Organized excursions are not my favorite type of recreation and travel, but recently I decided to spend a free day off with a well-known tour operator and went to Tver Karelia for a day. Sounds tempting, doesn't it? The historical region where the Karelians settled is located relatively not far from Moscow. The program included a visit to a pottery factory, a local history museum with tea and an entertainment program in Likhoslavl and a marmalade factory. Perhaps this was the most unsuccessful and terrible excursion I have ever been on. The Magputa bus departed from Vodny Stadion metro station early in the morning. Fortunately, it turned out to be a minibus, and even half empty, so the group was small. It is worth saying at the very beginning that the excursion to Tver Karelia cost 3,250 rubles. with lunch.
Likhoslavl is located in the Tver region, 220 km from Moscow and 41 km from Tver. The journey to it without traffic jams on the free M10 highway is about 3 hours, and on the toll highway at least half an hour less. It was founded in 1925 on the lands of the village of Ostashkovo and the estate of captain Sulin Likhoslavl. At the end of the thirties of the XX century, for several years Likhoslavl was the center of a new formation - the Karelian National District. And in the late 90s they created the National-Cultural Autonomy of Tver Karelians as part of the Tver region.
So, why did a Karelian settlement appear in the Tver region? The fact is that during the Time of Troubles, Europeans committed outrages in Karelia and tried to impose Lutheranism on the Karelians. The Tsar allowed refugees to settle on free lands - the current Tver region. Over time, the Tver Karelians were classified as a separate subethnic group, since their own dialect appeared; the connection with the Ladoga and Olonets Karelians was minimal. You can read a more detailed history of this unusual region of Russia on the Internet, but I will still focus on the organizational features of the excursion. We passed through the city by bus, so there are no photos.
Likhoslavl Ceramic Factory
Address: Likhoslavlskaya st., 4A, Likhoslavl Website: https://keramiklih.ru/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=10
The main specialization of the plant is flower pots. In addition, they make clay dishes, souvenirs, and whistle toys. You can come to the factory yourself by appointment and attend a tour + master class on pottery making. It costs 300 rubles. on weekends and 200 rub. on weekdays.
We were shown only the production, the museum and that’s it. The potter and artist were not there (that is, this is a reduction in the excursion program), and the master class was not planned at all. I don’t understand the logic of the tour operator, is it worth taking people for so many hours to see Soviet production, a tiny museum and, of course, a store?
Railway dispensary
One of the most beautiful and at the same time oldest buildings in Likhoslavl can be called the former outpatient clinic without hesitation. The building was erected at the end of the nineteenth century and served as a hospital at the railway station, which also provided rooms for medical personnel.
The building is beautifully decorated with brown and milky planks, which at the beginning of the nineteenth century was considered a very expensive material. It frames the base of the building like lace. It is best to come here on an excursion in summer or early autumn, when the unique architecture of the building is framed by dense foliage. The Likhoslavl Radiator Plant is located nearby.
Sightseeing tour of Likhoslavl
This is very loud. We were simply driven through the city non-stop in a “look left, look right” style. I have no complaints here, since this type of review was stated in the program. But then an outrageous incident occurred. We still had time before lunch, but instead of, for example, stopping near the old water tower or showing the Cathedral inside, we went to the Pyaterochka store!
Why, you need to go to an ATM, because the marmalade store does not accept cards. And it began, one went to withdraw money, others needed bread from the stall for some reason. We sit and wait... We drive to the restaurant, they turn us around because it’s still early. The guide couldn’t think of anything better than to take us to a store with some of their local alcohol. For what? And when I saw “Pyaterochka” near the restaurant where we had lunch, in the neighboring house, it finally finished me off. It is immediately clear that the guide herself visited this restaurant for the first time.
Dinner
Oh, that was something! The restaurant (yep, that's a real restaurant) Seda at the hotel looks decent from the outside. We were promised lunch of Karelian cuisine and charged 450 rubles each. from the nose. By the way, for this money you can eat a business lunch in a good restaurant in the center of Moscow.
So, at the height of summer, a salad of “plastic” vegetables was served as an appetizer, absolutely tasteless, a cat’s portion. Karelian fish soup with milk looked and smelled disgusting, there were some scraps of fish floating in it, and the broth generally seemed like chicken to me. Also past and not edible.
The main course was cold pork stew with potatoes, which was absolutely not tasty. There was also compote and Karelian wicket pie. So tell me, does it cost 450 rubles? I won’t say for sure, but it looks like it was the first time the group had been brought to this establishment; even the guide said that the food on this excursion had previously been very tasty. I went to the website of this “restaurant”, and there were no dishes there at all that they fed us. And the prices there are very low, i.e. 450 rubles. for a set lunch of disgusting dishes is a rip-off and disrespect for tourists. https://www.sedahotel.net/menu
Likhoslavl Local Lore Museum
After lunch, we walked for about five minutes to the museum. For some reason, the guide told everyone to go to a nearby store with some farm products. Two ladies ran to the Ivanovo knitwear store. We stand outside the museum doors, waiting. If we add up the time we spent in these stupid shops, we could easily spend an hour walking around the sights of the city. The museum is located in a 19th century mansion, on the ground floors of which there was a bakery, warehouses, and a shop, and on the upper floors lived the family of the merchant Shalygin.
