Yaroslavl stands on the Volga at the mouth of the Kotorosl, and its old centre is the best preserved in the Golden Ring. According to tradition, the town was founded in 1010 by Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who, the story goes, killed a bear on the spot, which is why a bear is on the city's coat of arms to this day. UNESCO added the historic centre to the World Heritage list in 2005, mostly for its churches, which date mainly from the seventeenth century, when the city grew rich on trade along the Volga.
The churches are the thing to see. The Church of Elijah the Prophet, built in the 1650s, has frescoes covering every wall, painted in bright blues, reds and golds, and its five domes are among the prettiest in Russia. The Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery, a fortified complex with a bell tower that gives a wide view over the river, is just next to it. At the Strelka, the point where the two rivers meet, a park runs down to the water, and in the evening locals walk and watch boats pass. The Volkov Theatre, founded here in 1750, is claimed as the first professional theatre in Russia.
The roads here are flat, with broad views over fields and forest. The highway to Moscow, the M8, is fast and heavy, with trucks, while the smaller roads to Kostroma and Rostov run through villages with wooden houses and gardens full of sunflowers and hollyhocks. Surfaces are mixed, with patches of poor asphalt, and in spring after the thaw, potholes can be bad. The best time is late summer and early autumn, when the light is soft and the fields are golden.
With over six hundred thousand people, Yaroslavl has all the fuel, food and repairs a rider could need, and the smaller towns around it, like Tunoshna, add a few more. Parking is easy near the centre, though the cobbled streets are rough on a bike. Foreign riders should check what is currently possible before planning travel.