Bogolyubovo

Bogolyubovo is a small town of brightly-colored wooden homes and a blue-domed monastery just outside Vladimir. It's famous for its small, delicate, perfectly-proportioned church (the black-domed one, above.) Getting to this 900-year-old wonder feels like a pilgrimmage, as you walk across a barren field, dealing with the prevailing environmental conditions of the season. For us, that was two feet of snow. In spring, the field floods and the church sits on an island. It reminded me a lot of Mont St. Michel; however, on this particular morning, there were no hordes of tourists, only the church caretakers and one lone ice fisherman.