14th
Mennonite
Heritage Cruise in 2008
(also known as the Floating
Mennonite University)
Odessa - Crimea - Kyiv
September 28 to
October 14, 2008
Visit the download page to register
for this cruise
The Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page
for the 2008 cruise may be useful to prospective passengers
What people have said about this cruise. Well over 2,000
pilgrim passengers have participated
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The 14th
Cruise September/October 2008
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| 28 September Sunday |
29 Monday |
30 Tuesday |
1 October
Wednesday |
2
Thursday |
3
Friday
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4
Saturday
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.
Passengers
fly from North America |
.Arrivals
in Odessa
There will be an option to arrive on the ship a day earlier |
Odessa
city tour, Mennonite Archive exhibit onshore, Folkloric event on ship.
|
.Morning
free in Odessa, sail to Crimea at noon, Mennonite lectures begin after
a cruise opening event. |
Crimea
Day 1
Arrival in Sevastopol with day trip to Yalta & Russian Riviera,
evening Black Sea Fleet Revue |
Crimea
Day 2
Mennonite village bus excursions or tour of Crimean War
sites & Balaklava harbour |
Crimea
Day 3
Morning walking tours of Sevastopol naval sites plus visit to nearby
ancient Greek Chersonesus
Ship sails after noon |
5 Sunday
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6 Monday
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7 Wednesday
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8 Wednesday
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9 Thursday
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10 Friday
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11 Saturday
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On
the River
World Communion Sunday is observed on the ship.
Mennonite lectures continue with a rustic break - an island picnic
& crafts sale near Kherson
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Zaporizhia
Day 1
Long day of bus and private trips to former Mennonite villages
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Zaporizhia
Day 2
Long day of bus and
private trips to former Mennonite villages
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Zaporizhia
Day 4
A final long day of bus and private trips to former Mennonite
villages.
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Zaporizhia
Day 4
A leisurely day sees us all visiting historic Khortitsa-Rosenthal and a
Cossack equestrian show on Khortitsa Island. Ship sails 7 pm
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Dnipropetrovsk
Morning visit to urban Mennonite sites. An evening of sharing
Ship sails 11 pm
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On the river - Relaxing
We sail without stopping to Kyiv. Genealogy seminar & Evening
memorial service
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12 Sunday
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13 Monday
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14 Tuesday
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15 Wednesday
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16 Thursday
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17 Friday
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18 Saturday
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Kyiv Day 1
Arrive Kyiv 11 am
Half day city tour of old Kyiv & Baby Yar holocaust site
Captain's gala dinner |
Kyiv Day 2
Half day city visit including Pechersky Lavra monastery
Evening Boyan Male Choir performance |
Cruise ends in Kyiv
with morning and afternoon flights to Europe stopovers
or home |
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C
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Ship's route - 2008 cruise - starting in Odessa and
ending in Kyiv - map courtesy Kenneth Ratzlaff
The
cruise itinerary in narrative form
An old adage says: If you haven’t sailed the Dnieper, you haven’t seen
Ukraine. The Dnieper is Europe’s third longest river, after the Volga
and the Danube. It is the history of the nation immortalized in legend
and song. It is the cradle of the eastern Slavic cultures. Today it is
a cascade of five reservoirs and locks with asymmetrical banks, the
right bank often high and steep, the left bank low and plain. We also
sail the storied Black Sea to Crimea. For the fifth time, the cruise
starts in Odessa and ends in Kyiv.
September 28
Flights from North America
September 29,30 Odessa
Lufthansa passengers take afternoon into evening buses from Kyiv to
Odessa on the new freeway. Austrian
Airlines passengers fly directly into Odessa.
Odessa, known as the Pearl of the Black Sea has a decidedly
international feel to it, having been founded in 1794 in large part by
aristocratic emigres from the French Revolution. The wide boulevards,
distinguished mansions and lovely interior courtyards, which we see in
our city tour, give evidence of its former grandeur.
