Our Crimea and its most beautiful places. Our Crimea and its most beautiful places = expedition "Crimean share" =

No matter how hard I tried, I could not fit all the Yalta days in one post. It turns out three. But I will try to pay more attention to details.

03/01/13
We arrived in Yalta yesterday. From Alushta, at lunchtime by minibus. At the bus station, we were immediately surrounded by aunts with an offer of housing. All for 200 hryvnia.
Evening, shower, Wi-fi. What else does? Ah, yes, "Zhivchik" ....

This morning did not require an early rise, and we slept until 9 local time. The night before, we already got acquainted with the Yalta coast, and for today we planned a visit to the palaces.
I don’t remember who and how advised us that we had to go from the bus station, but we knew for sure that this was how it should be. So far, it seems that it was possible to leave, right from our temporary residence.
At the bus station, I again saw my favorite trolleybuses. More precisely, it was not at the bus station, but at the trolleybus station, it is very close - across the road.
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04. Here we even found a schedule behind a misted piece of glass.

The locals explained that we needed not intercity buses, and Yalta.
05. We are standing at the bus stop. The building in the background with bars is the bus station.

controller, from open doors, notified those waiting that their minibus was moving to Livadia. Just the place where we planned to go in the first place.
We loaded into the transport and set off to travel along the winding, thin streets of the mountainous coastal Yalta. I had only seen such narrow roads in films before - on the right was the wall of the house, on the left, across the row, a steep slope.
“Final, the palace is ahead!” - announced the controller.
The route was empty. Groups of people moved in the direction indicated from the bus. By the way, a feature, either of the Crimea, or of Ukraine in general, is that people communicate here and they like it. For example, if you ask in Moscow: “How to get to the old Arbat?”, a passer-by, in most cases, will do this: - There! - he waved his hand, running away.
Immediately: - Oh, look, you need it now ... - and in the course of the story they will have time to ask where we are from and advise where we still need to go. Damn, that's nice.

06. Not far from the bus stop, we saw a book lying on the railing, perhaps deliberately left, or perhaps simply forgotten.

07. Bear?

After the New Year's Eve Moscow with its -26 Celsius and cloudiness, Yalta with its +10 and the sun seemed like summer, suddenly coming in the middle of winter. Naturally, I wanted as much sun and heat as possible to remain in the photographs.

08. Livadia Palace.

09.

10.

Near this palace, we wandered through the park and decided, without stopping for a long time, to go further.

11. It seems to me like a library.

Then the idea came to me to walk to Gaspra. It seemed to me that it was close. How could I have been wrong?

12. Solar path. Nearly seven kilometer walking route.

This route starts from Livadia. So here you can understand that we have already walked two kilometers. And Gaspra is not even visible. After consulting the map, we came to the conclusion that we had to take the bus, but we still walked about a kilometer to the bus stop. Walked, of course, well, but wasted precious time. Remember - twilight at 17, night at 18.
The minibus took us to the right place in 10 minutes.

Cape Ai-Todor. Mansion " swallow's Nest».

13. This is how we saw him. The sky and the sea are just fantastic. I don't even know what to compare it to, I've never seen anything like it before. Yes, and is it necessary to compare here ?!

In general, the sea of that day seemed not real, it was as if tinted with blue and green, in different places. It was only during this trip that I understood why Aivazovsky was drawn here so often and where such colors came from in his paintings. But there will be more about the colors of the sea in one of the following posts, but for now, in the photographs, we pay special attention to color.

14. Rock "sail". Lonely at sea, she really resembles the sail of a small ship.

15. And here is one of the most famous sights of the Crimea - "Swallow's Nest".

This mansion has a very long history. At the beginning of its existence, it looked completely different, it looked more like a summer house or a summer house than, in fact, it was. Later, according to a new project, it was rebuilt and became more like the current castle. For a long time it was a restaurant, until the earthquake of 1927, then a part of the rock, which was the foundation, collapsed, and the building itself was very badly damaged, part of it collapsed into the sea. For 30 years, the destroyed "nest" was empty and crumbled. In the late 60s, reconstruction began and, from the beginning of the 70s, the building again became a restaurant.
Now inside a museum. But it is boring, small and there is nothing to do there. From words to pictures.

