Where are Ron and Ellen?
Russia, Summer 2007
Ron and Ellen at Petrodvorets, St. Petersburg, July 2007
Biking the Golden Ring of Russia
14 July 2007
Sent from Moscow, RussiaDear family and friends,
We thought we'd sent a brief message to the list from an Internet cafe in Jaroslavl last Sunday, 8 July, but when we arrived back in Moscow, we discovered that no one had received it. We said we were fine, but that a longer message would have to wait until we were back in Moscow. So....
We've now biked approximately 400 miles through the Golden Ring of Russia in 11 days. Charles Dickens said it best: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
The best: The countryside was beautiful, green rolling terrain with wild flowers blooming everywhere. The old towns we toured were fascinating, with impressive old buildings and domed churches whose interiors are covered in frescos and icons. We saw towns and villages composed of old wooden buildings as well as those that were primarily large Soviet-era buildings, some built in the midst of farm land as collective farms. We camped in beautiful locations along the banks of rivers and lakes, including two nights on the banks of the Volga. Vladimir, the tour organizer, and his support group did a fantastic job of keeping us well fed, organizing the camping, and the route. Almost all the cooking was done over an open fire, wonderful hot cereals every morning for breakfast, and grains or pastas at night. The Russians and the tourists were a compatible group, and we enjoyed their company.
The worst: With some exceptions, the road conditions are terrible, paved, yes, but rough and full of cracks and holes, punishing for the single bikes and especially so for us on the less maneuverable tandem. The few times we had decent pavement for any length of time, it was generally the wide shoulder of a main road (frequently in better condition than the road itself), with one lane of heavy traffic going at breakneck speed in each direction, and cars and trucks passing each other at times we wouldn't dream of passing. We rode in mud, along sandy roads and single track, on roads in process of being paved (where we all ended up with sand and gravel glued to our tires and other parts of the bikes by the fresh tar!). The distances were long and the pace much faster than we normally do and faster than we expected (faster than the tour's Web page said it would be!) -- after a few days we quit trying to keep up with the group and would eventually catch up with them at rest stops. The terrain was rolling rather than flat, so on the tandem we were very slow on the hills. We had a head wind of varying degrees almost every day. We had a number of days where we rode through occasional periods of drizzle, and two days where we rode all day through steady rain.
We are very glad we did the trip, and would never have been able to manage such a trip on our own, particularly the guided tours of various museums and places of interest. But we think this trip (at least at the pace our group traveled) would be better for younger and/or stronger folks with single bikes. Even the strong bikers in our group said it was difficult! Our tour was called the Adventure Tour (as opposed to the tour that does much the same route but stays in hotel each night). And adventures we did have.
Our group consisted of Vladimir, the tour leader, Vladimir's 17 year old son Timothy, 18 year old Paul (all of whom spoke fluent English), Andrei, a retired military officer and now photographer and icon restorer (who speaks good English, Arabic, and French), Andrei the truck driver (who carried the baggage and food, met us at every turning to mark the way, set out snacks at various rest stops on a folding table covered with lace-patterned plastic tablecloth, and helped the whole trip go smoothly), his two sons, 14 year old Ivan (whom we all think will be a champion someday if he decides to take up bike racing), and 8 year old Philip, and his wife, Vera, who joined us for the last week of the trip. The foreign tour folks were us, Sue and Jeff from Australia, Andrew from Australia, Kira from Maine, and Chris (British, living in Moscow) and his Russian wife Olga who were honeymooning. Many of the tours we had were in small museums where the guide spoke no English, and Timothy and Paul did a consistently admirable job as translators.
