Today the weather is cold and rainy. The weather forecast is for rain for the next several days.
As I stated in an earlier post, the Ukraine is really not ready nor developed for tourism. This is reflected in the short list of shore excursions available.
The choices are a city tour of Sevastopol, several tours of the battlefields or Balaclava Valley or the harbors or the submarine base and the one we chose, Khan's Palace and the Cave Monastery.
Since Sevastopol cannot accommodate our ship we will be tendering from the ship to the pier.
At the pier our guide met us and led us to the bus. Our first stop was a restaurant where we saw a model of Bakhchisaray. After this we went to the Khan's Palace- a complex with Muslim influence.
It was nice but I would not recommend it nor go again.
We then had a short rest stop for Turkish coffee or tea and a traditional dessert. If the weather was not so cold the stop outdoors would have been delightful.
We then boarded shuttle buses to go to the Cave Monastery (road was narrow and would not fit the tour bus).
We had a beautiful view of the valley from the parking lot. There were a lot of steps to climb to the Monastery which was formed by a cave.
We went inside to worship the icons and then were able to purchase some incense, cards and photos. Fortunately the Nuns accepted our Euros.
We boarded the buses and returned to the pier.
Due to the rain and cold we all got on the tender boats and boarded our ship.
Tomorrow we go to Yalta, our original first port in the Ukraine. We selected the longest tour as it has almost all their is to see in Yalta- 8 hrs including lunch.
As I stated in an earlier post, the Ukraine is really not ready nor developed for tourism. This is reflected in the short list of shore excursions available.
The choices are a city tour of Sevastopol, several tours of the battlefields or Balaclava Valley or the harbors or the submarine base and the one we chose, Khan's Palace and the Cave Monastery.
Since Sevastopol cannot accommodate our ship we will be tendering from the ship to the pier.
At the pier our guide met us and led us to the bus. Our first stop was a restaurant where we saw a model of Bakhchisaray. After this we went to the Khan's Palace- a complex with Muslim influence.
It was nice but I would not recommend it nor go again.
We then had a short rest stop for Turkish coffee or tea and a traditional dessert. If the weather was not so cold the stop outdoors would have been delightful.
We then boarded shuttle buses to go to the Cave Monastery (road was narrow and would not fit the tour bus).
We had a beautiful view of the valley from the parking lot. There were a lot of steps to climb to the Monastery which was formed by a cave.
We went inside to worship the icons and then were able to purchase some incense, cards and photos. Fortunately the Nuns accepted our Euros.
We boarded the buses and returned to the pier.
Due to the rain and cold we all got on the tender boats and boarded our ship.
Tomorrow we go to Yalta, our original first port in the Ukraine. We selected the longest tour as it has almost all their is to see in Yalta- 8 hrs including lunch.
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