Blogs from Arkhangelsk, Northwest, Russia, Europe

Arkhangelsk Today we are in ARkhangelsk. We had to tender ashore and its was a very difficult route to follow. No tender today We have a real dock. Arkhangelsk is considerably bigger than the other islands we have visited with a larger population. The ground is basically a marsh so construction is very difficult. All of the buildings were originally wood. Many of the houses are still wood. Our guide say older people like to live in wooden structures. The say it is healthier. There is a central heating plant that pipes heat in large pipes to all the houses. This is their idea of “Central heating”. It was a beautiful day with a temperature hovering around 75. n All the Russian young people were in shorts and tee shirts. The large river that runs through ... read more

…as I quickly found to be the case cycling across Arkhangelsk Province which, while suffering sub minus 40C temperatures in winter, is baking hot in summer and plagued by mosquitoes in greater numbers than are found even in the densest jungles on the planet. Any attempt to take a breather, particularly if near one of the many lakes and rivers that interrupted the lush myriad of daffodil-speckled green hues making up the landscape, was soon greeted by the sensation that my skin itself was crawling around all over me. For much of the 80km between Nyandoma and Kargopol the crumbling, pot-holed, asphalt road dug its way through thick woodland. It was raised about a metre above actual ground level and the reddish-brown waters of the swampy forest floor collected in long, still, murky ditches on either ... read more