Friday, September 10th, 2010--Myshkin and Uglich

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Friday, September 10^th--Myshkin and Uglich

MYSHKIN

Legend has it that a prince of some sort/some place fell asleep in the woods bordering the steep banks of the Volga River. A mouse ran across his face and woke him up just in time to see a poisonous snake. In gratitude for saving his life, he decreed that a chapel be built on that spot and that started the town.

Mysh in Russian means mouse—so literally Mouse town. This is played up by town people from the minute we docked with people in mouse costumes greeting us with songs and dances on the pier to the tiny pottery and other mouse shaped souvenirs.

Walking by stalls selling souvenirs, apples, dried fish, mushrooms and other items, we followed Polina and the assigned local guide, up a cobblestone street to a building that housed a blacksmith and a pottery maker. The blacksmith was forging mouse outlines with pieces of iron ending with a pointy curlicue tail. I have no idea what you could possible do with one if you bought it as it didn’t stand up in any way. The potter had made mice for sale in all sizes with some that were as small as ½ inch in length including tail.



We turned left then, off this road, and into the entrance of an extremely well done, about a block square, open air WWII memorial. A huge bronze statue of a soldier with an eternal flame in front of it is sitting in the middle of 2 half circles of red marbled walls. On the right half circle were etched the names of all the men from the town killed in WWII along with some insignia and other military/political stuff. On the left, the ½ circle marble wall had two almost life size etchings. The surface was broken into three areas with a etched soldier on the far left writing a letter from camp, lines and phrases taken from actual letters written in cursive during this time in the middle, and a woman with her children gathered around her reading his letters on the far right.

We saw many WWII monuments and memorials in Russia as they lost 14.21% of their population where in contrast, the USA lost 0.32% of our population at that same time.



We then walked to the large summer Assumption Cathedral and went inside. Hoping not to get head lice, we both tied scarves over our head as there was a stack of them pointedly placed on a small table by the door to the Cathedral. As we have done all over on our trips, both to remember Mom and Dad and others who are no longer with us, and to help in the restoration and upkeep of the religious place, we purchased and lit a candle. The gold leaf ancient icons in this church have been badly faded due to the Soviets using the structure to store hay.



Right in front of this Cathedral were parked several taxis that had Mouse City in English across the lit sign on the top of the taxi roof . After the tour of the church we walked less than a block to a 2 storied building. The top floor was devoted to showing us the old way of making the boiled felt boots called Valenki in Russian. It is an extremely time consuming, a several step process, to make the boots. The mostly waterproof boots were worn in the winter prior to the advent of modern materials. They had a small museum room attached to the demonstration room that had various styles of the old boots including one pair that was 100 years old.



The bottom floor housed a flax museum. A guide demonstrated how the flax plant was worked and the tools used to make the fibers necessary for thread for making linen cloth. Linen was the main cloth of old Russia. In one of the old villages we toured, the guide told us that the wife was allowed to weave cloth only during the 40 days of Lent. She had to make all the material she would use for the family’s needs, for the year, during those 40 days.



Next door and slightly down the hill was set up a general old time store and a granary museum. One of the things we learned from the guide that we didn’t realize, was that iron was so precious that it was sold by weight. So if you wanted a new hinge it was weighed for the price to be charged. The reason given for the luck associated with the horseshoe was that horses often threw them and if you found one you were “in the money” so to speak as you could sell it for a tidy sum to the smith.



The grain mill was really cutely set up. We filed in and were seated on a row of benches. The guide began by telling us a story about the life size mice “visiting” the miller to have their grain ground. Then in a surprise move, that startled all of us, two mice in the corner by the door starting moving and we then realized there were two people in mouse costumes.



We then were “freed” to walk the town. Valerie and I started looking for an internet café and then met some people who said there was nothing in this town like that. So we walked down the main street the other way that seemed to then angle back to the docks. Along the way we saw a modern hotel that had ceramic mice playing various musical instruments on tiles set in the front pillars. We also saw a little park that had “mice” in landscaping beds with the fur being plantings of dusty miller.



UGLICH

We were on our way sailing down the Volga by 2pm with lunch also starting then. Our next stop at 4:00 was Uglich. Uglich has a long history. It was a favorite of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century. His son Dmitry was murdered here in 1591, and the bright red Church of St. Dmitry on the Blood that sits on the banks of the Volga River was built to honor him. I was just too tired to tour the town after walking Myshkin, especially after looking out from the dock to see 3 flights of concrete stairs up to the town. I did get as far as standing on the dock and looking at the red church on the bank.



Valerie got out and wandered around the city but also forewent the tour. Once she had walked to all of the spots that were on the tour, she wandered off the beaten path to look at another church to make sure it wasn’t part of the tour. It was exceptionally interesting to see that there was almost a line that divided the tourist area from the rest of the town. In the tourist area, almost everything was in good repair and freshly painted. A block down, sidewalks were broken, churches were awaiting restoration, and houses were unpainted. Once she had her brief tour, she walked back through 2-3 blocks of stalls selling things to the tourists. It seems that the only way to get to and from the ships to the sights, was along this stall promenade.



Not much further down the Volga from Uglich, we entered the Moscow canal to cruise about 128 km and through the last of 6 locks to take us into the port of Moscow.

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