[ Aug.2017 ] Six days after leaving Saint Petersburg on our cruise holiday in Russia, our boat went through the large reservoir Rybinsk and onto the famous Volga River at last.
The Volga is the longest river in Europe.
We had a sightseeing tour in Yaroslavl before which I had known only the name.
The local guide on the day was Valerie, who was also a lecturer at a university.
Yaroslavl was built in 1010 by Yaroslav I of Kievan Rus’, so this year is the 1007th year since then.
‘1007’ was written in planted flowers in a bed in the city park.
In this city, there is the oldest drama theatre in Russia and the city gate which is precious because there are only a few left in the country.
There are many old churches and monasteries, so the historical centre of Yaroslavl is listed as a Unesco World Heritage site.
But the first place we were taken was ‘House of Artists’.
This area in Russia is apparently famous for the miniature paintings and they were having the exhibition and sale there.
I thought those were the wooden boxes we see so often in souvenir shops, but in fact, the real ones are not wooden.
They are made of paper.
The genuine stuff has three things written at the bottom of the picture, showing the name of the artist, town and the school.
They were very expensive, but we thought we would not see the genuine works so often, so we bought a small box made in the town called Kholui.
After that, we visited St. Elijah’s Church on Central Square.
This church was built in the mid 17th century by the Skripin brothers who earned a lot of money by trading between west and east.
The brothers did not have any children and prayed hard for one, but they did not get any.
Renovation work was taking place outside, but the inside was breathtakingly gorgeous with frescoes all over the place.
Usually the orthodox churches do not have any seats inside, but here there were two luxurious seats like thrones.
According to Valerie, only the czar and the czarina could sit on them.
He also explained that the reason why the altar is hidden behind the wall of icons in Russian churches is because the altar is regarded as paradise and only dead people can see it. 
In front of the church in the square, there is a Soviet style of building which did not match with the surroundings.
Most buildings around here were built by Catherine the Great, but her son, Paul I of Russia hated his mother and demolished the original building.
Here our group broke up temporarily, and we had 40 minutes free time.
We walked around the neat centre of the town, looking for some souvenirs for friends.
The shop assistants were all nice and friendly who tried hard to understand what I wanted to say.
According to our guide book, the men in Yaroslavl have a reputation for being sober and hard workers and women are very beautiful.
