Too bad about the heat in Histria. We had an hour or more to tour the ruins, and it was great. Enhanced immensely by the wildlife, I might add, especially the nesting storks.

What great seamail we are getting! Thanks to all of your for your descriptive posts about your adventures! As port intensive as this cruise is, I'm not sure how you are finding the time!

Hi everyone: Cruise is going great. Wonderful group of people, good weather (other than two rainy looking mornings with lightening that blew over)and some great food. Enjoying pre-dinner get togethers and some die hards are staying up visiting afer dinner.

John Barron is such a great cruise director. He did trivia today and this is one talented man. He could easily be a stand up comic.

Big disappointment tonight, society night and no Dover Sole!! First time I have ever seen that. They substituted Halibut but they still have the Rack of Lamb. I guess I will survive. They had a veal chop a few nights ago that was out of this world so I will forgive and forget the lack of Dover Sole.

Ports of Call - Ken will post some pictures soon under these notes.

Nessebur - a couple of shots of the old town.






In Odessa on our last trip we took a taxi and saw the sights that way. This time we decided to simply walk the town and really look at all the gorgeous buildings. They have come a long way since we were here last and continue to improve the city and restore the buildings. Ken picture of the Opera House. A truly spectacular structure.



In Yalta. Since we had already done all the palaces on an earlier trip we walked the Marine Parkway where there was an old fashioned midway. The midway was complete with carnival stands to win stuffed animals with various games of skill. All the normal midway attractions. It was a beautiful weekend day and the place was full of the locals and probably Russian or Ukranian tourists. Parents, little children, the typical beautiful young women in their skin tight clothing with the highest heels you can imagine. How do they walk around on concrete in those heels? We really enjoyed the people watching.

Below is Ken's picture of one of the booths where you dress up and have your picture taken. I am sure if Anne and Gary were with us they would have done this in heartbeat. Absolutely GORGEOUS costumes and many different settings for the photographs. I have to admit I was tempted. Never seen anything that rivalled this before. The detail work on the gowns was incredible.



Had a nice day in Sevastapol on the "Fred and Pat" private touring excursion. I joined the normal suspects today and we visited the Panorama Museum, the Submarine Base and visited an outlook where you can see the Crimea battle fields where The Charge of the Light Brigade took place. My favorite was the Panorama Museum, I would consider this a MUST SEE when in Sevastapol. Ken will post some pictures. A circular painting depicting 5000 soliders that is lit entirely by natural light from mirrors that reflect light from the roof of the building onto the canvas. In front of the painting are objects that also depict the scene. Though the objects and the canvas never actually touch they blend in to the point you cannot tell where the objects end and the canvas begins. The result is a spectacular visual effect. You feel you are looking at scene that goes miles into the distance. Next post we will show pictures of this day.

Of course the boys loved the secret soviet submarine base and I found it interesting also.

Pooch is in full swing now with about 14 people playing. If everyone comes at the same time we will have to move out of our cabin into a lounge to have enough room to accomodate everyone.



A couple of shots from the BK Cocktail Party.



John and Christina from Hawaii



Mike, Bettye, Sue and Rusty posing with the Captain. Many of the LCT'ers have met these two couples but they do not post.

Tonight is the society party and are looking forward to dinner with Brad, Leslie, Andi, Doug, Sharon and Dick (signed up Sharon and Dick for LCT today). They have been on many escorted trips but never visited LCT before.

Have to get ready now so be back later. We are all so busy there is just no time. The spare time is taken up with POOCH

Greetings, dear SeaMail addicts -

We're at sea on our way from Sevastopol to Sochi, Russia. Our sailaway from Sevastopol was delightful, with bagpipe music being broadcast on the ship's loudspeakers, to the great amusement of the hundreds of Sevastopolians on shore.

The last couple of days have been great fun, with marvelous tours conducted by the lovely Anna for our little group of 8 (yesterday) and 10 (today). Yalta (yesterday) is a wonderful little resort city. The visits to Lividia Palace (well described above by Andi) and Vorontsov Palace were excellent. Seeing the site of the Yalta conference of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin was enormously interesting. Once again, we power-tourers finished our itinerary early and got back to the ship in time for lunch (and superb Italian cheese in Portofino - Leslie and I were in cheese-lovers heaven).

