WE were folowing where others had failed before us; Napoleon, Hitler. Perhaps the reason we succeeded where they failed is that a) we didn't go in winter and b) we didn't bring an invasion force, just turned up as a couple of tourists. Going on Autumn has been a good move - the weather has generally been very pleasant for getting out and about - not too cold - and the trees (there are lots of trees here, I mean lots) have beautiful golden, orange and red leaves, making it picturesque. What was not so picturesque was Murmansk our first Russian city. It's a pretty grim industrial port in the arctic circle, but it was our way in from Norway. We only had one day, and ssaw the main sight, a massive statue of a Russian infantryman standing as a monument to the dead of world war 2. This guy is big - gives the Angel of the North or the Christ of Corcovado a run for their money.
Our first overnight train went smoothly - we had our friends Scott and Gill with us, so the 4 of us shared a compartment. More about the trains in a future blog. Our next stop was Petrozvodsk - a pleasant city on the shores of Europe's second largest lake, Onega, which we could see from our hotel room. Out in the middle of the lake is the island of Kizhi, which we reached by Thunderbirds style lime green hydrofoil. On Kizhi is a collection of wooden architecutre, some transported from elsewhere in russia, but some built there, inlcuding 2 churches and a belltower collectively with 33 onion-shaped domes of aspen wood. These shimmer golden in the sunlight when first made, then fade to silver and finally grey-brown. One of teh churches was made without a single nail, and all the decorative features are designed to keep water form collecting and rotting the wood.
Next stop st petersburg - I'll save that for another blog, as this internet is very expensive!
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