Day  7. Yaroslavl to Goritsy

Well another town and another church (or two or three or four or more) As someone was heard to say "we are all iconed out" and I know how they feel.(an icon is like a painted holy picture either on a wall or in a heavily decorated frame) and they are seemingly everywhere here because of their long history. /Some of them date from the 11th century.You wouldn't believe some of the lochs we have been going through. At present our waterway is actually above the surrounding landscape and we only have a few inches to spare(like a bridge of water). How do they get water to rise  above its surroundings -great engineering I guess.Now the water is emptying out at a very fast rate to bring us down to the next level of the river.At times there has been another river or a road going underneath us.At present we are about halfway on our journey of 2000klms.Today we saw the church of St.Cyril of the White Lake Monastery - such a huge expanse of churches chapels and monastery and convent- but all in very urgent need of repair.There was a walking tour of 2 hours all around.Most places we have been have had market stalls selling furs (hats scarves and stoles) and lots of trinkets but we are always in a rush to reboard and have no time to look around apart from 15-30mins.The stall holders are not pushy at all like in other countries but I feel we are not helping their economy by having so little time to browse.I' d like a fur hat but I hear we may not be able to take it into Australia.As to the age of the passengers(196)I believe,there would be half dozen younger than us and the rest our age or older(I would say most late 70's and 80's).Everywhere in the countryside we have seen has been quite dilapidated and very old  although we do see some nicer buildings at times but very few that are new.Thanks Paul and Dan for your comments and Fathers Day wishes. Last night we had a Ukranian Dinner and the night before a Russian Dinner and the staff dress accordingly .The meals are not the high standard of the Europe cruise but I guess they are still learning about tourism here in Russia. The staff are quite young but can speak English so that is why they employ them instead of the older and experienced people. Only a very small number of people in Russia can speak English.