As promised few pictures from Sevastapol.


Our group at the start of the day.


The guide in front of the view of the Panorama Museum.


A picture of the dry dock in the submarine base.


Sochi, Russia

Today we set off on another of Fred’s fantastic private tours. We started with a walk down the Marine parade. There is a lot of rebuilding taking place with really quite unique and interesting architecture. Lots of lush vegetation and flowers with the Black Sea as a backdrop it was nice beginning.

Then we set off for a mountain top with a tower offering a panoramic view of the town of Sochi and the hills and valleys around Sochi. On the way we encountered some neat experiences. Fred first saw an eagle, that was quite magnificent and Fred decided to have his picture taken with this eagle. Ken is showing that shot below. At one point the eagle spread his wings but Fred’s face was not quite as relaxed in that picture so we decided to post the “smiling” picture instead. While Fred was having his experience with the eagle I spotted a lion cub.



This darling little cub was two months old and already quite large. I could not resist the experience. So I held the cub. She was quite strong but seemed quite comfortable in my arms. It was an experience I will always treasure. She was called Sochi and was born in the circus. Her mother was not well so she is being hand raised until she is older.



We then climbed the tower for the view of the area. It was really quite stunning with small villages nestled among the hills and the waterfront of Sochi stretching for a long way.

This area is famous for sanatoriums or as we would say Spas. We passed some stunning buildings as we made our way through the area. Right before our visit to Stalin’s Dacha we saw some really beautiful new buildings that offer spa facilities.

Stalin’s Dacha was a little depressing with all wood and an abundance of green everywhere you looked. However simply standing in this prior home for Stalin was quite interesting. Brad, John and Dick played some pool on the billiard table. Not sure who was the star in this match. Meanwhile Leslie and I had a close encounter with Stalin as pictured below.





We then took off for a local food market and encountered heavy traffic. The driver turned around and we went on a rough road past the largest cemetery I have ever seen. It stretched on both sides of the road from the hilltops down to the ground. Mostly overgrown with weeds and I could not see how one could visit a grave site.

We then entered the food market. As food markets go it was quite interesting. Huge cherries and really nice looking produce.



After a 15 minute speed tour of the food market we made it back to the ship in time for trivia. Finally our team tied with another team. After five tie breaker questions they finally awarded both teams a token and called it a day.

Not to be deterred from a game of Pooch for the that day the six of us at tea decided to end the day with a game of Pooch. We roped Mary Ellen into joining us and she is not a card player. However as it seems to be with new pooch players she came in third place.

On the way to my cabin we picked up four more pooch players so ended up with two tables. It was the “day of the Hutyra’s” with Ken winning one table and I won the other.

So all in all this was a great day for me. A lion cub, an overview (one of my favorite things to do) a win at triva and pooch. Top that off with a Veal Chop and a Dover Sole, with some wonderful Coppola. Then our clock goes back one hour for an extra hours sleep, does life get any better than this???

Another new port tomorrow, Trabzon Turkey, so we look forward to some new adventures.