Our Chinese department:
From 08:00, the meeting of the group members at the main entrance at the Sortavala railway station.
The most suitable train for the tour: Moscow — Sortavala 160B with arrival at 08:19.
We have breakfast in a cafe and go on an excursion to Sortavala.
We will visit the Museum of the Northern Ladoga Region and the Kronid Gogolev Gallery.
City tour and sightseeing of the stunning monuments of the Northern Art Nouveau:
- the building of the national school, built in 1929 in the neoclassical style;
- The Seurahuone Hotel, built in 1908, where Nicholas Roerich stayed;
- Leander's House (1905);
- the building of the Finnish Bank, built in 1915, in which every detail informs about the inaccessibility and reliability of the bank;
- The Siitonen Merchants' House is a typical Northern Art Nouveau built in 1907;
- The Town Hall, built in 1882, is one of the most beautiful buildings: turrets, carved skates, pale pink color, with carvings and white frames, as if a lace napkin was thrown on top;
- Wooden fire station built in 1888;
- The house with a lantern, built in 1920 and owned by the Helsinki Joint—Stock Bank, resembles a glass syringe in shape;
- The Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. It was built with the money of St. Petersburg merchants in 1873. It is built in the Russian style. Today, the main city temple of Sortavala.
The pearl of Sortavala is waiting for us — the exhibition hall of Kronid Gogolev.
There is an old three-storey house in the very center of Sortavala. The Gogol Art Center is located here - an exhibition hall, workshops, and an art studio.
The main exhibition is a stunningly beautiful carved paintings with northern motifs. The unique images that you fall in love with the first time will impress even the most sophisticated art lovers.
After exploring the main attractions of Sortavala, it's time to explore the amazing beauty of natural places.
Karelian Fjords — Ladoga skerries are waiting for us.
We will go on an exciting tour of the Ladoga skerries, which will appear before you in all their winter splendor!
A hovercraft is also called an amphibious boat, such a means of transportation is very convenient for passing through ice, snow, water, sand, grass or swamp.
In case of unstable ice conditions, this excursion is replaced by an equivalent trip to the White Bridges waterfall.
The duration of the tour is 1 hour.
Upon our return from the Ladoga skerries, we will have a delicious lunch.
After a delicious meal, we go on an excursion to the Viking Age museum "Svartbjornborg" (Svartbjornborg — the fortress of the black bear).
Here you can touch everything, absolutely any object, with your hands. Any costumes, uniforms or armor can and should be tried on and, at least for a short period of time, but feel like a brave warrior, craftsman or merchant.
This is a large interactive platform where visitors are directly immersed in the era, turning from a spectator into a participant.
At the end of the tour on the territory of the fortified settlement of the "Viking age" on the shores of Ladoga, you can see:
- fortress walls in the form of a palisade with corner and gate towers. You can walk around the entire territory of the museum along the wall, climb any tower, from where you can enjoy a panoramic view of the entire museum and the Ladoga skerries, since the museum is located on the very shore of the lake;
- a friendly Scandinavian house under an earthen roof, which presents an exposition of everyday life, costumes and weapons of the Vikings; an active blacksmith shop — an exposition of blacksmithing;
- a pier with replicas of wooden ships of the VIII — XI centuries. All models are valid and during the navigation period everyone has the opportunity to sit at the oar of a real Viking dragon boat;
- a model of the sanctuary with carved wooden sculptures;
- two playgrounds: a shooting range, with the opportunity to practice shooting with historical bows and crossbows, as well as learn how to throw combat spears and axes; and the lists — a prepared space for tournaments and funny fights (on protected weapons);
- The pearl of the museum is the long Scandinavian house — "Honey Hall" — the largest recreated Viking dwelling in Russia. The roof of the house is made in the form of an inverted drakkar. The Honey Hall houses one of Russia's richest collections of household items, costumes and weapons.
In the evening, we will have dinner and a cozy hotel.
