FUN-travel: Cruising Lake Onega & Kizhi Island – Day 8 – Uniworld River Cruise
July 12, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on FUN-travel: Cruising Lake Onega & Kizhi Island – Day 8 – Uniworld River Cruise
Day 10 – Thursday, July 10 – Cruising Lake Onega, Kizhi Island – overcast morning turns to sunny – high 60’s
Church of Transfiguration – Winter Church
What I LIKE
- 7:30 – wake up
- Slept good!
- 9:30 – breakfast
- Caviar & champagne @ breakfast
- Nice lox too
- Clearly read survey!
- 12:00 – go shopping in boutique
- use up all ship board credits
- Beautiful miniature Russian lacquer box – winter scene w/mother of pearl on lid
- Teeny, tiny one inside too
- 1:00 – lunch – more survey responses
- Pasta station w/Puttanesca fish sauce
- 2:00 – room R&R
- Work on catching up on these travel logs
- Don’t need a nap!
- No rain as predicted!
- Bright sun glistens on the water
- Very remote region w/few structures
- 4:20 – breathtaking view of Church of Transfiguration
- 4:30 – arrive Kizhi Island
- – UNESCO site
- Small, narrow treeless island is 6 km long by 1 km wide
- Walking tour to open air museum
- Specializing in wooden architecture
- 1st stop – Church of Transfiguration – erected 1714
- – called Russian fairytale architecture
- – has 22 different sized shimmering domes
- – covered with 30,000 carved aspen shingles
- – built w/o nails
Small Chapel
- 2nd stop – large farm house
- – housed 15 people on upper floor
- – bottom floor was barn
- – housed animals & farm equipment
Church of Transfiguration – Summer Church on left
- – heat from bodies of animals helped heat home in winter
- 3rd stop – windmill that could be turned to direction of wind
- 4th stop – chapel w/bells that chime a tune
- – local man plays the bells
- – strings attached & manipulated by his hands
- – pretty amazing!
- 6:30 – back on board
- 7:15 – excursion update for tomorrow stop Mandrogi
- 7:45 – dining w/Chris & Norga – lovely couple from South Africa
- Start w/ “Taittinger Toast” before dinner
- – special thanks to our BA flight attendants!
- 10:30 – back to room
- Midnight night-night
What I DON’T LIKE
- Dinner just so-so again
- There is no sunrise & sunset!
- It’s light all the time now!
- 4 am wake up is getting a bit old
Flooded Krochino Church
FUN-fact – Lake Onega is 3861 square miles and the 2nd largest lake in Europe. Its sister lake Ladoga is twice the size.
More FF – Today’s scenery is thick forested pines on the edge of the rocky jagged coast line with loads of islands all in varying shapes and sizes that mirror the terrain.
More FF – The lake is fed by 58 rivers and has a total of 1369 islands.