Today, it was a perfect tour of the highlights of Sevastopol - the Panorama (an incredible 360 degree gigantic painting of the seige of the city in 1854 during the Crimean War), a visit to the former nuclear submarine base at Balaclava (wow, shades of The Hunt for Red October), and a view over the valley where the Charge of the Light Brigade occurred. Once again, our lovely Anna provided us great commentary and managed to adapt well to our power-touring style. No shopping or other stops to just hang around. It is amazing to find 10 people who have very much the same touring style.

Yesterday in Yalta, Sharon and I hiked over to the wonderful market to spend a couple of hours admiring the beautiful displays of fresh fruit and vegetables, the not-so-beautiful (and disgustingly pungent)displays of fresh meat in the 90 degree heat, and the many, many purveyors of freshly-squeezed pomegranite juice. We bought some of the tasty juice, along with some nice flowers to bring back to our cabins. It only occured to me after I'd drunk about a quart of the juice that it was bottled in a used bottle of unknown-cleanliness origin. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know that I have gone on to that great pomegranite juice castle in the sky (or am in the infirmary getting intravenous fluids for my dysintery).

Generally speaking, trivia has not been a remarkable success for your esteemed fellow LCTers. I heard, although I have no independent confirmation, that an LCT team won yesterday, when almost everyone was off the ship. However, on Saturday and today (Monday, I think), none of the LCT teams came in better than second. Geez, who knew that the official wind speed for a hurricane is 73 mph?? Lordie, even a Prius can go that fast.

Yikes, time to change for dinner (the dress code goes into effect at 6:00 pm and they throw one overboard if one is still in cargo shorts and t-shirt - even the overpriced Regent t-shirt from the boutique - after 6:00).

No good scandal news yet, although one LCT couple had the good luck last night to join an open table (not LCTers) which included a "gentlemen" who was so totally blitzed that at one point he picked up his steak with his fingers. (We presume that the dining room staff prudently took away his steak knife for safety reasons.) The couple in question has resolved to "stick with their own kind", meaning LCTers or people they've had the chance to vet a bit. I plan to order steak tonight to see how it works to eat it without benefit of knife and fork. After all, it's proper etiquette to eat asparagus with one's fingers - why not a sirloin??!!

On that note of making Emily Post roll over in her grave, I will close for tonight, remaining your faithful (and appallingly gross) Boy on the Black Sea - Fred

Just had a chance to get caught up on this thread - and how wonderful it is to hear from you all! Sounds like a great time is being had by all - and the pictures are so beautiful - thank you, Doug and Ken!!!

Glad to hear from all of you. This sounds like a perfect cruise!

Fred & Leslie, Glad to hear the private tours all worked out with the port changes after our chats.

Greetings fellow LCT folks.

This has been a lovely and busy cruise. Today is the first time I have even touched a computer – it’s quite nice being unconnected occasionally.

I don’t have a great deal to add to the reports – we’ve been touring with Fred and he’s provided his usual colorful reporting and Andi, Leslie and Ngaire have filled in the rest. This is our first time on the Navigator and we are enjoying the ship – it’s like a mini Voyager with really excellent service.

I’ve posted some pictures for you all to enjoy.

Leslie and Brad on the Mother-in-Law’s bridge in Odessa


Brad with camera


Sharon and Dick in Odessa


Cadets in Odessa


The gang learning about Livadia Palace from the wondrous Anna, tour guide extraordinaire


The view from the Tsar’s private study at Livadia Palace


No sea mail posting from me would be complete without pictures of the local kitties
Kitten on a mission at Livadia


Guard cat – trying to sleep on the guard’s chair in the dining room at Vorontov Palace but all the silly tourists kept taking pictures


Mary Ellen

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

A few more photos to share
Fred with the waking lion at Vorontsov Palace


Swallow’s Nest Castle in Yalta


Dick making a wish this morning in Sevastopol


Leslie, Brad, Sharon and Ngaire at the monument to the scuttled ships of the Crimean War in Sevastopol


The panorama at Sevastopol – this turned out to be an unexpected delight. Ngaire has a nice description of it in her posting – if you are ever in Sevastopol you simply must spend the 30 minutes needed to visit this interesting museum.




Pat continues his videography at Balaclava



Leaving Sevastopol harbor this afternoon – these are monuments to the citizens who survived WWII here


The Crimea is quite beautiful – Yalta and Sevastapol have both been interesting ports with unusual sights to see and centuries of history. It is amazing to have walked in places where the last Romanovs lived…..where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin negotiated the post war world…to see where the Charge of the Light Brigade took place…to tour a former Russian submarine base.

On to Russia tomorrow.

