Tuesday, May 21st
We planned to sleep late today, but someone was trying to get in our room at 7:15 which was disturbing. So we gave up and got up before 8:00. We relaxed, packed a little, then had breakfast.
After breakfast, we supplemented with some espressos from the nice coffee machine in our room while finishing up the packing. We checked out around 11:00, and confirmed our taxi to the airport for 4:45. Since we had lots of time, we decided to do a leisurely walking tour in our guidebook that went to a few parts of the city that we hadn’t seen yet.
So we started off at the Taras Shevchenko House. He is probably the most famous Ukrainian poet, eventually imprisoned by the Soviets and exiled from Ukraine due to the controversial nature of his writings.
He is considered one of, if not the, greatest contributor to the modern Ukrainian language and its literature. Lots of memorabilia in the house.
Then back to Maydan again. It seems that all roads lead here.
Piano played by the protestors during Maydan 2014
Indeed, this monument lists the distances to many international and Ukrainian cities. We paused over our next destination, Lviv.
More statues at the edge of Maydan
From Maydan, a meandering route up to a square in honor of Ivan Franko, another famous writer.
A statue of Mykola Yakovenko, an actor who played a role in the same movie that we saw the statue about yesterday - "For Two Hares." He played the father of the woman in the previous statue.
There is a drama theater along one side of the square
And Ivan Franko himself!
Up and down a few hills, enjoying the architecture. A great apartment building! Such a slanted foundation, though. It reminds me a bit of the buildings you'd seen in San Francisco.
Eventually we reached the Market at the end of Khreschatyk. The outdoor cafe looked nice but it was still early, and we still had places to go.
That was a fun place for a wander, but we didn’t buy anything.
We went back up yet another hill, and circled back towards Mariinsky Park for another visit, as we'd missed a few things there yesterday. The route took us past a fire station, where a monument honored those who had responded to the Chornobyl disaster.
On the way there were some interesting buildings.
This is called the "Weeping Widow House" because when it rains, the rain runs down the cheeks of the woman's face and it looks like she's crying.
A gothic building along Shovkovychna Bulvard.
Which was next door to the "Chocolate House." So named due to its color, not any kind of business associated with it.
That's disappointing! I might have gone in for some chocolate...
We approached a different part of Mariinsky Park from this route.
At the edge of the park, we saw the Parliament building.
And the palace again.
The viewing platform is empty today. No waiting helicopters. But the bonus was that we had the views to ourselves.
Now we took a different route through the park which led to a football (soccer) stadium. Sophisticated-looking lighting.
This is Dynamo Stadium. The team has been around since the 1920s though they were disbanded during some periods of foreign occupation. The team which participated in the "Death Match" that we'd learned about yesterday was made up of several players from Dynamo.
There is a gorge running though the park but instead of climbing down and up again, we found a bridge over it.
Much more efficient. The views were nicer too.
Other tourists were hamming it up at a very large frog statue.
Of course we needed to do that as well!
I didn't quite understand why a frog would have a nose and eyes within its mouth. Obviously people like to rub them for good luck.
We finally came to the Friendship Arch, built to commemorate the friendship between Russia and Ukraine.
The views from the platform were very nice.
Fewer trees to block your view. Just tourists.
Statues under the arch.
The area was under construction and I don’t think you were supposed to go there, but everyone else was, so we joined them.
Finally we completed our circuit, and descended out of the park towards Maydan. Here is the Dnieper Hotel where Chis thinks that she stayed last time. I like our Hyat better. So does she!
And that completed our walking tour. It was now 3:00, so time for a late lunch! We looked at a few restaurants and settled on a Georgian place just off Maydan, a few blocks from our hotel. The restaurant was called Гамарджоба Генацвале. I couldn't find an English equivalent.
Great food – the mushrooms in this appetizer are just swimming in delicious cheese
We also had meat-filled dumplings, with a nice spicy (but not hot) dipping sauce.
A yummy beef stew, served in a very pretty ceramic pot.
My main course was a juicy grilled pork steak with berry sauce. All went well with the house white and red wines. Total cost - $37. On the high end, but still dirt cheap for what you got.
