Stockholm, Sweden

- The Vasa
- The Most Narrow Street in Stockholm
- The Streets of Stockholm
- City Hall
- Dessert: Meringue and Vanilla Sauce
- Baltic Sunset
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Stockholm, Sweden

Friday, August 17

Two interesting things happened after the Helsinki blog. When we got back to the ship after Helsinki, we went out to our balcony to look out. They must have been painting while we were gone, because Frankie got fresh paint on her shirt from the railing. After half an hour of scrubbing in the sink, she phoned the passenger relations desk and asked them to launder her shirt and they could do some other laundry for us while they were at it, and send someone to clean the railing. Well, the railing still hasn't been cleaned, but the paint is probably dry by now. We saw other railings and deck furniture that had been splattered as well, very messy. We sent our laundry off and went to sit in the sun on the deck. When we got back to the room, laundry services had returned our laundry and said they would only do the one shirt. We had that rectified with a very insistent call to the front desk, it was the least they could do.

Then we went off to dinner later than we had wanted to, but it seems everything happens for a reason. There was a couple seated next to us, only a few feet away, and he seemed so familiar to Frankie. Finally after half an hour, she used an excuse to start a conversation and the question that is invariably asked is, "Where are you from?" Yes, Frankie was right! It turned out to be one of her Bible college professors (from 25 years ago!), plus she taught his grandson in grade 3, plus his son is her physiotherapist. What an incredible coincidence!

Now onto Stockholm, Sweden. Sweden is a large country, sparsely populated, and forests cover half the land. For several hours before and after port, we sailed through 25,000 islands of the Stockholm Archipelago. Stockholm is called the Venice of the North since it is built across 14 islands linked by boats and bridges. It was founded in 1252. Since they have not been at war since Napoleon's time, they have not experienced the destruction that other European countries have suffered.

Sweden still has a royal family, but since Sweden is an egalitarian society, the monarchs are not allowed to wear the crown jewels, not even for their coronations, in order not to provoke envy among the people.

It was a short port visit today, we were only in port from 8 am til 2 pm, so we had to pick only a few things to see. When we got off the ship, we hopped onto a hop-on hop-off boat. The first thing on our list was the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was the royal flagship (carrying 64 cannons) that sank 20 minutes (1500 meters) into her maiden voyage in 1628. When the ship was almost finished, the king had ordered one more deck to be built against warnings that this would make the ship top-heavy. The sailors had been allowed to bring their families aboard; about a third of the 150 people aboard died. It was a great embarrassment to the king and his navy. The ship remained there sunk in the harbour until they could find a way to raise her. One idea was to put a zillion ping pong balls under it, but what they did was place two barges alongside it, string cables between the barges, and support the hull that way. It actually started in 1959 and took two years to accomplish. The ship is the oldest perfectly preserved ship in the world. Also, 12,000 artifacts were recovered.

We hopped back onto the hop-on hop-off, and made our way to Gamla Stan - the oldest part of Stockholm. This section of the city is over 8 centuries old. It is made of narrow cobblestone streets loaded with shops. We found the narrowest street in Stockholm where you can touch the wall on either side. We bumped into the Nobel Museum, the Royal Palace, and the Riddarholmskyrkan, the thousand year old church where all the Swedish kings are buried.

We took the hop-on hop-off scenic route to get back onto the ship, and spent the afternoon and evening relaxing and watching the islands of the Stockholm Archipelago as we sailed by. It was a lot like cruising through cottage country in northern Ontario. Oops, had to change clothes because it was formal night. It should be called Yuck, Too Much Perfume Night.
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Helsinki, Finland

- Reindeer Pelts
- Uspensky Orthodox Cathedral
- Bridge of Love
- Swedish Lutheran Church
- Food Market
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Helsinki, Finland

Things about Finland you never knew: from 1155-1809 Finland was part of Sweden. That's why a majority of the people are Swedish Lutheran in religion. Russia took Finland from Sweden in 1809 and ruled until 1918. When Finland saw the turmoil in Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution, they seized the chance to gain their independence. This is also why Finland sided with the Germans during the war; it was really a push against Russia.

Finland is the largest country in land mass in Europe. There are 5 million people, and 500,000 live in Helsinki. It is called the Land of the Midnight Sun because they get 20 hours if sunlight a day in summertime.

