Kicking the topic off...

We are approaching Nessebaur - expected arrival around 9 AM. We were a bit delayed in leaving last night - midnight sailing - due to a Lufthansa strike which delayed arrivals and baggage for some.

We arrived last Saturday and had a terrific pre-tour (Regent) in Istanbul and Cappadocia - we had a small group - only 6 people - plus a terrific guide. Our first day tour in Istanbul was on Sunday and since there was barely any traffic we were treated to a driving overview of the city neighborhoods, including a drive over the bridge to the Asian continent, before touring Topkapi Palace, the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. We met up with Fred, Pat, Mary Ellen & Jim that night for a dinner on a balcony of a restaurant just off Istiklal Street and the Çiçek Pasajı.

Monday morning we left early for Cappadocia for 2 days - we had gorgeous weather there in the 80's, much better than the usual 100 plus degree temperature typical in June. We crawled through underground cities, walked through valleys among the fairy chimneys, visited rock churches, met a woman still living in one of the carved cave homes that our guide has been helping over the years, visited Goreme and its amazing rock churches, had champagne at sunset overlooking the Rose Valley, ate way too mcuh fabulous Turkish food and much more. Brad & I took an optional sunrise balloon flight which was out of this world!

Our first hotel wasn't satisfactory so our guide arranged for us to change hotels to the Museum Hotel, a boutique hotel partially carved out of rock which was stylish and very well done - we just missed Andi and Doug who left the day we arrived. Haven't looked at any of Brad's photos yet but may try to upload some assuming Ken lets us use his laptop since we didn't bring ours.

Yesterday we flew back to Istanbul and spent time at the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market and had yet another yummy lunch. We boarded around 4 PM yesterday, just in time to unpack, snag a washing machine, have the lifeboat drill, block party, LCT get together for cocktails & dinner.
Ngaire and Ken are ensconced in their fabulous master suite - wow! Would love to have all that space!

Great to hear from you, Leslie. Thanks for starting the seamail. Can't wait to see Brad's pictures of your pre-cruise.

Have a great time Leslie!! I know how excited Ralph & Carol have been for this cruise too.......I think you'll all have a super time. We sure loved Istanbul when we were there in April....great city!

Yippee, the seamail has begun! Thanks for checking in, Leslie!

"Ah life is good on the Navigator".

Beautiful day today in Nessebur. Weather was blue skies, nice temperature. WE went into town and wandered around and saw the sights. CAme back for a lovely lunch on the deck with Leslie and Brad. BIG bowl of berries!! I hope they do not run out. Tonight we saw the Captain in his kilt and enjoyed drinks with the group pre-dinner at Gallieos. Had a nice dinner with Mary Ellen and Jim and some other non LCT'ers.

Mushroom soup, lobster (big helping) and beef tenderlion with some great Avalon Cabernet, yes life is good.

Tomorrow we start POOCH with those onboard at 2.00 pm.

Some great crew on board. Giuseppe, Daniel and Paolo to name a few. Life is good.

What a wonderful pre-cruise, Leslie. Cappadocia looks to me to be a fascinating place, unlike any I've ever seen. Unlike so many LCTers, we've not been to Istanbul, and it's high on my list, so I always enjoy hearing about it.

And now, to be on the Navigator. Ngaire, I'm drooling at the thought of mushroom soup and lobster. Have some for me!

Enjoy, all.

What could be better, berries berries berries, the pickens got pretty slim at about half way during ICE. Then we had to switch to onion rings...

Here's hoping they have an ample supply of berries, too. Otherwise it may be borscht for that special breakfast treat.

Leslie, I agree completely about wonderful Turkish food. Mmmmmm .. worth the trip alone just for that. Glad the hotel got sorted in Cappadocia and you got to the Rose Valley. Too many favorite stops in Cappadocia .. so will have to go again, maybe next year.

I'm so jealous. POOCH with the POOCHmasters. Enjoy yourselves and bet five on the no-trump round for me, Ngaire.

Keep the sea mail coming!

