More on the Sevastopol trip

As you noticed on the flow of postings, today has been a full day excursion. We've seen the southern coast of Crimea, from Yalta to Sevastopol, and then the tartar village of Bakhchysaray.We are now on our way home and just passing Simferopol.
On our way to Sevastopol we passed the Gorbatjev summerhouse (hidden for tourists) and we also stopped by the absolutely fascinating artwork "The defence of Sevastopol 1854-1855" by Franz Alekseevich Roubaud. The combined three dimensional painting and model constitutes an absolutely fascinating panoramic view of the batlefield of the first day of this long battle.
This entire area is of course a mecka for war historians, and as we went on to see Sevastopol and its harbour it was easy to imagine the strategic possibilities of capturing this harbour with it's belonging fleet. Around Sevastopol are great mountains combined with wide open landscapes, a terrain built for bloodshed and heroic victories.
Apart from the violent history of the area it is also culturally and religiously interesting and should be a relevant example in xurrent swedish debate. Christians and muslims are living together in (at least seemingly) peaceful coexistance. This is more than just religion, the russians and the tartars are clearly two different peoples with different culture and traditions, but at the moment thease two groups, of christians and muslims respectivily, manage to handle their differencies in parliament. When I say peaceful, I should however remind the reader that historically it has not always been this way. In fact, the question of Crimeas bonds to Russia is open to public debate and we have spoken to Ukrainians here who feel quite strongly about the issue in different ways.
Anyway, after the warsights in Sevastopol we went to Bakhchysaray to visit the palace if the Khan.This wouldn't have been half as interesting without fresh memories of chineese architechture. I'd describe it as a miniature version of the forbidden city in Being, but with arabic scriptures on the walls and with minaretes and a small mosque integrated into the buildings.
And - to perfect this day of many cultures and moods - we saw the Uspensy monastry - a russian orthodox church which has climbed far up the hills. So did we, and made it just in time for service. We stayed for a few minutes, but I can guaratee I understood nothing of the ceremony apart from the fact that there was a lot of reading of the scriptures going on.
After this final attraction of the day, the afternoon was concluded by a tartar dinner (cheese-pie, or omelet) and (just now) a short walk in Sinferopol. I am sure the lot of us will sleep tight tonight.