From the ship, we had to take a shuttle bus to get to town unless we wanted to walk for an hour. We knew we needed euros for the shuttle, so we found the atm on the ship and could only get USA dollars, then we needed to go down 2 levels and use the currency exchange machine. Nice little racket they have going, especially because each machine had a hefty users fee.

We got dropped off in the heart of Helsinki, and headed straight for the Esplanada where we could get free wifi and send the backlog of blogs. The Esplanada is a long pedestrian park in the middle of two busy roads. There were street acts in the Esplanada, like the guy all spray painted gold who did a little jig when Anton dropped him a euro.

The Esplanada ended at the Market Square, which is a much smaller version of the farmers market back home. At one end were fruits and vegetables, and at the other end some Finnish goods for sale. We stopped and chatted with the girl selling reindeer pelts. Oh no, you would get into deep trouble for hunting a reindeer here. These deer were raised on reindeer farms, then killed for the meat and the pelts.

We found our way up a hill to the Uspensky Orthodox Cathedral. It was built in 1868 and is the largest orthodox church in Europe. We didn't see any pews or many places where you could sit for an actual church service.

We walked through the Senate Square to the Swedish Lutheran Cathedral. This one was full of pews with high backs so that it seemed like you were sitting in a long skinny box. There was a crypt in the basement that we accessed by an elevator ride. Part of the crypt has been turned into a pastry restaurant.

We headed through the bustling streets of Helsinki towards our next destination. We found it interesting that the streets for cars are all cobblestoned, and there are wide concrete sidewalks for pedestrians, and a bike lane attached to the sidewalk. When pedestrians get a green little man saying they can cross the street, the bicyclists get a red light. The buildings all have the same architecture as St. Petersburg, probably because there was a fire in 1808 that burnt the city down, and since the Russians had just taken over, they rebuilt it with their own architects.
By this time we were looking for a WC. There are oddly shaped buildings located at sporadic intervals throughout the city, but they took a euro each. They have no paper, and if you take too long, it starts to clean itself. We tried a McDonalds, but the washrooms had a keypad and the combination was available on your receipt if you ordered something. Finally we found a ritzy looking hotel, pretended we belonged there, and found what we needed on the main floor. Success!

We made it across town to the Rock Church, on every tourist's list of things to see in Helsinki. This church was built in 1969 when they blasted down through 40 feet of rock. We wanted to check out the famous acoustics, but we noticed a bunch of people milling about in black formal dress and lots of formal flower arrangements. Closed for a funeral. Imagine - a church that is actually still used as a church and not just a tourist attraction!

Not knowing what else to see in Helsinki, we walked back to the market and the Esplanada where we sat for awhile doing the blog before catching the shuttle to head back to the ship.

We've had lovely weather so far every day. About 23 to 25C. Lucky for the Baltic!
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St Petersburg, Day Two

- Original Lighthouse
- Hermitage Museum
- Hermitage Museum
- Waiting for the Bus
- Tombs of the Czars
- Room where Rasputin was Murdered
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St. Petersburg Day Two

Wednesday, August 15

It seems we just hit the pillow and it was time to get up, rush through breakfast, gasp at the length of the Russian immigration line, and make it to the bus exactly at 7 am. It's always good when you are the "second" last ones on the bus!

One poor lady lost her passport at Catherine Palace last night, and was not allowed to pass through immigration to get back onto the ship. She had to sleep in a hotel last night. We have no idea what will happen to her now, hopefully her embassy can help her.

We started our day with several picture stops. A lighthouse column with prows of ships on it that depict victories of war. Then the war ship Aurora, built in 1900. The cannon fired a blank shot just before the bolsheviks invaded the Winter Palace. Then the Palace Square right next to the gorgious Winter Palace. This square was the scene of the Bloody Sunday massacre in 1905, when a peaceful protest march was turned into a slaughter by nervous soldiers.

Then finally the Hermitage Museum, which used to be the winter residence of the czars. We were among the first groups to arrive, an hour and a half before it was open to the public. Nice! We wondered why we didn't have to wear protective booties here to preserve the beautiful original floors, but sheer numbers of visitors makes it impractical.