Cheers, Anne

Sounds like a great beginning! We need pics!

Sorry everyone, been kind of busy. This is a port intensive trip but hopefully we can post some pictures soon.

Constanta, todays port really is the starting place for those who go to Bucharest. This is a long day but those that did it really enjoyed the trip.


We have been before and in town there is not much. We just took the shuttle in and strolled around. A few things have changed but it still has a long way to go.

In the afternoon we taught five people to play pooch and had two tables going. One of our new people won and got high score for the day tied with the Alpha female, Leslie.

Great anniversary dinner tonight with Doug and Andi to celebrate their special day. Leslie, Brad, Mary Ellen and Jim joined the group. Leslie started a new trend in dining seating, boys on one side and girls on the other. It actually worked out quite well.Funny thing was the girls all ordered red meat and the men ordered fish and fowl! Seems like one would expect it the other way around.

Off to bed now. Odessa tomorrow.

We've been so busy that there hasn't been a moment to post. Finally have a quiet moment to sit down a share...

Weather has been great. Arrived last Saturday about 5pm. Took a chance and selected a small hotel in the historic area in Istanbul recommended as number one on TripAdvisor called Siriki Konak. We selected the largest room as the rates were rather reasonable for that area of town. Room was decorated in old world style..wooden floor, oriental carpets, king size bed, balcony, jacuzzi, separate shower. The room overlooked the park and the harbor and was walking distance to the spice market and the blue mosque and Topeki mosque. Each evening the hotel hosted a tea and recommended tourist sites and day trips. We were delighted with the room, included breakfast, service levels and hotel restaurant. Doug and I can highly recommend the hotel. The hotel has a pool and a turkish bath. It is walking distance to the tram.We left our luggage there as we returned to the hotel for one night prior to boarding the ship.

The next day was an early day for us as we left for 2 nights in Cappadocia. It was almost a fiasco. Our tour guide gave us an itinerary that said "7:30 flight on Turkish air" but no eticket or flight number. When we were left at the airport we asked for the e-ticket. Our driver said "Don't you have it?" Nope. He raced back for it, but we knew we didn't have time to wait for him. We looked at the masses of people and windows and didn't know what to do. After some angst ridden minutes, Doug and I decided I would go through security and ask information what to do. Information looked at me kindly as though I were an idiot and pointed to an empty window where I was asked for my passport and handed my boarding pass. As an American, it was just too easy! Well, we made it and thank goodness as our 2 days were wonderful.

Cappadocia can be done in 1 1/2 days. We arrived at about 10 and it was about an hour to the hotel. We stayed at the Museum Cave hotel, the same one that Brad and Leslie ended up in. It was set up high on a hill. The hotel was scattered with museum pieces and lovely rose gardens and an infinity pool and patio overlooking the unusual moonscape. We toured until 6 and called it a day. We were raring to go at the ungodly hour of 4:45am for balooning the next morning, but unfortunately, it was called off because of high winds. We spent our time in Cappadocia wonderful day hiking on top of cliffs, hiking in underground caves, climbing up into fairy caves, watching lovely turkish rugs being woven and pottery being made and learning about the history of this interesting area. I would definitely recommend it.

We returned to Istanbul Tuesday morning and enjoyed the city Tuesday and Wednesday, before boarding on Wednesday afternoon.

We took the Cooking Class in Bulgaria with Jim and Mary Ellen and Fred and Pat and it was less of a cooking class than a demonstration and lunch. The small town was akin to the Debrovnik experience...a pretty town, without too much there...lots of churches...lots of souvenir junk..

We decided to be adventurous in Roumania and took the 12 hour tour. It included a 6 hour bus ride..3 hours to Bucharest and 3 hours back....with a 5:40am departure. I started to think I was nuts. Doug assured me I was nuts. We struggled to wake up...I carried my pillow to the bus...Doug looked at me wondering what type of 32nd anniversary this was going to be for us. I must tell you...The country itself is very depressed...even the countryside is not beautiful..the sites in the city are neither terribly exciting nor do they look much above the South Bronx - even the areas that housed the finer stores. Nevertheless, the tour was so well done that it was fascinating. It was probably the best Regent tour I have ever been on. There were four buses to Bucharest ... 4 separate tour guides and I understand that all were as excellent as our guide. He spoke (in an entertaining way)for almost the entire 12 hours on subjects from Count Dracula to the health system to the gypsies to the political system...I walked away with a true understanding of Roumania and its people.

