Wednesday, May 22nd
We slept reasonably well until 5:30, then surprisingly we dozed until 8. We had a leisurely breakfast at our hotel, and were out before 10, heading through the main square (Rynok) in the middle of town.
You can climb the tower in City Hall (Ratusha). That seemed like too much work for our first hour here.
So instead, we started climbing up to Park High Castle. In retrospect, that sounds like work as well...
On the edge of town, one of the many churches we'd see in Lviv.
And the stone structure was called the Gunpowder Tower. More on that later.
We climbed gradually up steep streets until we entered the park, then more climbing around a spiral path which led to the summit. That was a good walk, but there were plenty of people jogging too.
The views were nice, as it wasn’t raining too much yet. The sun poked through the clouds now and then but the breeze kept it cool. We almost missed having our jackets but we weren't too uncomfortable. Still, different from the weather in Kyiv!
Back down to the town. This time, we skipped most of the long spiralling pathway up and took a staircase down. We had to be careful to watch out for those crazy joggers, though!
Next we stopped by the Gunpowder Tower which had modern architecture, and early 20th century history exhibits. The front entrance had some nice lion statues - the lion is the symbol for the city of Lviv.
An old fellow befriended us while we were inside the tower, and talked to Chris for a while; they had quite the chat in Ukrainian. He told us some stories, then of course asked for a tip, so we obliged.
We headed home for a bit to regroup – convenient that our hotel is close enough to allow for that. We passed by the King Danylo statue - he was a king in Galicia during the 1200s.
Then we decided it was lunch time! We have been taking it easy this trip and trying to stop and relax here and there. We'll see if we can keep that up. It took us a while to find the place we wanted, because it's not well-marked. You have to find a certain bakery, then go in and look for the stairs leading to the second floor, where the restaurant is located. It's called Nad Tsukerneyu. The bakery you have to find is called Cukiernia. Easy enough, if your tour guide can read Cyrillic...
But we persevered and were rewarded with a great lunch. Lunch began with delicious borsch, served in a martini-shaped glass, with great mushroom vushka. And lots of sour cream, of course! We are in Ukraine.
Then I had a rabbit cooked in a creamy mushroom sauce. Chris had a Galician schnitzel, where the meat was folded around a mushroom stuffing,then breaded and fried like Wiener Schnitzel.
All of the food went well with an Odesky Chorny wine. This grape varietal was developed near Odessa, a cross between a Garnacha hybrid and Cabernet Sauvignon.
We split a serving of cherry strudel for dessert. It was incredible, made with sour cherries, and really hit the spot. We even had a coffee afterwards, and then rolled out of there.
So civilized - this is kind of fun! Usually we're always on the move and don't have time for lunch breaks.
We headed over to the town hall next, and explored a little. This archer statue commemorates the first world archery championship, which was held here in Lviv in the 1930s. Didn't know that!
We decided to check out the tower climb. After all that food, we had to move a little more and try to burn at least a few of those calories.
Another statue of King Danylo to the left.
We found the tower and climbed it, of course. The green plateau is Park High Castle, where we were earlier this morning.
The Dominican Cathedral
Looking northward, towards the Lemberg Church AKA the Church of the Transfiguration.
This looks east, towards another memorial to Taras Shevchenko. More of that later.
The Lviv Latin Cathedral. So many churches! It's enough to wear you out.
After we had enjoyed the views, we were actually pretty tired. I guess it was a long climb up the tower? Or was it the bottle of wine we'd had with lunch, and that sweet dessert?
Either way, we headed back to the hotel for a short nap.
After recharging we went for a longer walk around the outskirts of town, to try to get the lay of the land.
We saw numerous statues and interesting buildings. This is Pototski Palace, now an art museum. We passed by and grabbed a coffee from a roadside kiosk instead.
There were many fountains along the street as well. Here are a few examples.
Further on, the Lonsky Prison where dissenters were kept during the Soviet Era. Luckily it was closed; we were not keen on visiting. The monument to the left is in honor of the victims of Communist crimes.