16. View from the terrace on the rock "sail" and the pier.

17. And this is a view in the other direction. Blue-green sea to the horizon.

18. The most recognizable symbol of Crimea. Even now, when I look at these pictures, it is breathtaking. And now, imagine when it is right next to you, when you see with your own eyes and you can even feel?!

19. And now a little more sea. The farthest mountain on the horizon is Ayu-Dag or Bear Mountain. Pretty too famous place but we weren't there.

20. Crossbow for memory. With the sea

And a couple of zen shots.

21. White dots in the picture are seagulls. They are dark there. They behaved very strangely, but why, I understood later, when we dined in a cafe, on a rock, not far from the castle. This frame, by the way, relaxes me. I turn on the whole screen and sit, I look.

Okay, back to the dolphins. How to what?! Oh, yes ... When we sat down in a cafe, naturally, we began to look at the sea. And then we understood why the seagulls behaved so strangely, they constantly dived into the sea, attacking the dolphins. The real ones. There were dozens of them. They appeared from the water here and there. Even in the previous photo they are, but so far away that, without knowing about them, you can’t even consider them. Again, I regretted not taking a long lens with me.

22. And this is a mystery. Who did it and why is not known, but it looks interesting.

On this day, we refused to go to the Vorontsov Palace, and went to Ai-Petri. More on that next time.
See you…

It takes only 15 minutes to get to the Livadia Palace by car. It can be reached by minibus from the Yalta bus station.

GPS coordinates: N 44°28.076, E 34°08.613

What to watch?

The Livadia Palace is a building created in the Russian Empire for the Romanov royal family. It is surrounded by a beautiful park and natural terraces that descend the slope of the Mogabi Hill. Nicholas II, when he first visited his new palace, described it as follows: “We do not find words to express our joy and pleasure in having such a house, built exactly the way we wanted. The architect Krasnov is an amazing fellow.” By the way, for this N.P. Krasnov was awarded the title of architect of the highest court.

Each of the facades of the palace, which is made in the style of the Italian Renaissance, has its own individual look. By right, the highlight of the Livadia Palace can be called the picturesque Italian courtyard. It is planted with roses and evergreens. The beauty of the courtyard inspired domestic and foreign directors to shoot many scenes for their films, such as "Dog in the Manger", "Soul", "Heart of a Dog", "Return of the Resident".

Now within the walls of the palace there is a museum with valuable exhibits and an interior that reveals the era of the Romanovs.

Do not miss the opportunity to visit the Solar (Royal) trail, it connects Livadia Park with the village.

Comfortable for pedestrians, as it does not have steep ascents and descents. Its length is 6711 meters. However, guides are advised to go only through the most interesting places on the trail. From the beginning of the trail, go to the half-rotunda gazebo. Then you go up to the Cross Hill. Having photographed the beautiful views of the surroundings, go down back to the gazebo and walk along the path to the Church of the Intercession of the Virgin. By the way, there you will see a "" bench, on which the heroes of "Ladies with a Dog" sat and, surveying the sky, sea, rocks, thought about the eternal ... After walking this path for 1.5 km, you return to.

Cats ran around the palace, which immediately had their own feeder. Slowly people gathered, and at the appointed time we were launched on an excursion.

Before visiting the Livadia Palace, I associated it exclusively with the Yalta Conference. And, of course, they showed us the table at which Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were sitting,

the hall where this table originally stood and where meetings and conferences at the highest level are held to this day,

offices where Roosevelt with limited mobility was placed so that he would not have to come to meetings from afar, the Italian courtyard, where a historical photograph of the heads of the three powers was taken.

