Rostov

Tuesday, June 21
 

This morning we left the lake house and headed north about an hour to Rostov. Rostov is the most famous historical town in the Golden Ring. We spent the morning exploring the Kremlin, a compound of cathedrals and buildings in a very picturesque setting on the shore of Lake Nero.

We walked along the walls of the Kremlin, climbed up into a tower, saw ancient religious art in museums and heard a hymn sung in a church with beautiful acoustics.

 

The darker gray domes are covered in shingles of Populus tremula, a common aspen in the nearby forests.

 

Lake Nero

 

Rostov Kremlin

Looking out onto a nearby vegetable farm 

 

 

 

Looking up toward a cathedral ceiling

 

 

After lunch, we visited Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery. The cathedral was undergoing some renovation work while we were there. The garden has many apple trees and an ornamental border with peonies, roses and delphiniums in bloom. Vladimir and I thought it was odd that delphinium and roses would be blooming together, and also that more roses were blooming here than in Moscow. I think the monasteries create a warmer microclimate.

 

 

Delphinium with roses. Notice the painted trunk of the apple tree in the background. This is commonly done for disease and pest control. 

Storing wood in a building alcove

 



Traditional Russian houses could be described as humble, but as we drove through Rostov, we saw many painted in bright colors and with ornamentation around the windows that were very charming!

 

 

 

 

From Rostov we travelled south, stopping at Svetlana’s dacha for tea. She stayed behind and will meet us again on Thursday morning. We continued on to Moscow for the night. Tomorrow we will tour two botanical gardens of the Moscow State University.