Docked in Odessa, Ukraine June 21, 2009 at 10:00 am and went on tour of city. This statue represents the rebirth of the city and is located at entrance to docking area. Can be seen beyond bottom of stairway in next picture.
Looking down the Potemkin Staircase. It is wider at the bottom so from the top it looks like it is all the same width.
Potemkin Staircase. From the bottom it is intended to look more like a pyramid.
Statue of Catherine the Great in Odessa
Dog -- had to have a dog to even out so many pictures of cats!
Walking street in Odessa
Some old ruins under walking street.
If you paid money you could have your picture taken with this guy--so I took one from the back.
Alexander Pushkin statue, the famous Russian poet.
Distances to everywhere. Baltimore represents the USA.
Central Odessa
BMW in front of the Opera House
Odessa Opera House
Monument in Odessa
Onion dome church
Colonade in front of Vorontsov Palace at Odessa Harbor
Voronstsov Palace
Odessa architecture
Couger in central park
Lion in central park
Waiting to enter Tolstoy Palace in Odessa for privade concert
Our Odessa guide in front of Tolstoy Palace
Staircase landing in Tolstoy Palace
Courtyard of Tolstoy Palace
Piano of Franz Liszt
Piano of Franz Liszt - Barbara Stone from our group played Claire de Lune.
And another parquet floor
And another
And another chandelier
Sitting room
Ceiling
Fireplace
Plant in window
Tapestry
This is the room where the concert was held
String Quartet - and very good.
And back to the ship for a late dinner. This is Art Pavel who we met on board ship.
Dale and Beverly Borg
Architecture in Odessa
Tree lined street in Odessa June 22, 2009 Began morning tour "Different Cultures of Odessa". Actually 5 churches and a resort.
Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church - Barbara with high fashion hat!
Polish Catholic Church
Greek Orthodox Cathedral
Most streets in Odessa have trees (Irina our ship guide)
Jewish Synagogue (not allowed to take pictures inside
Islamic Cultural Center (a mosque)
Islamic Cultural Center (a mosque) Where they do their cleansing
Arcadia by the Black Sea
Arcadia by the Black Sea - Odessa
Odessa Train Station
Monument
Note how they park -- parking is a real problem in the city
Set sail from Odessa, Ukraine to Constanta, Romania at 4:00 pm June 22, 2009. Evening entertainment by the ship crew
Entertainment by the ship crew
Entertainment by the ship crew - lady in yellow is a turnip planted by the famer behind her. The "turnip" grew so big the farmer couldn't pull it so he called his wife to help.
Then they called the daughter
And then the dog
And then the cat
And finally the mouse. Then they all went crashing down as they pulled up the "turnip".
He sang Moon River
Then some of the girls did a belly dance
Another dance by the girls
Another solo
And finally a "ballet" by the boys!
The whole bunch
Tetrapods to break up large waves - entering Constanta, Romania at 1:00 pm on June 23, 2009.
Tetrapods to break up large waves - entering Constanta, Romania
Tetrapods to break up large waves - entering Constanta, Romania And a lighthouse
Large shipyard but not much activity.
Lots of gantries, but not much action
Random pictures in Romania on our bus drive out to Histria.
Random pictures in Romania on our bus drive out to Histria. (Resort area)
Stork nest on top of pole
Histria, Greek colony on the Dobrudja coast of the Black Sea (today on the Sinoe Lake bank), was founded by the middle of the 7th century BC, by colonists from Miletus (according to the data conveyed by Eusebius, a possible founding date could be the years 657/656 BC, and according to the tradition mentioned by Ps. - Skymnos, the year 630 BC could represent the date of the foundation of the settlement) and existed for 14 centuries, until the 7th century AD. It is the oldest Greek colony on the west coast of the Black Sea, and one of the first founded in the basin of this sea. It is also the oldest town attested on the territory of present day Romania.
Ruins of Histria
Art Pavel
Histria Museum
Don , Art and Pat
Our guide
Don
Looks like some kind of fruit?
In the Histria museum (it wasn't air conditioned and very hot and humid so we didn't spend much time in here.)
In the Histria museum
On the way back to Constanta
Horse cart
Fountain in Constanta, Romania
Street scenes in Costanta
The Casino in Constanta on the water front.
This night the passengers supplied entertainment on the ship. Bob Thomson from our group played a Cossack.
Preparing Bob to be his victim!
Blindfolding Bob.
Will whip the bear off his head with his whip (belt). 10:00 pm the ship left Constanta and set sail for Nessebar, Bulgaria.
Arrived Nessebar, Bulgaria at 8:00 this morning. The dock is close so we did a walking tour of the city.
Modern statue of Virgin Mary to protect the harbor
Harbor
The Old Windmill on the passageway from New Nessebar to Old Nessebar is a lovely, very intact Black Sea style wildmill. It is virtually impossible to dig up any material about the history of the windmill, as all local sources quote almost all their information verbatim from one very popular guide book, which mentions the windmill but contains no information about it. It's a fair guess that it's from the Bulgarian revival period from the 17th. to 19th. century.
Nessebar Harbor
Nessebar arches
Nessebar old entrance gate.
Christ Pantokrator church
Christ Pantokrator Church (this is other side of church--note swastikas in design.
St. Stefan Church
St. Stefan church
Nessebar shopping
St. Sofia Church
Wayne and Bob
He sounded vicious but I think just wanted attention
Looks friendly!
Rich chocolate cake! Pat & Bob
Pat & Bob
Ceiling of Folklore concert place
Folklore concert in rural Bulgarian village
Folklore concert
At folklore concert. Someone convinced Don he should taste the wine. I think he didn't like it!
View from Folklore place
The small island in the distance is Nessebar
View from Folklore concert place
Art waiting for the moon to come out of the clouds.
More clouds came so didn't get to see the moon.