Cheers,
Mary Ellen

I am so enjoying the seamail from CAVIAR. Wonderful photos and descriptions for you all. This cruise will be added to my overgrown list. Glad you are enjoying the Navigator. Do tell all to prepare for the Discovery Collection crowd! :hyper:

Wow, are you guys good. Between the commentaries and the pictures, I feel as if I am there with you. Just when I think I have been everywhere I have wanted to go, you LCT'rs start posting and I add someplace new on my list.

Andi and Doug.....Happy Belated Anniversary. 32 years is phenominal.
Lynn

The photos are fantastic as are the reports. Thanks to all for taking us along with you.

The photos are terrific - we haven't even looked at any of ours. The best time to get a computer is first thing in the morning since there are only 6-8 of them in the library on the Navigator, vs. that whole big room of them on the Voyager.

Yesterday's tour in Sevastopal totally exceeded my expectations. The Panorama Museum has been described well by others and was a positive surprise to all of us. The formerly secret sub base was creepily fascinating. It brought back memories of the air-raid drills in grade school in the 60's. I'm actually quite surprised they have opened it up as a museum. Our guide said she has talked to some men who worked there and they are still unwilling to say anything about there time there and what they did. We all felt that perhaps we should have brought along a geiger counter, especially after seeing one display of a worker in his haz-mat suit all lit up in red. An interesting juxtaposition at the site (or "military object" as it was defined) is the sight of the harbor filled with yachts when you emerge from underground - how things have changed (especially for the Russian mafia.)

Just a few notes this morning. Ken is still sleeping he certainly has been getting his rest this trip.

Yesterday at the Panorama Museum we had an interesting experience. The plan was to visit the restrooms before we left to visit the submarine base. None of us had any major need but when a bathroom is available you take advantage of the situation.

So we all trotted off down the path. We discovered that you needed to pay. No problem, we offered our wonderful US currency and got a very clear NO from the not so friendly female attendant. Who waved her own currency at us as if the US dollar was worthless. Of course what we were offering was worth more than her currency but no way would she take US currency. First time I have ever encountered this refusal to take US dollars.

The tour group from the ship all had "coupons" to use for the bathrooms. Never seen that before either. Little white coupons with WC written on them. They are serious about paying for their facilities here. NO ONE without a coupon or local currency.

So of course once we were told NO, we then decided we really NEEDED to use the facilities. However, our guide was off doing something so we kind of gave up and started back to the van.

Once we had decided to give up on the bathrooms Sharon went back to take a picture of the very unfriendly attendant. I am not sure the attendant was so happy with that picture.

However we hear a sweet voice calling us "Ngaire here is some money for the bathrooms" Andi to the rescue once again. We were very grateful to Andi so we all trotted back again.

Now Sharon was not so sure about entering into the realm where she took the offending picture assuming she would never return. The urge to purge was too great so protected by her fearless companions, she returned to the scene of the crime.

After all this fuss over the bathrooms we discovered once inside no "western toilets" all just the holes on the floor. Sharon cannot handle that at all. So after paying her fee and braving a face to face encounter with the attendant, she was unable to partake of the restrooms.

I wonder what would have happened had we asked the attendant for a "refund".

The attendant was just doing her job of course, but she sure was not the nicest person I have ever met! Overall it gave us a good laugh at the situation and yet another adventure for the memory bank of intersting moments in the world of travel.

Two years ago in Tunisia they would not take dollars - just euros. The first time we were there, mid 90's, they only wanted dollars. Conditions sure have changed.

Apparently, Ukraine toilet attendants no longer have to pass a personality test or read "How to Win Friends and Influence People."

Tessie the Toilet Terror .. another LCT legend is born. Nothing like a good laugh to start the day (which was certainly not funny at the time, I am sure). I feel for Sharon .. but appreciate her taking the documentation role seriously for the group memories album.

Thanks for the awesome reports. We will have to get Anna's contact details for CHAMPAGNE (Crimea, Hijinks And Mucho POOCHo Amidst Great New Explorations) - next year's return to the Black Sea.

Cheers, Anne

What an adventure! I wonder if they rate the toilets like they did in China? I expect that Zagat will soon be adding toilet ratings to their surveys. More pictures, please! ;)

Just a quickie for now...gorgeous weather in Socchi...(cha cha sound...corrected again)...We heard it rained cats and dogs yesterday, so we have really been lucky regarding weather. We were met with a band to mark our arrival in port.

This was a short stop, but it was supposed to have been a really long one. You couldn't get off the ship without a tour, so everyone was on a tour today.

