Day 10 – 8 July – onto the beautiful region of Suzdal

We had a bus transfer this morning, supposedly to a lake, but as people were still a bit shaky and didn’t think we could manage a 75 km bike ride, Vlad got the bus driver to drive us a bit further on so we had only 43km to ride. 

Our breakfast was probably the worse so far – crappy porridge and last week’s bread…  and only instant coffee.  I found Maggie out near the truck, her pedals and bike computer missing!!!  ‘It’s ok, we have to do this to fit them in the truck!”  thankfully they didn't work out how to turn the handle bar, so I took itoff myself and tied them to the frame. 

The bus had no aircond and smelt rather badly, but hey!  It was a good to moving and recovering at the same time.

We came to a small village and the bus turned around and drove back a little ways so that we had room to unload everything from bus and truck and get our bikes back to working order – a quick snack and we were on our way. 

It was a gentle ride and the road was good in some places and bad in others.  There was a gentle head wind that kept us cool but I felt my strength was returning and was happy to be back pedalling along the country side.  We were now in the state of  Ivanovo and the farmlands had now become much more productive looking.  There were fields of grain, possibly rye and new crops of corn in places.  It was becoming quite pretty landscape areas, with little reed lined creeks winding through the paddocks. 

Still no farm animals in any numbers and we got barked at by a little pet dog whilst riding through yet another small village.  It was a very pleasant 40 or so kilometres to ride.  We grouped up and rode into the small city of Suzdahl, the city of churches!

Apparently this had been a rich farming area and the merchants that lived here, built their own churches – I don’t mean small little chapels, I mean the full-on 5 onion-domed churches!  Apparently there were about 300 at the peak and now there are only 50 left, 14 bell towers and only 5 monastories.  We stood on one lookout and could count 17 churches in a 360 panorama.  Luckily the main monastery had been turned into a museum before the soviet times so was preserved, but most of the other churches were left to disintegrate and are only now being restored again….  This is a common theme throughout the country.

We rode to our guest house and our rooms were sorted out.  Julie and I ended up in the second house, in the living room.  There were two sofa’s that pulled out to be beds.  I got the comfy looking one, and I slept like a log!  I felt that this was actually a family members' home and they had been asked to vacate for the night.  It was a really tidy home, well cared for, nice furnishings - even a piano that Julie tried to make it sing, tho it was a little out of tune.  Maybe it was tuned for a Russian ear.

Before our evening farewell dinner, we took a walk up town to have a quick look around.  I bought myself a Russia carry bag – pretty commercial but practical, then didn’t have any money for anything else at the little market stores.  Dang, I should have brought that other cash!

It is an interesting little town, really catering for the tourist – apparently there are lots of guest houses but not so many hotels.  Buildings are restricted to two storeys.  And there were heaps of the traditional window frames. 
Svetlana put on a wonderful evening meal - raviolli with tomatoes and dill, plus a special biscuit for dessert.  This was all helped along by a beer earlier and some Russian champagne as well (which was a bit too sweet for my liking, but then they couldn't get the dry)!
Svetlana was keen for a walk around town, so a small group of us headed off with her to see the town again.

so a wonderful ending to a day when everyone was feeling back on top again!