Yalta, Ukraine July 6th, 2008

The last family portrait of the famous Romanoff Family. The small girl to the far right is Anastasia, the girl that for many years was thought to have survived their plight, murder.


Pictures of the conference.
The palaces are way up in the mountains from the coast. This was a view from Massandra down to the Black Sea.


A not so clear photo of the conference. The glass made it hard to get a good shot.
They gave FDR his own private office during the conference. This fabulous Venetian chandelier is in the room, so it was known as the Venetian room.
This is the actual room where the conference was held. Way big for the original small table don't you think?
Kathleen wanted one by herself, since she studied this conference in 6th grade with Mrs. Bliss!
Kathleen and Nicky standing in front of the famous round table where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill sat. It was not in this room but in the much larger room that we have pictures of as well. It was moved to accommodate later Russian leaders so they could hold conferences on a larger scale.
The plaque in marble written in Russian that basically says, this is where the Yalta Conference was held. Notice, they don't even have the hedge trimmed so visitors can see it! I had to go under the bush to get the picture.

Their dining room with the original china and crystal that the Czars used.




The Massandra Palace, completed in 1889 by Czar Alexander III.


Yalta!! Well known for it's part it played in WWII. The Yalta Conference. We toured the palaces where the Czars of Russia spent their summers as well as the Russian Dictators like Stalin did as well. They were beautiful. Small rooms, but lovely. Not air-conditioned but no need. The climate was cool on the mountain even on the hot day we were there.
The palace where Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill sat down to figure out the future of Europe was a privilege to see. Well preserved. Photos of the conference told the story. Something we did not know that we learned was that Stalin wanted this meeting but would not leave Russia to have it. The climate in Moscow was too bitter for FDR, so it looked bleak that the conference would be held. FDR had a savvy secretary that was very well read. She knew of the city of Yalta and that it had a very good climate for FDR. She saved the conference! FDR had to fly to MALTA, then by boat to YALTA then up the mountain. Looking at how we toured by nice coaches, thinking back to 1944, how in the world did a man in a wheelchair do all this?? Amazing when you think about it.

Odessa, Ukraine July 5th, 2008

Charles very happy to have made it up the stairs. Look at the high grass in the park. The real shame is, they have many parks but none of them are well taken care of. Weeds, high grass was everywhere in the green areas. A shame.
This was a giant bronze obese baby! People touch his toes and believe me there was a line, for fertility!
Stairs, stairs, stairs...the only way to get up into the city.
How many wedding can you go to in one afternoon???
I do love a good wedding!
Kathleen was starting to look a little Russian...where is her smile?
A public park where everyone seemed to be hanging out.
Another happy couple. Where is everyone else??
Lovely building.
Kathleen thought she should get in on the "luck". Health, happiness and money....let's hope so.
Nicky though he better get in on the money rub! No fool! It couldn't hurt!
NO smiles for the camera! Ice cream, vanilla thank goodness. If she is this unhappy on her wedding day...YIKES!!
When you don't know where you are going, any road you take will get you there!
The "love tree". We will celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary this month, so we figured a picture under the love tree would be appropriate for us as well!
Obviously the best man and maid of honor wear sashes!! Maybe somebody should give that a go in Birmingham!! It might set a new trend!!
Roses were everywhere.
This the the restaurant we stopped to people watch. Very nice and nobody there spoke English. We pointed to things and she brought us what we pointed at, that worked.
We woke up to thunder and lightening. Our walking tour was cancelled and it was music to our ears! We took our time getting ready and made a Welden Family tour of our own. This city when it was under communist control of Russia was the 4th most important city in all of the communist kingdom behind, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Warsaw, Poland. The city is like an old lady that still applies lipstick before she goes to bingo at the nursing home! There are MANY beautiful building but they are in all state of repair/disrepair. It looked like what you would read about in a Russian love story, fountains, parks, colorful buildings that sometimes looked candy stripped. Lots of history with statues of fallen soldiers, rulers, Czars, all over the place. They must believe in "luck". We were there on a Saturday. We "crashed" a few wedding parties and took pictures. We would see the brides and grooms walking from one park, statue to another for photos and to touch some of the statues. We figured out on one of them the statue must have been for health, money and babies as they all were clamoring to touch that one together. Then there was the "love tree". It was not very beautiful, but they all seemed to think it was important to have their picture made there, so we did too. We climbed about 10,000 stairs, trusted a Russian lady to take us to a money changer and then she dragged us to a not so great area and the kids were not happy with me but she seemed like a little old Aunt Gertrude, for those of you who know the type, and then in front of us was an OLD building but preserved on it was a fresco of the Blessed Virgin. All must have been hidden during the communism that existed for so long, but there it was and she was SO proud to show it to us. I guess she knew we were a Christian family wandering around in a place where Christianity is scare. She gave us a smile, and those aren't easy to get in this part of the world and she nodded and left us to continue our day. We really think this city will return to glory. It may take a billion dollars to get it there but they are trying.

Constanta, Romania July 4th, 2008

Does this ramp meet code? If you managed to get your wheelchair up to breakneck speeds and actually made it up this ramp, you would slam into the nice marble pillars waiting on the top step!
One of the most beautiful buildings we saw in the part of Romania we saw. It is a museum that houses the folk costumes of years gone by, even some wedding dresses. No photos here! Check out the handicap ramp just to the right of the bottom step.