A few notes for anyone doing this cruise. You want to be on the port side. It seems to be the better side. They also now offer "whisperers." These are great for the large tours. They are headpieces you wear and you can hear the guide so easily...no crowding around him/her to hear. Unfortunately, Regent purchased them and they didn't purchase enough for all tours. They really should as they truly improve the experience. They aren't allowed in Russia though. They were allowed in Crimea. If you are planning a private tour, 4 hours for up to 6 people through Regent is $800. This can come out cheaper than some of their tours, so you may want to consider putting together your own groups and custom designing your own tours and letting Regent know before getting on board.

Just some initial quick impressions...more depth later...Socchi is a small, modern city with a mix of post Stalin baroque, typical communist style prefabs and western style high rises. The mountains are 70 kilometers away. It is a hodge podge of styles more like a European city. Since it will be the site of the 2014 Olympics, the city will be undergoing trememdous change...a new passenger and cargo terminal will be built, a new international airport has been completed, and new construction is everywhere. All the roads are teeny and they will be completely redone. Traffic is now a disaster.

There were three ship tours offered...one to a forest, one to a tea plantation and one to Stalin's Daccha and to a health spa. We went to Stalin's Daccha and it was quite interesting. More later as I need to get ready for dinner and the sailaway...need a drink!!

Doug and I want to thank those of you who wished us a Happy Anniversary. We've been so enthralled with this trip and wanted to share I forgot to thank you.

Still loving the seamail. Thanks to all. It's the highlight to my morning (plus I'm late everywhere I go because I stopped here to read!). :D

Looking forward to more photos.

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.

Here are a few more photos from this amazing trip:

The spice market in Istanbul, where everything is for sale.often just in the next stall!



A tried flower stall merchant in the Taxim area of Istanbul



The candles in yet another beautiful Greek church.



A scene from the Yalta market. This stall has veggies..see Fred's post for detail on meats!



And culture? Of course!



Doug

Ngaire, the lion cub photo is so cute!! Quite a big "baby"!

Why is it that toilet (mis)adventures are so frequent always some of the funniest? I'll never forget my first "encounter" with the fancy japanese toilet at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. :eek:

I just love these pictures!! Ngaire, the cub pic is priceless and Ken just has the best photographic eye!

I promised more details on today before going to bed and here it is. Our trip to Sochi began with a walk on the promenade. Sochi real estate is becoming very expensive, with one square meter now going for approximately $10,000. Its claim to fame is that of a health resort.

So, our first visit was to the Matsesta spa. In 1902 Dr Podgurskiy started the development of the spa facilities at the Matsesta sulphur springs, which gained Sochi immense popularity because of the spa's curative powers. The springs are recommended for rheumatic heart diseases, polyarthritis, neuralgia and skin conditions. The treatment is usually every other day for 15 minutes for ten treatments. This area has a highly varied base of mineral waters – deposits of sulphide waters, iodine-bromide, chloride, hydrocarbonate, alkaline waters and curative silts. Because of the amount and variety of mineral waters, Sochi takes a leading place among the world’s balneological resorts. The deposit of hydrogen sulphide waters called ‘Matsesta’ makes has created Sochi as a major Russian health resort. Today Sochi’s spa resorts offer unique highly effective integrated methods of health treatments and health recreation. In fact, experts as late as 1998 have tested the air and feel it offers the perfect microclimate.

Many sanatoria and hotels were built in the second half of the 20th century, with modern architecture. During the Soviet era, they belonged to different large Soviet organizations that sent their employees to Sochi for vacations. Now all sanatoria are privatized. Many of them are partly renovated and receive visitors throughout the year.

We then moved on to visit Stalin’s dacha. This was interestingly linked to the sanatoria concept. The Central Committee decided that they needed to look over their party leaders’ health and set up a special medical department that included health resorts.

Stalin wasn’t in good health. He had respiratory issues, a withered hand and psychological issues…he was afraid of flying and running water. So, this was one of 5 dachas built for him and his family. Lots of miserable things happened at this dacha…including murder and the suicide of his second wife.

It is a gloomy green, colored to camouflage itself in with the green grove, which is how it got its name…Zelenaya Roscha “The Green Grove.” We were taken through his billiard room, cinema room, indoor swimming pool, private library. We were then given refreshments.

We had a charming tour guide who told us stories about being called in for questioning by the KGB and what it was like. All in all, another very interesting port.

