The Golden Ring, just north east of Moscow is a wonderful area brimming with old onion-domed churches. I toured through a few years ago and walked away overwhelmed by too many churches in too small of an area. By the time I arrived at the last town on my circuit, I was burned out and had lost interest.
One place I never reached, however, was Suzdal. This was mainly because no train line was ever built to the town. While this is hardly convenient for the locals, this lack of transportation has contributed to Suzdal being the most well-preserved and arguably the most beautiful of the Golden Ring towns according to a recent article in The New York Times.
Steven Lee Myers traveled to this ancient town where he stayed in a log cabin built on the grounds of an operating monastery. He paints a quaint, bucolic image of this 12,000 person town and peppers it with touching descriptions of the beautiful churches, architecture, and walled Kremlin that makes me realize that a Golden Ring journey is best spent in one town and one town only: Suzdal.