We visit the Regional History Museum as part of a city tour. We have
plenty of opportunities to climb the great Potemkin staircase, walk
around the city to shop for souvenirs. Before we sail for Crimea we see
a special exhibit from the Peter Braun archive, miraculously
rediscovered in 1990 & displayed for us onshore, along with the
Board of Guardians Collection. This is an excellent entry into the
Mennonite story, followed by an evening folkloric event on the ship
September Oct 1 Sailing to
Crimea
As we set sail the Mennonite historical lectures begin, given by senior
historian Paul Toews and architect, Rudy Friesen..
October 2,3,4 Crimea
We are docked for three days in historic Sevastopol, traditional home
of the Black Sea Fleet. We will see a command performance of the
virtuosic Russian Black Sea Fleet musicians, singers and dancers.
Our quay is conveniently located in the heart of the city, near an
amazing public food and clothing market. We are docked within twenty
minutes drive to one of the world's great panoramas - depicting a day
in the Crimea War (1854-56).
We are also close to the site the famous ancient Greek ruins of seaside
Chersonesus.
Crimea is a fascinating place with its varied geography and historical
sites. Most of the peninsula is flat, fertile. arable land, much
coveted by 19th century land-starved Mennonites from the Molotschna. We
visit the former Mennonite villages. These will likely include Spat,
Karassan, Annenfeld and Tschongrau.
Across the lower centre are ranges of foothills which culminate in a
dramatic range of seaside mountains, creating the "Russian Riviera".
Here are the fabled resort palaces of Greater Yalta, such as Count
Vorontsov’s Alupka Palace and the Romanov’s Livadia Palace, pebbled
Black Sea beaches, exotic semi-tropical gardens and historic cliff-side
houses of the famous, including playwright Anton Chekhov. Chekhov’s
house is of particular interest because it gives us a rare glimpse into
a modest sized dwelling of the late 19th century, in contrast to the
grand and ornate palaces.
Not far from where we are docked in Sevastopol lie the grand ruins of
Greek & Byzantine Chersonesus. Its 25 centuries are wonderfully
preserved, including the Roman and
Byzantine periods. From here Christianity spread to eastern Slavic
lands over a thousand years ago.
October 5 Kherson
We enter the fabled Dnieper river and make a stop at Kherson to enjoy a
delightful open air picnic at private dachas in the river delta. The
food and hospitality here are legendary. There is also a very
good local craft sale. As the ship continues upstream to Zaporozhye,
the Mennonite history lectures continue, refreshing our understanding
of the story of the Russian Mennonites. During spare moments on this
transition day, we will be finalizing choices of bus routes and private
trips to the Mennonite villages, with the help of the Zaporizhyia
guides
and tour manager, who have joined the ship as it sailed from Odessa.
October 6-9 Zaporizhia
The heart of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise experience then finds us
docked at Zaporizhia (also known as Zaporozhye and formerly
Alexandrovsk),
for four days.
During our Zaporizhia stay, everyone sees famous Khortitsa-Rosenthal,
now a suburb of Zaporizhia, including the oak tree, the
Mädchenschule and other well known sites.
From Zaporizhia we visit
the parent Khortitsa and Molochna colonies via bus routes reflecting
passenger requests. Individual trips can also be arranged to specific
villages and outlying daughter colonies such as Schlachtin-Baratov,
Fürstenland, Borozenko, Memrik, Sagradowka, etc.
The village excursions are often long and always eventful. Dinner on
the ship is served when the buses return. During our stay at
Zaporozhye we enjoy a virtuosic Cossack
Equestrian Show on the island of Khortitsa.
October 10 Dnipropetrovsk -
a day of important historical ironies
After a short overnight sail, we arrive at Dnepropetrovsk, formerly
Ekaterinoslav, an Imperial Russian centre well known to our Mennonite
ancestors. A walking tour of the old city centre reminds us of
the influence of entrepreneur and mayor, Johann Esau, politician
Hermann Bergman and other Mennonites in this region. We see the still
functioning Fast Mill and the ruined Red Cross Hospital where
many young Mennonite men and women trained for and
served in the
Sanitätsdienst (Medical Service) in World War I. Their work and
witness spawned many Mennonite relief projects globally. Around the
corner ironically are the
infamous
KGB dungeons where many Mennonites were later interrogated and
sentenced, often shot within days, in the Soviet era . We also see
sites associated with the anarchist, Nestor
Makhno, scourge of Mennonites during the confused Civil War of 1919. An
emotionally charged room in the regional
museum is devoted to the millions of people who perished under Stalin.
