In the end of September in Moscow there was a metal industry conference and several guys from Germany and Austria that came to Russia for this conference decided to prolong their stay and do a 4-day tour over the Golden Ring cities.
It was late September and beginning of October and the weather was already pretty cold. Several times in the national parks temperature fell just to +5 and even below this temperature, but guys were well equipped and ready for such weather conditions.
What was most remarkable of this trip – first of all we met great people. One of them at home in Austria has Ural bike with a sidecar and he uses it all year round, even during the winter to reach his office.
In Ryazan we had first evening with local food and drinks and everyone liked that. As we noticed from previous tours Russian cuisine is loved by everyone – borsch, cutlers, potatoes with garlic, Olivier salad, golubtsi, fish soup, etc – very tasty dishes. In Suzdal we had a local guy that did a short city tour for us. In the evening we had a homemade dinner with moonshine.
One more thing everyone is always excited is Russian sauna. Traditional Russian sauna differs from Finnish or Turkey sauna, especially when there is steam master and cold bath after. As the weather was pretty cold even for us that was a must have experience that guys will definitely remember for the rest of the life.
After Ryazan and Suzdal we headed off to Ples. In September there are no tourists and it’s a very quiet place to walk around. It’s a kind of real old style Russian village. We had a dinner at Chastniy Visit (Private Visit) guesthouse. We were lucky that owners of this place were at place and they showed us their living house and made homemade dinner with traditional Russian samovar (big tea pot) in the end.
From Ples we went to Kostroma and Yaroslavl. After checking in at the hotel we went to one of the last USSR style beer pub in the Russia. Its name is Afonya. In Moscow last such places was closed in 2014 so its only Yaroslavl where you can get such experience, having a beer for 1 Euro per glass and eating dried river fish, in Russia we call it vobla and taranka. That was a memorable experience.
In the morning we headed off to Moscow with a stop at Sergiev Posad, one of the most respected religious centers of Russia. Inside local Kremlin there are more than 10 churches and monasteries, all built in different centuries with marvelous decorations.
We reached Moscow in the evening and ordered transfer for our guests to the airport. Below you can see photos from this trip.
Next year we will do more tours over the Golden Ring, if you will be in Moscow and there would be at least 2-3 spare days feel free to contact us for a trip like this. You can rent a bike and do a self-guided tour or we can ride with you making your ride more exciting.