But it turned out that the Livadia Palace is more likely not about the Yalta Conference, but about the history of the last royal family. It was for them that this palace was built and decorated with great taste, where they had a chance to rest only four times. Each room was unique and exquisitely decorated, reflecting the habits and character of the family members. It was interesting to listen to and a little sad, knowing that the simple family happiness, which the royal spouses cherished so much, was interrupted so cruelly. The Romanovs lived in many ways simply: the girls shared bedrooms for two, slept on hard beds, the children studied practically without days off. Often the family walked 6 kilometers to their relatives in Gaspra along a specially laid path, which was then called Tsarskaya, and in Soviet times was renamed Solnechnaya.

We left the palace and decided that we were no worse than kings and why not walk to the Swallow's Nest. The "tail" of the trail was quickly found: in Soviet times it was equipped for tourists, and there were signposts at the forks, informing which direction to go and how much was left. But now its abandonment was felt on the path: in some places, the fences of local villas overlapped it, and we also met a couple of ruined public toilets. But in general, walking along the trail is easy and pleasant: it is almost straight and wide.

Almost six kilometers were easy. Since we didn't have to go to the end, we turned at the sign for the Swallow's Nest. And when we first saw this amazing castle from afar, our joy knew no bounds!

Then there was a descent along an endless staircase (along no less endless fences), and we reached the lower observation deck.

On the way to the building, we met a flowerbed with three cats and four more sitting nearby. A few minutes later, we saw the gift shop clerks generously pouring cat food into them.

And here we are, finally, at the entrance to a quaint building that was once a restaurant. Now there is an exhibition hall in the Swallow's Nest, the entrance is paid, and we decided that we didn’t need to go there, because we read that the inside of the building is not as interesting as the outside. It is impossible to go out to the balcony hanging over the abyss for security reasons. I had to climb a pile of stones above the castle to capture it from a new angle.

"It's already not far from the cable car to Ai-Petri" - we thought and went to Gaspra. They wanted to take a shorter route straight, but everything turned out to be blocked off as the territory of some kind of sanatorium, and they had to climb the same huge stairs. The day before, the tour desk on the embankment told us that the cable car was closed, but we did not believe it, thinking that they just wanted us to go with them on the bus. Alas, after about half an hour of walking, we found the lower station of the cable car empty and abandoned until May. At the entrance, enterprising peasants were standing and smoking, offering to go to Ai-Petri with them in a minibus. Dima and I consulted and came to the conclusion that we generally want Ai-Petri more for the sake of the cable car than the mountain itself, and left it for the next time. And the next visit to Crimea will be, I already know, because its beautiful mountains, caves, waterfalls, rock monasteries and ancient cities still do not let me go ...

Now I have already said that since we came here for some reason, it is not a sin to walk to the Vorontsov Palace. With the last of our strength, we crawled to a huge English castle Count Vorontsov, similar either to Hogwarts, or to the Tower.

They say that the interiors in the palace are also very beautiful and rich, but we arrived just before closing, and two palaces in one day is too much.

I don't know how you can live in such a gloomy castle, but the Governor-General knows better.

The facade was fenced off from everywhere and it was possible to get through only by buying a ticket to the exhibition of sculptures, but, again, it was already too late. We walked around the palace and barely dragged ourselves through a huge park to the final stop of minibuses. Arriving in Yalta, we had supper and went to bed shamefully early with buzzing in our feet and dizziness from a whole day in the open air. The next day we decided to go to.

Castle "Swallow's Nest"

Castle "Swallow's Nest"

Perhaps the most recognizable place in Crimea. Quite a small (only 12 meters in height) castle "Swallow's Nest" is so unlike the rest of the palaces of the peninsula (and the whole country). Until the beginning of the 20th century, the castle was wooden, but after the acquisition by the German baron von Stengel, it was rebuilt in stone. The medieval fairy-tale style was the idea of the baron, he wanted the Swallow's Nest to remind him of the ancient castles and fortresses of his homeland.

