Sergiev Posad

Just an hour and a half train ride to the Northeast is an industrial town, Sergeiv Posad. This town with a population of over 100,000 is best known for The Trinity Monastery of St. Sergei. This Russian Orthodox monastery is one of only four in all of Russia and equates to the importance of The Vatican for Roman Catholics. 

The monastery is named after a 14th century monk and patron saint of Russia,  St. Sergei.  History says as a child he was devoted to the Holy Trinity and monastic life.  He was a great mystic who possessed severe self discipline and refrained from all forms of indulgence.  After his parents death when he was 20 years old, Sergei went deep into the forest looking for solitude.  He lived a extremely strict life with extreme poverty, hard physical labor, humility and simplicity.  After a few years of solitude, people started to gather around him becoming disciples.  It is because of his disciples the forest became home to many monasteries.  St. Sergei rejected all honors given to him except priest and abbot of his own monastery.  Effective prayer, clairvoyance, spiritual direction and numerous visions are some of the spiritual gifts granted to St. Sergei.  Pilgrims come every day to be touched by St. Sergei's presence, in His Holy Trinity Church, where his remains have been entombed.  

 Entrance into the Monastery is free. If you would like to take photos there is a fee of 100 rubles. you will get a slip of paper in return proving you paid should you ever be asked to show it.  The Mr walked into a building just opposite the entrance pictured above to pay the fee.  He was told we could pay 280 rubles for a guided tour in any language.  We chose to pass on this.  The Mr was given a cd, free, of The Holy Trinity choir.

Walking up to the Monastery are many little churches and chapels.  It also appears vendors are out selling their goods despite the weather.

Upon entering the Monastery you are overwhelmed with an amazing smell tantalizing your taste buds.   Walk in to smell the scent of fresh baked bread and other concoctions.  For 40 rubles we bought a loaf of sweet bread the size of a bundt pan.  Wait until your departure to make your purchase, simply so you do not have to carry it around. Baked good are wrapped, but take your own bag to put them in.

Chapel Over The Well in front of The Bell Tower

The Royal Chambers

 

Cathedral of the Assumption

 

Pilgrims wait in line to get their Holy water from the building on the left, Chapel Over The Well.

The beautiful pink building is Church of Our Lady of Smolensk

 

Gateway Church of St. John the Baptist

It is thru the archway in this church you enter the Monastery.

The Refectory with the St. Serguis Church

 

Cathedral of the Assumption

 

The Trinity Monastery of St. Sergei from afar.

 There is so much to see in this Monastery.  With Munchkins in tow, we were limited in what to see and do.We most definitely could have spent more time than we did (possibly 2 hours). We did not see everything. This Monastery is a beautiful place and worth the day trip.  We thought it would be a nice place to come when the weather is nice and warm with blue skies!  Yet if we came with nice weather we would say "I bet this place is beautiful in the snow!"  In spite of the weather, a good place to come either way.

 

We made our way thru a tunnel, across the street and to this restaurant.  It seems to be the only one in sight.  Given its location we were very surprised by the lack of patrons and pricing.  It wasn't crowded at all when we arrived. Turns out we were part of the "early bird" crowd as we call it in America.  Upon leaving, tables were filling up nicely.  The prices were reasonable, considering this is Russia. If this restaurant were anywhere in the States near a tourist area, the prices would have been double.  The menu seems like a book with page after page of items to choose from.  The food was good and hot, just don't expect it to come all at once or in the order in which you want it.   Our hot appetizer arrived after our main meal.

LOOK at those icicles!

How To Get There From Moscow....

 

 

 From Metro Komsomlskaya take the suburban train from Yaroslavl Station.

You buy your tickets to the right side of this statue. If I recall correctly, the overhead sign is in green. 

You can buy your ticket on the day of. Simply walk up and buy a one ticket. They will not sell you a round trip. Tickets are 132 rubles. Trains go about every 20-30 minutes. From where I am standing, just behind me is a board that will display your location and platform.  Next to where you buy your tickets are doors. Walk thru those doors, scan your ticket and walk to your platform.

Here is our train on the platform.  You can see on the display sign the name of the location the train is going. At about 90 minutes into the ride you wil hear "Sergei Posad" over the loud speaker. This is your stop!

 

This is what the train station looks like at Sergei Posad.  This is us standing in the direction waiting to go back to Moscow.  When you get off the train in Sergei Posad to go to the Monastery, follow the people getting off the train...go to the right and over the train tracks. Walk to the main street. Look to the right and you will see the Monastery off in the distance. Simply walk straight and to the right. You cant miss it and it is very simple.  

Stick People

I have never understood people who walk with sticks. I like to call them stick people. In fact, I usually think to myself how ridiculous they look. What? They can't walk without a stick? Really? Just walk! Today, I ate my words and it beat my butang!

