Today's photo-of-the-day is from
Mandrogy, Russia.
Verkhnie Mandrogi, or "Upper Falls," was once a small village on the banks of the Svir between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega. The town was ruined during World War II and disappeared from maps for many years. But in 1996 an enterprising Russian, Sergei Gutzeit, got the idea of reconstructing it as a sort of open air museum about traditional Russian villages for the benefit of travelers taking river cruises between St. Petersburg and Kizhi. It has a small hotel and several houses built of brightly painted pine logs, windmills, vodka and bread museums, craftspeople (potters, weavers, jewelers, etc.), a moose farm, a stable, an archery range, trout and carp fishing, and a small zoo featuring bears, raccoon dogs and other animals.
Ignore the vodka museum and the moose farm and focus solely on the landscape. I was struck by how much the river cruise on the Svir River reminded me of northern Wisconsin. In hindsight, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised — both are at about the same latitude and the northern forests at that latitude stretch pretty much around the world. The cottage in the woods on the lake is as much a staple in Russia as it is in Wisconsin.
OK, I admit that house in the photo above is not typical of Wisconsin. But check out the bonus photos after the jump. If the cottage and the lake don't say Wisconsin, I don't know what does.
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