Day 1 - Lviv
After customs & passport formalities, you will be met
& transferred to the city center. Lviv
was founded as a hilltop fort in the mid-13th century by Danylo
Halytsky, prince of Galicia & Volyn, a former western principality
of Kievan Rus.
Lviv’s skyline of towers, spires & roofs against a
hilly backdrop exudes history. There are buildings in most of
the main Western styles from down the centuries: Gothic, Renaissance,
Baroque, Rococo & neoclassical.
Check in & dinner at the hotel.
Day 2 - Lviv
Breakfast at the hotel.
Your morning visit is to the French-chateau-style hilltop
castle at Olesk. The 17th to 18th century castle, built
on the site of an earlier 13th century fortress which was repeatedly
destroyed by Tatar attacks during the 15th century, was restored
in 1960-75. An 18th century former Capuchin church & monastery
stands opposite the castle hill. The castle houses a museum
of the 15th to 18th century Western Ukrainian & related
art & some archeological artefacts from the region. Particularly
interesting is the portrait gallery, which includes a huge 1692
canvas of the Battle of Vienna against the Turks in 1683.
After lunch continue to Opera & Ballet Theater,
numerous Catholic & Orthodox churches,
the oldest functioning Pharmacy-museum in the
city which occupies a 16th century building on the Market Sq.
For a sweeping 3600 panorama of the city, head to the High
Castle, the 14th century remains of a stone castle
that replaced the earlier 13th century wooden fort atop Castle
Hill.
Continue to the Museum of Ethnography, Arts & Crafts
The museum features an excellent collection of farm culture
& folk art from Western Ukraine, including embroidery, ethnic
dress, woodcarvings, ceramics & pysanky (painted eggs).
Dinner followed by transfer to the rail-station for your overnight
train to Kiev.
Day 3 - Kiev
Arrival transfer followed by breakfast.
Today’s tour includes the visit to the golden-domed Kiev-Pechersk
Lavra. The Caves Monastery was Kievan Rus’ first
& for a long time most famous monastery. It is a unique
array of gold-domed churches, underground labyrinths lined with
mummified monks, & elegant monastic buildings turned museums,
one of which has a hoard of Scythian gold to rival that of the
Hermitage.
After lunch continue to St. Sophia Cathedral & Monastery
with its magnificent frescoes & murals. It is the city’s
oldest standing church built in 1017-1031 in honour of Prince
Yaroslav’s victory over rival Pechenegs.
The day ends with dinner at the hotel.
Day 4 - Kiev
Breakfast at the hotel.
This morning tour takes you to the Ukrainian Museum
of Folk Architecture & Rural Life in Pirogovo.
Spread out over scenic rolling hills dotted with groves of trees
are a large number of quaint 17th to 20th century wooden cottages,
churches, farmsteads & windmills, many of them with manicured
flower & vegetable gardens & interiors furnished with
fascinating old textiles, traditional furniture & tools.
The museum is divided into seven small villages representing
the regional areas of Podolia, Carpathia, Polesia, Poltava,
Southern Ukraine, Sloboda Ukraine & the Central Dnipro River
Valley.
After lunch proceed to St. Andrew’s church
located at the northern end of the street & at the top of
the charming Andriyivsky uzvis. It is an inspired
1746-61 Baroque interpretation of the traditional Ukrainian
five-domed, cross-shaped church by Rastrelli. The slender curves
of its blue, white, gold & green exterior stand out against
the skyline, perched up above the Podil district at the crest
of the historic Upper Town, at the supposed site where the Apostle
Andrew erected a cross.
Dinner at local restaurant.
Day 5 - Kiev-Odessa
Breakfast at the hotel followed by departure for morning Kiev–Odessa
flight.
Panoramic city tour this morning includes Prymorsky
boulevard with its beautiful early 19th century buildings,
the shady promenade, the park tumbling towards the sea &
the sweep of the Potemkin Steps.
The 193 steps, built between 1837 & 1841, descend from a
statue of the Duc de Richelieu in a Roman Toga
about halfway along the boulevard.
Continue to Pushkin statue, a British
Tiger Gun, captured during the Crimean campaign &
the Palace of Vorontsov – built in 1826
in a classical style with surprising Arabic detailing on the
interior.
Odessa has an excellent collection of museums.
After the lunch you will visit Archeology museum
established in 1875. The highlight is the Gold Room, which has
jewelry & coins from early Black Sea civilizations, including
the 1st Slavic coins of St. Volodymyr. Russian & Ukrainian
art are covered in the Art Museum. Its maze of over 15 rooms
on 2 floors has treasures, which run from 15th century onwards
& includes works by Ayvazovsky & Repin.
The day ends with dinner at local restaurant
Day 6 - Odessa-Yalta
Breakfast at the hotel.
The sandstone on which Odessa stands is riddled with about 1000
km of tunnels, quarried out for building in the 19th century.
They have been used by smugglers, revolutionaries & WWII
partisans. Your morning tour includes visit to one of the network
of tunnels in Nerubayske, which sheltered a group of partisans
during WWII & now has been turned into the Museum
of Partisan Glory or Catacombs museum.
Transfer to rail station for overnight train to Simferopol
Day 7 - Yalta
Arrival in Simferopol followed by transfer to Yalta.
Your first visit this morning is to to Livadia Palace built in 1911 as a summer residence for Nicholas II in Italian Renaissance style with pretty Florentine & Arabic courtyards.
In February 1945 Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchil held their
Yalta Conference here.
Transfer to a fairy-tale Swallow’s Nest castle (1912) for lunch.
Afternoon visit to Alupka the most exotic palace-park
complex on the whole coast. Designed & built between 1828
& 1846 by English architects for the English-educated Count
Vorontsov the palace is a bizarre combination of Scottish castle
on its landward side, & Arabic fantasy facing the sea.
Dinner.
Day 8- Yalta– Sebastopol– Yalta
Breakfast
Two hours coach transfer brings you to Sebastopol.
Located on an inlet of the Black Sea, Sebastopol is today a
naval base & seaport with some 400 monuments & sites
of historical interest. For many with a particular interest
in the Crimean campaign the highlight of this tour is likely
to be the time spent at the Panorama Museum.
An evocative 360-degree painting merges into a relief model
vividly capturing the siege by the British, French & Turks
& defense of Sebastopol during 1854-55.
Lunch at local restaurant.
Lying near the entrance to the port of Sebastopol are the ruins
of Chersonesus, a Greek colony founded in 422BC.
Later it passed into Roman, Byzantine & Genoese control
& it was from here, considered to be the birthplace of the
Russian Orthodox Church, that the Christian faith began to spread
all over Ukraine. Some 40% of the 32 hectare site has been excavated
to reveal the old port area, the theater, the mint for copper
& silver & the site of the main square in the inland
part of the city, all of which we shall visit in the afternoon.
Next to the shoreline can be seen the homes & streets of
this once thriving community.
Farewell dinner at local restaurant.
Day 9 - Yalta
Breakfast at the hotel followed by check out & departure
transfer.
Price - $998 per person
