We picked up some wine and vodka at the liquor store.  The walk across the central square was most enjoyable.  It’s a pretty place.  Back at the pier there was a small market set up, so many of us shopped.

          Dinner tonight was Ukrainian, and most delicious.  Then we had a Russian dace class in the lounge.  The dancing was had enough to master, but harder still was the particular Russian sound we had to learn – across between a shriek and a whoop.  It was fun and good exercise.  We have an early day tomorrow, so hope for good sleeping tonight.

          At the Church of St. Elijah the Prophet we heard the story of how the use of the church by the Soviets as a storage warehouse for felt boots saved the frescoes from destruction.  It seems the boots absorbed moisture and the frescoes stayed dry. There is also a small “winter church” where we heard an excellent choir.

          Back at the city centre we crossed paths with Larry who was going with another group to St. Elijah’s.  Dave, M-E & I wondered through the market and picked up some snacks and beer.  We were back on the ship for lunch, then actually had free time until late afternoon.  I went o a “master class” on blinys ( Russian pancakes ), then met Larry in the restaurant for a bliny-tasting party with caviar and several kinds of vodka.  We’re mastering the Russian way of drinking it down in one gulp after screaming “nazdarov’ye”.

          Just before dinner we passed through a large lock into a lake [ the Rybinskae Reservoir ].  We were invited to the upper deck to see the Lady of the Volga statue and enjoy the sunset.  After dinner was the “Mr Cruise” Show in the lounge.  Larry has sworn me to secrecy, so we’ll see if he blogs this – there were 5 candidates/competitors, including Larry and Dave McNaught.  They competed in 5 things – poetry ( reading Humpty Dumpty while expressing some mood.  Larry’s was “you’ve been offended by your grandmother”);  haberdashery – sort of musical hats; weight lifting; acting; and dancing.  In the end Larry was declared “Mr. Poet” and Dave “Mr. Cruise”.  It was all quite fancy and garnered and official certificate and a bottle of vodka.

          After lunch we disembarked at Goritsy village and took shuttles to Kirillov and Monastery of St. Cyril of the White Lake.  At the museum there we saw many really gorgeous ikons as well as St. Cyril’s personal belongings.  The flowers were lovely on the grounds.  It seems their season is several weeks behind ours.  Odd.

          The two villages are interesting for their colourful wooden houses.  We did a bit of shopping back in Gorisky, then boarded for the next part of the voyage.  But there’s never a dull moment, so in the late afternoon we went to a Russian tea in the dining room.  Some people had been to a talk earlier and instructed us on proper tea etiquette including drinking from our saucers! [ Grandpa Shaw used to do that! ].

          After tea, the Intrepids had our Traditional hall party.  But we were in the lap of luxury – we had a lounge to ourselves.  We co-opted the services of a lovely Asian gentleman to take a group photo, and gathered ourselves together for dinner.  After dinner was a concert of classical music which Larry is attending while I write this and nurse a miserable cold.
 

          When asked about health care, it seems they have a 2-tier system with the public tier being very unsatisfactory.

          Late in the morning we went ashore at Mandrogi where I browsed through various craft workshops, small domestic museums and sourvenir shops while Larry put in some quality internet time [ well, low quality as I couldn’t use my laptop – just a usb memory stick ].

          After lunch we rehearsed the Canadian act for the concert tonight [ yes, apparently have to perform.  I thought I did my bit the other night ].  Naomi has us singing and moving like a well oiled machine.

          Because of his win as “Mr. Cruise”, Dave McNaught was the MC of the talent show.  He did a great job and we all had a really good time.  Our Canadian group led off the show with 3 camp songs.  We all dressed in red and white and carried flags and had Canada balloons; many of us had Canada stickers, etc – crazy!  At the end we tossed chocolate loonies and townies into the crowd.

          We were followed by Carol Cosgrove singing Coal Miner’s Daughter as a tribute to the Nova Scotia mining community.

          Then Myrna Torrie played a selection of songs from Fiddler On The Roof.  Canada did well [ maybe overwhelmed them – but that’s OK because we ARE more than ¼ of the ship ].

          Other individuals and groups did a great job too.  It was a terrific evening.  At the end Dave asked all the Russians to sing their National Anthem.  There was a scramble to assemble their musician and instruments, and it was goose-bump raising.

          It was so nice to walk through golden autumn woods.  We toured Mon Plaisir, a smaller castle on the grounds – beautiful and elegant .

          Then we came back to the ship by hydrofoil.  We just had time for a quick lunch before rushing back into the city centre for a canal cruise.  This city is called the “Venice of the North” and the views from the canals and rivers are spectacular.  Many palaces and other beautiful buildings, bridges, parks and so on.

          After a very rushed dinner at the ship we were back on the busses to go to a very entertaining Cossack show.  My goodness but those people danced and sang!  [ In our Russian classes we learned how to sing the Russian Song “Katrinka”, and low and behold the finale song in the show was Katrinka and we were to sing along.  What a coincidence.  Ha! But fun! ]

In the afternoon we returned to the city centre where we first visited the interior of St. Isaac’s Cathedral.  This was a most unusual Russian church.  The icons were all mosaic, rather than painted wood.  The Royal Gate between the nave and altar was very wide and made of open ironwork.  Behind the altar was a huge, beautiful stained glass window of Christ.  The interior is marble veneer and many paintings.  In the highest steeple we could see a dove floating. 

From there we continued to the Peter & Paul Fortress for a visit to St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral.  This is where all thr Romanoffs are entombed, for the most part in white Carrera marble.  The church itself is unusual in that it doesn’t seem to be square like other Russian orthodox churches.  It also has much larger windows than most and so is naturally brighter.  A small chapel in the back of the church has memorial plaques for the last emperor, Nicholas III and his wife and family ( except Anastasia and Alexei whose remains have not been identified ).  They were reburied under the chapel, with great ceremony, in 1996.  It’s very touching. 

Back at the ship, we gathered for last “hall party” and presented Cathy with a gift for arranging this wonderful trip.  At dinner we wished our terrific waiter, Andrey, a sad farewell, and then sang “Go Now in Peace”.  We were joined by several other people in singing it.  Then everything broke into general revelry before we retired to our cabins to finish packing for the trip home.