Our Gestapo tour guide lady zipped us right in so that we left the other groups behind and we were the only people in the museum. This is another not-to-be-missed site in St. Petersburg. Wow! The rooms themselves were actually more fabulous than the exhibits; the Hermitage rivals the Louvre in Paris in that respect. Having been to both, we'd say the Hermitage is more magnificent. It could be because during the Bolshevik Revolution, all the homes of the nobility were ransacked and all their works of art (paintings, statues, tapestries) were confiscated and brought to be displayed in the Hermitage. The Bolsheviks called it "nationalizing". These homes and belongings will never be returned to their original owners. Most of the noble families took their jewels and fled to Europe. Also, all the exhibits were saved during the war by being brought to the basement of the museum.

The Hermitage is so large (1065 rooms) and contains so many displays (more than 3 million items), it is calculated that if a person were to spend 10 seconds viewing each item, 24 hours a day, it would take 3 years to see everything. If you were to spend one minute per item, it would take 12 years. Our guide was required to spend a measly 2 months in the Hermitage learning the exhibits before she could get her tour guide licence. She knew how to zip through which rooms (Wait, we want to look around!) to take us to the paintings by Raphael, Rembrandt, and the Madonna and Child by Leonardi de Vinci. She showed us Rembrandt's last work and told us how some guy 25 years ago had a water bottle filled with acid and threw the acid onto the painting, as well as slashing it with a knife. The man was "hospitalized" (in Siberia!). This is the reason we can't bring water bottles into the museum anymore.

Our group had an appointed time to see the Gold Room. Silly us, we expected this to be a solid gold room or something? Well, it was just a few plain rooms, but they were full of glass display cases of jewels dating back over a thousand years. Not just regular jewels, either. For example, one coat made for a horse had 32,000 diamonds on it. We have no idea how much all these jewels were worth, but there were lots of video cameras, and the room was being guarded by a Russian woman with a gun.

Our next stop was the Peter and Paul Cathedral, where all the Russian emporers and empresses are buried. They are buried under the floor, but there are monuments marking the graves. We saw where Peter the Great is buried, etc. Zip zip, Gestapo tour guide lady cut in front of all the lines and had our group out of there in no time.

Lunch was at a very beautiful Russian restaurant. Last night at dinner we sat with a young honeymoon couple and she speaks Russian, so we found them again today and she did a great job explaining gluten-free to the waiters. The whole table was full of glasses: vodka, champagne, wine, water, coffee. More Russian folk singing, Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Our last tourist destination was the Yusopov Palace, which was a home owned by Felix Yusopov, of a noble family. We toured through the rooms (as big as apartments) and it is a mansion by our standards. We were treated to a very nice accapella quartet.

The Yusopovs were friends of the Czar Nicholas II family, and wished to protect the royal family from their unsavoury connection to the unorthodox medicine man Rasputin. Rasputin was a favourite of the queen because he was the only person who had ever had any success treating their young son, who suffered from hemophilia. Rasputin was invited to dinner on false pretenses by Felix Yusopov, only 27 years old at the time. Rasputin was fed poisonous cakes and then poisonous wine, to no effect. Yusopov waited two and a half hours and nothing happened, so he took out his revolver and shot Rasputin in the back. Rasputin fell onto the white bearskin rug. When Yusopov checked on Rasputin a short time later, he wasn't there! He had crawled outside, where Yusopov tracked him down and shot him again until he was dead. The events are recorded in a book written by Yusopov. But Yusopov's comrade who was also there that night wrote a book, and the details are different. So nobody knows exactly what happened, much like a lot of Russian history. We were taken into the cellar where all of this happened.

Of course our last stop of the day was to do some tourist shopping. Of course we had to buy a Russian doll for our mantlepiece.

Back through Russian immigration one last time, dinner, then we sat in the sun on our balcony as we sailed by the Russian naval base of Kronstadt. Goodbye, Russia!

Since being on the boat, we have changed time zones twice, losing an hour each time. Now we get to change time zones back, gaining our hours back each time. Yippee!
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St Petersburg, Russia

- Czarina
- Peterhof Palace
- Fountains at Peterhof
- St Isaac's Cathedral
- Church of the Spilled Blood
- Catherine the Great's Palace

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St. Petersburg, Russia

Tuesday, August 14

St. Petersburg is 300 years old, and was the capitol of Russia for 200 years. When Czar Peter I gained power, he felt that Russia was too Asian and not modern enough. He wanted coastal land in the Baltic (a "Window to the West") to be competitive with Europe, so he fought the Great Northern War and won the land from Sweden. At the time, the land was all marsh, and he recruited thousands of peasants to clear forests and drain swamps with their bare hands. It is called a marsh paved with bones. Interestingly, the city is NOT named after its founder Peter the Great, but after St. Peer from the Bible.