A monument to the composer, Mikhail Verbitsky
We wandered through the campus of Lviv Polytechnic University.
Looks like a multinational campus, with all of these different flags.
We stopped by for a look at St. George’s Catholic Church. Chris's Mother was baptized here.
The streets were blocked off around the church for construction, so we got disoriented and inadvertently got shoved off a different street than we'd wanted.
So we had a longer walk back to the town, ending up near the Opera. We rested by the fountain for a bit to muster up enough energy to walk home. It was a pretty place to rest, though.
We slowly made our way back to the hotel, past the Taras Shevchenko statue, by way of the park in the middle of Svobody Ave.
We rested our tired legs for a bit, then went for dinner at Kryivka. This was a pretty neat place - it's located in an underground series of rooms and passages, which used to be the headquarters for the Ukrainian underground resistance in the WWII era.
It took a minute to find, because the door is unmarked and looks very unassuming. To get in you have to find the right door, and give the password. The password is the world's worst-kept secret, but the location is a bit of a mystery. You have to walk into a building (hoping it's the right one) and look for this door:
So we knocked, and a guy in uniform carrying a gun answered. We gave him the password and the reply, and he greeted us with a shot of some liqueur. Challenge completed!
In we went, down to the underground, for a rustic meal of varenyky and sausage washed down with local beer and wine. The plates were thin metal and reminiscent of camping supplies.
Dessert, as if we needed it, involved more sour cherries. They called these "lazy varenyky" and once I ate them I understood why. Instead of painstakingly stuffing the dough with cherries, they served solid dumplings of dough with a cherry sauce. Tasty and simple to make.
After dinner we explored the complex a bit more. They have a lot of artifacts from the 1940s. Old radio equipment, banners, and uniforms.
Out back, in an atrium, they have motor vehicles and other things as well.
But this was tame compared to what's next.
You can climb four flights of stairs to the roof. Once you're there, you'll find an anti-aircraft gun! It looks like it's ready to use.
And it is not roped off or anything, so you're free to pose for pictures. So we did.
We finally headed back home around 10:30 for some more sleep.
 |
| Neptune Fountain - Rynok Square, Lviv |
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| Town Hall - Rynok Square, Lviv |
You can climb the tower in City Hall (Ratusha). That seemed like too much work for our first hour here.
So instead, we started climbing up to Park High Castle. In retrospect, that sounds like work as well...
 |
| Dormition Church and Korniakt Tower, Lviv |
On the edge of town, one of the many churches we'd see in Lviv.
And the stone structure was called the Gunpowder Tower. More on that later.
We climbed gradually up steep streets until we entered the park, then more climbing around a spiral path which led to the summit. That was a good walk, but there were plenty of people jogging too.
The views were nice, as it wasn’t raining too much yet. The sun poked through the clouds now and then but the breeze kept it cool. We almost missed having our jackets but we weren't too uncomfortable. Still, different from the weather in Kyiv!
Back down to the town. This time, we skipped most of the long spiralling pathway up and took a staircase down. We had to be careful to watch out for those crazy joggers, though!
Next we stopped by the Gunpowder Tower which had modern architecture, and early 20th century history exhibits. The front entrance had some nice lion statues - the lion is the symbol for the city of Lviv.
An old fellow befriended us while we were inside the tower, and talked to Chris for a while; they had quite the chat in Ukrainian. He told us some stories, then of course asked for a tip, so we obliged.
Then we decided it was lunch time! We have been taking it easy this trip and trying to stop and relax here and there. We'll see if we can keep that up. It took us a while to find the place we wanted, because it's not well-marked. You have to find a certain bakery, then go in and look for the stairs leading to the second floor, where the restaurant is located. It's called Nad Tsukerneyu. The bakery you have to find is called Cukiernia. Easy enough, if your tour guide can read Cyrillic...
 |
| Borsch with mushroom vushka |
But we persevered and were rewarded with a great lunch. Lunch began with delicious borsch, served in a martini-shaped glass, with great mushroom vushka. And lots of sour cream, of course! We are in Ukraine.
