Our voyage can truly be described as a passage through history, from the great city of Kiev which saw the dawn of Christianity in the 10th century, to the shores of the Black Sea where Greek settlers met with Scythian nomads and so began a colonisation and a turbulent history without parallel. From the great plains of the endless Russian Steppe came wandering invaders - Sarmatians, Goths, Khazars, Mongols, Tatars, Turks and in latter days, Russians, each leaving their mark. Starting and ending in Kiev, the mother city of Russia and the state from which all later Russian states were descended, we will then cruise along the Dnieper past the rolling, wheat-growing, Ukrainian countryside with excursions to fascinating ports of call including Odessa, the gem of the Black Sea.