Day 9 Wednesday

We have had no internet access in the past 4 days. We sailed through the Rybinskiy reservoir and then along the Volga river until 12:30 pm when we stopped in the middle of the river and were met by a refueling ship. We were scheduled to be in Yaroslavl at 3 pm so we thought it was far. Turns out we were there but had to wait for space to dock. Once we did, we went on a tour of the city. Our first stop was the governor’s house. What a waste of time. Out of 3.5 hours of the tour, we spent over an hour there looking at portraits of prominent citizens and listening to music played by local amateurs. Yaroslavl city center is a UNESCO heritage site mostly because of its plethora of beautiful churches and the oldest theater in Russia. We only managed to see one of them, the Church of Elijah the Prophet, which was built in 1647 and has some of the best preserved interiors in Russia with amazing frescoes and icons. It consists of two parts – the summer church – much bigger and more ornate, and a small, but also very beautiful winter church. The scene of the wedding in the Russian version of Doctor Zhivago was filmed in this church. We also went to the market which was not very impressive. While walking through the center, we found a liquor store and bought some hooch. Back to the ship for dinner.

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