Blogs from Rostov, Centre, Russia, Europe

I made a failed attempt at visiting Rostov several weeks ago and this time got up quite early to be able to catch the train in good time. The only bad thing about this was impossibility to have breakfast at the hotel (I departed at 6.30, the meal began at 7 in the morning). Nevertheless, I felt quite good in the train and enjoyed its fast ride without any stops, the train did not even seem to decelerate anywhere. Its final destination was Yaroslavl, and the duration of stop at Rostov was one minute. The majority of people went to Yaroslavl. During the train journey, I read Gerald Durrell’s “The Whispering Land” – an inspiring story of author’s adventures in Argentina in quest of animals, containing colourful, witty descriptions of nature, animal behaviour, and the locals. ... read more

Monday 28 April - Taganrog to Rostov on the Don, 96 km Excellent breakfast. Late start - 12 noon. Got a bus into town with Alfred Muller, who had a map, and walked round. Nothing much to see. A port, rather tatty park, long treelined streets like all the towns we see here. Found a big supermarket and got some goodies. Changed some dollars at a bank. There were a lot of shops selling quite smart imported clothes etc, but there were no proper shop windows, the shops looked like houses with just one or two things in ordinary-size windows. Presumably they didn’t use to have smart shops. When we finally set off the police kept stopping us and it took an hour and a half to cover 15 km. We had lunch sitting on the ... read more

Another sunday, another minibus journey. But this one was much more comfortable and only took us 80 kilometres, to Rostov. Half of our group went for a day trip and Katya came with me. Rostov is a very old town with wide streets, dozens of churches with bold grey domes and shop signs in an archaic cyrillic script. We almost had the place to ourselves because weekends are so quiet. There was a lot more space than in Yaroslavl and no large buildings; it really felt like being in the provinces, with a strong cold wind to remind us that winter is approaching. Inside the kremlin (fortress) there were three museums: the first for ceramic ornaments, the second for miniature bells and the third dedicated to ancient Rostov. They were quite dull but the last one ... read more