Friday, May 24th
Today the forecast for Lviv was a rainy day. We were up as usual around 8:30 and had breakfast, then headed out to the town for a relaxing day.
Nothing major planned, so we ducked the raindrops and walked into the Latin Cathedral to watch the goings on for while. Service was going on so supposedly no pictures. Of course the massive tour group ignored that prohibition and clicked away, but when I took a cell phone shot, a cranky lady scolded me.
Suitably chastised, we went on to the next branch of the Ukrainian History Museum on the corner of Rynock Square.
That was interesting; the history of Western Ukraine is very different from that of Kiev and the East. More periods of independence, and some Polish, Lithuanian, and Austro-Hungarian rule here.
Chris had learned this years ago in Ukrainian School but it was a lot of new stuff for me.
After the museum there was a break in the rain. We walked North out of the old town, to the Armenian and Transfiguration Churches.
Inside the Armenian Church there were numerous interesting murals on the walls. This one is interesting for the part which is hard to see. There are ghostly figures, outlined between the pallbearers. Those who have come before?
We walked further north to Stari Rynok Square (The Old Marketplace) and sat in the park for a few minutes. Then on the way back towards Old Town, we passed through another more interesting square - Danyla Halytshkoho Square, but they call it "Coffee" Square."
Here stands a monument to Yuri-Franz Kulchytsky, a Ukrainian from this area whom they credit with opening the first coffee house in Vienna - "The House Under the Blue Bottle." The authenticity of this legend is somewhat questionable.
Coffee Square made us crave some coffee! Luckily there is a place on every corner. We stopped at Virmenka. Here, you can see the interesting process, where they steep the grounds in boiling water, while stirring the metal vessel in a container of hot sand for a minute or two.
It makes for a strong cup of coffee! And a bargain; each cup was less than $2. The cheaper versions of their coffee were $1 or less. Prices are crazy here.
We sat outside enjoying a break in the weather.
As we sipped our coffees, we noticed a few interesting things in this part of town.
A bronze statue of a man and a gas lamp, which marks the spot where there is a museum - about gas lamps!
There is a restaurant hidden here too. If you don't want to sit and take the time to eat, you can get some "Galician Alchemy" from this window. We didn't. The coffee was enough for now.
Back to the Old Town now for the Pharmacy Museum. This was bigger than the one in Kyiv, with several floors and a few more rooms.
The usual old-style pharmacy cabinets. You never know what you'll find lurking on these shelves.
A few controlled substances.
And some wine barrels in the basement. Looks like our kind of pharmacy!
The museum was on the far corner of Rynok Square, so it was directly across from our next stop, Bandinelli Palace. That is the last of the four branches of the History Museum, located in the old Post Office building. I gave you an exterior shot yesterday, so here's another picture of Rynok Square instead.
This is neat. The alleyway between this building and the next one was covered up, and a spiral staircase installed.
Seemingly random exhibits here. There was some very ornately carved wooden furniture, but the glare from the windows prevented any useful pictures of that. Also some ornately decorated rooms.
We wandered home after that to get ready for a nice lunch.
We decided on Baczewski, which was a fancy place we’d looked at for dinner. Some Odesky Chorny was in order, of course.
I started with a beet salad. Very imaginative! There was a thin layer of sliced beets rolled up around a bunch of finely chopped beets with sour cream and other seasonings. It was like a beet manicotti. Delicious, but filling.
The other "starter" was a meat platter. This was even bigger! The white slices on top are salo. Pure pork fat. And the glass cruet is filled with fresh horseradish. Yum!
We probably could have stopped there.
But we didn't, of course. I had some stuffed cabbage, with a mushroom gravy.
And some sausage for good measure!
There were varenyky too.
We saved a little room for dessert – “adult ice cream” with liqueur-soaked cherries. Then some more coffee.
There was a big group of kids and their mothers at the table next to us, and the kids were really funny. They kept looking at us like they were really curious about us, and squirming into our space for a closer look. I think they were all excited because it was the end of the school year.
They had a lot of energy! A little dance show.
It was a super meal. And the price was ridiculous. All of that food and wine, plus a glass of sparkling wine to start - for a total of $45. We could live like kings here, but if we ate like this every day, we wouldn't live for very long!
This schedule seems to work better for us in Lviv. Instead of waiting for dinner, we have a long relaxing lunch at an upscale restaurant, then a light evening snack at a more casual place. I guess you can do that when you're not running around all day.
Back to the hotel again to get ready for the opera, and we walked over early because the weather was nice. The fountains were going full-blast. It was a gorgeous afternoon.
We went in and grabbed a glass of prosecco, then found our seats.
Beautifully decorated ceiling! I had splurged for the first row of the mezzanine. The tickets were about $35 each. There were many cheaper options but we wanted to support the local economy, so we went for the expensive seats.
The performance of “Don Giovanni” was nice, and our view was perfect. Even though I couldn’t understand the Italian songs or the Ukrainian subtitles, Chris read the running dialogue on the marquee screen and kept me up to speed.
It finished a bit after 9 and we were still too stuffed from lunch to think about food. But it was still too early to head home on a Friday night.
So we went to another wine bar (The Green Plum) for nightcaps. More expensive than last night, ₴50 per glass and the pours were smaller. Still, less than $2 per glass!
So we tried their white, and then their red. The wine was marginally better than last night. Then, it was time to head home for bed.
Today the forecast for Lviv was a rainy day. We were up as usual around 8:30 and had breakfast, then headed out to the town for a relaxing day.
