The next leg of our trip was a five day cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow via the Volga - Baltic Waterway.
The waterway is a 700 mile long system of natural lakes, rivers, artificial reservoirs and canals. The waterway is full of container ships moving oil and lumber from Russia's interior to the Baltic Sea where their cargo is exported. The waterway also has lots of ships filled with tourists like us visiting more remote parts of Russia.
Sections of the waterway are separated by locks and our cruise went through seventeen locks. Being kids from the dry prairies, most things related to water are new and interesting so the locks captured our attention. Neither of us are engineers so we can't explain how locks work but here's a few photos to illustrate.
Here are other highlights of our trip on the waterway.
Kizhi Island is home for two churches built entirely of wood. Wood nails hold everything together. The church domes are also made of wood - they're aspen which has bleached to a silver colour over time and looks metallic in photos.
In the photo below, the Church of the Intercession is on the right. It's the smaller of the two churches and has 9 domes. The Church of the Transfiguration is in the background partially hidden by the tower. It's the larger of the two churches with 22 domes which you can see better in the second photo. It's under renovation so ignore the metal scaffolding in the middle of the photo.
Yaroslavl is a city of 600,000 which celebrated its one-thousandth anniversary in 2010. Like every old city, it has a very impressive church at its center - the Church of Saint Elijah the Prophet. It also has very nice parks which were developed for the city's birthday.
Uglich was the last stop on the waterway and it was our favourite. It's a small town that's even older than Yaroslav - it was founded over 1,070 years ago. Of course, it has nice churches.
The unique part of our Uglich stop was our visit to a Russian woman's home.
Here's a nice sunset photo to wrap-up our journey down the waterway.
Next up - Moscow.
Blake and Vanessa
The waterway is a 700 mile long system of natural lakes, rivers, artificial reservoirs and canals. The waterway is full of container ships moving oil and lumber from Russia's interior to the Baltic Sea where their cargo is exported. The waterway also has lots of ships filled with tourists like us visiting more remote parts of Russia.
Sections of the waterway are separated by locks and our cruise went through seventeen locks. Being kids from the dry prairies, most things related to water are new and interesting so the locks captured our attention. Neither of us are engineers so we can't explain how locks work but here's a few photos to illustrate.
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| Our ship approaching a lock |
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| Our ship in the lock - note the water level |
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| Not much space between the ship and the wall of the lock |
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| Water flows into the lock - note the rising water level |
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| Lock fills with water, the gate opens and the ship moves on |
Here are other highlights of our trip on the waterway.
Kizhi Island is home for two churches built entirely of wood. Wood nails hold everything together. The church domes are also made of wood - they're aspen which has bleached to a silver colour over time and looks metallic in photos.
In the photo below, the Church of the Intercession is on the right. It's the smaller of the two churches and has 9 domes. The Church of the Transfiguration is in the background partially hidden by the tower. It's the larger of the two churches with 22 domes which you can see better in the second photo. It's under renovation so ignore the metal scaffolding in the middle of the photo.
Yaroslavl is a city of 600,000 which celebrated its one-thousandth anniversary in 2010. Like every old city, it has a very impressive church at its center - the Church of Saint Elijah the Prophet. It also has very nice parks which were developed for the city's birthday.
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| Interior of the Church of St. Elijah |
Uglich was the last stop on the waterway and it was our favourite. It's a small town that's even older than Yaroslav - it was founded over 1,070 years ago. Of course, it has nice churches.
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| Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood |
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| Interior of the Transfiguration Cathedral |
The unique part of our Uglich stop was our visit to a Russian woman's home.
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| Dining room / family room |
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| Kitchen |
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| Garden |
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| Road in front of house |
Here's a nice sunset photo to wrap-up our journey down the waterway.
Next up - Moscow.
Blake and Vanessa
