Sunday, October 17

Sinop, Turkey.  Both yesterday leaving Trabzon and today leaving Sinop we were escorted by groups of small dolphins. Today’s sunset was one of the most spectacular we’ve seen. Since there wasn’t much photogenic about Sinop, here is the sunset.

Founded in the 7th century B.C. and believed to be the birthplace of Diogenes, Sinop is also said to derive its name from the Amazon Queen “Sinova.” It is the first place we have seen in the Black Sea that is built mostly on relatively flat land. Although the mountains aren’t far away.

Neither Jill nor I had a tour booked for today, plus it was actively raining this morning, so we did’t go ashore. Instead we opted for a leisurely fat breakfast down in the dining room, then spent the morning relaxing in various locales around the ship. In mid-morning the rain stopped and the sun came out which made sitting up on Lido Deck very pleasant.

Frankly, all these Black Sea ports have a similar look to them. Buildings very close together, more or less weathered-looking, narrow streets, mosques, churches, museums, nice parks, and parts of old city walls. (This photo is Sinop’s version of an old bastion with Byzantine, Roman and Greek elements.) Each one claims to be the terminus of the Silk and Spice Road. Each one is a popular resort area for its country. None are tourist-oriented as we tend to think of that in the U.S. Of course you could do a somewhat similar general description of the Caribbean islands by substituting sugar cane plantations and rum distilleries for some of the items above.

Monday, October 18

Sevastopol, Ukraine. Having determined that the tour I had originally booked for Sevastopol involved an inordinate amount of walking, I canceled it, and Jill and I simply went ashore and did some easy ambling and shopping in the area near the port. One thing we got was a very picturesque bottle of beer with which to toast our departure from our last Black Sea port.

Periodically during the day we watched the “dance of the buses” on the dock as they loaded and unloaded tours from the ship. I am still amazed at the maneuverability of tour buses and the skill of their drivers. While others buses are okay, my new favorites are those made by Mercedes-Benz. They tend to have a bit more leg room than the others, better handgrips to help you up the steps into them, and more comfortable seats.

Sevastopol is quite a large city on a relatively flat peninsula of land about in the middle of the northern shore of the Black Sea. Serving as backdrop in the distance are the Crimean Range and its foothills. The city was established in 1783 by Catherine II after Russia got control of the region. Thus it is somewhat of a johnny-come-lately among our ports of call on this cruise. But of course, there were older settlements in the area long before that oldest of which was a Greek colony called Chersonesus in the late 5th century B.C.

The parts of the city that we saw demonstrated just about every style of 20th century Russian and Soviet architecture. This photo shows the port building in a very typical mid-century style.

All the weather gods have been blessing us this whole trip...well, with the possible exception of the 105 degree temperature at the pyramids. At each port where there were clouds and sometimes rain, the skies have cleared for the duration of our tours. The same thing happened here at Sevastopol. Here’s hoping the rain gods are still on vacation as we head back towards the Mediterranean.