BALTIC SEA CRUISE

We visited 8 countries in 13 days! All but one of them was a new country for me which gets my count of countries visited up to 50....WOW!

I'll try to give you a snippet of each destination with a few of my personal thoughts thrown in for good measure. Our SAS flight from Chicago to Stockholm included an upgrade that was almost like business class - Lou even had leg room! But I'm telling you the airline industry has totally sucked the fun out of air travel. Fortunately, cruising is still a fairly civilized way to see the world. 

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN

We fully intended to hit the ground running upon our morning arrival into Stockholm but the jet lag & 24 hours of travel had us napping in our stateroom & just relaxing instead. The next morning we set out on the Hop On Hop Off bus for some sightseeing. A word of caution when using these buses on a cruise - you & hundreds of others are all trying to get back to the ship at the same time. We ended up taking a taxi back.

The overcast skies started breaking up in late morning & I took full advantage of the beautiful clouds framing the Parliament Building in Stockholm.

The skyline of Stockholm's "Gamla Stan" or "Old Town" is quite striking.

Stortorget Square was the central meeting place & gives tourists a feel for what the imperial hey day in 17th century Stockholm was like.

This large meeting area in Stockholm's City Hall hosts the dinner honoring the Nobel Peace Prize recipients each year. The prizes are awarded elsewhere but the huge, crowded dinner fills every corner of this room.

In 1628 the warship, Vasa, sank on her maiden voyage in Stockholm. It was raised & salvaged in 1961 & is the only preserved 17th century ship in the world. It really is an impressive sight!

HELSINKI, FINLAND

The cruise director on our ship, Topi (pronounced Tow-pee), was a familiar face who we recognized as a cruise staff person on a previous cruise. He is from Helsinki & we both thoroughly enjoyed his cruise director style. More on him later. Our city tour of Helsinki gave us a good overview of the city.

The Rock Church is constructed directly into the bedrock of stone in downtown Helsinki. It is a major tourist attraction & favorite wedding destination.

This monument to the national composer of Finland, Jean Sibelius, is built to resemble organ pipes.

A local Farmer's Market across the square from the Helsinki Cathedral.

The distinctive Helsinki Cathedral is a landmark in the city. The neoclassical building was designed by Carl Ludvig Engel in 1852 & seats over 1300 worshippers.

ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA

Russia looked exactly as I imagined it - dreary, overcast & full of Communist era buildings & monuments. My thoughts of St. Petersburg may be a bit skewed since in all our travels this is the ONLY city in which I was "backpack picked"! Fortunately, we know to keep passports, money, credit cards, etc firmly secured to our bodies & all that was taken was an inexpensive necklace I had purchased for Charley. But it was unnerving since in a matter of seconds we were distracted, bumped into & my backpack opened.

The ship spent 3 days in St. Petersburg. Our first excursion was to the Winter Palace which houses the Hermitage Museum, one of the largest & oldest in the world. It was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great - who we were told had over 300 lovers in her lifetime! You go, girl!

The stunning rooms were as much the museum as the works of art. Our morning tour had an added bonus - the museum was not yet open to the public so many of the rooms we entered had no visitors. It made for some great photo ops if we jumped to the front quickly.

Local art students are allowed in during closed hours to hone their skills by copying masterpieces.

The second day our city tour included the Peter & Paul Fortress. Our guide, Alex, was an interesting man who held Russian, U. S. & Israeli citizenship. He had lived in the Napa Valley at one time.

Of course, I had to snap this photo of the Russian Burger King out the bus window. I'm pretty sure we saw McDonald's in every country that we visited, too.

These communist era apartment buildings seemed to be the norm for most of the population.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood - it is built on the sight where Emperor Alexander II was severely wounded & died in March 1881. The stunning architecture is amazing. It looks like something you'd find in Disneyland.

This canal near the Palace Square & Winter Palace reminds tourists a little of Venice, Italy, right in the middle of St. Peterburg.

The Nevsky Prospect is one of the main shopping areas in downtown St. Petersburg & was the place where my backpack was picked. If I turned around the main street was swarming with tourists & locals but I managed to get a photo minus people on this side street.

TALLINN, ESTONIA

I loved the Baltic countries! All three of them had wonderfully scenic old medieval inner cities with parts of the walls remaining. Our tour in Tallinn took us into the country for a visit to a dairy farm followed by a visit to a Soviet era house that was common for the middle class.

This is the reception building on the Esko Farm where we were treated to samples of cheese, yogurt & curds as we learned about the local culture & economy. 

Our tour of Estonia continued back in the city. During the Soviet era these houses were constructed for the masses. Initially they were all single story, tiny homes that housed entire families in just 2-3 rooms. Many people have added a second story but the interiors are still sparse.

This is the kitchen in the above house as it looks today. I was amazed at the tiny sink & small work spaces. Only the stove & dishwasher seemed to be modern. The floor was no more than 4 feet across. This family opened their home to us in order for us to get a better idea of life in Estonia. We were served rhubarb cake along with tea & coffee in their backyard.

This is a view of Old Town Tallinn from the top of the city walls on our walking tour.

We chose to stay in town & make our own way back to the ship so we could explore more of the scenic streets of Tallinn.

