Traveling with the Jones

Jeff J · June 7, 2007

In Yalta, Ukraine, we booked Holland America’s 4 hour “Alupka Palace & Wine Tasting” tour. The tour buses were from the communist era with the name Intourist on the sides.

The first stop on our tour was the Alupka Palace (pronounced a-loop-ka). Built in 1823, the Palace was the residence of Count Vorontsov. As he spent his childhood in England as the son of a diplomat, he used an English architect to design the Palace. The northern facade is Tudor-medieval, while the southern facing is Moorish-style architecture.
Winston Churchill stayed at the Alupka Palace during the Yalta Conference.

The Terrace of Lions is a highlight of the gardens facing the Black Sea. There are six lions, each with different expressions. The sleeping lion was our favorite, and it supposedly caused Winston Churchill to say that it reminded him of politicians, “lazy”.

Next we headed to the nearby Alupka Wine Tasting Hall to taste Massandra wines. Massandra has been producing wine for 100 years. Due to the hot climate in this part of the Crimea, most of the wines are sweeter, in the style of sherry and port.

This was an in-depth and unique wine tasting. Each guest had a wooden tray in front of them, with 10 round circles carved in the tray. Each circle was numbered, and had a different glass of wine with biscuits on the end of the tray.

The host provided detailed information and history on each wine as we sampled them, starting with a cabernet, and then proceeding to Madeira, sherries, white and red Crimean ports, and a Muscat. Many had alcohol content between 16 and 19 percent.

Next, our bus made a photo stop above the Swallow’s Nest “Castle of Love” which clings to a 110 feet cliff over the Black Sea. Quite the sight! Many souvenir shops are in this area.

When our tour ended back by the ship, we decided to explore downtown Yalta and the beautiful waterfront promenade. Many Russians and Ukrainians were enjoying a day at the beach.

Jeff J · June 6, 2007

At the start of our cruise in New York, we had dinner near Wall Street. Our waitress, Olga, was from Russia and we asked her about Sochi. “The Miami Beach of Russia” was how she described it.

Then, while on the ship, CNN International aired frequent commercials promoting Sochi as a potential location for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

So we were quite curious about somewhere that could be described as “Miami Beach” and be a Winter Olympics destination.

Likely due to the fact that it was Holland America Line’s first call to Sochi, there was a brass band greeting the Prinsendam’s arrival. Many of us smiled when they played “Strangers in the Night” just as the port officials and Holland America representatives were about to greet.

This port requires a Russian Visa (tough and expensive to get prior to the cruise). However, similar to St. Petersburg, if you purchase a shore excursion, then you are covered by a blanket Visa. More than 700 guests were on tour during this visit.

We booked the “Stalin’s Summer Home” tour. Our guide, Yuri, was an English teacher at the local university and spoke excellent English.

Sochi, we learned, is only 10 miles from the Georgian border. It is a young city; only 160 years old with a population of 400,000. And its rocky beaches stretches almost 100 miles but it is only 15 miles inland to the foothills to the Caucasus Range, Europe’s highest mountains.

Sochi is under massive development and property prices are similar to Moscow. The beach front area is packed with high rise hotels, shops, bars, spas and casinos. We could se a similarity to Miami Beach or Las Vegas. Many Russians are buying second homes here.

But with the mountains so close, it is also a winter resort; Sochi is a finalist with Korea and Austria for the 2014 Olympics, to be determined in July.

Stalin’s dacha, or summer house, is called “The Green Grove” and is today a public hotel/spa called Zelenaya Roscha www.rosha-sochi.ru . It is painted dark green to match the forest and is supposedly in the original “secret formula” paint that has lasted since 1937. Here we saw the billiards room, and the movie room used as a office, complete with a wax figure of Stalin. We also had a sample of Stalin’s favorite Georgian wine.

Next, our tour headed to the Riviera Park. This park is filled with rides and other amusements for children. Many were disappointed that few vendors accepted dollars or euros, and the only ATM machine was broken. After free time here, our tour ended back at the ship.

Yuri, our guide, asked us if we wanted to talk further and we invited him for a beer. Unfortunately we learned that we could leave the port area – even with the guide – due to the visa issue but we did manage to have drink at a fancy restaurant inside the port area. Yuri wanted to practice his English with Americas as he has never been to the United States. He was curious to know what America’s think of Putin. This conversation was the most fun of our day.

