We arrived in Kostroma late in the afternoon and it was getting dark. We were taken to the Trinity Cathedral. Inside, there was a women’s choir singing. The walls of the dark, high church were covered with twelfth century frescoes, and the gold, silver and jewels on the iconostasis (the icons covering the wall at the holy end up front) glittered in the candlelight. The sound was beautiful and the whole effect amazing. I bought a tape of the choir.

Back on board, we were treated to our first (of nine) lectures on Russia, past and present, by our guest lecturer, Andrei Yacoblev. A bit of an unreformed communist, but with nothing but contempt for the October 1917 "catastrophe" (apparently Russia was never a communist state because they never got that far according to him, but will one day do so if his party gets into power!). His English wasn’t too good, but he spoke Afrikaans fluently and without a trace of an accent, according to Bruce. He is writing a book on the history of the Afrikaner people and has visited Orania in South Africa, which he believes is a wonderful example of a truly communist lifestyle. Enough said. He told us that he had learned to speak Afrikaans in the eighties to further his career in the diplomatic service. I can only assume he must have been talking about the diplomatic "services" provided by the KGB!