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It's the 13th of August and the weather is quite nice at 79°F (26°C) and sunny.  We are relaxing on our way to Uglich.

Pete's Mom enjoying the morning sunshine after breakfast.  Very relaxing.

In mid morning we attended a lecture on the Romanovs, and afterward our guide Liana gave a talk on gifts, and what to look for when buying them.

As we enter our first lock, we experience our first drop in level on our way to the level of the
Volga River via six locks for a total drop of 125 feet in the 128 kilometer waterway.

The waterway was constructed over a four year, eight month period, between 1932 and 1937, using slave labor from the Stalin era Gulags.  All of the locks are 951 feet long by 98 feet wide.  This first lock, just 29 miles from the city of Moscow, lowered our ship 26 feet (8 meters). 

On the way to Uglich we passed by the Kalyazin Tower which was erected in 1800 as part of the St. Nikolaus Cathedral of the former monastery.  It is the only remnant of the monastery which avoided demolition.  It resides on a small island approx. 200 meters from shore in the Uglich reservoir.

This church was the first thing to come into view as we approached Uglich.

Uglich has a colorful history, if somewhat embellished with retelling over time.  In 937 an envoy of Kievan Prince Igor visited a Slavonic trading settlement on the high right bank of the Volga to "register the population".  In other words, Prince Igor decided it was time to familiarize the Slavs with the concept of taxation, and he sent a representative to make the arrangement legitimate by "founding" a town.  The Slavs were not amused and eventually got around to tying Prince Igor between two bent trees and letting them - and him - rip.

Our tour that day took us to the church where we were entertained . . .

. . . by a men's coral group singing a couple of what I'd call Gregorian chants.
It was quite beautiful, but not so much so to prompt me to buy the CD.

Besides, there were plenty of other trinkets to spend your rubles on.

 Early Russian clothing anyone?

Back on board for lunch, Pete had earlier met Valeria, who actually works for Viking River Cruises in St. Petersburg.  He noticed that Valeria always sat alone to dine, so he asked him if he would like to join us, since the tables sat 4 and we were only 3.  He ate lunch and dinner with us the rest of the trip, and his company was most enjoyable.

We left Uglich at 6:00 PM and had a sail away party on the Sun Deck.  There was no shortage of things to keep us entertained.  We sailed through the night, and at 8:00 AM we arrived at Yaroslavl.

We were told that this is the first year that Viking River Cruises had done this trip from Moscow to Volgograd.  As you can see, the facilities at some stops were barely adequate to handle such a large shop.  Also, at some stops the buses were not air conditioned.  This became a problem as we headed further south, as it became quite hot.

Yaroslavl Oblast (a federal subject of Russia) is located 260 kilometers north of Moscow, with 630,000 inhabitants.  Main industries are machinery and oil industry.  We were only here for the morning, and the city tour was not very interesting, amounting to a bus ride through the city streets, with a stop at an unimpressive church.  We sailed on, and our next stop was Kostroma.

The Ipatevsky monastery of Kostroma had beautiful gold onion domes.
This is the place where the first tsar of the Romanov dynasty accepted the throne.

Inside the church it was extremely decorated with ornate carvings, lots of icons and gold leaf everywhere you turned.

These are the doors through which the holy would enter.  They must
have been awe inspiring with their embroidered robes and crowns.

The church had been painstakingly restored, but the restorers left
as mall patch of wall as it was before restoration to show the difference.

In this church too, we were entertained by a men's quire, and offered a CD afterward

We made a mandatory stop at a local store in Kostroma that sold vodka, among other liquors.  It was funny, nobody on our bus actually wanted to stop, but the guide said it is required by their tour agreement.

We ended up buying something close to blackberry brandy, because Pete's mom said it was really good for what was ailing us.  It actually wasn't bad.

We visited the Kremlin in this city, and it was a favorite spot for newlyweds to come and have their photographs taken.

Young people were everywhere, and seemed to be enjoying the wonderful
weather we were experiencing.  The kid with the guitar was pretty good.

As we left Kostroma, and headed towards Novgorod, we had a beautiful sunset to mark the end of a very busy day.  Dinner tonight was a typical Russian dinner.  It is the 14th of August, and tomorrow we will arrive at Novgorod at around 3:00 PM.

The Cathedral of St. Sophia in Novgorod is the oldest church building in Russia.
It was build by Vladimir of Novgorod between 1045 and 1050.

This is a detail of a portion of the Mageburg Gates at the West Entrance to the cathedral.

This church had very beautiful and colorful domes.  And inside, it was very ornately decorated.

These are the traditional gates through which the holy Bishop passes to enter the church.

I thought it was interesting that there are no pews or chairs.  The service is given while the congregation stands.  Hopefully the services are short.

This city was the birth place of one of Russia's famous astronaut.

At the Kremlin here, many weddings were taking place, and there were groups everywhere being directed by their photographer to pose in different settings.

Later you'll see a photo of the Kremlin from the river.  It's quite impressive.

The couples would place bouquets of flowers on the monument of the Eternal Flame.

Inside the Kremlin walls is a museum of war machines, and another wedding party.

This is the view of the Kremlin from the river.  We are departing Novgorod and setting sail for Kazan.
Tonight's dinner will be a Tatar dinner, since Kazan is in the Republic of Tatarstan.

This is an alternative method of getting to the Kremlin from the river.

Now this is a lot of steps.  I much preferred the tour bus method. Well, this has been a lot of photos, so I'll close chapter 2, and resume with chapter 3 when we arrive in Kazan.  I hope my account of things isn't too boring.  Pete and I both took so many photos, and it isn't easy making selections.  I still can't believe how much we saw in those 16 days.