V

We first heard of Vinnitsya back in 1990 or so when we hosted two visitors from the former USSR. Officially they came as part of a "Peace Bridge" organized by a Princeton-based group. In fact, they were just along for the ride; to them it was a great chance that would all too soon be over to tour the world. They were both Engineers, one of ethnic Russian origin and they other of ethnic Ukrainian origin. As a house gift they gave us a book, which we still  have, but unfortunately is stored away with all our other things in New Jersey, that had many delightful pictures of Vinnitsya. In particular, a beautiful view of the Bug River stuck in Gerry's mind. 

Now, as we were going from Chernivtsi to Kiev and had to pass through, it seemed silly not to stop. But our introduction to the city was unlucky in a couple of ways. First of all, the weather was rainy and cool. Second, we had no information about hotels having no tourist guide as yet. And last but not least, Jan's Russian wasn't good enough yet to extract accurate information from helpful Ukrainians. As a result we ended up in a dump of a hotel, when there were certainly nicer places to be had. We did get to see the Bug River, but it didn't look nearly so pretty in the rain.

Church in Vinnitsya

Bright, clean, cafeteria, where we ate lunch

Bug River in the Rain

Street with the Hotel we didn't stay in

Grim Socialist Realist Statue