Peter wanted to build the Venice of the North. It is a city built on water, with 19 islands and 65 canals. There are 350 bridges. Peter I was heavily influenced by Europe, and the buildings have a distinctive baroque flavour. There is no new architecture allowed in St. Petersburg. The buildings are extravagant and imposing, and a simple apartment building resembles a palace by our standards. In fact, there are 200 palaces in St. Petersburg. All the buildings are attached, and you can differentiate between them by paint colour and design.

Peter I was unhappy with his first wife, an arranged marriage, so he sent her to a nunnery and married Catherine I, a commoner. This is not the Catherine known as Catherine the Great. They had 12 children, but only 2 daughters survived past childhood. Peter didn't like his son Alexai by his first wife, so he had him imprisoned and he died in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Peter's daughter Elizabeth took power, and she exhausted the state treasury in gowns. It is said she had 15,000 gowns and never wore the same one twice. Each gown had its own jewelry attached. Elizabeth also extended the Catherine Palace in honour of her mother. Also, the Winter Palace was begun, which is now the Hermitage Museum. The Winter Palace was later finished by Catherine the Great.

Catherine the Great was married to Peter III, the grandson of Peter the Great. Their 10 year marriage was unhappy and he was not respected by his armed forces, who encouraged Catherine in an assassination plot against him. She then ruled for 34 years until her death in 1796.

The last Czar, Nicholas II, although well loved, was assassinated in 1918 by the Bolsheviks. This began a short transition into communism, which lasted until 1991.

The name of the city has been changed several times. When Russia went to war with Germany in 1914, the name St. Petersburg was deemed too German and the city became Petrograd. After Lenin's death in 1924, it became Leningrad. It was changed back to St. Petersburg with the fall of communism in 1991.

St. Petersburg has only 30-40 sunny days per year, and we got one of them for our day-long tour today. Our guide said it rains almost every day in St. Petersburg, and last week it pored and was only 10C all week. According to our guide, St. Petersburg has 2 seasons: 9 months of expectation and 3 months of disappointment.

We met our bus at 6:30 am, yawn, after going through Russian immigration on the dock. We started with a photo stop at a monument of Nicholas I atop a horse with only 2 points of support, unlike most horse statues which add the tail as a third point of support.

We were at Peterhof Palace as soon as it opened. Our guide zipped us through, we hardly had time to appreciate the beautiful rooms guilded with 24 carot gold. Peter I built Peterhof because he wished to outdo Versailles in France. We watched the Grand Cascade, with golden statues and a fountain show set to music. There are no pumps in any of the 65 fountains situated on its 300 acres overlooking the Gulf of Finland.

We were glad to see the Peterhof first thing in the morning. Our guide told us 10,000 people were expected through today, and 16,000 expected to visit the Hermitage Museum. The reason is that there are 6 cruise ships in port, but tomorrow should be better because 2 are leaving tonight.

Next we were taken on a canal cruise of the Moyki River to the Neva River. The bridges were too low to stand under. There was a nice view of the Hermitage.

Next was a traditional Russian lunch, complete with caviar, borscht, and holy-smokes vodka. And Russian singers and dancers put on a show while we ate.

Our guide is very Russian, Anton calls her "aggressive" and Frankie calls her Gestapo Lady. But her English is good and she has good knowledge, even if she rushes us to keep us on time. Some of the group feel she is rude, but we wonder if that is just culture? In any case, she was NO help with the gluten-free issue even after she was asked.

After lunch we went to the ornate St. Isaacs Cathedral. It is 325 ft tall (the 3rd tallest cathedral in the world) and it took 40 years to build in 1858. The dome contains 200 lbs of pure gold, has never been regilded. Inside were mosaics, not paintings, better preserved in Russian humidity. It is a Russian Orthodox Church, as well as a museum and concert hall. During the war, its golden dome was a reference point for nazi pilots, so a canvas painted grey was placed on top.

