I visited the quiet and pleasant little town of Veliky Rostov on a sunny and mild summer day in June 2018 during the Football World Cup in Russia.
I took the train from Jaroslavl early in the morning to V.Rostov train station. From there I walked past the Church of St.Nicolas ("Храм Николая Чудотворца На Всполье") to my accommodation, a beautiful old palace that was converted into a hotel.
Shortly afterwards I went into the city center to the Rostov Kremlin...to be honest, my jaw dropped when I saw this fantastically beautiful Kremlin...delightful...like something out of a fairy tale...a true joy and feast for the eyes...absolutely impressive.

I bought an entrance ticket and spent almost 2,5 hours inside the kremlin where I examined every nook and cranny, stuck my long nose into every corner and tried to open every door.The white and blue colors of the Kremlin are overwhelmingly beautiful to look at from the viewing platform of the Kremlin tower, which you can climb up.Within the Kremlin there were various exhibitions, hidden rooms (my advice, try to open every door, even in hidden places)and some small churches. I enjoyed the small garden of the Kremlin, where I had a coffee. Simply magical. There were hardly any visitors, not a single foreign one.

Then I left the kremlin and visited the nearby cathedral. After that I went to a cafe near the kremlin entrance gate where I had a bottle of tarchun and some very tasty bliny(kind of pancake) filled with meat.The young female stuff was extremely friendly and seemed to be happy to meet a foreign visitor.

With a full stomach and in a very good mood, I intended to go to the Spaso-Jakovlevsky monastery. However, a man approached me and asked me  if I wanted to go on a speed boat for €10. I offered the equivalent of €6 and he accepted my offer. I went with him to the back of the Kremlin right by the lake, where a man with a speedboat was waiting. The tout received his small commission and I spent about 15 minutes on the lake, from where the view of the city of Veliky Rostov is quite spectacular. Then I went to the Spaso-Jakovlevsky monastery

The walls and towers of the Spaso-Jakovlevsky monastery("Спасо-Яковлевский монастырь") are impressive. One of them is the southwest tower.
The observation deck is located on this tower. For a modest entrance fee, you can climb several levels, walk along the wall and admire the magnificent view of Lake Nero from the highest point of the tower, and view the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery itself and its surroundings from above.The monstery itself is quite beautiful and like almost all russian monsteries you can feel that you are inside a holy place as there are quite a lot of devoted believers everywhere.I truly love the russian monasteries......not overrun by respectless tourists or foto terrorists.After my visit there I called it a day and had two beers in a russian pub near my hotel.

The following morning I wandered to the Avramichev Bogoyavlenskiy Monastery( "Авраамиев Богоявленский Монастырь")  for which I needed around 30 minutes walking on a kind of  
unpaved path that turns into a mud trap during rainy weather

As for the rostov kremlin it is more beautiful than its brothers in Veliky Novgorod,Kazan,Nischny Novgorod or Suzdal.Its beauty is breathtakingly astonishing.

Hands down the cities of Veliky Rostov and Suzdal were the two most beautiful places my sore eyes had the pleasure to see during my almost three month stay in Russia in 2018.

I for my part think that the rostov kremlin is worthy of a place on the unesco's world heritage site list due to its stunning beauty,due to the sheer size of that quite big kremlin,due to its location near that picturesque lake,due to the fact that  it is one of the most significant and original architectural monuments in Russia,due to the exceptional architectural and artistic integrity of the Kremlin. Whoever visits Veliky Rostov and its kremlin will certainly agree with me that the rostov kremlin has to be inscribed on the unesco list.

The rostov kremlin was built from 1670 to 1683. The bishop's seat (Russian архиерейская кафедра) was located there until 1787. In 1787 the episcopal see was moved from Rostov to Yaroslavl.

The small city of Veliky Rostov can be easily reached by train from either Moscow or Yaroslavl.....or by marschrutka from Yaroslavl. The bewitching city deserves an overnight stay as the huge kremlin and the city's two monasteries cant be visited without a rush just within a few hours.