While exhausted, we had a great day and arrived a bit after 6pm, and enjoyed an anniversary dinner with Ngaire and Ken, Brad and Leslie and Mary Ellen and Jim then headed off to boogie to the MoTown Show. Tomorrow is Odessa.

We've signed up for the Palaces Tour. I was going back and forth between Ultimate Odessa, which was a 7 1/2 hour tour, but thought another full day might be a bit much and then I couldn't play pooch! I hope it is as good as the one we had today, but can't imagine it can stack up.

Having so much fun on this trip!!

Great to hear from you, Andi. And, a very HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to you and Doug. Touring, dining and dancing to MoTown, what a way to celebrate.

Your description of Bucharest and Romania reminded me of the book I'm reading, The Historian. Have you read it? It's 1,000 pages but a fast read and since you've been there, it should stir memories of your trip.

Keep having fun!

Thanks all for seamail - it sounds wonderful - Happy 4th on the Navigator!!

Happy Anniversary Doug & Andi!!

Sounds like you're all having a fabulous time. Thanks for the seamail!

Leslie, Ngaire and Andi, thanks for checking in with us! I am loving your reports! When I was in the Black Sea, it was on the Diamond, only 7 days, new port every day as I remember, so very busy. A great trip! Andi, your comments about Bulgaria mirror my images of Eastern Europe that I remember from Black Sea. But a lot of those memories faded as I kept the ones of the good places and times. There is a lot you see that is better forgotten when you are in St. Petersburg as well, on the way to the Palaces, bleak urban landscape, and unkempt areas out of town.

Hope Ken can find the time soon to post some pictures for us. And give Ngaire a hug from me!

Would love to hear from Fred and Pat!

Thanks for the reports. I really wish we could have done this one as the ports would be all new to us. Given that I am living vicariously through all of you.

Happy Anniversary. Please tell Mary Ellen and Jim "hi" for us in case she hasn't been checking the board.

Just back from a nice tour of Odessa with Brad & Leslie, Mary Ellen & Jim, and Sharon & Dick. Being able to return to the ship from a private tour when we have seen everything on the agenda on our own time schedule even though our return is two hours earlier than the tour program stated - priceless!! So while the similar ship's tour is still dragging on visiting the same places at a much slower pace, we're all back relaxing in the A/C of the ship, sipping gin & tonic, and gearing up mentally for trivia in an hour.

A bit of stream of consciousness-style comments about the trip so far:

Istanbul pre-cruise: In view of the fact that we'd been there before, our 5-night pre-cruise was at least 1 (if not 2) nights too many. It was also stiflingly hot in that extremely crowded city, making us more impatient with the discomfort and horrible traffic. Nevertheless, we had some excellent experiences, including a terrific visit with a private guide (hired right next to the ticket office) at Topkapi. We spent a couple of hours visiting the Harem area there, which is the most beautiful and historically interesting part of Topkapi. We also made what turned out to be a very good decision by going early, when the place first opened. That gave us the luxury of wandering around without loads of other people. When we left about noon, the masses were pouring in as if there was a half-price sale on baklava.

