Bob and Ann in Russia 2007

Please visit August 27 slideshow.

August 27 - Moscow Canal to Uglich - When we woke up we were still sailing, this time on the Volga. The weather was much cooler and it was raining. After breakfast, Ann did her 8 laps=1 mile on the 3rd deck. I joined her later and did my mile while she finished her second mile. There were very few people on deck because it was so wet even though the rain had stopped.

We went to cultural lectures. Ann went to one about life in Russia. We both went to a language lesson and to a crafts presentation.

Uglich Town Greeting

After lunch, we docked in Uglich, a town of around 40,000. As we entered the town, we were greeted the traditional way with bread and salt. We were given a local tour of the town's Kremlin which included two Orthodox churches. The second church had a six-person a capella choir whose tones brought goose bumps in the acoustically perfect narthex. Ann bought their CD.

After the tour, we ran the gauntlet of vendors selling local and not-so-local crafts. Nothing excited us so we went back to the boat to rest and to listen to the CD.

Tonight was really special. We went with three other couples (George & Mary Greene from Pine Knoll Shores, NC; Bill & Millie Meyer from New Hope, PA; Phil & Jerri Matthews from Georgetown, TX) to a home visit for dinner. Our hostess met us at an eight-passenger bus which drove us to her house. Her name is Yelena. She is a vivacious 40-something biology teacher in the local school. Her Aunt, Tania, was the cook. Her son, Sasha, was in his last year at the local university studying mechanical engineering. He spoke very passable English and interpreted for us. They live in a small wood-frame house that also had some log siding insulated with moss. There was a kitchen, three bedrooms, a bathroom and a small living room where we ate. Out back was a shed that contained a sauna as well as garden tools that were used to tend their huge flower, fruit and vegetable garden. Our first dinner course was cabbage soup. Our main course was salads of shredded carrots and a cabbage slaw along with cucumbers, herring and loads of potatoes. Dessert was apples and two kinds of pastries - one with an apple topping and the other with a cherry jam filling. All of this was accompanied by strong home-made liquor. After we ate, we had just enough time to tour the garden and find out that many names of flowers in Russian are very similar to the names in English. It was a very pleasant evening.

We sailed from Uglich at 20:00.

The map of our route from Moscow to Uglich is below. To see it in Google Earth, follow this link.