The spiers of the castle, the sunset over the sea, the sound of the waves beating against the rocks - we confidently assign the title "The most romantic sight of Crimea" to this place.

How to get to the castle "Swallow's Nest":

Option 1: from the Yalta bus station to fixed-route taxi No. 27 and No. 32 to the stop "Sanatorium Parus" (settlement Gaspra).

Option 2: book a sea tour on a motor ship (departs from the seaport of Yalta). You can see the tour schedule. This option is highly recommended by TravelRabbit because the experience boat trip you will get much more than from a bus trip.

How to get to the castle "Swallow's Nest" by car: coordinates - 44°25'49.8"N, 34°7'42.6"E

Golden gates of Karadag

Rock "Golden Gate"

A rock rising from the sea 85 meters from the eastern coast of the peninsula, at the foot of the extinct volcano Karadag. Once it was called "Devil's Gate", but the beauty of the countless shades of gold, in which the Sun painted the basalt rock at sunrise and sunset, may have softened the hearts of the locals and the "Gate" from "Devil's" was renamed "gold".

The sun gilds the rock not only at sunrises and sunsets, which are inconvenient for visiting, but also in the middle of the day, between 13:00 and 14:00. And for special hunters for rare shots, we recommend coming here on the days of the winter solstice - only at this time it is possible to shoot the sunrise through the arch of the Golden Gate.

If you sail under the rock arch on a boat, then be sure to throw a coin and make a wish - according to local beliefs, it will certainly come true.

How to get to the Golden Gates of Karadag:

From Simferopol: at the station "Kurortnaya" or "Central" take a bus with the inscription: "Koktebel" (you will see the current schedule there, at the station, buses run every half hour). From Koktebel you will have to walk about 7 kilometers. It is more convenient to take a boat ticket at the Koktebel pier and get to the rock by sea.

Vorontsov Palace

Vorontsov Palace

The south of Crimea is just a gigantic museum of palaces and estates under open sky. One of the most valuable exhibits is the Vorontsov Palace.

English architectural style, luxurious interiors and big park, the surrounding palace, seascapes - all this makes the palace more than just a monument, walking along it, you feel like a hero of a historical novel, whose life is full of balls, adventures and love.

Now there is a museum on the territory of the palace, you can see the schedule of exhibitions and opening hours on the official website of the Vorontsov Palace

How to get to the Vorontsov Palace:

From Yalta: by bus No. 27 (from the bus station), No. 32 (from the clothing market), No. 107 (from the center of Yalta) to the stop "Alupka, Vorontsov Palace" or by sea, by boat, from the pier of Yalta.

How to get to the Vorontsov Palace by car: coordinates — N 44°25.181 , E 34°03.252

Mount Ai-Petri

View from the top of Ai-Petri (c) Denis Belitsky

Mount Ai-Petri is the best viewpoint Crimea. It is not very high (only 1235 meters), but it is located so well that it offers a fantastic panorama of the entire southern coast of the peninsula. It is very easy to climb to the top using the cable car, which starts at the foot, in the small settlement of Miskhor.

It makes no sense to describe in words the beauty that you will see when you climb to the top, just our advice - do it without fail if you find yourself in Crimea.

How to get to Ai-Petri:

From Yalta: by bus No. 27 (from the bus station), No. 32 (from the clothing market) to Miskhor.

How to get to Ai-Petri by car: coordinates - 34.165, 44.495

Waterfall Dzhur-Dzhur

Waterfall Dzhur-Dzhur (c) Kuluarpohod

This small waterfall (only 15 meters high) is nevertheless one of the most spectacular natural sights of the Crimea. The fact is that Dzhur-Dzhur, with a modest height, is quite wide and full-flowing, its waters fall down with noise, it looks impressive. Plus, there is a waterfall on the territory of the Khapkhal nature reserve, in which, in addition to the waterfall, you can see the noisy mountain river Ulu-Uzen (it forms the waterfall), rare giant trees like oak and hornbeam and beech, wild animals - deer, martens, foxes , badgers and the Dzhur-Dzhur cave.