Food in Istanbul: Great fun and good grub, indeed. Rather than pay $40 pp for a boring continental breakfast at the hotel (Hyatt Regency), we just walking five minutes to Taksim Square and the pedestrian street - Istiklal Caddesi - that branches from the square. That street has dozens of cafes and pasty shops, perfect for breakfast a la Turque. Whether it was lentil soup, a Turkish panini with cheese and spicy Turkish sausage, or one of the many wonderful variations of baklava, breakfasts were a tasty adventure. Another marvelous place to eat is a street just off of Istiklal Caddesi which is just one Turkish restaurant after another, each of which has a fairly agressive tout standing in front trying to convince us that we are his new best friends and that we must try his place. We chose one with a rooftop terrace to get us away from the heat and noise of the street, while still enjoying the energy of the area. We ate there twice with LCT friends. On another memorable night, we had dinner on the rooftop terrace of a very good Ottoman (complex and intricately-flavored versions of Turkish cuisine) restaurant overlooking the Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque for you mosque purists). We were so close it was as if we could reach out and touch the mosque as it was bathed in light during the nightly sound & light show. To add to our delight, a cafe on the street directly four stories below had a whirling dervish show to add perfect music and dance to our evening's experience.

Boarding: A total breeze (which we needed in the heat of Istanbul). The dock was only a five-minute taxi ride from our hotel near Taksim Square. (By the way, we were very happy that we'd stayed in Taksim, rather than in the old town, Sultanahmet, because Taksim is much more lively at night and an easy cab ride to the old town to see things during the day. Further, the A/C is likely better in the new hotels than in the charming restored boutique hotels in the old town.) Embarkation was a non-event at 1:00 pm, taking less than 5 minutes. The kind steward took our vase of flowers (which I'd bought that morning at the Taksim flower market) to our cabin, while we went to Portofino's for a long lunch with the growing LCT crew.

The ship: Even though we slightly prefer the cabins on Voyager, the Navigator digs are quite good. We are comfortable with the layout of the ship and, aside from the lack of alternative dining venues, like Navigator very much.

Trivia: In our first two ventures into the bloody arena of high-intensity cruise trivia, our LCT team has taken one terrible crushing (only 8 of 15) and one honorable (but still losing, with 13 of 15) defeat. In a few minutes, we shall try again to save the honor of LCT. Pray for us, dear friends, and light a candle in our memory if we go down again in ignominious flame-out.

No good scandals yet on the cruise, as far as I know. I'll try to find some to report.

Enuf drivel for now. Trivia is coming up soon; and I need to get up there to have the bartender make me a caipirinha before we get started.

More later, depending on computer availability, state of mind, soundness of body, and degree of indulgence in caipirinhas and other such delightful exotic quaffs.

Cheers, Your Boy on the Black Sea (for those of you who don't get the reference, that was supposed to a reference to "Our Man in Havana")

Did someone say Baklava??? :hyper: Thanks everyone for checking in, I am delighting in the seamail! One question, where are my dearly beloved Carol and Ralph? I am dying for an update from them!!

LOL Karen, I wondered the same thing about Carol & Ralph. Glad everyone is having such a good time!

Hope to hear from Ralph and Carol again - you all are in for a treat having them onboard - the Lamb LCTers spend 19 plus nights together and had the BEST time - Joanna

We are here and having a great time. just tried to post a long post but got dumped off the internet so this will be a short one.

Looking forward to FUN. No Texas holdUP player on this ship.

There you are Ralph!! Sorry no hold'em games in the afternoon. We'll have to make up for that on FUN. BTW, can you ask the Cruise Director if there is a set of poker chips on board the Navigator like there is on the Voyager. Not even sure if there's a place to play on the Navigator since we've never been on her before ??

Will do about the chips. Been thinking about the place to play. Not sure if Portofino is open to us like Laveranda. Will keep scouting for a place to play. Nice to know some folks are keeping track of Carol and me. I think.

There you are! I am so glad you are having a good time! We miss you and can't wait to see you again!

Sacrebleu! "No good scandals to report" ?! But the Sistah's and Suzette are homebound, you and Pat can relax :D

No caveats from CAVIAR, Bbs (our Boy in the Black Sea)? Nonetheless, bravo for a well-written, lively report of doings to date.

We look forward to your good notes/guide recommendations for our trip next year. Until then, we look forward to the Daily Breeze seamail.

Cheers, Anne

Odessa began with a thunder and lightening storm and the walking tours were cancelled and it looked like a gloomy day ahead. However, by the time our tours began, the skies had begun to clear and warm up.