To see photos of the people on the bike tour, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 1, Moscow to Pereslavl (bus, then 20 km biking), wherein we begin our adventures. We met at the hotel where the others were staying and took a public bus from Moscow to Pereslavl, where Andrei met us with the truck full of bikes and luggage and camping gear. Bikes unloaded, we set off for a tour of the city and its monastery, then on along the banks of Lake Pleshcheevo where Peter the Great built and tested ships for his navy (no river exit, so it isn't clear to us whether these were test ships or whether they were dismantled and transported elsewhere for actual use). Onward to our first night of camping, along the same lake. We arrived before the truck, an unusual occurance as we soon learned. Many cell phone calls by Vladimir, and we learned that the fuel pump on the truck had broken and the other Andrei had biked back to Pereslavl to get a replacement. The truck, carrying the camping gear, food, and luggage finally arrived to great cheers. Swimming in the lake for those who chose.
To see photos from day 1 of biking, Pereslavl, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 2, Pereslavl to Vjakirevo (70 km), wherein we meet our first of many occasional showers. Onward to the small village of Vjakirevo (70 km during which we took off and put on our raincoats numerous times but never got very wet) where we "camped" for the night in a school, rolling out our sleeping bags on the floors of various classrooms (physics for us), with dinner and breakfast cooked in the school kitchen. (Somehow, there are no pictures from this day.)
Day 3, Vjakirevo to Uglich (60 km), wherein we hear a folk song about bells and hear a bell concert. We biked 60 km to Uglich, on the Volga, filled with gorgeous churches, where we had a city tour (with English-speaking guide), heard a group of traditional Russian male unaccompanied singers, toured the vodka museum, visited a museum in a private home where we had a bell concert, had a sauna, and then camped among the birches on the banks of the Volga.
To see photos from day 3 of biking, Vjakirevo to Uglich, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 4, Uglich to Myshkin (80 km), wherein we are lucky to be inside during a torrential thunderstorm. We cycled 80 km to Myshkin, with a stop at an "ethnographic museum," a house built in the countryside in the early 1900s by a well-to-do St Petersburg man, where we learned about the traditional Russian life of that period, and were fed lunch cooked in the big Russian stove that is the center of every home. By the time we got to Myshkin we were being pursued by a huge thunderstorm, which poured down torrents of rain -- luckily while we were inside the museum where we learned about the making of the traditional felt boots and about flax production and weaving. By the time we finished our tour there and were ready to cross the Volga on a ferry, the rain had cleared, and we had lovely camping on the Volga bank again, swam in the river, and watched the boat traffic and a spectacular sunset (at approximately 10:45 at night!).
To see photos from day 4 of biking, Uglich to Myshkin, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 5, Myshkin to Shirinje (90 km), wherein we have fresh garden vegetables for dinner. We cycled to Shirinje, a very prosperous farm village, the first 90 km day (with head wind and occasional drizzle, of course) with a stop at the Space Museum honoring Valentina Tereskova, the first woman in space, who was born and grew up locally. We again stayed in a school, and it was clear from the size and amenities of the school that this was a much more prosperous village. We met some of the teachers, and our dinner included potatoes, cucumbers, and salad greens from the large school garden.
To see photos from day 5 of biking, Myshkin to Shirinje, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 6, Shirinje to Jaroslavl (50 km), wherein we get our laundry done but our message does not go out from the Internet cafe. We cycled 50 km to Jaroslavl, a city on the Volga that will celebrate its one thousand year anniversary in 2010. Another city tour, including the spectacular cathedral, 17th century municipal buildings, and a huge monastary. From here we sent our Internet message that never went anywhere. (But the Internet cafe did have wonderful ice cream cones.) We were responsible for our own dinner here, so Ron and I strolled the promenade along the Volga embankment for a while, then had huge blinis from a street stand before going back to collapse into bed. This was one of our few hotel nights,and the woman who ran the small hotel where we were staying had obviously had Vladimir's groups before because the first thing she did was collect all our laundry and run it through her washing machine and hang it on her drying racks!
