Viking Lavrinenkov--Part 1

Author Message   Marv Feldman Senior Member Username: Marv Post Number: 486 Registered: 02-2005 Posted on Friday, September 22, 2006 - 11:41 am:    KIEV - 2 Our (overpriced!) hotel turned out to be far better than expected. While the room was typical of many tiny European hotel rooms, breakfast offered a huge buffet, providing everything from standard eggs and bacon (for those who eat that sort of thing) to fresh salads, rice and unlimited delicious smoked salmon. Now time to work off all that overconsumption! We set out on foot from our hotel to explore the city. What a beautiful and charming place it is - the architecture reminded Carole of some of the buildings in Paris. First stop was the magnificent Central Brodsky Synagogue, now run by the Chabad. Even though the Nazis and Russians tried to eliminate Jewish life here, we are pleased to report that it now flourishes and there are about 80,000 Jews living in Kiev alone. Further exploration in the neighbourhood revealed two nice Kosher restaurants and a prominent statue of Shalom Aleichem (on of Ukraine's native sons and whose characters inspired "Fiddler on the Roof") who lived here. Continuing our exploration, we walked down the city's main wide central boulevard, past Soviet style monoliths, statues to Lenin and the Great Patriotic War (WW II), modern shopping malls, and exquisite old buildings. On a perfect sunny Sunday, this street (turned into a pedestrian mall) was filled with families, cuddling couples, teenagers roller blading and carrying flags, competing rock bands, street vendors, beer drinkers and "entertainers" (with monkeys, hawks and even a snake - scaring Carole). Finally, we reached Independence Square, the site of the 2004 Orange Revolution which ousted a corrupt government. The return trip to by Kiev's subway (fare 10 cents) to retrieve our luggage from our hotel was an adventure in itself.   william k Intermediate Member Username: Ltcbosco Post Number: 16 Registered: 03-2006 Posted on Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 11:43 pm:    Marv--thanks for the reply--Im going to look into the cruise--any other helpful hints would be greatly appreciated-William--Happy Space A-ing   Marv Feldman Senior Member Username: Marv Post Number: 485 Registered: 02-2005 Posted on Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 09:00 am:    http://www.cruisecompete.com/itins/viking_lavrinenkov_cruises_deeahdj.html William, Here is a URL with all the details you wanted. Happy traveling, Marv   Marv Feldman Senior Member Username: Marv Post Number: 484 Registered: 02-2005 Posted on Sunday, September 17, 2006 - 08:55 am:    Upon arriving in Kiev and checking into our hotel, we were very pleasantly surprised to observe the beauty of this city. Marv expected a drab, Soviet style town, but it turned out to be quite the contrary. This city of nearly two million people has architecture which reminded Carole of Paris. First evening's meal was at a Georgian restaurant of interesting and tasty food in an elegant atmosphere for the princely sum of $US 35 for the two of us. Next morning, having caught up on our jet lag, we strolled the streets of Kiev, appreciating its cleanliness, beauty, charm and surprisingly modern facilities. This afternoon, we will check out of our hotel and board our ship for our cruise. We will report on that later. Happy traveling, Marv   william k Intermediate Member Username: Ltcbosco Post Number: 15 Registered: 03-2006 Posted on Saturday, September 16, 2006 - 05:17 pm:    Marv--what places did the boat stop at??Any interesting sights?How was the food-starchy and greasy??Did you book it in the States or in Europe? What type of travelers were on the boat-Slavic,Euro???How was the price range compared to the Danube lines in Germany--sorry about the questions,but the trip sounds interesting and something I may do in the future. Thanks WK   Phyllis DeLancey Senior Member Username: Phyllis Post Number: 1223 Registered: 06-2003 Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 11:31 am:    Marv, be sure to keep us posted. We will be off to Thailand in a week, so have your note in my bag to take.   Jenny Everett Intermediate Member Username: Rudidawg Post Number: 20 Registered: 07-2006 Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 11:26 am:    You'll have a wonderful time, and only have to unpack once! :-)   Marv Feldman Senior Member Username: Marv Post Number: 483 Registered: 02-2005 Posted on Friday, September 15, 2006 - 12:01 am:    A cruise? You have got to be kidding! On a tin can for weeks? Does not sound fun to me! Nevertheless, it was my wife, Carole's birthday and she always wanted to go on a cruise, so here we go! Our previous travels have almost been entirely "Space Available" on US military air to random destinations around the world. This would be a Great Adventure with a fixed itinerary, beginning and ending dates. Given Marv's offer, Carole honed in on a cruise to an area she had never visited and one where the historical aspect was paramount. Rather than the cruise, the destinations were of foremost importance. So, as we booked the last cabin on the "Viking Lavrinenkov" cruise in Ukraine, the itinerary came into focus. We both read and researched (on the internet and in books), learned the Cyrillic alphabet and a few polite expressions in Ukrainian (a language forbidden during the Soviet days). We even looked at "Google Earth" to plot our itinerary from Kiev, following the Dnieper River into the Black Sea and back to Kiev, stopping to get a "bird's eye view" of each town en route! ....more to follow....