I have to admit I wasn't excited at all about this port of call as I am not a war buff at all. I signed us up at the last minute for Sevastopol (we were all corrected to pronounce this SevasTOPol) Highlights. I had no idea what this Panorama museum was or what I had signed up to see. We awoke to a beautiful day and piled into our busses quite early. We were pleased that folks we recognized (non-LCTers) were on our bus. We made some nice friends on our 12 day Bucharest tour and have been traveling with them and enjoying their company on the ship during the week. We hope to convert them to LCTers soon!

The Panorama museum depicts the horrors of a battle that took place on the 18th of June, 1855 between Russian forces and the British and French forces. THink of a diorama you made as a child in a shoe box...with the picture in the back and three dimenisional objects closer to you to depict a scene on steroids. This vast picture seemlessly becomes a 3 D representation of a scene of war. To give you an idea of its size, there are 4000 life size models of soldiers. Such care has been taken, it actually looks like there are fires, people are dying, etc. Yet nothing is actually moving. The painting is telling the story of this fateful day in history. 7500 French and British and 1500 Russians died in 4 hours on this one day. During WWII the Panorama was damaged in 6000 spots and had to be repaired. As Fred said, it is something to be seen.

However, those who actually visited the battlefields were equally moved and said those tours were excellent as well.

We then went further back in time and visited Sevastopol's ruins from the time it was colonized by the Greeks. The colony that emerged, Chersonesus/Taurica, became an important manufacturing and trade center and the northernmost Greek outpost on the Black Sea. The ruins that exist there run from the fourth century B.C. Byzantine artifacts (Roman) are also there indicating their presence as well. Khersones was destroyed by a fired set by the Tartars about the 14th century, as evidenced by the fused nails and exploded dishes. The pride of the museum are the glazed dishes that are noted to be the best in the world. The construction of the site was possible because of detailed archives found.

What remains of Khersones is equivalent in stature to Egyptian ruins along the Nile or the Roman remains at Pompeii. The hundreds of acres of open land along the Black Sea that was Khersones are dotted with ancient pillars that once supported Greek temples and government buildings.

There is still a tremendous amount of rebuilding to be done, but it will be incredible. There is an enclosed museum with sewer systems, jewelry, eating utensils, money, etc.

Sevastopol looked quite different from the other Ukranian ports we visited. Its topography was somewhat hilly flattening out to more of a typical port town and there were no longer the large mountains going down into the sea. The architecture was no longer the colored stucco of Yalta or Odessa, but white limestone, or as the Ukranians call it, "unfinished Crimean marble." The town had sustained tremendous damage during WWII and had to be considerably rebuilt. Our tour driver said the style of architecturely is fondly called Stalin Baroque Style and has been reconstructed to resemble Sevastopol closely as it appeared before the war. Currently, the city supports about 400000 inhabitants and has a lovely downtown and supports two navies, the Russian and the Ukranian. The Black Sea gets to a temperature of 27 degrees celcius in summer (really hot)and 9 degrees celcius in winter, so it really is a great seaside retreat.

For the most part, those in the Ukraine have adapted to democracy well, but the elderly have felt the serious cutbacks in their pensions. Most welcome the freedom of speech and the knowledge that their neighbors are not reporting them. We heard this from all three of our guides.Interestingly (at least to me), doctors and teachers are lower income as they are state paid. However, dentists and eye doctors are more well off as they are not state funded and have private practices.

I have been blown away with the Crimean area and its beauty as well as its wonderful ports. I never expected them to be so filled with tremendous history. The guides are well trained, interesting and have lovely senses of humor. The bathrooms are clean and the food is good. In 10 years time, these areas could become key vacation destinations.

This really was too short a stop. We could have used a whole day here. It has been so port intensive, it was nice to relax on the ship with a pina colada and a book and sit and enjoy newly made and old friends.

Tonight, we had a great dinner with lots of laughs. This is really a great itinerary and I highly recommend it. Bulgaria was kind of dull, but pleasant. Roumania was depressing, but interesting, but the Crimea...WOW!

As far as handicrafts...souvenirs...

Bulgaria: honey, rose oil products, crochet work, silver
Roumania: painted eggs, pottery, wooden objects
Crimea: amber, maroushka dolls, painted wood boxes, wooden jewelry, wine, faberge eggs for necklace, crochet work, lace, dolls