To see photos from day 6 of biking, Shirinje to Jaroslavl, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 7, Jaroslavl to Borovikovo (train to Kostroma, then 40km biking), wherein we get very wet and have flat tires. Rain. We took the train from Jaroslavl to Kostrama because the distance was too far to bike. Most bikes went on the train, but the tandem was too big, so it went in the truck, which met us at the train station in Kostrama. We biked in the rain to meet our tour guide, and had a walking tour of the city in the rain, followed by a brief bike ride to the outdoor museum of wooden architecture, homes and churches and other buildings transported and reconstructed here in a large park-like area. Our guide met us again there, and we toured by foot, still in the rain. On the way out of Kostrama in the rain, towards what was supposed to be a night of camping but was luckily a night when a hotel was optional (if we paid 500 rubles each extra -- to which we all enthusiastically agreed) we had a flat tire. Vladimir had told us that Kostrama is famous for having the worst roads in Russia, and considering the state of most roads we were on, this is quite an achievenment! The group was waiting and helping, and we decided that the fastest thing to do was to put in a new tube instead of trying to patch the flat one, after trying to find in the tire whatever had caused the flat. Off we all went again, and about 2 km later we had another flat -- obviously we hadn't found the original thing that caused it. Vladimir called Andrei, since the truck was now ahead of us, and when it came in sight to pick us up, Vladimir and the rest of the group set off, still in the rain. Before Andrei had rearranged things in the back of the truck to get the tandem in, Vladimir was back, also with a flat tire, so all three of us rode in the truck the ~15 km to the hotel. As Ron said, "Just think how much worse it would have been if it hadn't been bad!" That evening Vladimir and Ron both found and removed shards of glass in their tires and patched their tubes. The hotel was a huge house kind of like a hostel, on the banks of the Volga, and would have been a beautiful site if it had not been rainy and foggy.
To see photos from day 7 of biking, Jaroslavl to Borovikovo, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 8, Borovikovo to Ples (70 km), wherein the truck gets stuck in the mud. We set off in drizzle, stopping for a tour at a nearby small brewery where Vladimir knew the manager (we had lots of beer drinkers in the group). The beer has no preservatives added to it, so has to be drunk within a few days, but is sold locally as well as in Moscow. (Steven, we have a label for you.) By the time we finished at the brewery, it was beginning to clear, and we cycled onward (still with a headwind, of course) to Ples. Ples is a small town with its old Kremlin (fortress) on a very high bank above the Volga, and the current town down closer to the river. There we toured a small museum of paintings by several late 19th century painters who worked and painted in the area. Then we headed out of town, back up to the high banks above the Volga for our camping site. We biked down a muddy (seriously muddy) road, two dirt tracks with grass between, towards the promised lovely camp site. Ron and I very quickly got off the tandem and walked, since the tandem is even less stable and more difficult to maneuver than a single bike in mud. Suddenly the truck, which was a little behind us, was stuck in the mud in a low point. Andrei, our marvelous driver, managed to get the truck turned so people could push and get the truck out, headed back the way we had come. A local man had come walking along the road and suggested that it might be possible to reach the same destination by driving along a track on the other side of the field, so the truck went back to try that. But just a very short distance along that track the truck became seriously stuck. We all walked our bikes back, and there was a great gathering of wood to put under the tires to try and give them something to grab on, and someone went off to borrow a couple of shovels from houses back at the edge of the field. (We found it curious that no one from any of the houses came out to help or showed any interest in the problem.) After considerable work, it was clear that the truck was not going to be unstuck any time in the near future, so Vladimir decided that we should camp right there, on a high point under the pine trees at the edge of the field. It was by this time around 8:30 in the evening, so everyone was more than ready for dinner. So we unloaded the truck, hauled camping gear and bags to our new camping site, and set up camp while Vladimir got a fire started and cooked dinner. Andrei was still working on the truck. Finally Vladimir reached on his cell phone his contact at the local museum we were to visit the next day, who promised to send a truck or tractor to pull out the truck in the morning.
