Northern European Russia – World Travel

White Sea Coast Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:00:00 +0000

The Kola Peninsula’s southern shore, on the White Sea, is a beautiful, pristine and completely unspoilt coastline with some fascinating architectural, archaeological and geological sites – still largely undiscovered by the outside world. The Varzuga River provides some of the very best salmon fishing in the world.

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Vologda Region Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Due to its prominence up until the 17th century, the Vologda region has a rich history and plenty of lovely old churches. Its capital, Vologda, is especially worth the trip from Moscow or Yaroslavl, but also in this region are the World Heritage-listed frescoes of Ferapontovo and the official home town of Father Frost, Russia’s equivalent of Father Christmas.

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Vologda Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:00:00 +0000

About 450km northeast of Moscow, Vologda is a pleasant provincial city with a high concentration of churches and monasteries, many lovely parks and wide avenues, and a low-rise city centre with a good number of 18th- and 19th-century wooden houses. The tranquillity in summer is disturbed only by Vologda’s large, but fortunately slow and clumsy, mosquitoes.

Having taken Moscow’s side against all comers seemingly from its inception, Vologda was rewarded by Ivan the Terrible, who deemed the quaint city perhaps worthy of his living there (Vologdians are steadfast in their belief that the city was a contender for Russian capital), and a perfect site for a grand cathedral.

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Veliky Ustyug Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:00:00 +0000

The fate of this provincial town 350km east of Vologda changed forever in 1998, when (for obscure reasons) Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov declared Veliky Ustyug to be the official home of Ded Moroz, gave the town a large sum of money, and said ‘Make it so’. Ded Moroz translates as Father Frost, and he’s the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus.

The town itself does often look like a children’s storybook, especially when covered in snow. It’s a trek from Vologda, but if you have a couple of days spare and would like to experience an old-fashioned Russian country town, laced with a shot of Father Frost kitsch, it will be fun.

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Valaam And Sortavala A Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:00:00 +0000

The Valaam Archipelago, consisting of Valaam Island and about 50 smaller islands, sits in northern Lake Ladoga. The main attractions here are the 14th-century Valaam Transfiguration Monastery(Valaamsky Spaso-Preobrazhensky monastyr; 38182, 38233; www.valaam.ru) and the beautiful tree-covered island on which it stands, with its many bays and headlands. The island can be reached by boat or hydrofoil, mid-May to mid-October.

Most agree that the monastery was founded in the late 14th century in part as a fortress against Swedish invaders, who managed to destroy it completely in 1611. Rebuilt in the 18th century with money from Peter the Great, the monastery burned down in 1754 and was rebuilt again in the 19th century. When the Soviet Union took northern Lake Ladoga from Finland in WWII many of the monks and much of the monastery’s treasure were moved to Finland. The Soviet authorities turned the monastery into a home for war invalids.

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Umba Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 13:00:00 +0000

The largest settlement on this coast, Umba is still a wonderfully tranquil place to hang out and explore on foot. The 103km paved road from Kandalaksha runs through forest, with glimpses of lakes and the island-strewn Kandalaksha Bay.

Umba has three parts, linked by bridges. The two newer (19th-century) parts of town occupy south-pointing promontories formed by inlets of the White Sea, with the main bus stop and town centre on the eastern promontory. The third and westernmost part of town, Staraya (Old) Umba, founded by Pomor settlers in the 15th century, sits on the west bank of the rushing River Umba.

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Solovetsky Islands Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Perched in the icy waters of the southern White Sea, the Solovetsky Islands (often referred to as Solovki) have for centuries been the scene of amazing extremes of human heroism, endurance, suffering and cruelty. The islands were home to one of the most famous and powerful monasteries in the Russian Empire (today much revived), a tsarist-era penal colony, and one of the cruellest Soviet prison camps. They are also places of unique and haunting nat- ural beauty, with countless bays, headlands and lakes, extensive forests and hardly any human inhabitants. Try to give yourself at least two days, preferably more, to explore Solovki. You’re unlikely to regret it.

Most people come between June and August, when navigation is open and it’s not so cold. Vicious mosquitoes and swarms of midges (worst in July and August) can make you miserable at these times, so bring bug spray and clothing to cover all of your body.

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Petrozavodsk Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Petrozavodsk, 420km northeast of St Peters- burg, is one of the Russia’s loveliest cities, set on the shore of Lake Onega with countless green parks and pretty squares flanking its broad, tree-lined avenues. With two universities, the city has a large student population and its proximity to Finland lends a markedly European atmosphere. Petrozavodsk is a place to enjoy hanging out as well as a springboard for trips to Kizhi and Valaam and a starting point for journeys further north.

Known to Finns as Petroskoi, the city was founded by Peter the Great in 1703 as an armaments plant to help his Great Northern War effort against Sweden. Its name means ‘Peter’s factory’. The town was subsequently used by both the tsars and the Bolsheviks as a place of exile for St Petersburg’s troublemakers.

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Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 20:00:00 +0000

In St Petersburg or Moscow it’s oddly easy to be unaware of the great expanses of Russia that stretch north. Indeed, probably as many foreign travellers enter northern European Russia from neighbouring Finland and Norway as venture north from the ‘Russian heartland’. But the gradually growing number of travellers here are discovering a land of constant surprises, profound beauty and even a spot of urban sophistication.

This is a territory of midnight sun and polar night, frozen tundra, frozen seas, thousands of islands, hundreds of thousands of lakes, four sizable cities fully adapted to the most extreme of climates, and some barely believable masterworks of old Russian architecture in the most isolated of locations (Varzuga, Kizhi, Solovetsky…), testifying to rare depths of resilience and spirituality. The Russian north is a place you might even find yourself falling in love with.

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Murmansk Northern European Russia travel destination

WorldTravelDB.com — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 14:00:00 +0000

Midway between Moscow and the North Pole, Murmansk is the largest city north of the Arctic Circle. It’s also the most easily-visited northerly city in Russia, perfect for experiencing the midnight sun and polar night.

Murmansk endured a pretty bleak 1990s when its population (previously approaching 450, 000) shrank drastically. But with a profitable fishing industry and a dose of cooperation from Scandinavian neighbours and other Western countries, Murmansk is now well on the way back up. Its many shops are full not only of bright, attractive goods but also of people buying them, and the restaurant, bar and nightclub scene has entered a whole exciting new dimension just within the last handful of years.

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