Early October 2019 we went on a 6 days roundtrip of Belarus. An Air Baltic flight via Riga, a Visa-on-arrival and a rent-a-car at arrival made this arrival like everywhere else. To our surprise it was a Russian registered car! We wondered if the Russian-Belarusian relations between "the commons" were ok or would we experience any bullying, but it all turned out ok.

We headed against Polatsk. Our "smart" GPS took us through highways and smaller roads, also through small towns and even gravel roads! Mainly the roads are ok, so everything worked out just fine. After 2 1/2 hours we arrived Polatsk round six o'clock in the evening.

There is about an hour of daylight, what do we do? We decided to locate the nearest part of this TWHS. The nearest part was the St. Sophia Cathedral. The church itself has Wojciech described perfectly so there is little to add. There were people (typically mothers with children) going in and out, it looked like some kind of a music school, so we didn't go inside. We established that the exterior is nice, but is it special enough? We've visited just so many churches throughout Europe (and South America), inscribed and not inscribed, so this is just another one. This one need not be inscribed.

After a stayover at a small hotel (which we prefer) with a huge language barrier (using mostly hand- and finger-language) we visited Polatsk centre, beginning with the square with the 1812-monument and the nice main street including the house where Peter the Great stayed from time to time, we headed for the Saviour Transfiguration Church in the outskirts of town. After re-dressing and entering the area we quickly found then church at rear. Even though it's still under reconstruction (fenced all around) we found passage though the fence and went up to the door. Closed, but we could get a glimpse of the inside through the glass door, but we just saw a few of the frescoes from afar so it was kind of disappointing.
We turned to leave, but immediately we ran into a nun with a huge key in her hand. She smiled and we understood she would open for us. Fantastic! The frescoes (and the church) had scaffolding inside, but they weren't dominating so we could freely enjoy the nice frescoes. Photos was prohibited, but the nun went into some kind of an office, so we had the place for ourselves (and we learn from Philipp).
We also agree with Wojciech on this part, it should definitely be inscribed.

### Randi & Svein Elias