A Little Rain, Mostly Sun and A Long Bike Ride...

Bikes left outside as we visited an open thatch roofed house.

We spent  today's sight-seeing outing at the Ukraine National Museum which is an outdoor site. As we arrived, we bought a map and observed long expanses of roads and buildings which have been brought in or built on a large acreage in a southern part of Kiev. The next thing we noticed was a bicycle rental area.  Our son was immediately interested.  The rest of us were a little wary but we all decided bikes would be a great help with all the walking that would be required to see and enjoy this property.  So off we went with pretty easy biking at the opening of our self guided tour.

Enjoying P,B & J sandwiches...

We stopped at a first grouping of homes where one was open.  It was a model of a country home from the 1960s.  From there we biked around a corner where we stopped to explore another structure which we thought may have been a large kiln.  We continued on the road to another grouping of thatch-roofed homes which looked interesting but as we arrived, so did a sudden downpour.  We saw a covered pavilion across from the homes and hurried under the roof there without getting too wet.  There we stayed with other visitors for at least an hour as the wind and rain came.  We had brought some sandwiches with us so decided it was time for our picnic.  The other folks were 4 adults and 6 children and they did the same.  It was spacious and restful so we weren't too worried about the delay.

In time, the rain let up and we headed across the road to the homes we had passed earlier.

These were Cossack homes and there we met a host of that complex of buildings.

They had a couple beautiful horses also.

Windmills in lots of places on the property.

 The rest of the pictures will have few explanations.  This museum had lots of buildings but very few were equipped with an interpreter and they were locked.  The signage was predominantly in Russian which son James could read and mostly understand so that was very helpful.

Stopped at this church which was locked.

 When we did find an interpreter, we stopped and looked inside but weren't able to learn much about what we were seeing.  It was quite self-explanatory, however, which I think you will agree.

The hostess at this home took our picture.

Another church...  Eastern Orthodox - all of the churches.

Water Mill...

 

Beautiful grounds...

Some pretty steep hills we walked up...

But loved sailing down from the top...

Late in the afternoon we arrived at a spot which had food.  We ordered and lingered over borsch, chicken, pork, bread, pickles, potatoes...  Delicious.

Another church stop which was open.

We ended our day at 5pm as the museum closed.  The man from whom we rented bikes called a taxi for us which took us back to the apartment.  It had rained on and off so a couple more times we had to head for shelter.  All in all it was a fun day.  We really enjoyed the beauty of the property and the quiet as most people stayed home apparently.

Now it's time for tea and cookies before we head to bed.  Last day here is tomorrow.  We are enjoying Kiev and very grateful to have our son with us who speaks and understands enough Russian to engage folks to help meet all of our needs.  More tomorrow