RIGA, LATVIA

When Darrin was little & we would travel, we always each chose our favorite part or place on the trip. You couldn't say all of it, you had to pick somewhere. Although this was an incredible journey if I had to pick my favorite, it would be Riga. The walking tour we did of the old city combined historic sites with new markets & some gorgeous flower gardens.

Some of the modern city of Riga from the bus as we made our way to the Old Town.

Our walking tour of Riga's old medieval town included many beautiful gardens along with the old buildings & churches. The tour also included a 20 minute organ concert in one of the old cathedrals.

There were flowers, grass & plants everywhere in Old Town Riga. It was truly a charming place.

The story of the Black Cat in Riga goes something like a merchant was denied entry into an exclusive Guild in town so he had these statues placed on his roof & pointed their rear ends at the Guild.  They were eventually turned around so it didn't look like they were going to poop on the Guild.

Our guide said that this monument in the center of Riga is called a "Christmas Tree" - not sure why since I didn't see any resemblance to a Christmas tree.

KLAIPEDA, LITHUANIA

I deferred to Lou on our tour in Lithuania where we took a long bus ride to a former Soviet Nuclear Missile site. The guide was knowledgeable & the underground museum gave us a real feel for just how close the end of the world was back in the 60s & 70s.

We drove through downtown Klaipeda on our 1-1/2 hour journey to the former Soviet Nuclear Weapons site.

On the way, we made a photo stop at Lake Plateliai in Zemaitija National Park. 

One of the silos that housed the nuclear missiles in the Soviet era located in the country of Lithuania. The site was built in 1960 & closed in the late 1970s. The short range missiles were moved from here to Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The site contained many Cold War era underground tunnels that now house various museum displays including this room full of propaganda posters. This was the Soviet side while the opposite wall showed the U.S. & Western propaganda ads.

Some of the tunnels that allowed the Soviets to access all four missiles & run their covert operations. 

White storks are all over Lithuania. Many platforms are built to allow them to safely build their nests & lay their eggs. We were treated to lots of sightings - this young white stork wasn't too sure about all of us jumping out of the bus to photograph him.

A clipper ship along the streets of Klaipeda.

DAY AT SEA - FINALLY!

This was our only day at sea on this cruise & we did nothing except lounge around the Solarium pool, soak in the hot tub & listen to Topi's presentation of his 8 month sailing adventure with 4 other people from Panama to Australia. He had some incredible insights about not sweating the small stuff & learning to resolve conflicts when 5 people are cooped up in tight quarters for months.

The pool deck on Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas.

The Centrum is the huge atrium area in the center of the ship. 

The adults only indoor Solarium pool was our favorite place. Although with the sheer number of ports of call, we didn't get a lot of opportunity to take advantage of it. 

WARNUMUNDE, GERMANY

The big excursion from this northeast German port is an all day trip to Berlin. Since we spent time there a few years ago, we rented a car & headed to the resort island of Rugen where Lou knew of a huge Nazi resort endeavor called Prora that was never completed.

The Prora Beach Resort was originally intended as a vacation destination for the Third Reich. It was built between 1936 & 1939 but never completed & used as a resort due to the start of World War II.

The eclectic museum inside a small portion of the Prora housed all sorts of exhibits - this wine display, a room full of old sewing machines & one of ancient TVs & radios were a few of the offerings. Only a small portion of the museum signs were in English so we didn't know exactly what they were sharing with us.

On our return from Rugen Island, we stopped at the German town of Rostock near the port of Warnemunde.

FREDERICIA, DENMARK

Our first of two stops in Denmark was Fredericia. It is a small town that only sees 5 or 6 cruise ships a year - a far cry from many of the ports which had 3, 4 or even 5 ships in port at one time. The walking tour was different than most since the highlights were more for local folks than tourists.

This was zoomed way in & taken from our ship of the city of Fredericia. Like most of these destinations there is a new modern metropolis & the quaint old medieval town. 

This is a statue honoring the Common Soldier. According to our guide it was the first time a monument was erected to soldiers rather than generals or important military figures. During attacks it was covered with wood to protect it & survived intact.

This tower on the old city wall is now for tourists to climb for a great view - which, of course, we did.

The view of Fredericia & the Serenade of the Seas from the tower in the above photo.

A fountain in the market area of Fredericia.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

We finished our adventure as we began, with the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of Copenhagen. Our luck with the weather ran out a little as we had rain on & off - plus our beautiful blue skies gave way to gray as we took in the sights of the city.

Residents of Copenhagen use bicycles as their main mode of transportation. Downtown city streets have dozens of these parking areas for the hundreds of bikes.

Nyhavn (or North Harbor) is one of the most photographed locations in Copenhagen. The colorful buildings line the sides of canals. Unfortunately, my blue skies & clouds were nowhere to be found which would have made this a great picture.

Us with the other side of Nyhavn in the background. We had our lunch of Carlsberg beer & pizza along the promenade.

The Gefion Fountain depicts the mythical formation of the island of Zealand on which Copenhagen is built.

Again some blue sky would have enhanced this reflection of a small church near the Gefion Fountain, but we can't have it all I suppose. Someday I'll have to learn how to Photoshop in blue sky. I did Photoshop out a large crane that was to the right of the steeple. :-) 

And finally, apparently no visit to Copenhagen is complete without a stop at the Little Mermaid statue located on a rock in the waters of Copenhagen Harbor.