Vologda is a city of wooden lace curtains, church domes and slow rivers, and it has an air of unhurried self-respect that you do not find in bigger Russian places. About three hundred thousand people live here, on the Vologda river in the north of European Russia, and the city has been important since the sixteenth century, when Ivan the Terrible considered making it his capital. He built the Cathedral of St Sophia here, a great white building with five domes that still dominates the riverbank, and began a kremlin, though it was never completed to his plans.
The town's famous products are lace, butter and woodwork. Vologda lace, made on bobbins in patterns of flowers and geometric forms, has been known for centuries and is still made by hand, and you can buy it from craft shops. The butter was exported across Europe in the nineteenth century and the name is still used as a mark of quality. Wooden houses with carved window frames, called nalichniki, line the older streets, in shades of blue and green and bright white trim, and many have been restored.
Vologda was also a place of exile. Over the centuries the authorities sent a number of political prisoners here, including some who went on to become famous. Peter the Great visited and used the Vologda river as a route for shipping to the north, and a small house he used is preserved as a museum. The railway came in the nineteenth century, and the city remains an important junction.
As a ride, Vologda is a staging post. The roads out to the north lead to Kirillov and the monasteries beyond, a gentle country road through flat forest and farmland, with long straights and few curves. The surface can be broken by frost heaves, so watch for dips, and heavy trucks are frequent on the main route. The river and the ponds are surrounded by willows and birches.
Everything is in the city, from fuel and mechanics to hotels and restaurants. The local food is northern and rich, with fish pies, mushroom soup, dairy products and honey cake, and the tea is strong and well served. Summer evenings are long and warm, with church bells carrying across the river, and in winter the whole city sits under snow and the domes glitter in the cold.