Thank Steve and herr you're right all the small gestures of support they're getting is making a difference
Really appreciate all the positive comments
Day 4 - morning
Our Ukrainian hosts had graciously organised a morning of sight seeing around the historic centre of Lviv with a tour guide explaining the cities history while showing us a few of the more interesting and historical buildings.
Apologies for not remembering any of what was said as I'm a country mouse I was too busy enjoying seeing city mice just doing what city mice do ie busy getting on with city stuff despite what was going on in most parts of the country
A taste of the architecture
You had to look hard for any evidence there is a war going, eg., sand bags covering the ground floor of this building
I couldn't see much of what could be described as 'war propoganda', this was the only banner that could be called that, I'm sure cities on the other side of the war won't be shy about displaying messages
Some tasteful street 'graffiti art'
This poster got me, had to walk away and compose myself when our tour guide explained the significance ie someones lost son, husband, brother, dad, nephew, uncle, grand child
There are usally a lot more posters like this every day and the church behind it has all the walls inside covered with pictures of lost people, along with messages from their loved ones.
With the various cemetries we'd past on are drive in I didn't go into the church as I'd seen enough to understand what pain the country is going through
This young soldier joined us for a beer as he was recovering from having a hand grenade thrown into his foxhole while sleeping, a friend lost a leg and another guy was badly injured too
I wasn't the only one in our convoy feeling slightly uncomfortable drinking a beer in the sun with him, in an outside cafe, surround by other people sat relaxing enjoying a drink and lunch
We asked him how he felt about everything around him, just going on normally. His answered suprised me as he said when they come away from the battle field what they crave for is everything just to be normal. Normal helps them forget where they've been and what they've had to do while there
Despite his significant leg injuries, he just want to meet us, to say thank you for our support. A truely humbling experience for me but our day of meeting incredibly brave, strong, proud, never give up people was only just getting started
If Lviv is typical of Ukrainian historic cities Mrs Ahab and I are 100% coming back to see more once everything has calmed down, Ukraine will be desperate for money for rebuilding, can't think of more enjoyable way to help than spend a holiday here looking around more of the country
Next up, our visit to a fire station, again another eye opening experience