Walking Kiev

 We spent late yesterday and all today walking  around the old town of Kiev. There is so much to see, we will leave things unexplored at the end of our 4 days.

Kiev is a beautiful city with stunning buildings and impressive monuments and churches.  We visited  Independence Square and the monument to Ukraine independence.  As  yet we haven't been to the earlier monument to celebrate the reunification of Russia and Ukraine. Around Independence Square are many stunning buildings, fountains and statues but with very few tourists other than Eastern European people.  To date we have yet to meet anyone who is fully fluent in English.  Our Ukrainian is improving.  We now know how to buy milk rather than pouring yoghurt and how to tell the difference between dry and sweet wine.

We visited St. Sophia's Cathedral, now a museum, built in the 11th century.  It fully deserves its World Heritage Status.  It is more than just a cathedral - it is an entire complex of buildings, all of which are museums.

The other impressive church is St Michael's which was destroyed in 1934 during the communist era and has been rebuilt between 1997 - 2000 and already looks a few hundred years old.  The golden domes are stunning.

We also visited the Golden Gate which is an old defence gate with a church built on top.  This gave us a great vantage point to view the city.

We have a wonderful, centrally located apartment.  We are adjacent to the Museum of Art and almost next door to the Japanese Embassy.

We plan to explore more of the city tomorrow.

If we keep up this pace, we will be back to our pre cruise weight in no time.

 The monument to Ukraine independence....hard to fit it all in.

 Gail at St Sophia's.

St Michael's.

 

 Yaraslav the Wise with Robert the invincible.

This is St Michael's.  An incredible sight and practically deserted.