Visiting caves...

Thursday June 21, 2012 – Chisinau, Moldova

Visiting a Smithie continues.  Today Brittany let us go off on our own.  Because it’s 100 degrees in Moldova we splurged and hired a driver with an air conditioned car to drive us around today.  Oleg picked us up at 10 and off we went to Orheiul Vechi and ancient cave monastery.  After trekking around the caves and cliff sides in the crazy heat we were driven to a local winery and were given a tour of the underground wine-making operation.  We returned to Chisinau and relaxed a bit, off to a delicious pizza dinner and then to the FanZone to watch the Czech Republic v. Portugal.  Despite the unfortunate result of the game we had a great day.

 

                                                      The stairs to the monastery.

                                                        A tour emerging from the cliff monastery

                                          My photographer companion

                                            Moldova's famous cross

                                            Entrance to the cave monastery

                                          Windows in the cliff

                                          Chapel in cliffs

                                                Where the monks stayed

                                                        More cliff caves across the valley

                                     Old church Slavonic on the entrance to cliff chapel

                                            Inside the cliff chapel

                                          Sparkling white wine just off the line

                                                      Before popping the cork

                                                           Pouring some refreshing sparkling wine in the cave