We had originally signed up for Odessa Palaces. I was concerned that it sounded somewhat dull and long for us after our 12 hour day. It was just Palace after Palace looking at rooms followed by a concert. Doug really isn't into furniture and rooms as I and I was worried there might not even be any furniture. My objective on a cruise like this is to learn as much as I can about each port and take the tour with as much info. Not sure that's Doug's objective. So, I switched to Odessa Highlights, knowing Yalta was a 6 1/2 hour tour.

As our bus left the port, the Potemkin steps in all their glory lay ahead of us. We were expecting another run down city, but were surprised to find an amalgamation of Paris, Venice, Vienna before us. The charming tree lined streets were reminiscent of Paris, the Baroque and neo classic buildings reminiscent of Vienna and the colored stucco screamed Venice. All the buildings kind of look like giant wedding cakes. It was the size of a small city, certainly walkable and has many luxury stores and restaurants. Today it also had an arts and crafts market in its lovely park. Our tour took us to a fine arts museum which housed (to us unknown) Odessa artists who painted portraits and landcapes in impressionist styles. There were also some sculptures. They were absolute gems. We were all taken aback. What a worthwhile museum. It is certainly a great city to walk around and Doug and I did just that after lunch. We even walked down the entire Potemkin steps. All around the steps there are men who have small alligators, owls, and monkeys and put them on children or foolish adults in order to take your pictures with them for money. There are gypsies in the park, so you do have to watch your wallet. The streets are torn up and they are doing a lot of work on refurbishing the city, so it should be a gorgeous place in a few years time. Brides were everywhere today. We must have seen about 10.

Now, on to other important subject matters like food and fun! Lunch was great today...Boullabaisse and prime rib! Yum. Raspberries and cherries are still in abundance too. Tonight Ngaire had her cocktail party and some of us had dinner with the staff. Doug, Carol, Ralph, Mary Ellen, Jim and I had dinner with the Captain and it was a really fun evening. All of the LCT tables were pretty close together, so we all kept in close contact with one another around dinner time. A juggler was the entertainment. We were having so much fun, we missed most of his show, but what we caught was pretty good. Then, some of us met in the lounge.

There was so much to write about, that I didn't write about everything from our pre-cruise...so back to Istanbul a bit...I miswrote the name of our hotel..Sirkeci Konak hotel. As opposed to Fred and Pat's hotel, it included a lovely breakfast of meats, cheeses, hot quiche, potatoes, halava in two flavors, fruits, cereals, vegetables.

The hotel restaurant has an excellent fish restaurant which is located on the roof with great food, service and views and is called Neyzade Terrace Restaurant. Prices were reasonable.

Another good restaurant was a Turkish style restaurant walking distance from our hotel is called Pasazade.

Cappadocia is a lovely alternative to Istanbul, and we can recommend the Museum Cave Hotel, but not our room. While it was lovely and large and looked just like the picture on the website, it was damp and dark. Other rooms did not have this problem, so just make sure not to get Direkli Cave.

What about the Stars Lounge for afternoon poker or pooch?
Jim

Such wonderful sea mail!! We'll be in Istanbul in October so I'm keeping copies of all posts. Did any of you partake in a Turkish bath? If so, which one and how was it.

Also, very curious about Portofino -- rumor has it that there is no longer singing while you dine (if true, this is great for us -- not so great for those that enjoyed it).

Thank you for taking the time to post :app:

Right now we are on our final approach to Yalta where we have another day of private touring ahead.

In Constanta Brad and I signed up for the excursion to the historic citadel of Histria, billed as the "Pompeii of Romania", which is about an hour's bus ride from the port. First we were ushered into the museum on site housing many of the architectural finds from the Greek, Roman and Byzantium eras during which the site was occupied. Our guide translated the commentary of a museum worker there which was a bit tedious, even though the items on dispay were interesting and had English signs. Since our guide perceived the day to be extremely hot - actually it was warm, but not unpleasant - she only gave us about 10 minutes to walk through the site itself. On the way back to the ship we stopped at the Folk Museum displaying costumes, textiles, photos from the past and more.