Then one last crawl up the hill to the hotel. We finally got a picture of this memorial to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. He was part of the uprising which eventually drove Poland and Lithuania from Western Ukraine and establish a (short-lived) Cossack state.
Finally at the hotel, we grabbed our bags and waited in the lobby for just a few minutes.
The taxi to the airport wasn't too bad. Traffic was slow at first in the city, but we were here by 5:30.
It was a strange experience at check in. Even though we were flying business, and our bags were well under the weight limit, the agent insisted that we had to check them. Annoying, but no big deal, and it should be easier that way...assuming they don't lose them.
We found the Priority Pass lounge and settled in to await our flight. It was warm, but not too crowded, and a glass of chilled white wine helped pass the time. We left as boarding started, but our gate had changed and there was no business class line, just chaos. So that took a few minutes. No big deal as the gate led to a bus, so it doesn't pay to be first.
We boarded and of course there was lots of room for carry-on bags, but oh well. They served champagne before take off and gave us a dinner menu – we took off a few minutes late at 8:15 but they said ETA was 9:05, not too bad. Kyiv faded from view and thus ended part one of the trip.
I will miss Kyiv but we are really looking forward to Lviv!
A smooth flight with nice service.
And some nice late evening views coming in.
We landed as predicted and were at the luggage claim before 9:15, but bags were slow, so we weren’t out until about 9:30. Our driver still had us at the hotel before 10, as it was a short drive.
The hotel was pretty, in an old-world and charming kind of way. Check-in was efficient, and the room was very nice. That was a relief, as we didn't know much about the quality of the hotels here. Chris only has memories from 25 years ago which weren't great.
We thought about going out for dinner, but it had been a long and tiring day. After three busy days in Kyiv, averaging over 25,000 steps each, we were ready for a short break. Plus we had eaten a late lunch, and had a snack on the plane, so we weren't really hungry.
So we settled for a drink at our hotel’s rooftop lounge instead. We had a view of the tower of City Hall, but that was all for now.
Good night!
We planned to sleep late today, but someone was trying to get in our room at 7:15 which was disturbing. So we gave up and got up before 8:00. We relaxed, packed a little, then had breakfast.
After breakfast, we supplemented with some espressos from the nice coffee machine in our room while finishing up the packing. We checked out around 11:00, and confirmed our taxi to the airport for 4:45. Since we had lots of time, we decided to do a leisurely walking tour in our guidebook that went to a few parts of the city that we hadn’t seen yet.
So we started off at the Taras Shevchenko House. He is probably the most famous Ukrainian poet, eventually imprisoned by the Soviets and exiled from Ukraine due to the controversial nature of his writings.
He is considered one of, if not the, greatest contributor to the modern Ukrainian language and its literature. Lots of memorabilia in the house.
Then back to Maydan again. It seems that all roads lead here.
Piano played by the protestors during Maydan 2014
Indeed, this monument lists the distances to many international and Ukrainian cities. We paused over our next destination, Lviv.
More statues at the edge of Maydan
From Maydan, a meandering route up to a square in honor of Ivan Franko, another famous writer.
A statue of Mykola Yakovenko, an actor who played a role in the same movie that we saw the statue about yesterday - "For Two Hares." He played the father of the woman in the previous statue.
There is a drama theater along one side of the square
And Ivan Franko himself!
Up and down a few hills, enjoying the architecture. A great apartment building! Such a slanted foundation, though. It reminds me a bit of the buildings you'd seen in San Francisco.
Eventually we reached the Market at the end of Khreschatyk. The outdoor cafe looked nice but it was still early, and we still had places to go.
That was a fun place for a wander, but we didn’t buy anything.
 |
| Bessarabsky Rynok (Market), Kyiv |
We went back up yet another hill, and circled back towards Mariinsky Park for another visit, as we'd missed a few things there yesterday. The route took us past a fire station, where a monument honored those who had responded to the Chornobyl disaster.
On the way there were some interesting buildings.
This is called the "Weeping Widow House" because when it rains, the rain runs down the cheeks of the woman's face and it looks like she's crying.A gothic building along Shovkovychna Bulvard.