Next we visited the Church of Spilled Blood, built in honour of Czar Alexander II who was killed by terrorists. It was built in 1907. They left the original cobblestoned section of road where his carriage was attacked, and you can see it inside the church.

We had to go through immigration again to get back to the ship, where we had a whole hour to shower and change before going through immigration yet again for our evening excursion to Catherine's Palace. We experienced an hour and a half of traditional St. Petersburg traffic jam and made it to the palace at 8 pm. The palace was closed for the evening except to us Princess people. This palace was simply magnificent! Do NOT miss this if ever in St. Petersburg!
We walked through the carriage house where we saw Catherine the Great's carriage among others, and the remnants of the carriage carrying Alexander II when he was assassinated. Then we were greeted by a marching band and soldiers as we toured through the palace. Like Peterhof, we had to wear paper booties over our shoes to protect the floors. The rooms were much larger than Peterhof, and much more ornate. One room was made all of amber. The gold is regularly regilded. We ended in a gymnasium sized concert hall, where we were treated to a concert by a string quartet. Catherine the Great (or someone dressed as her) entered to great pomp and pageantry, and we watched some lords and ladies dancing. Catherine then invited us to dine with her, but first the marching band played for us again and we watched more waltzes. By the time dinner began (in the servant's quarters, no sign of Catherine!), it was about 9:45 pm, but it was still as light out as if it was 4 pm. More Russian folk singing and dancing, Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Back through immigration around midnight, and we need to meet again at 7 am tomorrow. Zonked.
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Tallinn, Estonia

- Fat Margaret Gate
- Nevsky Cathedral
- Trying Archery
- Anton Won!
- City View
- Trying on Medieval Armor

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Tallinn, Estonia

Monday, August 13

For those of you who have never heard of Tallinn, Estonia (like us!), here is a brief history:

Tallinn is a small medieval town. Founded around 3 BC, it led a peaceful existence until Pope Celestine III called for a crusade against the "northern heathens". It was invaded by the Danish in 1219 with 150 ships. When things were going badly for the conquerors, legend is that Danish King Valdemar prayed for help and a flag dropped out of the sky into his hands. The flag had a red background and a white cross. This has remained Denmark's flag, and is the oldest national flag of the world.

After the Danes, Estonia became home to German knights who were tradesmen and craftsmen. This is why the centre of Tallinn looks like a medieval German town. The Swedes also came to Estonia.

In the early 1700's, Czar Peter the Great defeated Sweden and established Russia as a Baltic Power. He captured Tallinn in 1710. Estonia received independence after World War I, but lost it again as a result of the 1939 pact between Hitler and Stalin. The Germans controlled Estonia from 1941 to 1944, and from 1945 to 1991 Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. Estonia once again gained independence in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The part of Tallinn that we explored today was only the old medieval town. We started at Fat Margaret Tower and then visited St. Olaf's Church, built for the Danes and Swedes. From 1549 to 1625, this 13th century church was the tallest building in the world because of its 159 meter tall spire. Lightning struck this spire 8 times, and when the church burnt to the ground, it was rebuilt by Peter the Great. The tower was at one time used as a tv tower by the KGB.

It seems that there was a medieval church at every corner: there was St. Nicholas Church for the Germans, and the Holy Ghost Church for the native Estonians. Our favourite church (on the outside) was the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, whose onion domes and towers made it look like it was plucked right out of St. Petersburg.

There was a central town hall square, which served as a market and meeting place, and was the site of at least one execution (resulting from a dispute over a bad omelet). The circular stone where the stockades stood is still visible.

We stumbled upon a place where you could try your hand at archery, so Anton gave it a shot (har har). He had some practice shots, then came the competition between him, a guy from Finland, and a guy from the Phillippines. Anton won with a score of 82 points, and he made it onto the board as the highest score so far today!

We found the Cat's Well, which was the town's source of water. Superstition had it that there was an evil water spirit that required regular sacrifices in order to keep the well water fresh, so they threw animals into the well, especially stray cats. This continued until the mid 19th century.

After walking through Katarina Kaik (Katherine's Way) which was full of quaint shops set into the medieval buildings, we found a place where you could climb a tower and walk the city wall between 3 towers. At one point in time, Tallinn's walls spanned 4 km and had 46 towers. Then we found our way to one of the other towers, called Epping Tower. This tower had 6 levels you could climb, and was interactive because you could touch anything, including trying on the armour and playing with the medieval weapons. The top level contained a catapult which was really cool.

