Day 7 – Through the large city of Yaroslavl then onto Vjatskoe.

My room was the window on the right

It was thinking of raining when we left the cabins this morning, but soon cleared up.  After a picturesque crossing of a small river, we were on our way to Yaroslavl.  We rode past a couple of prisons – its seemed to be a good place for them.

So always with cities, there was traffic, so we only had a small stretch of riding through countryside before hitting the outskirts of the city.  So we rode in a bunch, which amused the locals.  The city streets aren’t any better so it’s a bit nerve-wrecking dodging potholes and trying not to get hit by the traffic… 

We came to a bridge over the mighty Volga, we had to ride on the narrow ‘footpath’ dodging loose steel man-holes, all uneven, plus light poles and generally put our lives at risk, plus not being able to look around at the scenery!

Tpϧcoϩyӡka = Tryasoguzka or sädersäla

 We went to the main church there and climbed up the bell tower – I scanned the city and counted about 16 churches in a 260 angle – could get around the other side because of people etc – but that just gives you an idea of just how many churches there are – all beautiful, with gold or blue or green onion domes – each one looking a little different than the others.

note Gopro on my helmet - proper tourist fella

Then back over the dreaded bridge to track down Svetlana and our lunch.

a mishap just down from where we had lunch...  

It was looking like it might rain, so we donned our jackets and away we went.  I ended up in the first batch and as we were eventually leaving the city, it started to pour with rain and thunder rumble around.  Oh well, you always get days like this on tour.  I could see the other 2 riders up ahead, so just kept going.  Eventually the rain stopped, although the traffic didn’t.

Andrey was at an intersection and waved me onwards, saying the Svetlana was ahead at maybe the third village.  This was a local road, started off with stoney sandy road, then into the roughest sealed road, with one dash on beautiful new bitumen, then back to bone shattering sealed with many, many gaps!  It does shake up the body all the way through. 

Once out of the forests where people were out gathering things, possibly mushrooms, there was evidence of more farming along here, with small villages just to the side of the road.  A couple of farmers were strolling along the road, while others puttered along in these sorta lawn mower engine thingo’s pulling a small trailer.  They did look quite surprised to see me going past as they hadn’t seen the other two riders in front of me.  I couldn’t see anyone coming up behind me, so I just pedalled.

Eventually I could see another village up ahead, up quite a steep rise, but it was easier to ride up than Nursery Hill.  When I got to the top, I could see Svetlana’s car ahead, but I just did a circle to have a look down the hill again.  There was no other riders in sight…  could we have been riding so fast?  No actually!  On joining the first 2, I discovered that the others had stopped and not ridden through the rain, so only we 3 girls were tough enough apparently…  I was quite surprised that they would stop, but it meant that we had a good 20 min rest and a gingerbread biscuit prize while we waited for them!  (yes, it is nice and sugary but c’mon a taste now and then……)

storms to the right, storms to the left!

 I rode on along the road to a very old church that is falling down then came back for afternoon tea.  Svetlana said we were just a bit too late as this village had its first church service in the old church, a priest had come out to bless it and re-sanctify it or whatever they do.  Now the locals have to find some way of raising funds to get restoration happening.  It is actually quite sad to see all those magnificent churches that, during the Soviet times were closed and allowed to fall into ruin from no maintenance, now needing so much to restore.  It made us think about the how the people must have felt to have their very special places of worship closed from them.  It is now evident how important these buildings were to them, as most of them have some scaffolding around them and restoration is happening all over.

Local bus driver's tropical clothing

Wedding entertainers, Vjatskoe

 We then rode down the hill on the other side, to a major road that took us all the way into the next village, where we arrived at a rather beautiful and flash hotel for the night.  But first a quick shower then a guided tour to a couple of the museums around the town.  This town has been rejuvenated into a museum town with about 9 or 10 museums all relating to some part of Russian culture.  We got to go into one building, which housed the museum of innovaters and the museum of music boxes.  All very interesting.

entering the Museum of Innovation

black and ordinary banyans (open air museum)

 Then we walked down to the chapel to have a look inside at the rejuvenation pool built for the locals by the owner of the town.  It appears that one guy owns most of the town and he has marketed the town as a package for bridal parties – there was one where we were staying.  It has created a lot of employment for the young people of the village, so that’s gotta be a bonus.

horse substitute 

Wedding paraphernalia

So back to the hotel for dinner and then to retire to our own rooms, for once a single room.  It was nice to have the whole space to myself, tho its no problem with Julie – but a change was appreciated.

A good sleep will see me up and about for another big day tomorrow.