Greek rocks. I think we should have started some sort of International class through UAB on rocks. By now we would all have a degree.
The triangle rocks in the front were used as weights on fishing nets sometime BC.
Rocks that they would let you touch!!
Cereals and SUNFLOWERS!!

Romania is not ready for American tourists. They had to stretch to put together a tour for us and as it turns out, we picked a tour that of course included ROCKS! If you ever read that Romans or Greeks have ever been through any given country/continent, you can bet that someone at some point has dug up their ruins and now they have some sort of museum dedicated to it! I say that the Romanians are not ready for American tourists because none of their ruins were behind thick glass or had laser protection from thieves! I felt like Nicky could have filled his backpack with some of those rocks from 2000 BC! He did not. He could not have afforded to pay for the luggage overage every airline now charges!! Met a small girl that spoke no English except Coca-Cola. She pointed to a barn that saw across a pasture. The kids were tired and thirsty. We walked over to the barn passing 3 men smoking one of those crazy looking pipes and I pushed a carpet that was hanging as a door, to the side and inside the barn was a cooler that at the top said Coca-Cola. It would be a perfect TV commercial for Coke. After showing the man my American dollars and my Euros, he chose the Euros and I paid 4 Euros for 5 Cokes and we all left and headed back to look at more rocks. The people there are friendly and try hard to understand you, although not many people spoke English at all. After talking more loudly and using hand motions, we decided that English wasn't going to get it. We all need to get classes in basic Romanian before we come back here! The ride from the ship was 43 miles to look at their rocks and then we came back to the town of Constanta. During the ride, we saw MILES of farm land. Cereal comes from this part of the world and I am sorry to say that I was wrong about Bulgarian sunflowers. Romania, or at least the area we were in, has miles and miles and miles of them. I have never thought about where sunflowers come from, but I would have to say, if there is a capital of sunflower growing, it would be here and they are some kind of beautiful!!!

Nessebur, Bulgaria July 3, 2008

She is not too sure about the American money!

Bulgaria. What can I say? Many OLD churches, some thousands of years old. We saw what seemed like all of them! We walked around this beach front town/village passing many cute shops, old people headed to the beach for the day, little kids excited to see the water, pizza by the slice but they would not take American dollars!! What does that say about our dollars?? Bulgaria is full of flowers. Flowers in pots on the street, flowers in window boxes of people's small cottages, flowers in the wild that old ladies pick to sell to visitors by the bundle. SUNFLOWERS for miles as we drove into the mountains to see a typical family farm. The sunflowers looked like waves in the ocean as they danced in the field. VERY beautiful. The people are poor. Their homes are nothing short of impoverished villages as we made our way through the countryside. The many years of communism left a terrible scar here. The people we met in the country looked like old people in Alabama that have been out in the sun too long. They are wrinkled like road maps, very leery of a dollar, desperate for visitors to buy their handmade socks and booties. Kathleen felt sorry for one lady and bought a pair of booties. They are pink and white and she says she is going to save them for her first baby girl! A sweet thought. Bulgarian booties!! We toured a small farm and watched a man make wool yarn from a pile of raw wool. We had a Bulgarian snack on top of the mountain. Cheese, tomatoes (whole), yogurt, bread, like think yeast rolls, crepes, peaces (whole), water, sodas and beer and wine (local) for those so inclined. We stayed with water this time as Bulgarian moonshine?? might be trouble. Had a very fun day. Did not know what to expect so I guess I was surprised. Surprised in that such a beautiful part of the world could still be so backward after having almost 20 years to climb out of communism. It will take a while. In the meantime, come look at the sunflowers, meet the people, and bring your dollars. They need them, even though they don't really know what to do with them!

Istanbul, Turkey July 1, 2008

Leaving Birmingham for a new adventure for sure. Our computer capacity has been bad, better now. The kids were happy to leave for a new area of the world The Black Sea!

The Turkish flag flying behind the kids!

A restaurant called self serve. The self serve meant you ent up to the butcher, fish guy etc.. and pointed to the meat you wanted.

Apple Juice Turkish style! It was obviously from green apples and not Nicky's favorite!

Something the Turks stole from the Egyptians!

Something the Turks stole from the Greeks!

Inside the Blue Mosque. The most famous in Istanbul.








Thought this was worhty of a shot. No sitting on the steps!!

St. Sophia's church is no a mosque. The castle like building is where the "crown jewels" are kept! NICE!
Kathleen and Nicky standing in Europe at the Palace with Asia in the background. A band played at the palace. Our big purchase! A new rug. You will have to come to Lake Martin to see it!

Black Sea Cruise and Baltic Sea Cruise July 2008

This was Greece, April 2008. We'll soon be back there!

Monday, June 30th, we leave for Istanbul, Turkey. We will spend one night there and then board the Regent ship named the "Navigator". We will cruise the Black Sea and then have one night in Athens, Greece before taking a flight to Copenhagen, Denmark. We will meet "old" World Cruise friends to celebrate our sweet friend Jay Silberman's birthday. He'll be 50!!!!

Tune in as we try some new things with our site. PODCASTS. They would be daily from wherever we might be. We are still learning, so bear with us as we try to get it right. In the meantime, keep up with our travels, through Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Crimea, Russia, Greece, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, St. Petersburg, Russia, Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden and then back to Alexander City, Alabama!!! We return July 26th late. Lots to see and do!! Keep up and let us know you are watching us!