Myshkin is a small town on the Volga, about two hundred kilometres north of Moscow, and it is one of those places that has made a virtue of its smallness. About six thousand people live here in a cluster of old merchant houses, churches and wooden cottages on the river bank, at a point where the great river, broad and brown, rolls slowly past. The town grew rich from river trade in the nineteenth century and still has a tidy, provincial look, with a long street of two-storey brick houses and a cathedral with a tall bell tower.
The name is said to come from the Russian word for mouse, and the town has embraced the idea with enthusiasm. A local legend tells how a mouse saved the town's founder, a prince, from a snake, and the mouse is now the town's symbol. A museum devoted entirely to mice displays thousands of mouse figures, toys, and paintings, and is surprisingly entertaining, with an interactive exhibition that has delighted children and adults for decades. There are other small museums too, some of them gloriously quirky, and a number of craft shops sell souvenirs.
The surroundings are more serious. The Volga here is part of a chain of huge reservoirs built in the Soviet era, and the Rybinsk Reservoir, a short distance north, was flooded in the early 1940s, drowning the old town of Mologa and many villages. On the other side of the river, Uglich, with its brightly painted churches and the famous Church of St Dmitry on the Blood, is within easy reach. The riverbanks are lined with willow and birch, and in summer the water is busy with pleasure boats and cruise ships.
Riding to Myshkin is a gentle journey on flat roads through farmland and forest, and the surface is mostly good, though patched in places. Fuel is best found in Uglich or Rybinsk, the nearest towns with larger populations, since Myshkin itself is small, and the distances between services can be long. Summer is warm and the evenings are light until late, while winter is long, dark and cold, with snow and ice. A walk along the embankment at sunset, watching the river turn pink and the boats slide past, is the best way to end a day here.