Monday 13th bought the same weather again. This is our last day in the Crimea - tonight we take the train to Odessa.
Finally, after much back-tracking and a number of hills we found our objective. A statue of this size is pretty difficult to hide and it was placed on top of a hill. The statue commemorates the role of the army and the navy in liberating Sevastopol in the Great Patriotic War. Is is visible from parts of the harbour - except where is is obscured by the large concrete Hero City Obelisk or by the large concrete unfinished apartment block.
Anna picked us up and we headed off. first to St Clement's Monastery, near Inkerman. You can see the site of teh Inkerman battle from outside the monasterery. The monastey itslelf is a small establishment with accomodation and a small church partly set into a limestone cliff face.
Next stop was the Khan's palace at Bakhchysaray, which was the paalce of the head of the Crimean Tartars and ruler of Crimea until Catherine II seized the area. The palace is an Islamic structure, largely of wood and stone. It resembles the more grand Islamic palaces of Turkey and Spain and with some similar features like ornate doors and fountains, a harem and open meeting rooms with intricate decoration, all set in a garden of roses and shade trees. We toured the palace.
Next stop was the nearby Uspensky (Assumption) Monastery. You approach by a rising path to reach the monastery set high into the cliffs. A small gold-domed church is built into the limestone. From here, you can get a good view of the narrow valley and the steep cliffs on either side.
This area is home to Crimean Tartars, who were expelled by Stalin in 1944 and allowed to return in the early 1990's. We had a late lunch at a Tartar restaurant, whcih proved very good, supported by some real fresh oprange juice and Crimean lemonade.
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| Monumental GPW sculpture |
As the day warmed up, we desided to have a stroll to walk off breakfast. This became more of a forced march, as we pressed ourselves uphill to find a sometimes visible monumental sculpture in the heat and humidity. Around us, Sevastopol shakily stirred to the working week - this was about 9.00 am, but there's not much hurry and no rush hour here.
Anna picked us up and we headed off. first to St Clement's Monastery, near Inkerman. You can see the site of teh Inkerman battle from outside the monasterery. The monastey itslelf is a small establishment with accomodation and a small church partly set into a limestone cliff face.
Next stop was the Khan's palace at Bakhchysaray, which was the paalce of the head of the Crimean Tartars and ruler of Crimea until Catherine II seized the area. The palace is an Islamic structure, largely of wood and stone. It resembles the more grand Islamic palaces of Turkey and Spain and with some similar features like ornate doors and fountains, a harem and open meeting rooms with intricate decoration, all set in a garden of roses and shade trees. We toured the palace.
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| Uspensky Monastery |
This area is home to Crimean Tartars, who were expelled by Stalin in 1944 and allowed to return in the early 1990's. We had a late lunch at a Tartar restaurant, whcih proved very good, supported by some real fresh oprange juice and Crimean lemonade.
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| Boarding our last train at Simferopol |
Next stop was Simferopol railway station. After a wait, our train arrived and we boarded for our last train trip. This was a very new first-class compartment, though it proved to the over-heated in the now familiar style. The countryside outside was flat agricultural land, generally sown with large fields of wheat. We had a final train meal ("we have meat, fish or chicken") in the restaurant car, with a Chardonnay of unknown origin, as the train rattled across Crimea.
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