Kongo did a full day touring Kiev today and now he’s a tired little monkey. Oksana, his tour guide, took him through squares, caves, monasteries, cathedrals, Golden Gates, Metro rides, squares, presidential palaces, some more churches, across the river, a slew of monuments, and a heavy dose of Soviet architecture. Whew.

The picture above is St. Andrew’s Cathedral at night.

Above, Oksana briefs Kongo on the background behind St. Andrew’s cathedral and the legend that the Apostle Andrew actually visited Kiev in the 1st century, before Kiev was a gleam in the eye of the Rus people who actually settled here about 600. He spent the night on the site where the present church is and had a vision that one day there would be a great and beautiful city here with lots of beautiful churches. Who’s to say? Certainly Kiev is a great and beautiful city and you can’t swing a banana tree here without hitting a beautiful church.

Anyway, Kongo has plenty of material for future blogs about his visit and will update his gentle readers soon. Now he has to head for his nest because he’s up at 2 AM to catch a flight to Amsterdam that will eventually get him back to the West Coast for Thanksgiving week.

Travel safe. Have fun.