Nothing major planned, so we ducked the raindrops and walked into the Latin Cathedral to watch the goings on for while. Service was going on so supposedly no pictures. Of course the massive tour group ignored that prohibition and clicked away, but when I took a cell phone shot, a cranky lady scolded me.
 |
| The Keys to the City |
Suitably chastised, we went on to the next branch of the Ukrainian History Museum on the corner of Rynock Square.
 |
| Medieval Lviv, painting |
 |
| Coat of Arms, Lviv |
That was interesting; the history of Western Ukraine is very different from that of Kiev and the East. More periods of independence, and some Polish, Lithuanian, and Austro-Hungarian rule here.
 |
| An early Bible, translated into Ukrainian. Dated 1581 |
Chris had learned this years ago in Ukrainian School but it was a lot of new stuff for me.
After the museum there was a break in the rain. We walked North out of the old town, to the Armenian and Transfiguration Churches.
 |
| Armenian Cathedral of Lviv |
Inside the Armenian Church there were numerous interesting murals on the walls. This one is interesting for the part which is hard to see. There are ghostly figures, outlined between the pallbearers. Those who have come before?
 |
| Monument to Yuri-Franz Kulchytsky, Lviv |
We walked further north to Stari Rynok Square (The Old Marketplace) and sat in the park for a few minutes. Then on the way back towards Old Town, we passed through another more interesting square - Danyla Halytshkoho Square, but they call it "Coffee" Square."
Here stands a monument to Yuri-Franz Kulchytsky, a Ukrainian from this area whom they credit with opening the first coffee house in Vienna - "The House Under the Blue Bottle." The authenticity of this legend is somewhat questionable.
Coffee Square made us crave some coffee! Luckily there is a place on every corner. We stopped at Virmenka. Here, you can see the interesting process, where they steep the grounds in boiling water, while stirring the metal vessel in a container of hot sand for a minute or two.
It makes for a strong cup of coffee! And a bargain; each cup was less than $2. The cheaper versions of their coffee were $1 or less. Prices are crazy here.
We sat outside enjoying a break in the weather.
As we sipped our coffees, we noticed a few interesting things in this part of town.
A bronze statue of a man and a gas lamp, which marks the spot where there is a museum - about gas lamps!
There is a restaurant hidden here too. If you don't want to sit and take the time to eat, you can get some "Galician Alchemy" from this window. We didn't. The coffee was enough for now.
Back to the Old Town now for the Pharmacy Museum. This was bigger than the one in Kyiv, with several floors and a few more rooms.
The usual old-style pharmacy cabinets. You never know what you'll find lurking on these shelves.
A few controlled substances.
And some wine barrels in the basement. Looks like our kind of pharmacy!
The museum was on the far corner of Rynok Square, so it was directly across from our next stop, Bandinelli Palace. That is the last of the four branches of the History Museum, located in the old Post Office building. I gave you an exterior shot yesterday, so here's another picture of Rynok Square instead.
This is neat. The alleyway between this building and the next one was covered up, and a spiral staircase installed.
Seemingly random exhibits here. There was some very ornately carved wooden furniture, but the glare from the windows prevented any useful pictures of that. Also some ornately decorated rooms.
We wandered home after that to get ready for a nice lunch.We decided on Baczewski, which was a fancy place we’d looked at for dinner. Some Odesky Chorny was in order, of course.
I started with a beet salad. Very imaginative! There was a thin layer of sliced beets rolled up around a bunch of finely chopped beets with sour cream and other seasonings. It was like a beet manicotti. Delicious, but filling.
The other "starter" was a meat platter. This was even bigger! The white slices on top are salo. Pure pork fat. And the glass cruet is filled with fresh horseradish. Yum!
We probably could have stopped there.
But we didn't, of course. I had some stuffed cabbage, with a mushroom gravy.
And some sausage for good measure!
There were varenyky too.
We saved a little room for dessert – “adult ice cream” with liqueur-soaked cherries. Then some more coffee.
There was a big group of kids and their mothers at the table next to us, and the kids were really funny. They kept looking at us like they were really curious about us, and squirming into our space for a closer look. I think they were all excited because it was the end of the school year.
They had a lot of energy! A little dance show.
It was a super meal. And the price was ridiculous. All of that food and wine, plus a glass of sparkling wine to start - for a total of $45. We could live like kings here, but if we ate like this every day, we wouldn't live for very long!
This schedule seems to work better for us in Lviv. Instead of waiting for dinner, we have a long relaxing lunch at an upscale restaurant, then a light evening snack at a more casual place. I guess you can do that when you're not running around all day.
Back to the hotel again to get ready for the opera, and we walked over early because the weather was nice. The fountains were going full-blast. It was a gorgeous afternoon.
 |
| Lviv Opera House, main lobby |
We went in and grabbed a glass of prosecco, then found our seats.
Beautifully decorated ceiling! I had splurged for the first row of the mezzanine. The tickets were about $35 each. There were many cheaper options but we wanted to support the local economy, so we went for the expensive seats.
The performance of “Don Giovanni” was nice, and our view was perfect. Even though I couldn’t understand the Italian songs or the Ukrainian subtitles, Chris read the running dialogue on the marquee screen and kept me up to speed.
It finished a bit after 9 and we were still too stuffed from lunch to think about food. But it was still too early to head home on a Friday night.So we went to another wine bar (The Green Plum) for nightcaps. More expensive than last night, ₴50 per glass and the pours were smaller. Still, less than $2 per glass!
So we tried their white, and then their red. The wine was marginally better than last night. Then, it was time to head home for bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment