Uglich, once a stopover for czars, this town (founded in 937, by one account) is on Russia's Golden Ring, a route comprising cities that once were the cultural and political heart of the country. Its old kremlin, 18th century Transfiguration Cathedral and the Church of St. Dimitry on the Blood (with its cluster of blue-spangled domes) were in every camera lens. (The church is named for the 8-year-old son of Ivan the Terrible, who died on that very spot in 1591.)

Yaroslavl, the oldest city on the Volga River and 100 years older than Moscow, it thrived during its "golden age" between 1613 and 1703 due to its location as a lucrative trade site. Said to be the first city in Russia to house a theater (1750), it is best known for its churches, built by rich merchants who competed with each other to see who could erect the most lavish structure.

Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, the city had 170 churches and was called the "Russian Florence." It was here that the Finno-Ugric tribe of pagans in the eighth and ninth centuries worshipped the bear, which ultimately became the symbol of the Soviet Union. With a population of some 700,000, the city today is a manufacturing hotbed, producing diesel engines, locomotives, electric motors, shoes and automobiles.

Goritsy, where the highlight of a brief docking was a visit to a humble but comfortable home of a babushka (grandmother) who graciously told of life in the wooden village. During the winter months, one-third of her pension income goes for firewood, she explained through our guide. In the summer, she harvests numerous items from her thriving vegetable garden.

As with thousands of older widows in the region, her husband disappeared during the country's rein of terror under Stalin, probably a victim of the gulag slave labor force used to build the waterway.

Here, too, Kirill-Belosersk Monastery, founded in 1544, offers visitors an example of the fortified monasteries that once helped protect the river routes to and from Moscow

Kizhi Island, a fascinating outdoor museum, its primary showpiece is the flamboyant Church of the Transfiguration, built in 1714 by Peter the Great to celebrate his victories over the Swedes.

Accented by 22 onion-domes that rise in diminishing width to produce a wigwamlike shape, the unique structure is a testament to the simplicity, solidity and craftsmanship of wooden architecture. Some 30,000 aspen shingles — which are said not to warp under the effect of sun, rain or ice — reflect the light of the sky like a mirror. Built without nails, it is one of Russia's most architecturally splendid churches.

A leisurely stroll of the small island unveils a Swiss chalet-style farmhouse, a public bathhouse built of logs, small storehouses, period watermills and windmills and the Church of St. Lazarus, built of pine in the late 1300s and reputed to be the oldest surviving wooden structure in Russia.