Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Our visit today was to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery which was founded in 1397 by St. Cyril.  Located on a lovely lake near the small town of Kuzino, it consists of many large three-story buildings with brick walls about six feet thick.  Today there are only six monk in residence who pray and take care of the extensive grounds and their many, many flower beds.  The main monastery is now a museum filled with clothing and other items from the middle ages including Russia's most extensive collection of icons.

Almost back to the Rurik, we went to a Viking and RUS culture presentation held in a new two-story log structure built especially for this purpose.  A large, bearded man, Erik the Viking, invited us to hear about his times and then chose four passengers to become the key players: the prince, princess  & two Viking guards.  He dressed each of them in elaborate costumes and they really did look quite authentic.  The men, of course, were bearded so Harley was not invited to participate much to his relief.

Over these past six days, we've come to the conclusion that the government and Putin in particular have done everything possible to make Russia inviting, intriguing and safe.  In the cities, the streets are clean, flowers are everywhere, the waterways are incredible (the building of them took more effort & materials than the building of either the Suez or Panama Canals), there are many UNESCO World Heritage Sites and we've learned so much history and culture of the people; it's been a great trip so far.

This evening we participated in a vodka (pronounced "wadka") tasting.  Frank, our restaurant manager who is a German sommolier (and married to a Russian) who led us through six different Russian vodkas, describing how they were made and explaining the differences.  Of these, two seemed quite harsh to us, two were OK and we definitely preferred Russian Standard (owned by a Russian billionaire who bought 51% of Campari, [which also owns multiple liquor brands] in order to quickly obtain manufacturing and distribution channels) and Prestige's Cranberry Vodka Liqueur which tastes very much like Grand Marnier.

Since tomorrow our shore excursion doesn't start until 3:15, we'll sleep in!