Last Day in Copenhagen

- Marble Cathedral
- Nyhaven Canal
- Self Portrait
- State Sword
- Royal Crowns
- Anton's Famous
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Last Day in Copenhagen

Tuesday, August 21

We had no real agenda today, so we pretty much made it up as we went along. We hopped on a bus, took it too far, and walked to Amalienborg Palace. Not open. So we checked out the Marble Church (Frederiks Kirke). It was designed to look like St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was started in 1749 and they intended to build the whole thing with marble, but ran out of funds. Construction was halted several times over lack of money, and finally the half-finished church lay in ruins for 150 years. In 1874 some rich guy finished it (in limestone, not marble) on condition that he acquired the rights to a bunch of land. It was controversial at the time, but the deal went through. Anyways, we liked the church. The guy who opened the doors was friendly and welcoming, and lo and behold, there was no counter where you had to buy your ticket to get in. Imagine that, a church that doesn't charge an entrance fee!

We went back to see if Amalienborg Palace was open yet, no luck, so we strolled up the Nyhavn Canal with its boats and old buildings and coffee shops. We see a lot of construction happening on these old buildings, I guess they need a lot more maintenance than our buildings back home.

Something else we see a lot of is bikes parked everywhere, a lot with no locks. Honour system? Just like on the trains and buses, we only sometimes get asked to see tickets once we are on board. We purchased a 3 day Copenhagen Pass which gets us into ALL the museums, and ALL the public transport. SO easy!

We ended up at Rosenborg Palace. It seems that every new Danish king built himself a palace, we don't know what was wrong with any of the existing ones. Again we walked through lots of opulent rooms and ogled the riches on display, especially the crown jewels. These are the ones that the monarchy are no longer allowed to wear, not even on their coronation day. One crown we saw is so ornate with gold and jewels, it weighs 8 pounds.

Next to the Rosenborg Palace, we took a stroll through the Botanical Garden. Very peaceful. The perfect place to take someone on a date.

Well, that only took up half our day, so we hopped on a train and went to the Karen Blixen Museum. Karen Blixen is from Out of Africa fame. We had already seen where she lived in Kenya for 17 years. The museum here in Denmark is the home where she grew up and where she returned to live out her days after being bankrupt by her failed coffee plantation. She turned her 37 acre property into a bird sanctuary by going onto the radio and asking everyone in Denmark to donate just one krone. There are 200 birdhouses that are regularly inspected, 40 species of birds nest there. She died at the age of 77 weighing about 90 pounds because of all the mercury laden medicine she had been prescribed to treat her illness. She is buried alone under a giant beech tree, what a lonely looking grave it was.

The Karen Blixen Museum was a good trip out of town, and since we were only 6 train stops away from Helsingor, we decided to make one more desperate look for Frankie's glasses. We started by asking at the 7-11 where we had purchased our Hillorod tickets, and guess what?!?! The lady behind the counter remembered us and produced the glasses for us, still in the case!!!! We had left them on her counter! Oh, so happy! God gave the miracle we had been praying for! Too bad Anton hadn't thought to check at this counter when he came all the way up here last night! When we got back on the train, we were so busy celebrating that we didn't notice we were sitting in the "Silence" area, and we got hushed by someone. Oops!

For the dinner "buffet" at the restaurant, they had choices of pasta or pasta. So the cook brought Frankie some gluten free bread and a bowl of pasta sauce, and she made sloppy joes out of it.

After dinner we once again hopped over to Tivoli for the evening. Why not? Free with the Copenhagen card. This time we didn't spent a dime (kroner?), we just walked around and watched people playing all the carnival games. We did find a few things we hadn't seen before, like the shooting (leaping?) sprays of water. We got our center spot on the bridge and watched the laser light show again. Much better tonight. Frankie could see!

Well, that wraps up our vacation and tomorrow we will be flying home. So I guess this makes this the last blog unless something unusual happens on our flight home! It was a great trip!
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Kronborg Castle and Frederiksborg Castle Gardens

- Which Way to the Castle?
- The Castle
- The Castle
- Frederiksborg Castle Gardens
- The Garden
- The Garden
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Kronborg Castle and Frederiksborg Castle Gardens

Monday, August 20

This morning we made our way via train to Kronborg Castle in Elsinore. It took 45 minutes by train. This castle is the most famous castle in Denmark because Shakespeare set the story of Macbeth here. However, the king that he based Hamlet on lived 300 years before this castle was ever built, and it is doubtful that Shakespeare ever visited Elsinore.

