This Museum visit proved to be very interesting so a pity that because of the delays in clearing the ship, we only had an hour-and-a-bit to explore about a quarter of this site.
With our heavily pregnant guide - who managed well on this really hot day (See photo in the Bread & Salt Welcome posting) and spoke perfect English, we saw a range of churches and chapels, peasant and rich merchant (The photo with the decorative sun in the doorway) homes mainly from the 18th & 19th Centuries.
The cupolas are all tiled in handcrafted wooden shingles and I found the supports for the guttering fascinating; they are made from the natural curvature of the roots of pine trees (See photo). The craftsmanship is amazing especially when you consider that the main tools used were axes.
I would like to have given you more of a commentary on these wooden structures but despite our English Speaking guide and warm welcome there was no handbook available probably because at present only a handful of cruise ships are visiting Archangel – we were the 5th and probably the last this year.
I did manage to buy some handcrafted fridge magnets – two of the buildings etched onto rings of pine.
All too soon it was time to make our way back into Archangel for lunch at a local restaurant. This turned out to be very good with a mixed salad starter of root vegetables including beetroot, followed by a borscht style soup and then thin strips of pork in a tomato sauce with potatoes.
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