In 1977, a local history museum was opened in a former merchant’s house, and in 2011 it received the name “Karelian National Museum of Local Lore.” It is a branch of the Tver Museum, information can be found here https://vk.com/public164668570.
We were greeted by an employee in national clothes and began to cheerfully lead the tour. The museum is just one hall, but there are quite a lot of exhibits. Thanks to the museum employee, we listened to the history of the Karelians and their life for more than an hour. I wouldn’t even spend 20 minutes in it myself.
After completing the tour, we were invited into a room where there were plastic cups of tea and gates on the tables. While we were eating, a children's ensemble played Karelian instruments and sang songs in Karelian. I really liked this part of the excursion, especially “Berezka” in Karelian.
I can say about the museum that there are a few Karelian exhibits there, basically everything is the same as what you saw in other local history museums. And if you haven’t seen it, then you will be more impressed than I am.
Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The unofficial center of Likhoslavl is the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Founded in 1887, it seems to concentrate around itself all the city streets that flock to it. This is a real decoration of the city, the main attraction of which the townspeople are very proud, because at the beginning of the 19th century it was the city residents who built the church exclusively on their own. The temple took forty years to build!
This unique structure went through difficult times. In 1937, during troubled times, the rector of the temple was shot by Red Army soldiers, and the dome was dismantled. Later the building became a city cinema. It was also used as a parachute tower. Restoration of the temple began in 1989 based on surviving old photographs. Then a new rector was appointed, and in 2002, after consecration, the temple again began to delight people with its full appearance.
Marmalade production
The final and most uninteresting point of the excursion to Tver Karelia was the marmalade factory. It has nothing to do with the Karelians; it was created in our time. A group of adults was greeted by Baba Yaga in a strange costume and invited to dance to their marmalade anthem. Stupid.
Then there was a visit to a type of museum. In the room, around the perimeter of which there are glass display cases with marmalade, an employee spoke about their production, and a promotional video was broadcast on TV. Are you seriously? This is museum?
Well, then we went to a master class. In the room with the flies there were again plastic cups of tea, and in plastic boxes there were several pieces of marmalade for tasting. The master class consisted of applying a sugar composition through a pastry bag onto a marmalade bear - nursery level.
Well, a store that doesn’t even take cards. This marmalade is sold in Moscow chain supermarkets, although a little more expensive. But why include them in the tour if they don’t show production anyway? A well-known ice cream factory shows, so it’s not a matter of sanitary standards? If you invite groups, then you need to do either a production show or a high-quality interactive event, this one was just ridiculous. Again, the main thing is the store and the factory’s earnings. What also infuriated me was that the title of the excursion refers specifically to a visit to the production facility, why do they mislead tourists?
Temple of the Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”
The churches of Likhoslavl occupy a special position throughout the Tver region. The Church of the Mother of God was founded back in 1505, and, according to some reports, the monks kept church records, which, unfortunately, were not preserved, having been burned in a fire during the Time of Troubles.
The church that we can see now began to be built in 1823 by the parishioners themselves. It took them about twenty years. To beautifully decorate the temple, a brick factory was built nearby, on the river bank. In addition to the main hall, the temple has several secondary buildings in which church utensils are stored and a guardhouse is located.
The temple is surrounded by a beautiful wrought iron fence, the interior walls are painted with scenes from the Bible and the faces of saints, including Mikhail Tverskoy, Arseny Tverskoy, Efrem Novotorzhsky. But the main wealth of the temple is considered to be the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”. There is a beautiful legend that in ancient times, when a pestilence began in the village and people were dying one after another, one of the priests dreamed of the Mother of God and told her that an icon was kept in one of the churches of Veliky Novgorod. She had to be carried to the church on foot. Then the priest went to Novgorod and brought her on his head. As soon as the icon was installed, the deaths stopped.
conclusions
The cost of a one-day excursion is very high, and the program is more like a shopping tour. I was disappointed, all this did not make sense given the considerable distance from Moscow. At the end, we were given questionnaires to fill out, in which I and another girl gave honest bad marks. Other people verbally said that they did not like the excursion, but were embarrassed to give low scores. The tour operator responded quite rudely to my subsequent detailed complaint. The essence of his answer is that everyone likes it, and I’m the only one. Like they surveyed other tourists, everyone liked everything, but then there is one question, why didn’t you call me to clarify this review? Most likely, they didn’t call anyone, there is little competition in this segment, so their sales are already going well, they don’t seem to be interested in dissatisfied tourists.