The entrance to the reserve is paid (about 100 rubles) and you can move around its territory only along special ecological paths.

How to get to the Jur-Jur waterfall:

From Alushta: from the bus station by taxi or bus to the village. Generalskoye, then walk to the cordon of the reserve, from it follow the signs to the waterfall.

Important: check with the driver the time of departure of buses from Generalskoye back to Alushta in order to know when last flight and calmly walk around the reserve as much as you want.

How to get to the Jur-Jur waterfall by car: coordinates - 44.807066, 34.456043

Livadia Palace

Livadia Palace (c) Zoryanika

Light, graceful, almost airy, this palace was once the summer residence of Russian emperors. Everything is harmonious here - luxurious, but not pretentious, spacious, but evoking a feeling of comfort and tranquility.

The palace is a whole complex, in which, in addition to the main imperial palace includes the Exaltation of the Cross Church, the building of the Corps of Pages, the Arab courtyard, the Italian courtyard, the palace of Baron Frederiks and a large park.

How to get to the Livadia Palace:

From Yalta: By minibus (from the bus station) No. 100 or No. 11 to Livadia.

From Sevastopol: By bus (from the bus station) going to Yalta, get off at the Livadia stop.

How to get to the Livadia Palace by car: coordinates - 44.467518, 34.143662

Chersonese

Chersonese, ancient bell

You can touch Antiquity without visiting Greece and Italy, in the Crimea there are the ruins of the real Polis, founded by the ancient Greeks. Once this city-state was the most powerful in the entire Black Sea region. Nowadays Chersonese is a historical and archaeological reserve. Ruin central square- the agora, the theater, in the arena of which gladiators once fought, the ruins of ancient basilicas and towers - the breath of antiquity is in every stone here.

Details about all the objects of Chersonesos and about the exhibitions taking place on its territories can be found on the official website.

How to get to Chersonese:

From Sevastopol: Bus number 22, (from the stop 5th kilometer, through Ushakov Square), on any buses going to the Square of the 50th Anniversary of the USSR (“Central Department Store”, “Rossiya Cinema”), then walk 1.5 km.

How to get to Chersonese by car: coordinates - 44.612288, 33.490244

Bakhchisarai Palace

Bakhchisarai Khan's Palace

Above we talked about the Crimean castles in German, English and Italian styles, but there are on the territory of Crimea ancient palace, once in which, you find yourself in a completely different culture - here is the style of the Muslim East and the charm of an Arab fairy tale.

The Khan's Palace, built 5 centuries ago by the ruler Sahib Giray, includes a whole complex of structures - Grand Mosque, Sary-Gyuzel baths, the impressive "Golden Fountain" and the more modest, but having a romantic legend, the "Fountain of Tears", which was built by Khan Krym-Girey in memory of his deceased wife.

How to get to the Bakhchisarai Palace:

From Sevastopol: By train to Simferopol to the Bakhchisaray stop, then by minibus number 2 to the Khan's Palace.

From Simferopol: by bus, you can see the schedule.

How to get to the Bakhchisarai Palace by car: coordinates - 44.748662, 33.881610

marble cave

Marble Cave (c) krimology.info

There are many caves in Crimea, but we decided to focus on this one. The marble cave is located in the mountains of Chatyr-Dag. It is this cave that has the largest "hall" in the Crimea, its length is more than 100 meters. Marble Cave is very diverse in its landscape: here are stone waterfalls, and stalactite "forest", and helictite "flowers", and pearl "lakes".

The Marble Cave is not only one of the most visited caves in Europe, but also the most comfortable and safe. Not only trained speleologists, but also not very sports tourists can explore it.

Important: it is always cool in the cave, the temperature is above +9 degrees Celsius, so dress warmly.

