A Winter Journey to the Golden Ring

Golden Ring: that's not a historic name, it's a touristic name, but it's a good one:

The Golden Ring: that are the historical cities in the north-east of Moscow, and their churches, monasteries and kremlins coined our imagination of Mother Russia.

Beside well known places like Sagorsk (better: Sergej - Posad) and Susdal there are many other places and cities, with rich history.

I came to Pereslavl-Zaleski ("Pereslavl behind the forest") in october 97 for the first time, a short bus stop on the way to Vologda and Arkhangelsk. There was no time left for visiting and I saw the many monasteries and got the feeling that I was missing something special.


So I was really glad when, on the way to the 50th birthday of Igor Gavrilov in Jaroslavl, I could come again and stop here.

The tour starts in the north of Moscow and a ticket to the North was about 78 rubel (5 $). Ludmila Dmitrieva is my translator and company.

You can only go by bus to Pereslavl-Zaleski, as the train from the Jaroslavl Station in Moscow to the North does not stop in this small place.

Pereslavl-Zaleski is the birth-place of Alexander Newski, Peter the Great studied ship navigation on the lake as a young man and here are so many monasteries that it is not possible to visit them all during one day.

When we took a taxi at the Busstation in Pereslavl, the driver started to bring us to the women monastery, which is closed for visitors, as he could not imagine that curious women travel through the country and visit historical places in this time of winter .... But then he brought us to Goritski Monastir, which also houses the museum of the region.

The monastery complex is more interesting than a visit of the nice, small exhibitions. A view from the watch tower into the vast country with all the other monasteries is unique. Everything here is slow and quiet...

	more photos from Pereslavl - Zaleski 58 kb
	to Jaroslavl 83 kb