The castle was originally a fortification named Krogen, built in 1425. It was rebuilt into a Renaissance castle in 1574, named Kronborg. It was also a military barracks, and was opened to the public in 1938.

This place made a ton of money for the Danish kings. At the time, Denmark controlled both sides of the Oresund Sound, the channel that connects the Baltic Sea to the Atlantic. The Danish kings required a passage fee from every ship that went through. If the ships didn't pay, the cannons would let loose. If the captain was caught, he was hanged. All until the Americans kicked up a stink and demanded freedom of international seas. That put a stop to a sweet gig for the Danes.

We took a one hour long guided tour through the casements (dark places or dungeons) which is where the soldiers lived and also where they kept a lot of slaves. The rooms were dark and damp and could house 1000 men with supplies to withstand a 6 week siege. There is a huge statue of Holger the Dane here. He was a powerful viking. It is said that if Denmark is ever in mortal need, the statue will come to life and Holger will prevail.

Then we walked through the Royal Apartments. Our guide had a lot to say about these, we thought it could have been shorter.

We took another train, this time to the town of Hilrod. We walked around a pretty lake to get to Frederiksborg Castle. We could have toured inside, but we'd had enough of gawking at opulent rooms and opted for the extensive outdoor gardens instead. The royal monograms were done in boxwood, very pretty. We found a small lake ferry to take us around to the far side of the lake, where we could walk back to the train station for the long and hot ride back to the hotel.

As soon as we got back into the hotel room, we noticed Frankie's glasses were missing! Not again! This happened in Peru! She got them back in Peru, but where are they in Denmark??? The best guess was at our lunch restaurant. So Prince Anton trudged back an hour each way to see if they were there, because phone calls were less than helpful. Alas, no luck, but he's still a prince in Frankie's eyes. She has decided to do something different regarding glasses on future trips.....

So that the evening didn't end on a down note, we headed over to Tivoli for one hour before it closed. Anton had a fistful of Danish coins in his pocket, and they never exchange coins back, so we decided to have some fun and spend them. Another yummy fruit drink. Still more coins. So we tried the dart and balloon carnival game. Anton got 2 out of 3 shots so he got 10 points. Frankie got all 3 of her darts, yippee, so she got 40 points. We took our points and went shopping: a bauble ring for Frankie, a toy car, and a stuffed hippo. We named him Mr. Hippo.

We stayed again for the light show, we thought it was better last night. Tonight there was a breeze blowing the smoke away, plus Frankie couldn't see as well without her glasses!

One more day in Copenhagen. The locals say that this is the first heat spell of the season. Speaking of locals, the Danes make Anton look tiny. No wonder the Vikings were so successful!
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Copenhagen, Denmark

- Little Mermaid, Surrounded by Tourists
- Royal Palace
- Round Tower
- Find Frankie!
- Flying Star
- Tivoli Garden
- Light Show
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Copenhagen, Denmark

Sunday, August 19

Well, they booted us off the ship nice and early. We carried our own luggage off, everyone else had to wait in holding areas to get theirs. We decided to skip the taxis and make our own way downtown, it was SO easy! Right from the ship just follow the blue painted line right through the maze that is the terminal, and the blue line continues along the sidewalk until you get to the train station 10-15 minutes later. We got off at the Central Station and walked 5 minutes to our hotel. It was too early to check in, so we left our luggage in their office and went exploring for the day.

The first thing we did was take an hour long canal cruise through the city, in an open boat with the sun beating down on us. It was crazy hot today. Maybe that's why there was a guy sitting on his front step wearing nothing but his coffee cup as we sailed by. The bridges are really low, like St. Petersburg, and one corner was too tight for the boat.

Next we walked through Christiansborg Church which is attached to the palace. The church was burnt down in 1992 by some drunk teens shooting flare guns off one of the bridges. They turned themselves in and were given a small fine, but it cost millions to rebuild the church.

