Kasimov is one of the stranger and more interesting towns on the Oka. For about two hundred years, from the middle of the fifteenth century, it was the capital of a small Tatar khanate created by the grand princes of Moscow as a buffer and a reward for Tatar nobles who entered their service. Muslim rulers governed a town in the heart of Orthodox Russia, and traces of that era remain: a stone minaret attached to an old mosque, and the mausoleum of Khan Shah Ali, a squat stone building that is one of the few such monuments this far west. Both stand within a short walk of the river.
The rest of the town belongs to the merchant era. Kasimov became wealthy trading along the Oka, and its centre has a broad square, a classical cathedral, trading arcades with columns, and streets of solid brick and timber houses. The setting is lovely, with the town sitting on a high bank above the river, the water wide below and the far shore low and wooded. In the evening the light across the Oka is soft and long, and the whole place feels unhurried.
Around Kasimov lies Meshchera, a broad lowland of pine and birch forest, bogs and lakes that stretches north toward Vladimir. This is the landscape the writer Konstantin Paustovsky loved and described, and for a rider it means long, quiet roads through the trees, flat but rarely dull, with the smell of pine resin in summer. The surfaces on the minor roads can be poor, and some routes through the forest turn to sand or gravel, so check before heading into the back country. Elk occasionally cross at dusk.
Kasimov has about thirty-five thousand people, which means fuel, shops, cafes and a few places to sleep. It is a good base for the Meshchera loop, and a natural place for a long lunch, perhaps fish from the river if a menu offers it. Make time to stand at the top of the bank and look across the Oka; it is one of the most generous river views in central Russia.