Which was next door to the "Chocolate House." So named due to its color, not any kind of business associated with it.
That's disappointing! I might have gone in for some chocolate...
We approached a different part of Mariinsky Park from this route.
At the edge of the park, we saw the Parliament building.
And the palace again.
The viewing platform is empty today. No waiting helicopters. But the bonus was that we had the views to ourselves.
Now we took a different route through the park which led to a football (soccer) stadium. Sophisticated-looking lighting.
This is Dynamo Stadium. The team has been around since the 1920s though they were disbanded during some periods of foreign occupation. The team which participated in the "Death Match" that we'd learned about yesterday was made up of several players from Dynamo.
There is a gorge running though the park but instead of climbing down and up again, we found a bridge over it.
Much more efficient. The views were nicer too.
Other tourists were hamming it up at a very large frog statue.
Of course we needed to do that as well!
I didn't quite understand why a frog would have a nose and eyes within its mouth. Obviously people like to rub them for good luck.
We finally came to the Friendship Arch, built to commemorate the friendship between Russia and Ukraine.
The views from the platform were very nice.
Fewer trees to block your view. Just tourists.
Statues under the arch.
The area was under construction and I don’t think you were supposed to go there, but everyone else was, so we joined them.
Finally we completed our circuit, and descended out of the park towards Maydan. Here is the Dnieper Hotel where Chis thinks that she stayed last time. I like our Hyat better. So does she!
And that completed our walking tour. It was now 3:00, so time for a late lunch! We looked at a few restaurants and settled on a Georgian place just off Maydan, a few blocks from our hotel. The restaurant was called Гамарджоба Генацвале. I couldn't find an English equivalent.
Great food – the mushrooms in this appetizer are just swimming in delicious cheese
We also had meat-filled dumplings, with a nice spicy (but not hot) dipping sauce.
A yummy beef stew, served in a very pretty ceramic pot.
My main course was a juicy grilled pork steak with berry sauce. All went well with the house white and red wines. Total cost - $37. On the high end, but still dirt cheap for what you got.
Then one last crawl up the hill to the hotel. We finally got a picture of this memorial to Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky. He was part of the uprising which eventually drove Poland and Lithuania from Western Ukraine and establish a (short-lived) Cossack state.
Finally at the hotel, we grabbed our bags and waited in the lobby for just a few minutes.
The taxi to the airport wasn't too bad. Traffic was slow at first in the city, but we were here by 5:30.
It was a strange experience at check in. Even though we were flying business, and our bags were well under the weight limit, the agent insisted that we had to check them. Annoying, but no big deal, and it should be easier that way...assuming they don't lose them.
We found the Priority Pass lounge and settled in to await our flight. It was warm, but not too crowded, and a glass of chilled white wine helped pass the time. We left as boarding started, but our gate had changed and there was no business class line, just chaos. So that took a few minutes. No big deal as the gate led to a bus, so it doesn't pay to be first.
We boarded and of course there was lots of room for carry-on bags, but oh well. They served champagne before take off and gave us a dinner menu – we took off a few minutes late at 8:15 but they said ETA was 9:05, not too bad. Kyiv faded from view and thus ended part one of the trip.I will miss Kyiv but we are really looking forward to Lviv!
A smooth flight with nice service.
And some nice late evening views coming in.
We landed as predicted and were at the luggage claim before 9:15, but bags were slow, so we weren’t out until about 9:30. Our driver still had us at the hotel before 10, as it was a short drive.
The hotel was pretty, in an old-world and charming kind of way. Check-in was efficient, and the room was very nice. That was a relief, as we didn't know much about the quality of the hotels here. Chris only has memories from 25 years ago which weren't great.
We thought about going out for dinner, but it had been a long and tiring day. After three busy days in Kyiv, averaging over 25,000 steps each, we were ready for a short break. Plus we had eaten a late lunch, and had a snack on the plane, so we weren't really hungry.
So we settled for a drink at our hotel’s rooftop lounge instead. We had a view of the tower of City Hall, but that was all for now.
Good night!
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