We walked through the Christiansborg ruins, which is basically the basement of the present palace because they keep building layer after layer on top of the old foundations. The first palace was built by Bishop Absalon, who founded Copenhagen in 1157 and was its first king. Presently Denmark has a queen, Queen Margarethe II. We also walked through the palace Reception Rooms. Very grand, but we're getting used to it now, we've been through so many palaces on this trip.

This city should be called the city of spires. They are everywhere you look, and every one of them is unique and beautiful. We walked past the ancient stock exchange whose spire is made of 4 dragons' tails intertwined with each other.

We made our way through Christianshavn, the hippie pot and hash smoking section of town that the government keeps trying to get rid of. Our mission was to visit the Church of our Saviour. Inside was a huge organ and beautiful music. We climbed the tower to the top of the spire, which was a narrow old wooden staircase with the final one third of it winding its way on the outside of the tower.

We made our way back along the canals with only a few wrong turns, and visited Glyptotek, a museum with lots of french artists (Monet, Gaughin, Rodin) and even some Picasso and Van Gogh. We walked through rooms and rooms of ancient heads off statues. Where are the bodies? There was a central concert hall area lined with 2000 year old statues.

We checked in at the hotel and we have a nice large room compared to the cruise ship. What will we do with all this space? And we're on the top floor, yippee! No noisy neighbours above us! The ones above us on the cruise ship were horrible, we basically had to sleep on their schedule or not sleep at all.

We walked through the Stroget, which is a pedestrian street shopping area, and made our way to the Round Tower. This was an astronomical tower built 350 years ago that has an indoor brick ramp winding up, up, up to the top. The ramp is about 5 meters wide. Peter the Great rode up this ramp 300 years ago on his horse, with his wife Catherine following him in a chariot. Too funny.

We found a bus to take us back near the hotel, which includes a buffet dinner in the price. But their idea of buffet is different than ours. They had bowls of servings already laid out, and only one choice. Luckily it was gluten-free, at least tonight. We found out that a glass of water with dinner cost $6, and we were told not to bring our own water bottle in with us. But we outsmarted them - we discovered that tea and coffee came free with the meal!

After supper we had a leisurely evening at Tivoli. Tivoli is an amusement park in the middle of the city, 5 minutes away from our hotel. It is 160 years old, takes up 25-30 acres, and receives 5-6 million visitors a year. This park is an interesting mix of flower gardens, games, and rides. Really intense rides. We splurged for one ride, which cost us $15 each. It was the Flying Star, a chair swing ride that goes up and down at the same time (like Drop Zone) and goes really high. Frankie loved it, Anton was glad when it was over, and the guy behind us puked big time. Before we got on we were told to remove all loose items, including our cameras, and most people took off their shoes, so we followed suit. It was pretty neat flying through the air with bare feet. Afterwards, no one was allowed to leave the ride until everyone had their belongings. That discouraged theft. It worked.

We spent a few hours just wandering around, what lovely flowers everywhere. We splurged on a fruit drink where he took fresh fruit and juiced it right there for us. Any mix you wanted. We had to pay $1 for the cup, but there were machines throughout the park that gave you your $1 back if you deposited the cup, so we did ours and someone else's too.

The best part of the night was the lazor light show at 9:45, we had the perfect view standing center of the bridge overlooking a lake. It was an AMAZING show! They used light, water, smoke, and fire. All set to music. The lazors were wide, like sheets, and you felt like you were enveloped in them. It was the coolest thing we've ever seen, WAY better than fireworks!
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At Sea Again

- At Sea
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At Sea Again

Saturday, August 18

The morning started off cool and cloudy, but we had lots to keep us busy inside the ship. We ran into the Penners again at the interdenominational church service. We were surprised that it was led by the cruise director. Then there was a culinary demonstration and a walk through one of the dining room galleys. Each restaurant on board has its own kitchen, and this one was larger than our house. There are 515 crew members in the dining areas, that's half the ship's staff. There are 158 waiters alone.

After lunch the sun came out and we found a spot on deck to relax and bake ourselves. So nice over the open sea.
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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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