Still on the tourist trail.

 

 

[caption id="attachment_540" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Suzdal"][/caption]

Next stop after Kazan was Suzdal about 550km away.  Should have been an easy two days ride but it turned out to be anything but - a mixture of roadworks, rain and heavy traffic on inadequate roads made the first half anything but pleasant.  It was one of those days where I found that after 8 hours riding I had only covered 250km, that the light was going, and so was my temper and the temper of all the drivers around me.  I made one of my more sensible decisions and abandoned my planned stopover at Nihzy Novogorad, which was another 50 km down the road, and chose to camp in a convenient patch of wood in a field at the side of the road.  Not the most salubrious campsite, and the rain kept up most of the night, but I  slept well and awoke to a dry morning and still in one piece.

 

As it was the roadworks finished only another 10 or 20 km down the way and then the road turned soon after into dual carriageway virtually the first I'd seen in Russia - we were obviously getting closer to Moscow.

 

Suzdal is a small village and is lauded in the guidebooks for all the old churches and monastries it contains.  Apparently if you had money in the region in the 15-16th century you sponsered the building of a church  or monastery here.   It didn't disappoint; as well as the concentration of spires and domes from the churches it turned out to be the quintessentially pretty small Russian village.  It was built above a bend of a river and seemed to have survived the ravages of time remarkably well - both the churches and the houses were a pleasing mixture, either freshly maintained or aesthetically decayed.  It appears in the communist era most of the village was untouched by the various purges as the place was still used as something to show off to foriegn tourists and dignitories (though they did use one of the monasteries as a KGB prison).  Having said that it did however fall into considerable disrepair so its obvious theres been massive re-building in the last two decades and theres still plenty more to do.

 

Even after having read the the guidebook until you get to the place its hard to understand the concentration of churches and monasteries that exists there.  The village would be only 3 or 4 km long but there must be twenty onion domed churches within - wherever you look on the sky line a gilded or brightly coloured dome is sticking up.  Anyway here are a few pictures so you can see for yourself.

[caption id="attachment_541" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="A typical Suzdal skyline"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_543" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="A wooden church - all built of logs."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_544" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Spires, bell towers and domes"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_545" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="More domes"][/caption]

 

[caption id="attachment_552" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The smallest of the three monasteries in town "][/caption]

At one point in my wanderings through one of the monasteries the bells were being rung, a marvelous complex tune, and as I watched I realised it was all done by one man positioned up amongst the bells using his hands and feet to pull a spiderweb of small strings to lift and drop the clappers.

[caption id="attachment_546" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Campanologist (I think that's the right word for a bell-ringer) at work"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_547" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Another general street scene - the village was incredibly free of cars for a tourist centre."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_551" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="More skyline"][/caption]

Whilst at Suzdal I also did a side trip to Vladimir, a much larger neighbour.  It too is famed for its churches and whilst one in particular was huge and spectacular being surrounded by a modern town did them no favours and overall the city was not particularly memorable.

[caption id="attachment_548" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="The Assumption Cathederal, Vladimir (which, in case you are interested, apparently became the model for the more famous cathederal of the same name within the Moscow Kremlin)"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_549" align="aligncenter" width="360" caption="Interior of the Assumption Cathedral in its gilded icon glory - generally they don't allow photo's inside churches but here there seemed to be some tolerances so I risked a few."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_550" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Outside gilt as well - and look for the man wandering around inspecting the roof."][/caption]

As an aside, in visiting all these churches I've now seen several Russian Orthodox religious services.  They are quite different to what we are used to in our Christian churches.  They seem to last 2 or 3 hours - but people don't attend for the full time, they simply walk in at a time convenient to them, stand (for there are no seats), have 10 or 20 minutes of listening to chanting and liturgy and watch a priest waving incense, kiss the portrait of their favourite saint or prophet and then wander off.  Very user-friendly.

Anyway that's enough on Suzdal and religion, from here it was on to Moscow and I'll make that a separate post soon.