UK

Before setting off for St Petersburg via Ivanovo and Yaroslavl, we went to see the last significant site in Suzdal, the Pokrovskii Cathedral. It was founded in 1364 by Andrei … Read more

Suzdal arose in the 11th-century on the basis of a fort (kremlin) with earthen walls and the main religious building, the Rozhdestvenskii Sobor with gorgeous blue onion domes was built … Read more

An uneventful journey on a road which alternated between treble, dual and single carriageway road which made driving rather stressful. The road turned right at Vladimir and took us to … Read more

An advantage of sleeping in the van is that we were up and in the village before practically anybody else. We went to see the Cathedral of the Icon of … Read more

Driving out of Kazan after one of the best breakfasts for many a day, we travelled west (after driving north and getting lost) to the Raifa Bogoroditskii (Virgin) Monastery. It … Read more

A lengthy drive through a countryside of deciduous forests alternating with ploughed fields and small farming villages. Only one significant town on the way, Dimitrovgrad where we stopped at a … Read more

We stayed in the van for most of 30th September, waiting for nightfall when the plan was to get through the border at midnight, the earliest we would be allowed … Read more

Day 91 was a relaxing day, staying at the Tanzharyk Hotel,because our Russian visa starts on 1st October and we needed to take our time getting to the border. There … Read more

Khromtau looked rather less awful in the light of day with some nice looking single-storey brightly-painted houses visible from the main road. It is a major chrome mining and processing … Read more

There is practically nothing worth writing about today, except that the monotony of the semi-desert/steppe was broken by lines of trees either side of the road which were presumably planted … Read more