Mennonnite Heritage Cruise

The 11th Mennonite Heritage Cruise (Sold Out)
(also known as the Floating Mennonite University)
Odessa - Crimea - Kyiv
Late changes are indicated in red
September 29 to October 14, 2004
See note about post-cruise stopovers in Europe
See note about mid-October Vienna Opera
The Molochna Bicentennial will be featured on this cruise

The 11th Cruise September/October 2004					.October	.
26 Sunday	27 Monday	28 Tuesday	29 Wednesday	30 Thursday	1 Oct Friday	2 Saturday
. September	.	Passengers fly from North America	.Arrivals in Odessa	Odessa City tour, Mennonite Archive exhibit on ship, Evening folkloric event on the ship	Morning free in Odessa, Sail to Crimea at noon, Mennonite lectures begin wih an introduction to Crimea	Crimea Day 1 Arrival in Sevastopol with day trip to Yalta & Russian Riviera, Evening Black Sea Fleet Musical Revue
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Crimea Day 2 Bus trips to Mennonite villages or Crimean War Anniversary sites, including Balaklava, Special Evening concert event	Crimea Day 3 Morning tour of historic Sevastopol harbour and ruins of ancient Chersonesus; Ship sails in afternoon; more lectures	Kherson Visit to craft sale and picnic lunch at private dachas in Dnieper delta; more Mennonite lectures	Zaporizhia Day 1 All day bus and private trips to the Mennonite villages	Zaporizhia Day 2 All day bus and private trips to the Mennonite villages	Zaporizhia Day 3 visit Zaporizhia & Khortitsa-Rosenthal & Cossack open air equestrian show	Zaporizhia Day 4 All day bus and private trips to the Mennonite villages
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Zaporizhia Day 5 Molochna Day with joint worship service in Tokmak & special ceremony in Juschanlee; ship sails at night	Dnipropetrovsk City bus and walking tours to famous Mennonite urban sites; Academic Awards on the ship; Evening of sharing	Now heading straight to Kyiv to arrive in evening; Captain's Dinner, Closing excercises of the Floating Mennonite U; Horlytsa Folk Ensemble	Kyiv: Morning an-d afternoon city bus tours to historic sites including Babi Yar (holocaust); Evening performance by Boyan Male Choir	Kyiv Departures for Western Europe and North America

Ship's route - 2004 cruise - starting in Odessa and ending in Kyiv - map courtesy Kenneth Ratzlaff

Special sailing times of the Dnieper Princess for the Mennonite cruise
ODESSA dep.time 14:00 - Oct 1
SEVASTOPOL arr.time 09:00 - Oct 2
           dep.time 16:00 - Oct 4
KHERSON arr.time 12:00 - Oct 5
        dep.time 16:00 - Oct 5
ZAPOROZHYE arr.time 08:00 - Oct 6
              dep.time 22:00 - Oct 10
DNEPROPETROVSK arr.time 08:00 - Oct 11
               dep.time 14:00 - Oct 11
KYIV arr.time 21:30 - Oct 12

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 third time, the cruise starts in Odessa and ends in Kiev. We have added an extra day in Zaporozhye to celebrate the Molochna Bicentennial.

September 28
Flights from North America

September 29,30 Odessa
Lufthansa passengers take evening buses from Kiev to Odessa. 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 on the ship, 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 1,2 Sailing to Crimea
As we set sail the Mennonite historical lectures begin, given by senior historian Paul Toews and architect, Rudy Friesen.. A cruise choir is formed and rehearsals start in preparation for the joint Thanksgiving service in Molochna.

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.

While docked in Crimea, we will add an evening performance for the passengers of the wonderful "Golden Violin" theme recital by Calvin Dyck and Betty Suderman, performing in the same hall used by the Black Sea Fleet Ensemble. See Calvin's website

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).

Crimea is observing the 150th anniversary of the Crimean War this autumn. The first invasion forces landed 14 Sep. 2004 near Evpatoria and a decisive battle was fought on the river Alma (not far from Sevastopol) on 20 Sep. 2004. The Crimean War was a watershed for Russia and for Russian Mennonites, as historian Paul Toews will indicate in his Crimea lecture as we sail from Odessa. We will be offering special bus and walking tours of Crimean War sites, including Lord Raglan's lookout on Sepun Hill ("Charge of the Light Brigade") and the port of Balaklava where Florence Nightingale served in an historic nursing role.

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. We enjoy lunch at an open air restaurant at Yalta.

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 Zaporozhye guides and tour manager, who have joined the ship as it sailed from Odessa.

October 6-10 Zaporozhye
The heart of the Mennonite Heritage Cruise experience then finds us docked at Zaporozhye, formerly Alexandrovsk, for five days.

Our visit will conclude with “Molochna Day”, with the passengers joining Ukrainian Mennonites in a special Bicentennial Thanksgiving Service and related activities at several Molochna sites.

During our Zaporozhye stay, everyone sees famous Khortitsa-Rosenthal, now a suburb of Zaporozhye, including the oak tree, the Mädchenschule and other well known sites. From Zaporozhye 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. Overnight trips can also be arranged to a number of places.

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 spectacular Cossack Equestrian Show on the island of Chortitza.

October 11 Dnepropetrovsk - 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 (10,000 or more) 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. For many of us this is "Positive Ground Zero". 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 local 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.

Before we sail, there will be a special Academic Awards event on the ship, recognizing contemporary Ukrainian scholarship in Russian Mennonite Studies (the delightful recent irony of Mennonite rediscovery and study by Ukrainian scholars - there are more Ph.D's awarded in aspects of Mennonite Studies by the University of Dnepropetrovsk than in all other combined Universites in the world!).

As we sail up the Dnieper, we have an evening of sharing and singing.

October 12 On the River to Kiev
As we continue up the river, Alan Peters conducts a computer-assisted genealogical seminar. A schedule change: we now arrive in Kiev in the evening. We re-schedule the Captain's Dinner and closing excercises of the Floating Mennonite University to this date and end the evening, now docked, with a peformance on the ship by Ukraine's outstanding folk ensemble, Horlytsa.

October 13 Kiev
The voyage ends in Kiev 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 Kiev 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.
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Our cruise now concludes with a command performance by the internationally-acclaimed male voice chamber choir - "Boyan".

Betty Suderman and Calvin Dyck Black Sea Fleet Ensemble Boyan Male Chamber Choir

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October 14 Kiev - 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..

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 city centre. Walter has special hotel and cultural contacts in Germany, including Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig.

Mid-October opera in Vienna. The Vienna Staatsoper (State Theater) is one of the great opera companies of the world. The mid-October 2004 opera schedule is a delight:
15 Oct Fri Tosca - Puccini
16 Oct Sat Barber of Seville - Rossini
17 Oct Sun Magic Flute - Mozart
18 Oct Mon Don Carlos - Verdi
19 Oct Tue Magic Flute - Mozart
20 Oct Wed Tosca Puccini
for tickets via Internet:
http://www.culturall.com/

For further information contact
Marina Unger
Conference World Tours
1200 Sheppard Avenue East Suite 201
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M2K 2S5
1-800-387-1488 ext 2257
Fax (416) 221-5605
marinau@vision2000.ca
walterunger@ica.net

Please visit this page from time to time to learn more about scheduled events in Europe in mid to late October, 2004.
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.

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