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| This and the next several pix are of Lviv, buildings, facades and street life. This part of the Ukraine is known as Galicia which at times has been independent or part of Poland, Hungary, Hapsburgh empire etc. It was clearly very prosperous for a long time during its history. |
We visit northern Ukraine on the way to Hungary from Russia. Better roads than the central route we took on the way east in April/May. We enjoyed it much more than the first time as we were able to wild camp several times in the knowledge that country is not full of robbers and highwaymen as some of the propogander would have us believe. We had wanted to stay in Kiev the capital but failed to fnd a hotel on the outskirts so we pushed on. Lviv in the west is a delightful place, cafe culture, lots of great restaurants, slightly Bohemian feel to it. On our last full day we had a run in with the police who got us for stopping the car in a no stopping zone. This was the pretext to threaten a 50 Euro fine. What they really wanted was a smaller sum to forget it. We got out of it by talking friendly gibberish and giving no indication at understanding what they wanted. They gave up in the end. As usual we failed to get the picutres in the right order, but most are of Lviv.
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| Lviv sleeping policeman |
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| A lot of central Lviv was a bit like Covent Garden with street artists and motionless human sculpters in gold paint. Mr Masoch the inventor of Masochism lived just round the corner - there is statue of him but we failed to get a pic. |
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| Northern Ukraine is a very religious on the sunday we were there we noticed crowds outside joining in the service unable to get in. There are new churches like this one everywhere, and many of the old ones being done up. |
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| Still plenty of roadside monumental art around, we should have more of it in UK! |
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| Spot the tab - Ukraine lorry park. They were free with toilet facilities, much much better than those we had in central Ukraine on the way out east |
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| One of the benefits of the European cup being held in Polnd/Ukrainethis last summer was the road infrastructure was improved. This brand new vehicle servicing ramp on thhe Kiev - Lviv highway was a real blessing and enabled Mike to check the transmission oil again in some comfort. It has been leaking ever since the Siberian universal joint change in June. Incidentally another UJ went in Ukraine which had to be replaced. |
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| Giant footballs like this were scattered all along the road between Kieev and Lviv - from the 2012 European cup |
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| We could see Kiev in the distance but we never got closer than the outskirts |
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| One of our main complaints about Russia was that the road signs were completely inadequate. So bad that for several towns we had to go through them 2-3 times to find the correct road out In Ukraine we found very good signing. |
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| Ukraine campsite beside a soya bean crop, we had wild boar tracks just outside the tab in the morning. |
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| Lviv opera house, the next several pictures are also Lviv scenes. |
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| The Carpathian mountains - we are going to come back here one day |
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| Carpathian village houses, churches and scenes. |
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| We buy lots more cep mushrooms (they were mostly full of maggots unfortunately) and blueberries. |
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| The hay harvestin the Carpathians (and all the way east to Siberia) is late in August and September. To assist drying in the short season the hay, often cut by hand with scythes, is heaped onto a wooden trellis and pole with branches. See bare tellis on left. |
