More Golden Ring

Six towns in four days and three nights. A whirlwind. Here are some of my favorite moments. 1.In  Bogolubovo, a small dot on the map outside of Vladimir,we made our own pilgrimage, plodding down a small path across wheat fields, around streams, over train tracks and hill and dale to view a small Chapel that was situated high on the banks of two converging small tributaries. It was a glorious day and well worth the trek. I just wish one of us could pronounce it. 2. Sergiev Posad and the Holy Day of St. Sergio. We were extremely blessed, or just plain lucky that the Russian "Pope" was in this village at the same time we were. The Patriarch gave two masses at the Monastery across the way from our hotel and while we did not attend a mass, we witnessed the most spiritually uplifting sights. There were several thousand Russians that made the Pilgrimage to the Monastery on this Holy Day, many of them older women dressed in their best peasant skirts and head scarves. We were witnesses to some of the Russian Orthodox rituals including the kissing every icon in the Catherdral,sometimes kissing, then making the sign of the cross and then kneeling for a split second and then doing it all over again.  There was a palpable excitement all day. The faithful stood in huge lines that snaked through the Monastery grounds to get to the Cathedral. Lee B., BS friends and my extended family, you all would have enjoyed all the outward and inward sharing of love for Jesus! Also traveling to hear the Patriarch to hear him say Mass were many monks, priests, young men in the Seminary and Church elders.  The Monastery is a working Monastery where about 100 monks make their home. In the center square in front of the Church was a well with a wooden cross that poured water out of the arms of the cross. The faithful were lining up to drink, splash water on themselves, fill bottles and buckets up and all because the water coming out of the cross is said to be Holy Water. It is said that several miracles have been performed upon those that have drunk from this well. I was the only one to stand in line to drink because my motto is"one should never pass up the opportunity of Holy Water that is Sid to perform miracles." I think I rather felt a little differently after drinking and splashing my face with the water. Will thinks I might have a touch of Giardiasis . 3. Matryoska dolls are the nesting dolls that are so common and identifiable as Russian. Well, I'm here to disappoint you, the first dolls came from Japan. But, when the Communists came to power the icon artists were out of work so they found a way to support themselves by painting these dolls. We decided to take a Master Class on Matryoska doll painting. Yep, Anna Ho takes cooking classes wherever she travels, the Hodges' paint nesting dolls. It was so much fun and even though our dolls probably looked more Japanese that Russian, I still think we did better than if we had taken a cooking class.  The Golden Rings were amazing, albeit very difficult, to visit. We would do it all over again in a heartbeat!