It was a pleasant day, walking along the cobblestoned streets. Of course, we only explored the old medieval part of Tallinn, not the newer city around it. We counted about 7 cruise ships in the harbour, so we figure more than 10,000 people must have descended upon this city at once, only to be gone in a few hours!
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At Sea

- Cozy Spot
- View from the Deck
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At Sea

It was an exceptionally quiet day today. After days of exploring towns, today was a full day at sea and we took advantage of it to relax. Being the Baltic instead of the Caribbean, it was a little on the cool side (20C) so we found out-of-the-way cozy spots in the sun to nestle into. After lunch we found a sunny spot in the quiet Addagio lounge, where it took a long time to write the Berlin blog. Then it warmed up enough and we found a quiet sunny spot on deck at the very rear of the boat. We didn't want to leave to go to dinner! How did the day go by so quickly when we weren't actually doing anything?!?!

Tonight was formal night. Everyone looked so fancy. Afterwards we went to a show that the ship's singers and dancers put on, very cheesy.
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Berlin, Germany

- "You will be shot without warning."
- The Ovens
- The Reichstag
- Brandenberg Gate
- Holocaust Memorial
- Remnants of the Berlin Wall
- Straddling East and West Berlin
- Tall Ships
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Berlin, Germany

Sorry for the length of this blog, but this was truly a fascinating day.

The ship docked in Warnemunde along the northern coast of Germany. Today we had booked a tour with the cruise ship, so we had an early breakfast and then all the tour groups were herded in an organized manner to the train station, where we caught a two and a half hour train through the countryside of what used to be East Germany. Fortunately, everyone in our car decided to nap at the same time.

We arrived in Oranienburg where the Sachsenhausen Memorial Camp is located. Built in 1936, this was one of the first concentration camps built by the Nazis, and was the largest one in Germany. We were not aware that there had been a concentration camp so close to Berlin. Our tour leader Eva spoke impeccable English and we all wore "whisper" headsets so we could hear everything she said.

The camp was built to house 10,000 people. It had a main observation tower and all the barracks radiated from it like spokes of a wheel. There were several other observation towers and a "neutral zone" where prisoners would be shot without question. There is a story of a guard who threw a prisoner's hat into the neutral zone and told him to go get it, and shot the prisoner when he obeyed.

Over 200,000 people passed through this camp between 1936 and 1945. Hitler began by imprisoning any political dissenters or highly intellectual people who had the potential to become dissenters. Also imprisoned here were disabled people, the insane, homosexuals, criminals, or those likely to become criminals. Basically, those who were unwanted in his society. Also, Jehovahs Witnesses were brought here because they refused to work in the war industry. In 1938, 6000 Jews were brought here in one fell swoop. Throughout its use, 100,000 Jews were brought here.

All the prisoners were forced to work, making bricks for buildings in Berlin. This camp was also the site of one of the largest counterfeiting operations during WWII. The inmates were forced to forge American and British currency. The forgeries were so good that the British were forced to change their currency after the war.

About 40,000 people died at this camp, from exhaustion, disease, and especially malnutrition. They were fed about 900 calories a day but required to work 12 hours a day. For example, the shoe testing track still exists, where prisoners were required to walk or run for hours to test shoes.

We were shown through a barracks. Each barrack had beds enough for 100 prisoners but often housed 400. There were 8 toilets and one hour allocated for their use in the morning and one hour in the evening. There was a gallows in the center of the camp, and we saw the wall where prisoners were lined up and shot. The ovens could cremate about 400 corpses a day.

In March of 1935, just before liberation, there was a Death March. We don't know the purpose of it, perhaps to relocate the prisoners? About 35,000 prisoners took part, only 3000 remained behind because they were too sick. Many did not survive the Death March.

After the war ended, Stalin took over the camp from 1945-1950. About 12,000 more prisoners died during this time, most of whom starved. It's hard to believe something like that could have happened so recently. Now the camp is a memorial.

After our 2 hour sobering visit to the concentration camp, our group was taken to a fancy hotel where we were given a traditional, family-style German lunch. Pretty good, although Frankie didn't necessarily believe that the sausages were gluten-free despite the waiters' assurances.

