Sailing overnight from Kherson,
we passed through the lock at Kakhovka in the early
hours of the morning and awoke to dawn and power
lines across the Dnieper. The rest of the morning
cruise to Zaporozhye provided a contrast between
beautiful scenery, smoke-belching factories (euphemistically
referred to as "enterprises"), large,
bland, polluted towns, huge bridges, equally huge
dams and a thirty six metre high lock, just before
Zaporozhye, that was awe-inspiring.
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Programme for 19th June 2008 |
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At one
point a boat pulled up alongside the ship and some
people (vendors perhaps?)
attempted to board our ship. After sharp words
and noises from the bridge, they left! |
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Pictures taken from the
front of the ship as we entered the massive lock at Zaporozhye. |
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Below: Pictures taken from
the back of the ship as the lock gates closed slowly behind
us |
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Lunch was served as we bobbed
silently and gently upwards... |
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... until the scenery changed
completely at the top and we found ourselves in a giant
dam, with a statue of Lenin hailing us from the bank. |
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After passing through the
lock, we docked almost immediately in the city of Zaporozhye |
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Onto the coaches again
(same coaches and same drivers that we'd had at every port
so far!) and a stop at Lenin's statue. The one side of the
square is on the banks of the river with good views, the
other side (above) marks the start of Lenin Prospekt, which,
it is claimed, holds the record for the longest avenue in
Europe (11 kms). |
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We then drove for about
3kms along Lenin Avenue. It was fairly typical of the other
Ukranian cities we had seen and we only got a couple of
pictures through the coach window, one being a statue of
the composer, Mikhail Glinka (below).
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After seeing the highlights
of the city, we drove across to the island of Khortitsa,
where our first stop was at a Cossack museum. It could have
been interesting, but the guided tour was rather slow. The
local guide gave lengthy explanations of every exhibit in
Ukrainian which then needed translation by our guide. We
weren't the only ones to fast-track our way through the
museum and head for the exit!
Our next stop was also on the island, a thirty minute drive
from the museum. Another disappointment, unfortunately.
The venue was pleasant enough, but the "Cossacks"
were part of a performing group that, whilst mildly entertaining,
didn't do it for us, although most others seemed to enjoy
it. |
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We arrived back at the ship
at 7.30pm and departed almost immediately.
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