We left Odessa on the afternoon of September 19 for the Crimean Peninsula. This meant sailing all night on the Black Sea in our little riverboat. During the night we awoke during a serious (to me) storm causing the boat to rock, roll, shimmy and twist. During the Second World War, Crimea was in the hands of Russia and a major battle was fought there. Now there are memorials to the soldiers and sailors who fought the Germans. In about 1951, Stalin gave crimea back to the Ukraine and, with the Ukraine now an independent nation Russian no longer owns the peninsula. Pursuant to a treaty, the two nations each have a Black Sea fleet headquartered in Sevastopol. We saw both Russian and Ukrainian sailors there. The two nations are not friendly, but the locals say no problems exist between the sailors of the two nations. The treaty expires in a few years and will probably not be renewed requiring the Russians to leave.
The top photo shows our ship leaving Odessa; in the foreground are Carol and Meka (looking surprised at the jelly fish), and Kim and Wilf are in the background. The second one down shows German bullet holes in a very old Orthodox church. The third from the top shows a memorial located in Sevastopol honoring the Soviet soldiers and sailors who fought together; the memorial is a stylized bayonet and sail. The bottom photo, like the one above it, honors the two branches and shows a sailor and a soldier in warlike poses. (The man in the foreground, with his wife, is a retired U.S. nuclear submarine captain). Meka Voge and Romaine Romney are in the background. The Crimean peninsula remains a major naval area.
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