Monday September 30th, 2013 Odessa, Ukraine

Odessa, Ukraine, is a lot larger than Yalta - in fact it has ten times the population, and with its wide boulevards lined with large balconied building from the 19th and 20th centuries it feels like a big city. Odessa is also a busy commercial port, and this is reflected in the view of harbor from the ship…

The weather today was markedly colder than yesterday as we left the port, I noticed a sign that showed the temperature as 9C - and with the cold wind that was blowing it felt very cold indeed. No short pants today.

The location of the port, and the cruise terminal, is very convenient for access to the city. Once again, passports in hand, we transited the deserted passport control area and out onto a wide plaza that was in front of the famous Potemkin Steps; a busy road separates the steps from the plaza - but a pedestrian tunnel provides safe crossing.

In 1905 there was an uprising and mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin while it was in Odessa harbor and this event was immortalized in a classic old black and white silent movie. Many of the local citizens were massacred on the steps and so they were renamed Potemkin Steps (I've watched a good bit of the old movie and would not recommend it - I must have a different definition of "classic").

The steps are a major tourist attraction; there are 192 of them (steps that is) arranged mostly in flights of 20. In addition the steps are almost twice as wide at the bottom than at the top - creating the illusion, when viewed from the top, that the stairway has a constant width. The slope is quite mild, and we found the ascent to be quite easy; for those unable to manage the steps, there is a funicular railway immediately adjacent to the stairway.

The street across the top of the Potemkin Steps is called Prymorski Bulvar and on the right side consists of a beautiful tree-lined walkway. Sandra also spotted some high-end Ukrainian fashion on display…

We set off up a wide boulevard and headed for the famous Odessa Opera House (is everything "famous" in this town?) which was a brisk 10-minute walk away.

 The opera house is almost 100 years old and was built by Austrian architects in an impressive baroque style; we tried to go in, but it was closed on Mondays, as was the archeology museum - I guess Mondays are not the best for visiting Odessa.

Feeling the need to get in from the cold, we caved in and got some of the local Ukrainian currency so we could get a cup of coffee - no problems at the ATM machine, just select English and off you go.

Our string of luck with local cafes continued as we selected a place just down the street from the opera house, appropriately named Salieri's - I think he was Mozart's nemesis (have you noticed how no one seems to have a nemesis these days?).

Sufficiently recharged we set out again onto the frigid streets of Odessa where Sandra hit on the brilliant idea of watching where the guided groups of tourists were being taken. This led us to a great find, a small shopping arcade off the main City Garden area - it was an architectural gem, though on closer inspection we noticed several severe cracks in the buildings. In fact there is a bit of a "falling apart" feel to the whole of Odessa - and while there was some restoration work going on most of the older buildings were suffering from neglect, but in a quaint kind of way.

We found the people of Odessa to be very friendly - especially the lady in the trinket shop who invited Sandra behind the counter for a closer inspection of the goods!

I'll finish this entry with a few words on the remarkable maneuverability of this huge ship. I went up on the top deck to observe the Queen Elizabeth departing from Odessa harbor; I'd noticed that the exit from the harbor was especially tight, so I was curious to see how it was done.

In these first images the ship is facing forwards and I am looking over the port (left) side. In order to exit the harbor, the ship must proceed forward towards the topmost seawall and then make a sharp left turn to go out between the two piers. I'm happy to report that the maneuver was accomplished flawlessly; these images show the view of the left and right piers as we passed through.