RCTC ride from Myshkin to Rybinsk and Demino

Thursday 12 July 2018

I didn’t sleep to well in the chalet maybe because of the huge thick pillow or because I was sharing a room with 3 other guys although it was interesting to use Sergey’s wrist blood pressure monitor 146/76 🙁

Once again Svetlana had prepared breakfast this time a wheat porridge with fruit & hard boiled eggs which I enjoyed.

We departed just after 9 on reasonably decent roads with some traffic before a few km on sandy tracks and then hitting the bed of an old railway line which was pretty awful cycling on the large ballast for 15km but at least traffic & pothole free! After being shaken apart we had our roadside buffet snack.

We then returned to the road to navigate our way through Rybinsk, pretty hard leading 22 cyclists through a city centre. We eventually found the Mologa Museum which I must confess I didn’t enjoy having 24 folks crammed into a tiny house, although interesting that the dam was built at roughly the sane time as Ladybower and the church and houses suffered a similar fate although Stalin just did it forcibly removing everyone with no warning etc.

The next museum was the one dedicated to Nobel of prize fame plus early film history in Rybinsk once again I didn’t stay to the end. It had me thinking what is the best approach with these tours as all the museum owners are enthusiasts and all keen to encourage tourism. Whereas in my home city of Cambridge we are seeking to reduce tourism.

We left Rybinsk over the Volga and a short ride to the Sport Hotel in Demino luckily we arrived just as the heavens opened. The hotel is a favourite with cross country skiers and all manner of sports. Once again the evening meal was excellent but sans beer, interesting how Russian attitudes to alcohol seem to be changing or perhaps it’s all an urban myth for us Westerners.

For once I managed an early night!