Representative photos of faces, including a Mennonite face, form a
candle-lit pyramid.
As we sail up the Dnieper, we have an evening of sharing and singing.
October 11 On the River to Kyiv
As we continue up the river non-stop to Kyiv, Alan Peters
conducts a
computer-assisted genealogical seminar. In the evening we invite
passengers
to a special Memorial Service on the ship - the lighting of candles in
memory of relatives and all who perished in the aftermath of the
Russian revolution and the Stalin inferno with its horrific gulag exile.
October 12, 13 Kyiv
The voyage ends in Kyiv with a population of over 3 million. It is one
of Europe's most famous cities with a rich 1400 year old history. We
visit Old Kyiv Hill strategically located above the Dnieper, St. Sofia,
a wonderful late medieval copy of the famous basilica in Byzantium, the
Jewish holocaust site at Babi Yar, plus the huge complex of monastic
buildings known as Pechersky Lavra. The cruise ends with two special
evening
events: the Captain's Gala Dinner which is also the concluding session
of the "Mennonite Floating University" and finally a command
performance at the University of Kyiv by Ukraine's outstanding Boyan
Male Voice Chamber Choir.
.
Black Sea Fleet
Ensemble in Sevastopol
Boyan Male Chamber
Choir in Kyiv
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October 14 Kyiv - flights
home or stopovers in Europe
Notes on Individual Arangements
We can help you with your individual travel needs.
.
A. Private Excursions in Ukraine.
In due time we will publish a bus schedule, reflecting passenger
requests for villages in the former Khortitsa, Molochna and Crimea
colonies.
These are included in the cruise price. We can also book private trips,
at modest extra cost, to more distant destinations within Ukraine such
as villages in the former Volhynia, Sagradowka, Fürstenland,
Borozenko,
Schlachtin-Baratov, Memrik & Ignatievo colonies or remote places in
Crimea. Please have a look at how we organized bus and private trips
for the 2007 cruise
B. North American connecting flights.
We use the best possible fares offered by scheduled airlines.
Note about post-cruise stopover options:
C. Transatlantic Flights & European Stopovers.
Our two major air carriers are Lufthansa and Austrian
Airlines for Canadian departures and Austrian Airlines for U.S.
departures. Lufthansa allows one free stopover in
Frankfurt pre-cruise or post-cruise. Austrian Airlines
allows one free stopover in Vienna post-cruise. Weekend surcharges and
restrictions may apply. Vienna is the cultural centre of central
Europe. In mid October the
concert and opera seasons are in full swing. There are wonderful
museums and art galleries. Marina has long standing contacts with a
family owned hotel in the historic Vienna city centre. Walter has
special hotel and cultural contacts in Germany, including Berlin,
Dresden (city centre recently and magically rebuilt) and the Bach city
of Leipzig.
Please visit this page from time to time to learn more about
scheduled events in Europe in mid to late October, 2008
You can also find out directly from Germany and Vienna on the web. The
recommended supplier of day tours from Vienna to Budapest, Prague, etc
is Royal Tours.
Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) has a very useful search
engine for European trains.
For further information contact
Marina Unger, Cruise Organizer: toll free 1-800-387-1488 ext
2827 or direct
office line 416-915-2827 e-mail:
marinau@vision2000.ca
Jane Clemens, Cruise Administrative Assistant: toll free
1-800-387-1488 ext 2243 or direct
office line 416-915-2243 e-mail: janec@vision2000.ca
for both Fax (416) 221-5605
Conference World Tours/Vision 2000
1200 Sheppard Avenue East Suite 201
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2K 2S5
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