and she asked that we didn’t take photographs until she said it was fine to.  Inside were large mouse dolls set up, as the accountant, ladies gossiping, farmers waiting for their grains and there was another one standing by and another grinding the grain on a hand mill.  Suddenly these two sprang to life giving us all fright!  They must have been kids as they were quite small.  So we were then able to take photos…

From there, Nadia showed us the old original cobblestoned road leading up from the river – already with a line of stones, showing transport was already controlled.  We walked up to the main centre, past the memorial to the soldiers and back to the church.  Phone calls were made and Nadia was able to get the key to go into the bell tower so that we could climb up and up to see the Volga snaking off into the distance.  Thought of Michael always having to climb up for a vantage point!

Pay the ferry woman - or else!

After lunch we caught the ferry, jam-packed with cars and trucks across the Volga and back on our bikes to ride to our next cabin for the night.  This was right on the banks of the Volga – one big wooden building that had enough beds for all, tho the Russians prefer to camp out in their tents…

  Again, time for a swim.  This time we had time to change into bathers and in we go.  It was *^^%^&##$$@  cold, but I was determined not to be such a woose!  So paddled and swam around and ended up being one of the longest in!  it did remind me of when I was a kid and could swim in the cold ocean…  so now I am ready for Kultsjarn!!  Maybe!!

We were going to have our dinner out on the verandah, but just then a sudden storm, rain, thunder and plenty of cold wind drove us inside…  so inside we went..  after dinner some more amazing film of the crew – hmmm….  Can I remember where they went?  Yes, to the Caucas.  Then to bed!