I woke upto a thunderstorm and heavy rain on this our first days cycling on the RCTC Golden Ring tour After my breakfast of porridge and what they called an omelette but more like a slice of cake in appearance it was time to reassemble the bike.<\/p>\n
There seemed to be a lack of urgency of opening the van as Vladimir was hoping for the rain to die down – which it duly did. I assembled the bike OK apart from having to slacken the rear brake blocks.<\/p>\n
We managed to get away just before 10.30 after the obligatory group photo – with everyone clamouring to get the guy to take one with their camera \ud83d\ude41 \u00a0One great use for social media is to have the group pics uploaded to a central site.<\/p>\n
initially the ride was a little tough quite hilly on wet sand\/gravel with lots of unknown depth puddles. I was pleased to have my knobbly tyres on and on my ancient Schwinn.<\/p>\n
We arrived on the very decrepit tarmac road – even worse than the UK before going down a gravel lane to see our first church of the day near Ishnya, unique in this area as it\u2019s more of a Finnish design built of timber with no nails in the 1700\u2019s. Also nearby is an Interesting well still in use with a capstan & bucket – delicious taste too.<\/p>\n
Over the level crossing we soon reached Rostov and its stunning Kremlin with its highly decorated churches we listened to an amazing soprano & two male singers under the dome truly brilliant and moving. I will try & Post my crude recording here at some point.<\/p>\n