Novgorod Study Tour, 2009

Itinerary for May 28– June 30
(subject to minor adjustments)

May 28 (Thursday)
  • Departure from the USA.

May 29 (Friday)
  • Arrival in St. Petersburg (Pulkovo-2).
  • Checking in to hotel St Petersburg. Address and phone: 194044, St. Petersburg, Pirogovskaya emb. 5/2 Phone: +7 (812) 380-1919.
  • Bus tour of St. Petersburg. Dinner. Return to the hotel.

May 30 (Saturday)
  • Tour of the Hermitage (collections feature over 3,000000 items that present the development of world culture and art from the Stone Age to the 20th century).
  • Savior on the Spilled Blood Church (or the Church of Resurrection was built in the memory of Emperor Alexander II, and his reforms. It is a historical monument to the tragic events of March 1, 1881). Dinner.

May 31 (Sunday)
  • Early morning departure from St. Petersburg by bus and arrival in Novgorod (about three hour’s drive).
  • Meeting families and getting acquainted.
  • NOTE: All classes begin at 9:40 a.m. At 12:00 p.m. you will have a half-hour lunchtime.

June 1 (Monday)
  • 3 hours of classes.
  • Exploratory excursion of Novgorod.
  • The Kremlin (referenced in the Chronicles since 1044, for centuries religious, political, and cultural center of Russian Lands).
  • The Novgorod State United Museum (offers a unique collection of historic, cultural, and art relics excavated from the soil of Novgorod in the archaeological research that has been carried out for more than 60 years. The archaeological finds include such world famous items as a great number of birch-bark scrolls and lead seals dating back to the 12th-15th centuries, indicative of a unique and striking level for medieval times of literacy among ancient Russians and a highly organized system of the state control).

June 2 (Tuesday)
  • 4 hours of classes.

June 3 (Wednesday)
  • 4 hours of classes.

June 4 (Thursday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 5 (Friday)
  • 3 hours of classes.
  • Monument Russia’s Millennium (located within Novgorod’s Kremlin, sculpted by Mikhail Mikeshin in 1862, depicts six periods of Russian history, ranging from Riurik to Peter the Great).
  • St. Sophia Cathedral (built in 1045, Russia’s oldest and most beloved church).

June 6-7 (Saturday-Sunday)
  • Days off.
  • Excursion to Jaroslav’s Court and Former Market (according to the legend, it was site where Prince Jaroslav erected his palace in the early XIth century, considered the most splendid in Europe. Later this ground accommodated numerous granaries and warehouses).

June 8 (Monday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 9 (Tuesday)
  • 5 hours of classes

June 10 (Wednesday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 11(Thursday)
  • 5 hours of classes.
  • Evening departure to Moscow by train.

June 12 (Friday)
  • National holiday: Russia’s Day (The Day of Russia)!
  • Arrival in Moscow.
  • Transfer to hotel Ismajlovo. Address/phone: 105187 Moscow, Ismailovskoye shosse, 71;Telephone: +7-095-166-43-45 (please dial 011-7-, etc. from the USA)
  • Breakfast.
  • The Red Square (in old Russian “red” meant “beautiful”).
  • The Kremlin (first fortified walls were built in 1156).
  • The Armory Museum (a treasure-house, a part of the Grand Kremlin Palace’s complex, the museum collections holds the precious items preserved for centuries in the Tsars’ treasury and the Patriarch’s vestry).
  • St. Basil’s Cathedral (was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible and built on the edge of Red Square between 1555 and 1561. According to the legend, on completion of the church the Tsar ordered the architect, Postnik Yakovlev, to be blinded to prevent him from ever creating anything to rival its beauty again). Free time. Dinner.

June 13 (Saturday)
  • Breakfast.
  • Free time and shopping at Ismailovo Market.
  • Bus tour includes stops at Novodevichy (New Maiden) Convent (founded in the early 16th century, looks like a miniature Kremlin), and the Eliseyev’s Provision Merchants or Gastronome (this magnificent grocery and wine store was opened in 1890s by a millionaire merchant Yeliseyev) stops.
  • Dinner.
  • Attending a performance at Bolshoi Theater.

June 14 (Sunday)
  • Breakfast.
  • Lenin’s Mausoleum.
  • Excursion to the Tretiakov Gallery of Russian Visual Art (started by the Tretyakov brothers, merchant philanthropists in the 1800s, the gallery is Russia's first public art museum, holds more than 50,000 works of painting, graphic art, and sculpture.).
  • Old Arbat (pedestrian street first mentioned in 1493, symbol of old Moscow).
  • Dinner.
  • Transfer to the train station.
  • Evening departure to Novgorod.

June 15 (Monday)
  • Early morning arrival in Novgorod.
  • No classes, working on a special home assignment on your visit to Moscow.

June 16 (Tuesday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 17 (Wednesday)
  • 4 hours of classes.
  • Excursion to Viatoslavlitsy (open-air Museum of Folk Wooden Architecture, the unique phenomenon of folk art, traditional customs, rites, and businesses).

June 18 (Thursday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 19 (Friday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 20-21(Saturday-Sunday)
  • Days off.

June 22 (Monday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 23 (Tuesday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 24 (Wednesday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 25 (Thursday)
  • 5 hours of classes.

June 26 (Friday)
  • 2 hours of classes.

June 27 (Saturday)
  • Awarding of Certificates.

June 28 (Sunday)
  • Early morning departure from Novgorod.
  • Arrival in St. Petersburg.
  • Peter and Paul Fortress (founded in 1703 by Peter the Great).
  • St. Isaacs Cathedral (designed by Auguste-de-Montferrand, 1818-58).
  • Russian Museum (possesses the world’s largest collection of Russian art, founded in 1895, was opened for visitors in 1898 in the Mikhailovsky Palace, 1819-25, architect Carlo Rossi).
  • Dinner.
  • Excursion along canals that crisscross St. Petersburg and Neva River.
  • Attending a performance at Mariinski Theater.

June 29 (Monday)
  • Ride by bus to Pushkin town (Tzar’s Village).
  • Tour of Catherine's Palace (where you will see the famous Amber Room stolen by Nazis, it has been restored and opened for public since in 2003).
  • Ride to Peterhof (Peter the Great’s Summer palace and fountain-filled park on the shore of the Gulf of Finland).
  • Dinner.

June 30 (Tuesday)
  • Departure from St. Petersburg: going to Pulkovo-2 airport and flying back to the USA.

NOTE: The price of the theatre tickets (Bolshoi and Mariinski theatres) aren’t included in the Russian end of the trip. Attendance is not required, but highly recommended. Therefore in Russia our Russian travel agent will collect some money from each student to cover this expense.