Ukraine Mission: September 2012

We arrived in Lviv on Aug. 20, 2012 and went first to the Hotel George. We soon found out that some of the rooms did not have bathrooms. Our room was small and we had to share the toilet and shower with others, so we upgraded to the room pictured below.

Here's Jay with Brother and Sister Hendrick at the check-in desk.

The main lobby of the Hotel George.

The first thing we did after getting settled in our Hotels was to go on a train tour of the city. From left to right: Sister and Brother Terry, Brother and Sister Hendrick and Marcia.

After touring the city of Lviv we climbed 430 steps to the top of the Ratusha Tower. This building is right in the center of Rynok Square, the main square of Lviv.

Here we are at the top. You can see the city below in the background.

This picture and the next three show Lviv from the top of the Ratusha Tower. You can see our Hotel on the left in this picture.

Here's Marcia in front of the Lviv Chocolate Factory. The pictures below show some of the candies made here.

Here you see the Ratusha Tower made of white chocolate.

On our second day in Lviv we took a tour of three Castles outside of Lviv. It was called the Golden Horseshoe Castle Tour. This is a Monastery by the first Castle.

A horse and buggy we saw on our way up to the Olesko Castle.

The first castle on the tour was the "Oleskij Castle". It was originally a fortress built in the 1300's.

A statue on the grounds of the Oleskij Castle.

In front of the main entrance of the Oleskij Castle. Left to right: Brother and Sister Hendrick, Marcia, our guide Zoryana Chura, and Brother and Sister Terry. Our guide was great and she gave us her email and phone number, so I gave it to the missionaries. She seemed interested in learning about our Church.

A set of original doors still in the Castle.

The Oleskij Castle contains a lot of art work from many village churches that were destroyed.

One of the carved beds in the Castle. On the left side of the headboard was a carving of a man and on the right side a carving of a woman, indicating the side they were to sleep on. Looks kind of small for two people to sleep in.

The church for the second Palace/Castle, Pidgoretskij.

Pidgoretskij Castle built in the 1600's. After WWII the Soviets turned it into a hospital for patients with Tuberculosis. The interior was later damaged by fire.

Another view of Pidgoretskij Castle.

Marcia, Brother and Sister Hendrick, Zoryana, Brother and Sister Terry in front of the Pidgoretskij Castle.

Entering the front gate of the Pidgoretskij Castle.

Inside the courtyard of the Castle. You can go downstairs through the arch under the stairway and see where the American TV show "Ghost Hunters" saw the ghost of the Castle. There was also a laboratory in the basement where the son of the owner liked to experiment with medicines.

This is the canon area that protected the third Castle we visited. It was the Zolochivskij Castle.

There were a lot of boy and girl scouts around the grounds of the Zolochivskij Castle. Here they must have been working on horsemanship merit badges.

Here they were playing with fire!

The Zolochivskij Castle consisted of the Chinese Palace, above, and the Big Palace, below. This Castle was built in the 1630's.

A scout tent on the front lawn of the Big Palace.

This rock had a hole in the middle. If you put your finger in the hole and make a wish while twisting your finger in the hole, your wish will come true. We'll see.

The Throne Room and Formal Dining Room of the Castle.

An interesting light fixture.

An interesting sculpture out of a tree trunk depicting the woman and man as one.

Marcia in front of the Chinese Palace.

Jay in front of a large painting depicting one of their early wars.

After the tour we went to a couple of band concerts in Lviv, that were in honor of their Independence Day, Aug. 24, 1991.

This little guy really got into it!

Here we are at the second concert in the main square of Lviv, Rynok Square.

One of the dancers with the band in her authentic Ukrainian Dress.

These two girls, selling suckers, reminded us of Southern Belles.

The Lviv Opera House. We were hoping we could see an Opera or Ballet, but none were playing.

The interior of the only Jewish Synagogue left in Lviv after WW11.

Brother and Sister Terry and Marcia in front of another of the many Orthodox Churches in Lviv.

Walking through Ivan Franko Park in Lviv.

Ivan Franko Lviv National University.

Statue of Ivan Franko at the entrance to the Park.

The next few pictures show dancers in the native costumes. We had dancers from Poland, Spain, Belrus, Ukraine and Turkey.

Jay set his camera on this tree stump, walked away and about 45 minutes later realized he didn't have it. We came back and it was still there, and a couple of Ukrainian fellows said "Don't worry, you're in Ukraine."