We sailed overnight on Thursday
from Odessa towards Sevastopol and awoke in the morning
to find no land in sight. The distance between the
two ports was obviously greater than we thought, but
at least the Black Sea had been calm overnight, which
was a good thing...
Programme for 13th June 2008
Programme for 14th June 2008
During the morning we walked
all the way around deck three several times to get some
exercise. Later, we went for a drink in the Sky Bar.
Shortly after lunch, we
approached the Crimean port of Sevastopol, where we were
due to spend the rest of Friday and all of Saturday.
With a population of almost 400,000
and a highly developed fishing and shipping industry,
the town not only has a military significance, but
also a crucial economic function for the Crimea and
the Southern Ukraine. Being a major naval base, Sevastopol
used to be a closed town until only a short time ago.
Even the Crimea's inhabitants could only enter with
a permit. Even today, the town is not overrun by tourists
like other towns on the South Coast, because the entrance
to the main military base of the Black Sea fleet is
still partly limited today.
Below: The place where we
docked, which was a short stroll from the city centre.
Whilst in the town, we were due to do a couple of excursions;
one to Balaklava, the other to Bakhchisaray.
This page is devoted to the pictures in the immediate
vicinity of Sevastopol.
There are separate pages for our excursions to Balaklava
and Bakhchisaray.
We began our visit
with an escorted tour of the city. Our guide from
the ship, Masha
(seen on the left, with our Noble Caledonia tour manager
Sue), was delighted to be showing us her home town.
The Crimea
The Crimean peninsula is also known
as the "Pearl of the Black Sea coast".
Dry steppe in the north, dense forests and mountains
in the south and steep cliffs with flat beaches
in the west, characterise its unique landscape.
This is why the region was one of the Tsar's favourite
holiday destinations. However, the Crimea attracted
numerous others before the Tsar and there has never
been a time that it was dominated by only one people
or culture. It belonged partly to the Byzantine
Empire throughout the 9th century. In 1237 Mongols
invaded and gave the peninsula its name (meaning
"fortress" in the Mongolian language).
In 1475 the Turks conquered it and in 1783 it was
annexed by Russia. During World War II, the Crimea
was occupied by the Nazis for three years and was
the site of bloody battles. The Red Army liberated
the area in 1944 and suffered heavy casualties.
In February 1945 the Crimea became a focus of public
attention when Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met
there for the Yalta conference.
An early start to a weekend
of celebrations in the centre of town
Above: An evening at a local
theatre to see and hear the Black Sea Fleet performing;
it was colourful, vibrant and very entertaining.
The end of the first day
in Sevastopol, with another excellent meal, followed by
an early night.
The next morning, we went
on excursions to Balakalava and Bakhchisaray (see separate
pages for these).
En-route, we enjoyed some more sights in and around Sevastopol.
Geoff even had an opportunity
to do some train spotting!
We visited the Panorama
Museum of Sevastopol. One of the most notable events involving
the city is the Siege of Sevastopol (1854-1855) carried
out by the British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish troops
during the Crimean War, which lasted for 11 months. Despite
its efforts, the Russian army had to leave its stronghold
and evacuate over a pontoon bridge to the north shore of
the inlet. The Russians had to sink their entire fleet to
prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy and
at the same time to block the entrance of the Western ships
into the inlet. When the enemy troops entered Sevastopol,
they were faced with the ruins of a formerly glorious city.
A panorama of the siege created by Franz Roubaud and which
was restored after its destruction in 1942 is housed in
a specially constructed circular building in the city. It
portrays the situation in the height of the siege, on 18
June 1855.
The rest of the day was
spent in the city which, coincidentally (and luckily for
us), was celebrating its 225th birthday in style!
The climax of the city's
birthday celebrations was an excellent fireworks display.
The captain announced "two for the price of one"
champagne on the top deck of the ship!
It was a magical evening.
Rosemary
Charles & Dianne
Dianne chatting to Geoff
Honor & David
At the end of the
display, the ship sailed for our next destination,
Yalta, as the celebrations in Sevastopol continued.
