20th Suzdal

We arrived at Vladimir station at 5am and transferred to Suzdal by minibus. We were able to check in to our rooms, so we had a sleep before setting off for a lovely breakfast of pancakes, boiled eggs, bread, cheese and jam at a local woman's house . As soon as we arrived back at the hotel we had to set off on our 3 hour walking tour which ended up taking 5 1/2 hours. A few of the highlights of the tour were the Kremlin and The Nativity of the Virgin Cathedral which was founded in the 1220s. Inside it is covered in 13th and 17th century frescoes and also has 13th century gold on copper doors. Inside the Kremlin we walked through the Archbishop's chambers which houses the Suzdal history exhibition. Other highlights were the Museum of wooden architecture and peasant life, We finished the tour at the Savior Monastery of St Euthymius which contains the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior and a prison set up in 176 for religious dissidents. We listened to the bells of the Cathedral at 2pm and set off for lunch. Along the way we came across an old lady selling what Boris called Russian lemonade. We had a glass and it wasn't too bad, later we found that it was kvass, a fermented rye bread water.

At lunch few of the group had a degustation menu of medovukha, honey ale that was drunk by the princes of old. In the evening we all headed back to the same place we had breakfast for a wonderful home cooked Russian meal and Vodka.