After lunch Eva took us on a walking tour of several significant locations in downtown Berlin, starting with the Reichstag, seat of German parliament. We walked through the Brandenberg Gate; constructed in 1791, it was one of 17 city gates. It was built as a symbol of peace but was used by Napolean in 1806 to signify triumph when he took the city. Hitler also used it to signify his power when he marched through with his troops and party members.

After WWII, East and West Germany were created in 1949 when they found that their political ideologies were opposing. The Brandenberg Gate became a symbol of the division between East and West Germany. In 1987, Reagan came to the Gate and gave his famous speech telling Gorbachev to "tear down these walls".

While we were at the Brandenberg Gate, some foolish young teens nearby began chanting nazi themes. Our guide Eva stopped in horror and said those boys could be arrested.

Our next stop was the amazing Holocaust Memorial, built by the Germans to commemorate their own victims. The Memorial is simply 2711 stones which are laid out geometrically and take up 205,000 sq feet. At the perimeter it seems that the stones are all the same height, but as you walk into them they get taller and taller. The Memorial was built next to the bunker where Hitler committed suicide. The bunker was destroyed 3 times before it finally took.

Our next stop was at a section of the Berlin Wall that still stands. The Berlin Wall was erected to separate East and West Germany. The Wall ran right through the center of Berlin. The wall stood for 28 years and was torn down in 1989. One of Frankie's friends from university, a German exchange student, mailed her a piece of the wall when it came down. You can tell where it ran because there is a line of paving stones that is different from existing road or sidewalk. The section that still remains was different than we expected. It was not very thick, and only 13 ft tall. But effective.

Our last stop of the day was called Checkpoint Charlie. This was one of only 3 places where a crossing between East and West Germany could occur, and it was manned by American soldiers. Now it's just a kitschy tourist stop, with nearby shops with names like "Checkpoint Curry".

We drove through the Jewish section of town where the museums are guarded because of threats from the Arabic world. Then the train ride back to our boat. As we got off the train, we could hear the ship's horn blasting to tell everyone to hurry up. Occasionally the blast would change to a cat call, very funny.

From our balcony, we watched the ship pull out of port at 9 pm. There was a beautiful sunset over the bavarian town, and music playing from the docks to see us off. We got a special treat because we passed dozens upon dozens of tall ships coming into the town in single file. The ports were lined with people waving us off and greeting the tall ships. Amazing.
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Aarhus, Denmark

- Domkierk
- Domkierk
- Den Gamle By
- Pool on the Ship
- Anniversary Dinner
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Aarhus, Denmark

Friday, August 10

Happy Anniversary to us! There were balloons and a sticker on our cabin door and some free vouchers for us.

Today the boat was docked in Aarhus (pronounced ore-hoose, rhymes with moose). The city is about 1100 years old. We started by exploring the DomKierk, a large cathedral built between the 13th and 15th centuries. It was recently discovered that there were frescoes under the whitewashed ceiling.

The next stop was a short visit to a bank. Not for money, but for the Viking Museum. Apparently when the bank was excavating in 1964, they found artifacts from a Viking village. So the bank simply built around the ruins.

Then we walked through the city until we got to Den Gamle By, which means Old Town. It consists of 70 actual buildings dating from 1600 to 1900, and reconstructed here as a provincial town.

On our way back through town, we stolled the peaceful Botanical Gardens, and then found another cathedral, the Church of our Lady. We had wanted to see this church for the crypt, but were a bit disappointed to find just a dark cellar. I guess at one time or another there must have been burial sites down there?

At dinner the waiters embarrassed us by singing to us, and brought us an anniversary cake which Frankie can't eat. Then a good violin act by "world-famous" Chris Watkins. He calls himself "Fireworks on Four Strings".
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Oslo, Norway

- Town Hall
- Restored Viking Boat
- Our Cruise Ship
- The National Theatre
- Frankie and a Guard from the Royal Palace
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Oslo, Norway

Thursday, August 9

When we woke up, the ship was in Oslo, Norway. Oslo was founded in 1048 by Harald Hardrake. After breakfast we decided to go for a nap first! When we finally did go into Oslo, everything was an easy walk from the ship. We toured the city hall and saw the building where they give out Nobel Peace Prizes.

