Dragged to museums

All Alastair wanted to do all holiday was 'go park, more car'. Once we'd given him a packet of crisps he was quite happy to put his car needs on hold and go along with what the rest of us wanted.

Gregor was keen to see tanks and army stuff, so we went to the military museum for a spectacle.

We got a bus directly from Kreshtatik to the museum and stretched our legs in the surrounding hills before the assault. The church in the background is Lavra, the Orthodox monastery with lots of underground caves and tunnels and protected by UNESCO today.

These hills and parkland by Lavra and the museum seemed to go on forever. Spring is such a lovely time to visit Kiev.

Gregor enjoyed having Misha tell him what all the vehicles and machinery were and how they were used. Like big brother, like father, like grandfather, and so on.

This is an enormous statue dominating the landscape and she jumps at you when you enter from the airport. They call her 'Iron Baba', derogatorily of course, and I recall Misha making some connection with a shortage of knives and forks in the canteen at university and Iron Baba's entry into the world!

Gregor was deep in thought all afternoon. Goodness knows what was going through his little head. For once he was not bombarding me with questions. It was so pleasant.

Then he wanted to do as the biguns do.

We were all exhausted by this point - the sun was very hot - so we skipped the symbolism inside and dangled toes in the water to cool off.

Walking out this time it was Alastair who was lost in thought.

Who knows what he registered about them. He did ask 'vwhy?'

But he was certainly fascinated by the sheer scale of it all.

And happy to be back on a bus. Such a treat.
A couple of days later we visited the natural history museum, close to the flat.

Gregor being an anteater.

And quite quiet at this one. Eat your heart out Damien Hirst!

After a great game of 'find the beaver' - Alastair's favourite animal - we finally did.

This last shot is of us at the airport, waiting to fly back to Luton. I don't know if it's possible to see the menu board in the background, but I quite liked the choices - toast with salami, toast with salmon, toast with tuna, Greek salad, porridge...