How to get to the Marble Cave:

On the public transport getting to the cave is very problematic, so we would still advise taking a tour or taking a taxi, but if difficulties do not scare you, then:

From Simferopol: By trolleybuses No. 1, No. 51 and No. 52 to the village of Zarechnoye, from there by bus to the village of Marble, and then walk about 7-8 kilometers.

How to get to the Marble Cave by car:

Not everything is on our list. sights of Crimea, you can talk endlessly about this natural and historical treasury, but we tried to choose places where the spirit is breathtaking, the soul rests, and the brain learns something new and interesting for itself.

"Swallow's Nest" - the same toy castle on a steep cliff, which adorns almost all the covers of travel publications about south coast Crimea. Is it a joke, even on the cover national geographic this castle has been visited. And this despite the fact that this building cannot be called a real castle.

"Swallow's Nest" is purely decorative, and even crumbles, it is being restored all the time ... This Crimean landmark has always aroused controversial feelings for me. Some mixture of wonder and disappointment.

But to be near Yalta and not visit the well-known "pearl" is also not the case. You just have to do it right...

Story

So where did the Swallow's Nest castle come from? Unfortunately, I will not tell any romantic stories. Place on the rock beautiful view At first, some general took a fancy to the sea and built himself a dacha. This happened in 1880, the building was wooden. Then the plot with the house passed from one owner to another, along the way it got its beautiful name - Swallow's Nest. And in 1901, Baron Steingel bought the site and decided to build a romantic castle, like in his native Germany. And so the castle appeared in the form we recognize it now.

But the change of owners did not stop there. "Swallow's Nest" passed from hand to hand, and at one time it was completely abandoned - it survived the largest earthquake in the Crimea. And now, after the establishment of Soviet power on the peninsula, the castle became accessible to everyone. By the way, already in 1968 it was necessary to strengthen the base of the castle so that it ... would not fall into the sea.

Castle "Swallow's Nest" in Crimea: today

And a little uninteresting modern history. "Swallow's Nest" is constantly used for different purposes. For a long time there was an Italian restaurant with dubious cuisine and exorbitant prices. Then exhibitions of artists were held, and now we are shown interior of the castle. At one time, the entrance to the territory was paid, but it was illegal.

Now again the reconstruction and we must be prepared for the fact that it is forbidden to go out on the "balcony" over the sea. We'll have to be content with the views of the back of the castle. But! All the same, it is breathtaking when you look at this 40-meter cliff topped with a stone palace with turrets. And in general, this fairytale castle has the status of an object cultural heritage federal significance. So you have to go to see, but it is better to go or swim to this fragile beauty.

"Swallow's Nest": where is it located and how best to get there

Castle address: Russia, Crimea, Bolshaya, Gaspra village, Alupkinskoe highway 9a. Exact coordinates for online maps: 44.430662 N, 34.128532 E. For GPS navigators: 44°25.839", 34°7.119.

And now understandable tourist language. "Swallow's Nest" is located 20 km from Yalta and the main flow of tourists comes from Yalta. Near the "Swallow's Nest" there are villages that are part of Big Yalta: Gaspra and Kurpaty. There are three ways to get to the castle. And be sure that the perception of the sight itself depends on your choice. So, you can get there:

If you got to the castle from the Livadia Palace or by minibus / car, then you will find yourself at the Swallow's Nest stop. Here you can start taking the first shots with observation platforms, but to the palace you still have to walk 800 meters along the ladders past the sanatoriums.

And here it is - a fairy-tale castle - rises on a rock and just asks for a camera sight. One can enjoy its aesthetic benefits and take good photographs.

"Swallow's Nest": the best locations for photos

I will share my favorite and most winning areas for photographing the "Swallow's Nest" and myself against its background:

What to do at the "Swallow's Nest"

By the way, some important practical information: from November to May, the palace-castle is open from 10:00 to 16:00 (Monday is a day off), and from June to October - from 10:00 to 19:00 (without days off). The entrance is free. There is a free toilet at the entrance. With photographs, everything is clear - this is one of the main entertainments here. There are a few more options for pastime, for an amateur.