Mandrogi

September 20, 2006

Our boat set sail at 6:00 PM the previous night and we sailed the entire night down the River Neva into La Doga Lake. There isn’t a lot to see, just trees and more trees. Surprisingly it is very flat, there are few hills and no mountains in sight. It is pretty however, and the leaves are just beginning to change color. I am sure in just a few weeks, the colors must be wonderful.

It started to rain during the night sometime. I must admit that we have lucked out with weather. Most of the tour guides mentioned that we are experiencing an “Indian Summer”. We have had little rain and the temps have been comfortable.

There isn’t a lot to see along the way, just miles of heavily forested areas. Occasionally we saw small villages but there was little to photograph. Most of them look poor and in desperate need of repair.

Today was the first day we didn’t have a tour first thing in the morning. The extra hour to sleep was more than welcome. As I dressed I thought, it feels like a fall day Saturday morning where you put on your favorite comfortable shirt and look for a nice quiet warm place to work on something.

Although the ship offered classes in Russian Songs, Russian Crafts and Amber, I found myself more interesting in finally getting some time to write and organize some of the pictures. Trying to write a travelogue after the trip is almost impossible, I was glad I finally got some time to finish some of the pages.

I didn’t take a lot of pictures in Mandrogi. It was a built for tourist stop and not all that interesting. There were re-created houses and buildings as well as a lot of over priced souvenir stands. The highlight of the stop was a sashlik BBQ lunch and the Vodka Museum that has 2,682 type of vodka on display.

Later in the day we passed another village. I snapped a few shots. What I am noticing is that in most of the villages that there are lot of small houses that are very simple and usually in need of repair. At one end of the town, there is usually one very large house. I wondered if this weren’t examples of the the Land Owner with the nice house and the peasant/farmers in the small houses.

We passed through a lock. We have gone through several and according to our introduction we will go through another dozen before our trip is over. I got a chuckle of the sudden rush of passengers that came running outside to watch, photograph and film the event. I guess I am not the only one fascinated by these types of things.  There is a kid inside of everyone of us who enjoying watching boats going through locks.