Yesterday's stop, Odessa, was quite interesting. I always think that these former Soviet Union cities will be depressing, but while Odessa is a bit "crumbling", it has some European charm and a nice seaside location. Many cultures settled there so there is quite a mix of architecture, especially French & Italian. Quite a few buildings and promenades were under re-construction.

Fred set up our private touring and our guide there was terrific. We had a short, guided visit of the Literature Museum, again with a museum guide speaking and our guide translating. Then we were rushed out of there by the staff without getting to look at all the literature displays. No English translations anywhere so we wouldn't have really known what we were looking at, but I love museums like the British Library and would have liked a bit more time. We did buy a Ukranian deck of cards there, which will be unveiled at our next pooch game - unfortunately they only have 36 card decks so Ukranian pooch will be a modified version....

We visited two Orthodox churches, the Uspensky and Preobrazensky Cathedrals. They were really fascinating because there were small services, in one case a baptism, going on while we were there - one priest singing and swinging incense, no seats, everybody stands. Lots of icons and gold - the older ladies were especially interesting looking! Our guide told us that when she was a baby her mother had her baptised, but since her father was a member of the Communist party her mother had to spirit her out of town and have her secretly baptised and never told her father about it.

We also visited the Privoz market which was a slice of life, very crowded, full of people trying on clothes over their clothes, $5 plastic knock off purses, good looking fresh produce, disgusting looking hanging displays of dried fish etc. Our guide was quite relieved that nobody got lost or robbed! We had a lunch at a cute restaurant of typical Ukrainian food - stuffed cabbage rolls and a selection of perogi type dumplings that we all shared.

Travelcat - Fred & Pat went the other night and confirmed that there is no singing at Portofino's.

I haven't done this since TAP, but here goes my try to post some photos. These are all Pre-Cruise in Cappadocia, Turkey. If you look closely at the balloon photo, you can see brad & Leslie waving.









Doug

Stunning! Yep, saw Brad but couldn't find Leslie ;) Send more, we're hungry for photo's....a picture is worth...........

Great pictures and reports. Keep them coming!

Great photos Doug! We'd love to get back to Turkey one of these days. Your pre-cruise experience sounds fantastic. We spent 4 nights in a wonderful boutique hotel in the old part of Istanbul (Sultanahmet) with roof top restaurant with a fabulous view and our room had a large balcony. Unfortunately we didn't make it to Cappadocia so loved reading about it.

Jackie, when we were in Istanbul in April Tom and I both had a Turkish bath. It was definitely different than anything we had done before but after all was said and done I would do it again. After getting "scrubbed" and very clean, it all ended with a 30 minute massage which was the best part. Tom wasn't as crazy about the whole ordeal. Being that it is a Muslim country he had a man which he was not use to. He was a bit out of his element as here in the USA he always has a female masseuse.

Leslie and all, sounds like a really interesting and wonderful trip! I'm' enjoying logging in each day to read your seamail and look at the photos.

Doug, those are great pictures of Capaddocia. Glad you and Andy enjoyed celebrating your anniversary in such a wonderful part of the world. Thank you for posting them!

Marcie - Gary had the same reaction Tom did to the Turkish Bath. We didn't get the 30 minute massage afterwards. I'm never been so well scrubbed .. the bath attendant could surely dish out a skin exfoliation par excellence. There were a group of American women who were on some sort of team trip. The wooden clogs didn't exactly fit very well. One refused to wear her clogs & tried to walk on the slippery marble. WHAM! She fell backwards & hit her head. She was out of it for a few minutes. That killed any thoughts in my mind of abandoning the ill-fitting clogs.

Cheers, Anne

Gosh, every port has been so different. Woke up this morning to find more rain and what seemed to be mountains. The rain cleared up to expose extremely large mountains. It was absolutely stunning. The Ukraine is turning out to be quite a beautiful place. It is very green with high rugged Alp like mountains going down to the ocean.