Tonight, we had a great dinner with Kathy and Pete and Pat and Fred…many laughs. We then wandered over to another LCT table with Mary Ellen, Jim, Brad, Leslie, Carol and Ralph and closed the dining room as usual. Then, Mary Ellen, Jim, Fred, Pat, Doug and I went up on deck and watched the moon dance on the water, nightcaps in hand, before turning in for the night. Tomorrow is a long day in Turkey…

Thanks everyone for your wonderful reports and pictures - sure is a wonderful trip!!!

Such lovely pictures and interesting commentaries. I know it is an area I would love to visit!

Susan

Sounds like an amazing trip. The pictures are fabulous. Glad everyone is having a great time.

The pix and the SeaMail are wonderful. Thank you all!

Spectacular !!! My father is VERY jealous of everyone on this sailing. Dad was in US Navy intelligence and tracked subs from these ports.

Photos from Trabzon, Turkey:


St. Sophia Museum, Built in the 13th Century and Converted to a Mosque in the 16th Century.


Some Beautiful Ceilings inside St. Sophia's.




Taxi Shuttles Used by the Locals and Adventurous Tourists. About $2 per person.


Waiting for a Bus.


Any Fish You Wish.


Black Sea Sardines.

I loved these pictures and my favorite is Ngaire with the little cub. I'm so jealous!! You are visiting some amazing ports! Many of your ports are places we've never visited...hopefully some day. Happy John is your CD, he's GREAT so witty, talented and upbeat!!

Trabzon was today's port and we were met with absolutely beautiful weather. Leslie, Brad, Sharon, Dick, Mary Ellen, Jim, Fred, Pat, Doug and I all decided to take this Regent tour. Our tour guide told us that it usually rains and the Sumela Monestary we were going to see is usually shrouded in clouds, so we were in for a treat. Boy, were we in for a treat. This area of Turkey looks very much like the Eastern part of Switzerland near the Bodensea and is remarkedly beautiful. Hopefully, someone has captured it with a photo for you to see. In fact, the greens were so exquisite, it looked phoney. The buses dropped us off where we transferred to smaller vans. From there we trekked up to the monestary. It is not a tour for anyone who can't walk easily. It was about a 15-20 minute walk. The views were spectacular. Once there, we climbed some steep stairs into what a thought was the monestary to see an entire village below us. There were lookout points with mountain streams and waterfalls, all picture postcard lovely. We were given a tour of the village and vibrant frescoes before going back to the ship for lunch.

The afternoon's tour included the Ayasofya (Saint Sophia) church, which was constructed in the thirteenth century. The interiors are decorated with various frescoes. Next, I think we saw the either the Hatip or the Iskender Pasha Mosques, from the sixteenth century. We then ended the day with a visit to Ataturk's home, which was a cheerful mansion with well tended gardens. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to walk through the markets in town which looked like fun, but we certainly have had our share of history!

This trip certainly hasn't has much in the way of dull ports. We were busy from the time we docked until the time we sailed. There is just so much to see. This may be one of my favorite itineraries to date. I just wish there were more sea days.

Now, it's time for others to add some pics!!

At sea on the way from Trabzon, Turkey to the Bosphorus and on to Lesvos, Greece. We are scheduled to make it to the eastern end of the Bosphorus about sundown, which should give us a lovely view of Istanbul at night as we sail by.

Today in Trabzon was interesting. The morning's visit to the Sumela Monastery was excellent. It is built into the side of a mountain and looks like something from Tibet or "Lost Horizons". This afternoon, while Anne iced her knees to recover from the very steep downhill hike from the monastery to the bus (there were also little mini-vans available; but many of us did the hike instead), Jim and I went into town to visit the markets. After Istanbul, where everything is very tourist-oriented, it was remarkable to visit a huge market area where there was not a souvenir or postcard in sight. Everything there, from fruit & vegetables to fish to bread to cheese to shoes to hardware to the most garish wedding dresses we have ever seen, was strictly for the local people. It was a good insight into the "real" life of the people here, something we seldom see on tours.

By the way, Anne, my sign-off on this series of dopey posts is your "Boy on the Black Sea", not your "Black Sea Boy". The latter is far too readily capable of being shortened to "BS Boy", which would be universally applauded as spot-on accurate.

Tomorrow is, at last, a sea day - ahh, sleeping in (no need to get up early for another power tour), Bloody Mary's by the pool, lunch, G & T's by the pool, trivia, Caiprihas by the pool, cocktails at Galileo's before dinner with the LCT crew, forgetting the whole rest of the evening due to the aforementioned indulgences in strong spirits.

