things to see in Urals: Kolpaki, Verkhoturye
Recently documentary series “the Ridge of Russia” appeared on russian TV. They tell russian history related to the Urals region and show its wonderful places. One of them is the mountain Kolpaki – natural reserve and the favourite point for people looking for wild nature of Urals.
After we saw this mountain on TV, we decided to go there and without “putting it in the cooler” for the time, on early Saturday morning we set out.
The mountain Kolpaki is situated not far from the border between the Sverlovskaya area and the Perm region. Additionally an idea arose to add one more point to our travel route – the ancient rural town Verkhoturye, founded in the end of 16th century, an orthodox center of Urals.
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If you decided to go to Yekaterinburg, information about annual events of the city can help you to choose when to go or what to do. Here are the events i remember.
annual events in Yekaterinburg
Ice Town opens
when: 29th of December or earlier, where: the square of 1905 year (Ploshchad 1905 goda)
January: Epiphany with swimming in ice hole – extremely popular activity for brave people
when: 19th of January, where: city lake Shartash
February: Shrovetide with street festivities
when: 13th and 14th of February, where: Central park of culture and rest (CPKIO Park)
May: the Military Parade of World War II
when: 9th of May, where: the square of 1905 year (Ploshchad 1905 goda)
May: Museums’ night – all main museums open at night and several city shows are available
when: 16th of May (but date may vary each year), where: in the city centre (the square of 1905 year), in most of museums
May: “May walking” – all fans of cycling and walking moves over several routes (26km, 46km)
when: day may vary, where: starting point may vary
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If you arrived in Yekaterinburg the best thing to start with is an acquaintance with the city. Currently I’m preparing this excursion and would like to share this info.
Yekaterinburg, city pond at night
The historical centre of the city is the dam situated on Lenina avenue. The route I suggest starts near it – from central subway station called the square of 1905 (Ploshchad 1905 goda), on the picture attached it is the point number one. The route finishes in the point number 18 – here is the house of officers and a restaurant with traditional russian cooking, named USSR (CCCP).
So let me describe other points and directions briefly.
1 – you are standing near central subway station and the street you are at is called “8 marta”. In google maps it’s “ulitsa 8 marta” cause ulitsa means a street. Let’s go to the parallel street called “Vaynera”.
2 – you are on Vaynera street, it’s the favourite place of walk for many citizens. This street is an analog of Moscow’s arbad. Let’s cross Lenina avenue (“prospekt Lenina”) and go to the embankment of the city pond.
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St. Petersburg in winter
The first part of our New Year holidays was described
here, so as the amount of photos is quite big, I decided to make a separate review of
St. Petersburg.
3rd of January, Sunday
Upon the arrival we left a luggage in a cloak chamber and hurried to the Hermitage. This was the only possibility to visit it (the next day was a day off). On the way we took photos with Peter the Great and Ekaterina, saw The Kazansky Cathedral and walked over Nevskiy avenue. To get into the Hermitage was a bit difficult. After we arrived there we saw long queue of visitors. But undoubtedly it was worth staying in the queue for an hour and a half. The Hermitage has the right to be a world’s cultural heritage. Walking through luxurious halls you suddenly find yourself in the past and see the culture of different countries.
After the second floor and a half of the 3rd floor we left the museum and met with our friends from St. Petersburg. They showed us the evening city with its main sights changing fast behind the window.
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Russian New Year
is one of the most favourite and long-expected holidays. In contrast to Europe, in Russia New Year is celebrated wider than Christmas. All begins from New Year shopping, searching for gifts and foodstuffs for the celebration. Then, on the 31st of December families decorate a fir – New Year tree and prepare a holiday table. At midnight, when Moscow chiming clock notifies everyone that New Year has came Russians drink champagne, make wishes and congratulate each other.
This New Year we wanted to see the chiming clock live and decided to spend it in
Moscow, on the Red Square. And as New Year holidays are 10 days, another good idea was to visit St. Petersburg after Moscow.
31st of December, Thursday
The flight was fine, except a small delay with a drop-off. We left the airport and went to our accommodation place. Prices for transport were surprisingly high. As we found out, services cost more than in our region, but foodstuffs – about the same.
After a small rest we went to the city center. We were notified in advance that the Red Square would be surrounded by a police. And this was true, we were checked for alcohol and weapon and passed. The square amazes her beauty and greatness and has the right to be regarded as a heart of Russia.
At midnight we heard chiming clock and saw a wonderful salute. People were happy and congratulated each other, fired bengal lights and even sang! We were taken by a common merriment. This way the year of tiger came to Russia.
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Attention! This is the old version of the article. New version is available here.
Urals (also called Ural) is a common geographical name of the area of Russia around the Ural Mountains (between Volga region and Siberia). It is a vast territory which includes major cities like Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk and Perm, as well as parts of the polar areas. The main part of this region is the Ural Mountains dividing two parts of the world – Europe and Asia different in natural and economic conditions.
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The second place visited that weekend (see the previous post) was the village Nizhnaya Sinyachiha famous for the outdoor museum of wooden architecture located in Urals.
The village Nizhnaya Sinyachiha
The museum is a result of hard work of Russian engineer and collector Ivan Samoylov devoted his life to recreation of historical treasures. During his trips over Russia Samoylov often saw old historical buildings which went to waste in economically unviable villages. His idea was to create a culture preserve with all these architectural sights. For the preserve he chose a wonderful russian village fouded in 1680 year.
In this place Samoylov and his team of restorers revived Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy Cathedral – nine-domed, 64 meters high monument in “Tobolsk’ baroque” style. Inside of the cathedral there is a museum of folk art. Right here we started our acquaintance with the preserve.
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November 11th, 2009
Alena
This weekend was very rich in regard to impressions, because we visited at once two interesting places. The first one was the border between Europe and Asia – one of famous places in Urals and Russia.
Monument on the border between Europe and Asia
The idea to part Europe and Asia was first time suggested by sweden scientist Stralenberg in 1730. But there were a lot of disussions on where exactly to place the border. It was difficult to determine because there is no clear transition between these two parts of the world and geologically they are alike. Finally scientists agreed to consider Urals (Ural mountains) as natural border.
There are several monuments set on the border. We went to the nearest and the most popular, situated in 17 km from Ekaterinburg city. Usually there are weddings’ photo sessions near this monument on Friday and Saturday, but this Saturday there were almost no people and we successfully took photoes there.
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