Wednesday, July 17, 2019

July 16 Archangel Russia

On a bright sunny day we docked in Archangel for a tour of the area.  Well, not actually Archangel.  The river is low so the ship can't get into town so we ended up about 11 miles out of town.  And that's not really a problem in Russia because unless you go through a long visa process you can't just leave the ship and wander around.  You must be part of a tour.

Our tour will be a little longer than planned since we're adding about 30 minutes each way to get in and out of the city.  The first stop is St. Nicholas Church,
Inlaid marble floor
 Beautiful ceiling

 The back side of the church.  It doesn't really lean like this, that's an artifact of the panorama building of Photoshop.
 The regional museum, located where merchant seamen used to live and sell their cargoes. 
 It's surprisingly open with massive stone walls.
 Certainly not rising to the level of the Museum of the Northern Fleet in Murmansk, it has dioramas
 models
 and displays of old things.  It also had some art displays which I ignored.
 Peter the Great, who appears on the 500 ruble note.  That's about $8.
 One of the symbols of the city
 World War II (Great Patriotic War) memorial.  Soldier, sailor and nurse and eternal flame.
 Across the street, a memorial to the Allied convoys that came to Archangel.
 In the central park of Archangel is the obligatory statue of Lenin.
 Chumbarovka Street, a pedestrian thoroughfare, with a childlike twist.

 Older apartment buildings.  At 64 degrees north, notice the almost downward angle of the satellite dish as it aims 23000 miles above the equator.

 A beloved child's author in the Soviet Union is honored with a statue along the street that came prebuilt with a pigeon on its head. Shaking his hand brings good luck.
 Tupperware!
 Another promenader along the street, certainly dressed up for the sunny day.
 Long live the revolution....or not.
 We are welcomed at Malye Korely with bread and salt.  This is an open air museum, showing the buildings of pre-modern times in the Russian north.
 This is our guide, explaining the simple construction of the cattle fence. Of all our russion guides, she spoke the best English.  Most of our guides were difficult to understand, although to be fair, they would not have understood any Russian that I attempted to speak.
 A bell tower
 A home of a well to do family.  The house is on top, the animals live on the lower level.  The ramp leads to the hay loft, allowing horse drawn wagons to go right up to the door.  Three generations would live in a house this size.
 The interior.  Low doors and few windows to retain the heat.
The church
 


 Another large house, once again with family above and animals below.  This was also the location of the gift shop, a staple in every century.

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