The proper name for this activity is Nordic Walking.  I got dragged into this. It wasn't my plan to become a stick person.  Really! But somehow I get tangled up into these things that I just can't get out of, except for Stitch club. Seriously? Do I look like a stitcher to you?  I can put you in stitches, but I do not stitch.  Ask my mother.  So, my friends and I go to an international club where you have coffees, drink teas, eat some biscuits, chat and oh yea...sign up to do things.  I thought cross country skiing looked interesting. I am not a skier. I am a beach girl. I have been on skis once in my life, on the bunny slope and that didn't end well. It involved me, not stopping, running into orange construction fencing and falling over it with my poles swinging out and over in front of me. I nearly chopped a man in half! I kid you not!  So, why did I sign up for cross country skiing? Now, I have NO idea.  I mentioned this to my friend, Diamand Lady. She goes and signs up too and then comes happily to tell me I must do Nordic walking first to get my body in shape.  I asked her how she knew this and she said the ladies at the table told her so.  Well then! By all means lets listen to people we don't know and do something we know nothing about.  So, we signed up, bought the gear and here we are.

The cold crisp air was such a refreshing change to breathe.  We talked, laughed, giggled and got a great workout.  We met our guide at the metro station. From there she led us into a forest where we, the stick walkers, got lost.  Thankfully, our guide was never lost! She knew the forest well.  We stretched, walked and stretched more over the course of two hours.  It was so much fun! Although I have needed to be on the couch recouping from the butang kicking I just received, I am happy I did it. And will do it again!  

I am now stick person.  I pinky promise to never diminish the stick people again. I get it!

Happy Fall Ya'll

As the story was told to me...Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Communist party, had a mistress. He was quite fond of the lady folk.  In the early 1920's, one of his mistresses lived here, in the dacha.  The fact she had many children did not deter Lenin from his lust for her.  The dacha has had an addition or two since her residency.  It is currently owned by someone unrelated to either the mistress or Lenin.

A statue of the perfect Soviet family; father, mother and son.

Munchkin Two wanted to know where the daughter was.

And this is a most beautiful residential street we had the blessing of walking the other day.

Our Day to Red Square

The Gum Shopping Mall

Pronounced Goom

The display inside the Gum

Table tennis

Ride around town

Before

The building across the street this am...apparently Stalin built these buildings to make the road to the Kremlin more pretty. That wouldn't be the word I would use....

After

The building across the street.

The View From Here

A picture from our kitchen window....the apartment is bright! Not so airy....feels like heat is on. Outside temp is gorgeous! No humidity!

Fashion

All of the women here wear stiletto heals. Diamond Lady and I have no idea how in the world they can walk, much less on this cobblestone. The orange heels make the outfit, don't you think?

While the orange is not common, the height of the heel is. All young Russian women wear this heel while walking around whether it be grocery, site seeing, errands. All Russian women are beautiful and thin. I have learned they eat only soup for lunch. When I find out about the other meals, I will let you know. Then we can all go on the Russian diet. You have these beautiful ladies walking around with ugly men. Seriously! The average Russian man is not that attractive. Even the Mr. joins me in wondering what "she" is doing with "him." Or how did "he" get "her"? Judgmental? Perhaps.....I boggles my brain.

St. Basils Cathedral

The mr. And I

Fashion

Diamond Lady and I are fascinated by what people wear here. She took this photo of a lady in a green suit. This is quite tame to many of the other things we have seen.

It is common here to wear decorative/designed panty hose here with jean shorts and heels.

D.A.T.R.

Which stands for Don't Ask, This is Russia.....

You can smell the stench of the portables as you walk by. This lady collects a fee for you to use the portables. When we walked by a few minutes prior to this photo, she was standing in a portable eating her lunch which was on a ledge inside the portable! Her portable was stashed with coats and other personal items sitting on the potty area.

Don't Ask, This is Russia!

Love the colors! This photo ( and the ones below) were taken with the iPad.

The view leaving the doors of Gum, a very high end shopping mall in Red Square.

St. Basils Cathedral

I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing this view. Gorgeous!

The Kremlin

The city is getting ready for two major holidays. Preparations in Red Square are beginning.

Red Square

Trying out the video option on the new iPad....not bad at all!

Friendship

We sat outside at a restaurant having drinks overlooking this beautiful church. A new friendship was forged with Diamond Lady and her Handsome Greek. The weather was gorgeous! The conversation flowed. We were on a blind date, the Mr. and I with our new friends. We met online, communicated through email until deciding to meet in person. This date was not unlike any other online blind date I suppose. After drinks we took the metro to Arbat where we had a yummy diviner of Uzbekistan cuisine. It was quite hilarious the order we placed. You would have thought we were feeding an army! The food arrived and we all laughed...when ordering shush kabobs you think you are getting four or five skewers, like the picture. We had decided to order a couple of things and share. But This Is Russia, so we only got one...for the whole table! We then made our way to a dessert place because the Diamond Lady had suggested. We didn't get much for dinner after all! It was lovely! Diamond Lady and Handsome Greek escorted us back to our metro stop as any kind date would do. I left feeling happy and excited. The anticipation of seeing Diamond Lady tomorrow thrills me. I wonder if they liked us as much as we liked them? Ahhh, the fun of dating!

Triumph Playground

This play area is for children of Triumph Palace. This, unlike the fitness centers, is free! Doesn't it look like fun?