Last night at dinner, I forgot to try to eat my steak with my fingers, in keeping with the tradition set by the drunk guy a couple of nights ago. But since I was eating wienerschnitzel, which has a breading, it would not have been much messier than eating fried chicken with one's fingers and therefore wouldn't really have been an etiquette faux pas of sufficient enormity to bother posting about (or for you dangling preposition fanatics - of sufficient enormity about which to bother posting). Tonight, prime rib's on the menu. Now that should be something worthwhile to try eating with one's fingers.

Assuming I don't get chucked off the boat during dinner tonight for grotesque displays of unconventional table manners, I'll try to post again before we disembark in Athens. Much will depend upon my state of mind and body after the tour to the ouzo distillery on Lesvos.

Cheers, Your Boy on the Black Sea

Am absolutely loving every post and picture!! Thanks so much everyone!

And happy belated anniversary, Andi and Doug :hug:

Thank you for the terrific travel logs. We are going on the Black Sea cruise that departs on August 30th. Which ports would you take private tours compared to Regent tours? We are already signed up for the Regent tour to Bucharest. What ports are best to do on your own(walking)? If we do a private tour in Sochi do we need our own visa's. We had John Barron as Cruise Director in SA last Feb. He was great. We have never been on the Navigator before and after reading all the reviews are looking forward to the food. Maybe we should start some serious dieting right now.

In my opinion, you can do Bulgaria on your own. There really isn't much history that a tour guide gives you.

The Bucharest tour is a good Regent tour if you are into 12 hour tours.

All the Regent tours are very good. We did them all in every port. We have been told that Lesvos can be done on your own. We will be doing just that. You need to get a Visa for Sochi.

The only problem with Regent tours is that they are large. If you can round up 10 folks, you can do better by doing a private tour even through Regent or through some other high quality company that some other folks used.

I usually decide to do a private tour if there are a couple of tours and I want to do something from one tour and something from another tour and customizing a tour makes the most sense or if I can get a group together.

The Regent Trabzon tour is great. There really is no need to do a private tour, unless you decide you want to just do the monestary and be on your own at your own pace and be able to see the town or if you want a small group.

Yalta...all the Regent tours were good and there should be something to cover what you want to see...I don't think you need a private tour guide unless you want a small group.

We felt that the Regent Odessa Highlights tour and the Sevastopol Highlights tour were good overviews. There is no fluff...no major shopping stops, so the same rules apply as above.

With Sevastopol,there is so much to see, you may want to custom your trip to your interests, so a private trip may be warranted.

Sochi...I understand the Tea Plantation did not get rave reviews. I don't know anything about the Box tree Forest trip..The Dacha trip and the town overview were interesting but the mineral springs were dull. You might want to tailor your tour. You can also parasail there...

Hope that helps...

Such descriptive and informative seamail, and the photos! This sounds like a really special cruise. The itinerary definitely has moved high on my list. Thanks, all correspondents and photographers, for taking the time to "bring" us along!

Oh...news...I saw pictures of John Barron's baby, Luke. He is precious. He is now nine months old and I think he looks just like John. I'll see if I can get him to scan in a photo or two of Luke for me to post.

John sang tonight for us and so did our Asst cruise director who is a lovely girl with a fantastic voice. We really had a nice show tonight. I can't believe this cruise is almost over. At least we have a sea day tomorrow...finally!!!

Thank you so much for the seamail. Boy I wish we were there with you all. I would love to see the sub base and Stalin's Villa. Even more... to hold an Eagle or a lion cub.... Priceless! I am so envious!

Freddie, you and Ann are the best writers...especially when you write to each other!

Tell John "Hi" for all of us land-locked wanna be black sea cruisers.

My dearest Fred - I regret my dyslexia resulted in an inappropriate abbreviation. I have rectified the original post. You will, always and evermore, be my Boy in the Black Sea. Edgar Allen Poe could work with this, doncha think? Substitute "Boy in the Black Sea" for "Annabelle Lee?" It's got possibilities. Nonetheless, I am now secure in the knowledge next year I can be the cub reporter, Girl in the Black Swirl, and catch all of you up on what's new and different in the space of 14 months.

Thanks for all the great sea mail. Enjoy the well deserved day off tomorrow. I will crunch on a crustacean in your respective honors tonight. Tomorrow, it's a date with the Dalai Lama. This assumes Gary can drag me out of the house on time to make the lecture.

Cheers, Anne