To see photos from day 8 of biking, Borovikovo to Ples, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 9, Ples to Malinki (90 km), wherein the truck gets unstuck and we cycle 90 km in the rain. As we were having breeakfast and taking down tents, a large truck with 4-wheel drive arrived and was successful in pulling out the truck, to cheers and a few rounds of the Alleluia Chorus. It was cloudy, but not raining, and we packed the truck, then walked our bicycles back down the long, steep cobblestone hill we had pushed them up the evening before -- and then halfway up the steep hill on the other side of the little river to the Russian house museum, where we had a lively tour of the lifestyle of the late 19th and early 20th century life in the house, and an interesting demonstration of the various parts of the medieval village outside the house. And by the time we finished, it was raining steadily again. We pushed our bikes up the rest of the cobblestone road to the top of the hil, and set out in the rain for the 90 km to Malinka, stopping for a hot lunch (salad, soup, pork chop and potatoes, all very good) in a restaurant along the way. When we finally arrived at the hotel (yes, we were in luck -- this was one of the two nights actually scheduled for a hotel!) it had stopped raining. By the time we took off our wet clothes and took hot showers, we felt almost human again. Dinner on our own, but we all ended up in the same place, where Vladimir promised that the weather forecast for the next day was sunny and 30 degrees C (86 F). For dinner, Ron and I got two different kinds of soup and traded half through (both good, but we liked the borsch best), little meat-filled ravioli with sour cream, and cheese blinis, the best we've had yet. And then we collapsed into bed.
To see photos from day 9 of biking, Ples to Malinki, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 10, Malinki to near Suzdal (100 km), wherein we cycle 100 km with wet shoes. When your shoes are soaking wet, even if you cycle 100 km in the sun, they are still slightly damp when you are done. No tours today, just straight cycling, most of it on a good shoulder but on a main road with lots of traffic. At the end, just before the campsite, we turned off the main road onto a lovely quiet road to a little village where there was a beautiful church on a hill above a river, with workmen scraping and painting the bell tower, obviously nearing the end of the restoration process. The site has recently been added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. Then on down the hill and across the river, then a long sandy track to our camping spot among the pine trees. Swimming in the river was wonderful after the long hot day, but we were both exhausted!
To see photos from day 10 of biking, Malinki to near Suzdal, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Day 11, near Suzdal to Vladimir (50 km), wherein we decide we've reached our limit and ride in the truck. After breakfast we took down tents for the last time, then biked about 7 km into Suzdal, a spectacularly beautiful town with 30 churches and monasteries, domes gleaming in the sun. We toured the monastery and cathedral with an English-speaking guide, and heard a bell concert, one man with ropes and foot levers playing the 19 bells in the bell tower. Then a ride around the city looking at some of the other churches, all with different colored domes. But before the 50 km ride to Vladimir, where we would catch the train back to Moscow, we decided we'd reached our limit and opted for the truck. So we leap-frogged the group and and met them at turns and to set out lunch. At the train station everything came out of the truck,and, by some miracle of Andrei's packing, all the bikes and all the camping gear and luggage actually went back in. We took the 5:25 train from Vladimir, arriving back in Moscow at 8:45 pm, after passing though a huge thunderstorm with torrential rain and spectacular lightning. From the train station, we took the metro back to the hotel where others were staying, and the truck was there to meet us. Ron and I put the tandem in the hotel storage, said our farewells, and took our packs on the metro back to Bob's apartment.
To see photos from day 11 of biking, near Suzdal to Vladimir, click on the thumbnail at the left.
Today we took the metro back to the hotel, retrieved the bike from storage, fixed the flat tire we'd discovered when unloading the bike from the truck yesterday evening, and rode it back to Bob's. The bike (as were all other bikes on the trip) was absolutely filthy, having sand, mud, tar, and grit stuck to and in it. Since Bob lives on the 8th floor, he and Ron took the bike to the American Embassy, close to where Bob lives, where there is a car washing area, and used the hose there and the rags and brushes they took with them to clean it off. I've done laundry (and discovered one sock that still has grit and bits of asphalt stuck to it after going through the washer and dryer!) and written this message while Ron dismantled the bike and packed part for me to bring home and the other part for him to keep. Despite the thorough washing the bike had, every time Ron took out a bolt, sand fell out. Bob and Ron have now gone out for a late evening walk, and I'm about to go to bed. Ron will read this over and I'll send it in the morning.
Love to all,
Ellen and Ron
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Last updated: 3 August 2007
