We took a drive down south to Crimea on Wednesday, stopping in Bachtisarai where after lunch the guys climbed up the mountain to the monastery and all the way up to the ancient cave city (I decided to sit it out and visited with friends, since I had done it before.) Then we continued on to Stevasopol where we stayed at the Best Western.
We left home around six am and Garry was driving through fog (around 8:30 he said he thought it would have been gone by ten am- we were past the border (its really just where the checkstop was in the old days) around eleven when the sun finally burnt through the mist. There wern't too many holes in the road, but Garry passed a lot of slow moving trucks and old Ladas. As we got further south we saw the fields grow greener, and cows, goats and sheep out to graze. Between Bachtisarai and Stevastopol we saw the first cherry tree in bloom.
The Hotel Stevasopol must have been for the Soviet big bosses in the old days when it was a closed city (the Russian Black Sea fleet is still stationed here) with a grand staircase we climbed to get to our third (top floor) rooms. The rooms were nice with bathrooms that have been renovated with North American style (our one double bed room had a circular shower but the guys' two bed room had a tub, they tell me.) I had to take a picture of the "do not disturb" sign with the "no bugles" -it made me laugh.
We walked to McDonald's for dinner, and in the morning enjoyed a breakfast buffet unrivaled by any hotel breakfast we have had in Ukraine. Seth was sad when he discovered the that there was free wi-fi as he had left his laptop at home. Then we walked around the waterfront by the downtown hotel, before heading out to sightsee.
Garry followed the GPS directions (I was happy to be jammed in the back seat with the boys while John did the interpretation of what the GPS really meant by turn right here) to the Panorama- the front desk had helped him get the right names in for where we we planning to go. Garry got to the casa (ticket booth) at 9:28- but it opened at 9:30 so we walked around the building while Jonah tried to befriend the cat population. As you can see the daffodils were blooming. I understand that it had snowed three weeks ago, but had been in the 20's (C around 70 F) since then. We got our tickets and went inside. This time Garry convinced the lady to turn on the English version of the commentary, which presents (in the round) the events of the defense of Stevastopol in 1853-1854 during the Crimean War - I think the day portrayed is June 6th- which of course highlights the defense of the city by the Russians from the French and English troops.
Then we drove to our second site- the ancient Greek ruins, which date back to the 5th century BC, if I remember correctly. It's a UNESCO world heritage site. It is also the site where the Prince Vladimir was baptised and considered to be where the Orthodox church was founded in Russia. After Ukrainian independence, the church was rebuilt here. It had been turned into a museum during Stalin's time to display the ancient artifacts found here but was badly damaged by German shells during WWII, and abondoned.
We only got in trouble once when a guard did not like the boys climbing up on the wall (mostly they let you wander everywhere at these places) but we checked out the church and went down to the shore to find even more stuff than we did in October when we come with Garry's parents. Seth and Jonah climbed down some steps to the Black Sea (Jonah stuck his hand in and said it wasn't cold) I took a photo of the guys under the fog bell - cast from melted French muskets from the Crimean War- I think. Then we headed home around 1 pm, getting home around seven, just after darkness fell (we did stop in Zaporosia to eat.) All was well at home.
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