Now we find luxury in Vladimir

Previous page - An unpleasant host in Vladimir, Part 3

 

We leave Artyom's home

We wound our way through alleyways back to the main road and immediately climbed into a passing taxi. We got the driver to take us to the railway ticket office where we managed to buy train tickets out of Vladimir for the very next day. I had already written the details of the train tickets we needed on a piece of paper. It was my best effort at Russian writing and it paid off. The cashier provided the tickets for us and we then headed off up the street to find a hotel.

Hotel Vladimir (in Vladimir of course)

Ian, through all his research, already had Hotel Vladimir in mind. We quickly found it and booked ourselves a room for the night. It will cost us 2700 roubles for the room and that includes breakfast.

The lady at Reception spoke English well so that was less stressful for us than it might otherwise have been. We were given a room on the quiet, side wing of the hotel. The room was perfectly lovely and had two single beds which felt very soft. We would look forward to our sleep that night. We left our gear in our room and set off looking for the city sights.

 

 

Hotel Vladimir is in the main street of Vladimir at 74 Bolshaya Moskovskaya St. We found the location very handy as we were able to walk to all the main tourist attractions from there.

Vladimir is one of the most visited destinations in the "Golden Ring" historical cities on tourists' must-see list.

We had only one day in which to look around.

 

 

We spent a while photographing churches and monasteries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were astounded by the carved stonework of St Demetrius' Cathedral. It is totally exquisite. No one really knows exactly how old it is but it is believed to have been built sometime during the 1100's. The Assumption Cathedral is very large and its gold domes are visible miles away. It was erected in 1158.

 

Lunch calls us

Lunch was at a Turkish style restaurant just to the left of the front of the Hotel Vladimir. It is called Shesh Besh. It was a delicious meal. We both had two courses and the meal came to 640 roubles which we thought wasn't bad for a tourist town restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued on, looking at everything possible after lunch. It is amazing how many interesting buildings are within just a short walking distance of each other in this town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Trinity Church is right next to the Golden Gate. It was built between 1913 and 1916 by Old Believers. These days it is no longer used as a church but as a museum. It is widely known as the "Museum of Crystal, Lacquered Miniatures and Embroidery". Unfortunately we didn't realize this until after we got back home to Australia otherwise we would have taken a look inside if we had.

The Nikolo-Kremlevskaya Church was built in 1769 and it now houses the city planetarium. All these interesting churches are either on or very near to the main road that goes through the centre of Vladimir. The Golden Gate was erected in 1164 and was once a formidable fortress guarding the main entrance to the city. There is now a museum at the top of the monument. We were so pleased we opted for Hotel Vladimir as we were able to visit most everything on offer by walking around on foot.

 

Ever since we have been in Russia we have been intrigued by the downpipes that run down the outside of buildings and spill rain water right out onto the pavements. We are intrigued because we rarely see such things where we live. We pity the poor souls walking along these pavements in wet weather. This photo is a prime example although we have seen larger more ornate downpipes with huge fluted end parts. The photo below is another of our favourites. Imagine walking out of this building and copping a drenching from above. I guess the removal of rain water is a major problem in all old cities.

 

 

All the walking made us hungry so we headed back to the hotel. On the way there we went past a building that had Tupperware written on the front of it.

For dinner we ate in the hotel restaurant. The restaurant is decorated very nicely but the food was really nothing special and certainly not a patch on what we were served in Hotel Vladivostok.

There is Wi Fi in the restaurant which is quite handy. We have also seen two internet cafes in buildings in the main street of town which is called Bolshaya Moskovskaya St.

Our hotel room is so nice and we've just had the best shower we've had since leaving home. I particularly like the bathroom because there is a hair drier in it. What luxury!

 

 

 

Next page - From Vladimir to Moscow

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