There were 4 and 6 hour tours to select and I was of the mind to select the longest to get the most out of the area. I also wanted to really understand the Romanovs. I think I over did it a bit and palaced out. First we saw the Massandra Palace, designed after a French Chateau. It was a very beautiful place, with comfortably sized rooms. Sadly, not much of the furniture was original to the house. This house was originally commissioned by Tsar Alexander III and later used by Stalin as his summer Dacha. I kind of thought of a Dacha as a small place. On this trip, I learned they are palaces or mansions.

Next, we visited Livadia. The sun came up and gave us beautiful views of the palace buildings and extensive gardens overlooking the sea and the bay of Yalta.This was the Palace in which Stalin, Churchill, and FDR held the Yalta Conference, and met to re-draw the map of europe at the end of the war.


You can see the table where the Big Three and their staffs sat, and the English billiard room where the crucial documents were signed. Photographs taken in the palace at the time are displayed on the walls, and in the White Hall under glass there are original copies of Pravda dated 13th February 1945 reporting the outcome of the conference. The table was moved to the anteroom as the original summit room is sometimes used by the Ukrainian authorities for international summits.

FDR stayed here and much effort was made to see that he was comfortable,right down to ensuring that his bed was the right shade of blue,his favorite color. We then left the political arena and ventured upstairs to begin the Romanov discussion (as this tour was called the Romanovs and their Last Refuge(pronounced RoMANov. Sadly, most original artifacts have been lost. We were able to see their beautiful private apartments: Nikolai's private study including photos taken by the Tsar, a keen amateur photographer, the dining room, bedrooms and boudoir, the library - with a 1913 copy of the local society newspaper "Russkaya Riviera" - and poignantly, the classroom with a number of sketches by the Tsar's daughters, Tatiana, Olga, Maria and Anastasia.


The frequent presence of the imperial family at Livadia made Yalta made a very fashionable place to be, and the number of shops, theatres, sanatoria and hotels in the town increased rapidly. Alexander's acquisition and development of vineyards, and his purchase of the Massandra Palace as a second residence on the opposite side of Yalta from Livadia accentuated this effect still further.

We then moved on to the Stables for lunch. It consisted of water, red wine, salad, hot borscht (with potato, meat), and pork...though I asked for something else..and a fruit parfait for dessert. I was offered chicken instead of pork. I asked how it was prepared. Answer? A fajita. I said, "That's Russian?" Answer, "No, it's Mexican." I asked for something Russian and got a veal dish.

We then visited two other palaces in the afternoon. One was the Dubler Palace, the one from which the remaining Romanov's were rescued by the British Royal family by ship.

The second, was a moorish designed palace for a son of another Romanov, now used as a rehabilitation facility. It seems that several palaces, including Dubler, have now been turned into State run, rehabilitation facilities. When one is recovering from CV problems or respiratory issues, you are covered 100% for recovery at one of these lovely facilities. However, while physician care and surgical care are covered, the majority of prescription drugs are all out of pocket.

From there it was 3pm and we returned to the ship. What a long day! Doug and I freshened up and went back out to explore the lovely port town and teeny beach. There was some decent shopping to be had and it was a lively town with popcorn vendors, wine stores, caviar...

Then, we finally freshened up for dinner and enjoyed a lovely meal in Portofinos, the Italian restaurant. They began with a wine tasting and hors d'hoevres followed by a delicious multi-coursed meal of beef carpaccio, mini pizza, salad, pasta, choice of several entrees (I had ossobucco and Doug had swordfish) and then dessert). Then, we went to the show which was a local Yalta special and off for a nightcap and to chat with old and new friends.

Tomorrow ...Sevastopol

Great seamail - do you have John Barron as CD??? We have had JB several times and he is the best - hoping he'll be on Samba - if you have him tell him hello from Joanna and Tony -

Good to hear from you, Andi. The tour sounded interesting but long. Sounds like you and Doug made the most of it. Sure wish we were onboard. Maybe next time.