Then we bought ferry tickets, which brought us to the Viking Museum. They had 3 Viking ships on display, 2 that were restored and one displayed in its original condition. One of the ships dates back to 820 AD, the other two to 900 AD. They were beautiful oak ships, about 23 meters long and 5 meters wide, and it required 30 men to row. They were found intact in some farmers fields, preserved in clay, where the whole viking ship was buried under a mound. These were apparently burial plots for famous people, and they were buried with all sorts of stuff for use in the afterlife, including chests of supplies, sledges, several dogs and horses, and of course their own handmaiden.

After a short walk, we found our next museum. The Kon-Tiki boat was on display, this is the boat that was built to prove that Polynesian people could have travelled across the ocean in a reed boat, and thus explain how Easter Island became populated. Likewise, another reed boat called the Ra II proved that explorers from the Old World could have travelled to the New World using primitive technology.

The next boat museum was the Fram Museum. This ship was built in 1892 and used by both Amundsun and Shackleton in the explorations of the South Pole. Fram means "pushing forward", so named because the boat was very effective for getting through ice. We were actually allowed to board this boat and explore its 3 levels.

We took the ferry back to city center and walked through the royal palace grounds. The flag was flying which meant that the royal family is currently in residence. We stopped to have Frankie's picture taken with one of the guards, and Frankie actually made him smile.

Our last explore in Oslo was the fortification, then back to the ship where we caught a presentation describing tomorrow's port of call, and then we both napped (again!) before dinner as we sailed back through the fiords of Norway.
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Copenhagen

- The Little Mermaid
- On Board
- Leaving Copenhagen
- The Baltic Sea
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Surprise! It's Copenhagen! Surprise! It's not Copenhagen!

Wed. August 8

The surprise trip for Anton was a success! Even though he expected to find out the destination when he arrived at the airport, Frankie dragged it out even longer. She did all the checking in for both of them and included the check-in ladies in her secret. We laughed so hard when one of them told Anton to enjoy his trip to Pakistan. The security guy almost gave it away when he commented on our going to Chicago. That really confused Anton. We can only guess that he misread the destination code, but it was perfect for continuing the surprise. Frankie finally revealed the Copenhagen destination a half hour before boarding, but gave no details beyond that.

Red-eyes are definitely not our favourite, it was nearly impossible to sleep. By the time we finally drifted off, they woke us up for breakfast, sigh.

The flight was uneventful except that in all our years of traveling, we have never actually heard the announcement asking for a doctor or nurse on board. When we landed, all the passengers had to remain seated for half an hour while 4 paramedics came on board to tend to the elderly lady who wasn't feeling well. It gave Frankie a chance to finish her movie.

The Copenhagen airport is easy with beautiful hardwood floors and nice shops. Lots of helpful people. We opted for the train into the city, meant to be an easy 15 minute ride. Except somehow we must have gotten onto the wrong train, and ended up going totally the wrong way, so we had to hop off and backtrack on a different train. Oops.

Frankie decided that they would start by going to the Copenhagen waterfront to see the famous Little Mermaid statue that sits in the harbour. The statue is a hundred years old and commemorates the character by Hans Christian Anderson, the Danish storywriter. The poor statue has been dismembered and vandalized too many times to count. Missing limbs and even her head, which was never found (the first time) so they had to attach a new head. The funny part of it all is that this is not even the original statue. It is only a copy, the family has the original.

Anton wondered why they had to drag all the luggage all the way downtown, but was a decent sport about it. Docked not too far away were some cruise ships, so we decided to walk along the waterfront to check them out. When Frankie kept going past the first cruise ship, Anton started getting suspicious. Sure enough, Frankie soon admitted that they were not remaining in Copenhagen, but boarding a Princess ship for a cruise of the Baltic.

So here we are in a smoltzy lounge after having boarded, attended the disorganized lifeboat drill, and enjoyed special attention at dinner. We have a nice balcony on our stateroom, but it is much cooler here than back home. We may have to pick up some warm nordic sweaters, I think we packed too lightly.

Anton thinks he knows everything now, but Frankie may still have a surprise or two up her sleeve, especially since our anniversary is on Friday.

To keep the surprise going, we will not reveal all the port destinations ahead of time. Stay tuned!
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