May 1, 2016
Another beautiful day in Ukraine. Decided to get out and about. I found a site a few years back but had forgot about it, WikiMapia. Its like Wikipedia and Google Maps had some sort of bastard child. Its full of information and can be hard to filter through all of it but if you manage its amazing!
Anyways I decided on this route hoping to see some WWII relics there will be a lot of Bunkers they were all part of the Stalin Line and most build around 1932.
The first stop on the list was the furthest away point from Kiev, about 20km or so.
It is a German War cemetery. They are relocating the German soldiers in the norther half of Ukraine to here.
Its like most all of the German cemeteries I have been to in Eastern Europe. Well cared for, well put together and very nice about 40,000 people will be here when finished, I believe its around 20,000 now
Next we came back towards Kiev about a kilometer to an old bunker.
It was in the side of a hill. The bunker extended back into the hill, but was inaccessible now, and would of had fresh water inside when being used
The spring had been redirected so people can use it now
Looks like we got out of Kiev just before the traffic!
Next we continued down a little side road that was supposed to have a few bunkers on it. We found this one first, pretty much intact
About to explore the inside
There was a second floor underground but had water standing in it so didnt get explored
Lina was surprisingly willing to explore it all
Yoshi was in the shooting lane of one of the windows
On a side not I finally got around to putting some stickers on the gas tank to break up the green
The next bunker had been blown up but had this single flower growing as you approached
It was the same type of bunker and had 2 floor originally
I cant imagine the explosives it takes to blow one of these things up
This was the next bunker we came to
There was some pretty heavy fighting here in 1941 and 11 guys were killed in this bunker defending their position
Most of the bunker was underground with just the metal turret above ground
looking up into the turret
Some close ups of the turret
The metal was about 4" thick
Just around the corner from the bunker is where the remains of the 11 men who lost their lives lay.
The last bunker I wanted to see for the day was back in the forest. I wanted to see it because it was supposed to be intact and still have the firing lanes visible.
Getting there was an adventure
It involved riding down a single track walking path
Then some sand, which was horrible, then a water hole.... I made Lina get off in case I dumped it going around the water obstacle
Alas we made it to the bunker!
I believe it says something like leave the history so there is something for our childeren, could be wrong my Ukrainian is well nothing
It was hard to see out of it with how high the grass was but it was very interesting
This would of been one of the firing lanes
After that it was time to head back. through the same obstacle course as before!
Made it!!!!
My extraordinarily brave passenger for the day
We made it back to Kiev in one piece. The roads were actually not to bad so we were both in fairly good shape. Ended up going to eat Shashlik in the park
My favorite sculpture in the world!
After food everyone called it a night
“Start Here”!!!!!Gettysburg is an amazing national park with so much to offer. I would recommend starting your day here. The movie gives you a great over view of the battle and the museum is very helpful, too. You could see the WWII relics for sale, movie, tour the field, and then come back later to view the museum. Great Place to see.
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