Breath-taking scenery awaits you on the trip of a
lifetime.
There are many beautiful and historic places in and around St Petersburg to explore but some more further afield are best reached by boat.
One way of stepping back into Russia's dark and medieval past and having a relaxing holiday into the bargain is to take a gentle and romantic lake and river cruise on the St Petersburg.
This clean and majestic looking linerette will take you on a 400 kilometer (250 mile) adventure deep into -- what was for Western tourists -- previously unchartered territory.
Here you can go on a magical mystery tour of ancient religious centers with onion domed kremlins along the banks of the sleepy, rural lake Ladoga, and lush, green Lake Onega towards the White Sea Baltic Canal.
For a mere $180 you'll get reasonable service, three stopovers and informative guided tours on the three-day cruise which will take you to the romantic island of Kizhi and the spiritual monastery at Valaam.
Kizhi is at the north end of Lake Onega -- one of the natural lakes forming part of the White Sea-Baltic Canal (Belomorkanal) built in the 1930s by convict labor with a resulting terrible loss of life.
The nearest town is Petrozavodsk, capital of Karelia, which has a hotel, and is best done as a weekend trip. Our pleasant trip by boat started from St Petersburg on a Sunday evening at 9pm.
Trips leave every few days from the city's River Station near Volodasky Bridge (Metro Proletarskaya) with the scheduled arrival at Valaam by 9am the following morning. The first evening aboard the four-deck St Petersburg gives you ample chance to unpack your things in the spacious, air-conditioned two or three-bed cabins and freshen up in the suite's bathroom before heading for one of the boat's two bars for a nightcap.
The well-stocked bars take on a half Western and half Soviet appearance with chairs and tables and a good selection of hot and cold beverages and alcoholic drinks at prices that won't harm the wallet.
People can sit around quietly in groups and chat or for those who like their entertainment hot and spicy there's the midnight erotic cabaret where the men will be entertained by a bevy of bikinied beauties who leave little to the imagination!
The cabins seem to be a standard class in terms of luxury and are simple and plain with no frills and no television. You'll pay more for a three-bed cabin, located on the lower decks but miss out on the large panoramic windows which come with the two-bed cabins on the decks higher up.
The morning brings into view the Valaam Archipelago -- a cluster of picturesque islands noted for their natural beauty and ancient monasteries which looked mysterious and breathtaking outlined through the early morning mist.
Here you get a chance to disembark on the main island for a four hour tour around what used to be one of the largest and most important Russian orthodox spiritual centers in Russia. Before the Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40 it was on Finnish territory until the Soviets snatched it back, closed it, drove out the monks and damaged the historic churches.
Thanks to government grants, in recent years the whole complex has been restored to its former glory and plans are afoot to return the monastery to the church.
There's a lot to see at Valaam and for the sake of convenience, tour guides will break you up into small groups of 20 tourists each with your own guide. The guides tend to speak Russian although foreign speaking guides can be booked in advance at a cost and there are some excellent guides books available from the souvenir stalls to tell you all about the history of the islands.
Our guide was really good and certainly knew his stuff. We discovered that he had lived on the island for 20 years. The tour is fairly simple and standard and takes you into the stone church buildings. For an extra fee you can be serenaded to the sounds of the Valaam Choral Group.
The main monastery at Valaam is six km away from the pier and you can go there by horse and trap, boat or if the weather is fine, by good old shank's pony.
The parties have to return to the ship by 1pm where lunch is served in the spacious dining room. Lunch, which was simple but filling, and generally consisted of traditional Russian fare --salads, Borshcht, meat cutlets with rice or potatoes, cakes and fruit. The menu each day was set and the waitress automatically brought you the first course on being seated at a table.
The afternoon is time to relax and laze about the boat. We spent time sitting on the decks soaking up the warm sunshine and beautiful scenery while we let the world go peacefully by. There's always the option of heading for the lounge for a coffee or returning to the cabin for an afternoon nap if you are feeling exhausted after your walk around Valaam.
If you're travelling with children there's plenty to explore on the ship and American dubbed films are shown in the video saloon. Special tea parties can also be arranged.
And so the ship sailed on to Kizhi, arriving 4pm the following day. This island has a fabulous landscape and is famed throughout Russia for its quaint wooden churches and bell towers. This peninsula is first and foremost an open air museum of wooden architecture.
The wooden churches at Kizhi.
Wooden structures dating from the 16th century have been transplanted here from the region around Lake Onega, including some attractive peasant houses (izba) and the churches. The island boasts an interesting icon collection, though the most famous relic on Kizhi is the much photographed 22-cupola wooden Church of the Transfiguration that was built without nails. People tired of inhaling second hand smoke will be glad to hear that Kizhi is a no smoking zone.
The last day of your fantastic voyage takes you to the Svato-Troitsky Monastery on what the tour operators call The Green Stop-over. Basically the tour is rather depressing since most of the picturesque churches and structures were ransacked by Stalin. Now you'll see a few ruins, a mental asylum, small village and an ugly hydro-electric station. However it's interesting to pass through some canal locks on the way back to St Petersburg.
