Mir

Following a quiet night at the TIR park in Hrodna we set off at a leisurely pace for Mir. Lovely countryside, lots of those little huts, a couple had a well in the garden, it must be grim in the winter.  

Stopped at another UNESCO site which was just a marble slab and a small obelisk. It didn't make much sense. Linda researched it for us and it turned out to be a site of great scientific interest and research into the size and curvature of the earth undertaken in the 1800s. We had a lovely day yesterday wandering around the castle and grounds. The castle has had a very eventful history and luckily the information boards were in English. We met a couple from Preston on the way round whose family were Polish and split up during the war. 

There were loads of weddings and it was fun to watch the Belarusians posing for photos, which they appear to love doing. Whether getting married or not. After the castle we wandered into the village. It was difficult to tell if the buildings were shops or not as they had no signs or markings on them. We walked into a couple of them and they had a similar amount of provisions that we would see in a village shop. There were fruit and vegetables for sale in the market square and we bought a few tomatoes and peppers. The money is very confusing. There are 13, 0000 Belarussian Roubles to the pound. 'It's only paper' said the lady selling the stuff as she helped count it out. There are no coins, only notes. They even have a 10 rouble note.  10/13, 000 = 0.00078p!
At 11pm loud waltz music started playing by the lake which heralded a fantastic firework display for one of the weddings. The daughter of a wealthy industrialist in Minsk was getting married. We had the perfect view through the windscreen of the van. 
Today we continued our drive to Niasviz Castle. Yet another UNESCO site. On the way we stopped to buy vegetables by the side of the road. The elderly lady laughed as Jon took her photograph, I noticed some gold crowns and wondered if dental care is affordable or if the people are as poor as they look. 
This castle had reopened fairly recently following a 15 year renovation programme. It had been restored beautifully and smelt like a new house.