Jeff J · June 4, 2007

The Prinsendam was scheduled for an extended stay in Istanbul from 8 am Monday morning to 1 am the next day. Many guests interpreted this too mean that we were staying to full days in Istanbul; it actually meant we stayed all day and evening with “all onboard at 12:30 am” before sailing away with a day at sea on Tuesday.

We hear that all 2008 Holland America itineraries that include Istanbul include an overnight which will be great, because more than one day is needed to explore this historic and exotic city.

Since it was our first visit, we booked HAL’s eight-hour “Best of Istanbul” tour, which included the Hippodrome, Blue Mosque, Haghia Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

We knew Istanbul was a large and chaotic city with 12 million people. We were surprised that most of the main attractions are concentrated in the same area.

Our tour visited the outdoor Hippodrome built between 203 and 330 AD for Emperor Constantine the Great, who wanted the city to be a second capital in the Roman Empire. Within the Hippodrome is the Egyptian Obelisque, created in Egypt 3500 years ago with Egyptian hieroglyphics. The obelisk was brought to Istanbul in 390 BC where it has stood for the last 1600 years.

Next we removed our shoes (the tour guide provided bags) and entered the Blue Mosque – the only mosque in Turkey with 6 minarets. More than 21,000 blue and green tiles cover the interior.

Shoes back on, we headed across a busy street to the Haghia Sophia, built as cathedral in 537 AD. It was converted to a mosque in 1453 and then turned into a museum in 1934, as it has detailed ancient Christian mosaics.

Our next stop was Topkapi Palace, home of the Ottoman sultans. Here we viewed the palace kitchens and porcelain collections and the 86 carat Spoon Makers Diamond.

Our tour included lunch at the restaurant within the Palace, consisting of salad, lamb, rice, cheese pie, and rice pudding. Our guide gave us several hours of free time here; unfortunately this tour doesn’t include the Harem section and there wasn’t enough to see to warrant several hours. There are only a few vendors in the Palace, and they only accept Turkish lira (very different that throughout most of Istanbul).

Back onto our bus, we drove to the Grand Bazaar, and were encouraged to attend a carpet demonstration before going to the Bazaar. Having experienced a previous Turkish carpet demonstration (everyone should see it once) we skipped this and headed up the street near the Grand Bazaar, which is lined with cafes, shops and even a Starbucks. As it was a hot day, a cold Efes beer hit the spot, followed by a stop at Starbucks to add to our city mug collection. The Grand Bazaar is a site to experience – for us, in small doses!

Back to the ship, we found an internet café near the ship. We wanted to go out in the evening, but found ourselves exhausted and ready for a quick Lido dinner.

Istanbul is definitely a magical city; we enjoyed viewing it from the ship after the sun set

Jeff J · June 3, 2007

Today was a well-timed day at sea to rest up for Istanbul on Monday! There were several new interesting additions to the usual shipboard activities, starting with a 10 am coffee chat with Captain Chris Turner and Cruise Director Trevor Millar. The captain talked about his background then took questions about the ship. Regarding the upcoming dry dock occurring in late Nov. & early Dec. 2007, the captain told us:

Most efforts will concentrate on the staterooms:
- Bathrooms to be refurbished with new tiling
- Walk-in closets to be retained, but with additional shelving to be added
Java Café and the Shops area will be refurbished.

We were very much impressed with the Captain’s candor.

The Captain then stayed in the Queens Lounge to personally call the “win a free cruise” bingo. (Bingo attendance increased to a full lounge.)

Another new presentation was a flower demonstration by Linda, the on-board florist from The Netherlands. While shy about her English skills, she is a master at floral creations and amazed the audience by creating several major floral arrangements for the ship during the presentation. She makes and maintains all flower arrangements on board, which are quite stunning.

In the after, the Food and Beverage department offered a “Highlights Demonstration” where they set up a series of tables to informally demonstrate various F&B skills by their resident experts. Martini making (by Aurora), origami using wire Champaign tops (by Pam), dinner napkin folding (by our dinner server Indra), towel animals and the like. The few kids aboard were entertained trying out the various skills (except the Martinis!!)

A nice surprise: our ship was close enough to Greek Isles that our European cell phone had service; I was able to call my brother Jon and wish him a happy birthday!

During late dinner, the ship entered the Dardanelles around 8 pm as we sailed towards Istanbul. While it was dark, we could see several of the lighted Gallipoli monuments from our dinner table.

Traveling with the Jones

Day 34: Yalta, Ukraine — Palaces, lazy lions and Massandra wine

Day 33: Sochi, Russia Strangers In the Night

Day 31: Istanbul, Turkey

Day 30: At sea between Katakolon, Greece and Istanbul