Then I had a rabbit cooked in a creamy mushroom sauce. Chris had a Galician schnitzel, where the meat was folded around a mushroom stuffing,then breaded and fried like Wiener Schnitzel.
All of the food went well with an Odesky Chorny wine. This grape varietal was developed near Odessa, a cross between a Garnacha hybrid and Cabernet Sauvignon.
 |
| Cherry Strudel - Lunch at Nad Tsukerneyu, Lviv |
We split a serving of cherry strudel for dessert. It was incredible, made with sour cherries, and really hit the spot. We even had a coffee afterwards, and then rolled out of there.
So civilized - this is kind of fun! Usually we're always on the move and don't have time for lunch breaks.
We headed over to the town hall next, and explored a little. This archer statue commemorates the first world archery championship, which was held here in Lviv in the 1930s. Didn't know that!
We decided to check out the tower climb. After all that food, we had to move a little more and try to burn at least a few of those calories.
Another statue of King Danylo to the left.
We found the tower and climbed it, of course. The green plateau is Park High Castle, where we were earlier this morning.
The Dominican Cathedral
Looking northward, towards the Lemberg Church AKA the Church of the Transfiguration.
This looks east, towards another memorial to Taras Shevchenko. More of that later.
The Lviv Latin Cathedral. So many churches! It's enough to wear you out.
After we had enjoyed the views, we were actually pretty tired. I guess it was a long climb up the tower? Or was it the bottle of wine we'd had with lunch, and that sweet dessert?
Either way, we headed back to the hotel for a short nap.
After recharging we went for a longer walk around the outskirts of town, to try to get the lay of the land.
We saw numerous statues and interesting buildings. This is Pototski Palace, now an art museum. We passed by and grabbed a coffee from a roadside kiosk instead.
There were many fountains along the street as well. Here are a few examples.
Further on, the Lonsky Prison where dissenters were kept during the Soviet Era. Luckily it was closed; we were not keen on visiting. The monument to the left is in honor of the victims of Communist crimes.
A monument to the composer, Mikhail Verbitsky
We wandered through the campus of Lviv Polytechnic University.
Looks like a multinational campus, with all of these different flags.
We stopped by for a look at St. George’s Catholic Church. Chris's Mother was baptized here.
The streets were blocked off around the church for construction, so we got disoriented and inadvertently got shoved off a different street than we'd wanted.So we had a longer walk back to the town, ending up near the Opera. We rested by the fountain for a bit to muster up enough energy to walk home. It was a pretty place to rest, though.
We slowly made our way back to the hotel, past the Taras Shevchenko statue, by way of the park in the middle of Svobody Ave.
We rested our tired legs for a bit, then went for dinner at Kryivka. This was a pretty neat place - it's located in an underground series of rooms and passages, which used to be the headquarters for the Ukrainian underground resistance in the WWII era.
It took a minute to find, because the door is unmarked and looks very unassuming. To get in you have to find the right door, and give the password. The password is the world's worst-kept secret, but the location is a bit of a mystery. You have to walk into a building (hoping it's the right one) and look for this door:
So we knocked, and a guy in uniform carrying a gun answered. We gave him the password and the reply, and he greeted us with a shot of some liqueur. Challenge completed!
In we went, down to the underground, for a rustic meal of varenyky and sausage washed down with local beer and wine. The plates were thin metal and reminiscent of camping supplies.
Dessert, as if we needed it, involved more sour cherries. They called these "lazy varenyky" and once I ate them I understood why. Instead of painstakingly stuffing the dough with cherries, they served solid dumplings of dough with a cherry sauce. Tasty and simple to make.
After dinner we explored the complex a bit more. They have a lot of artifacts from the 1940s. Old radio equipment, banners, and uniforms.
Out back, in an atrium, they have motor vehicles and other things as well.
But this was tame compared to what's next.
You can climb four flights of stairs to the roof. Once you're there, you'll find an anti-aircraft gun! It looks like it's ready to use.
And it is not roped off or anything, so you're free to pose for pictures. So we did.
We finally headed back home around 10:30 for some more sleep.
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