Dnieper River

Sailing on the Dnieper River. Relaxing is the one word that can describe this day. We started with breakfast with a lovely couple from New Jersey. Eileen and Jerry were retired and had been on several Viking Cruises. She said she had no desire to go to Ukraine but her travel agent called and said "Eileen, wanna go to the Ukraine, and I said sure!". After reading books on the top deck we were lucky to have lunch with another great couple from New York. Elaine and Tom were fascinating. She was a Holocaust survivor that was taken by the kinder transport to England as a small child. They have twin grandsons (and older granddaughters). But she recently started telling her story to her grandsons high school class and was very proud. Tom was from Baghdad, Iraq and studied in Istanbul Turkey finished up a Masters at Michigan in engineering. Good people.

After lunch we tried to watch Cranes Are Flying (a Ukraine film presented in English from the 50's). It quickly turned into a delicious nap. Dinner that night included meeting another great couple. Hill and Heather Browning from Cleveland, Ohio. They had attended Patrick Sartor and Carter Wood's wedding because she is good friends with Patricks mother (Ceci Sartor)!!!! What are the chances? Our conversation lasted long after dinner (we were kicked out-politely-of the restaurant). From learning about Heather's two former husbands that both passed away to the fact that they booked the cruise on Monday to get away from Hill's daughter-in-law delivering twin girls because she is a total pill. We had a lot of laughs and a lot of stories (need to look up the George Butler car dealership/murder). Hill really wants to go to the Derby. Really, really badly.

After dinner drinks on top of the bar made us the last passengers up for the night. It also made for a good night sleep.