The starting point of our journey is the Lodeinoye Pole railway station where tourists will arrive from Saint Petersburg. Then we are departing to Valaam archipelago (first to Sortavala city by bus and then to Valaam by hydrofoil).
Valaam is the group of islands located in Ladoga Lake. The excursion around the archipelago is held both by foot and by an auto boat, using interior channels of the archipelago. We will have a walk around Skitsky Island where the monks live in a Skete of All Saints, a beautiful white monastery.
From the water, we will observe other Sketes that appear here and there on the islands, Monastery farm, and Vladimirsky Bridge. Crossing the channel, tourists will get to the Ladoga Lake and Small Nikonovsky bay – the calmest bay in the Valaam to look closer at the highest point of Valaam – Elion Mountain that according to the believing is a twin to an eponymous mountain in Jerusalem.
And now we are going to visit the main sight of the islands – the Valaam monastery. Founded in the 10th century it went through numerous fires and invasions. A magnificent white-blue Transfiguration Cathedral of Valaam monastery that we can see now, was built only in the 19th century.
After visiting the Monastery, have lunch in the Monastery canteen to try the food that monks usually eat. And after lunch, we are going back to Sortavala.
