Saturday, September 5, 2015

Russian Icon Tour, Part 11 Pskov

Tonight I am reporting from our (small) hotel room in Pskov. 


It features a unique plumbing arrangement that saves faucets and pipe. 

Sink:


Bath:


They must have saved elsewhere on the plumbing too, because the water is quite brown. 

But I've gotten ahead of myself. 

We started today by leaving a very busy hotel buffet in St. Petersburg that ran out of food, plates and cups. 

We jumped onto a magic yellow bus and headed southward on a 4-hour journey. 


Those of us in the front seats engaged in brave "If I were driving this thing" advice, confident that our driver(s) wouldn't understand us and we wouldn't have to take the wheel of the bus. 


When we finally reached Pskov at 1:40 we had a great luncheon, including the first Borsht I've ever tasted - onion-free. 


Then we headed to the 12th Century Mirozhsky Monastery chapel with 80% of its original frescos surviving all these centuries!



And we peeked into the monks' church nearby. 


Later we went to the Kremlin (town center). And took a few artsy photos. 


In the midst of a rainstorm, we checked into our Soviet-era hotel. 


But crammed 11 into a room anyway, for a quick round of drinks before dinner, 


which was held in an underground "lair".


Which brings us back to me in room 513, writing up our day. 

Thanks for reading!