On the Baltic Sea, about 200 miles west of St. Petersburg, we arrived in the capital of Finland, Helsinki, the next morning – still game for touring but growing weary after 3 straight days of ports,with no restful sea days to recharge. Finland is tucked in between Sweden and Russia. It was part of Sweden […]
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The first St. Isaac’s Cathedral on this site was a small wooden structure built in 1710. Several versions have been built here, culminating with the current structure which was commenced in 1816 and completed in 1858. Models of the previous cathedrals. Because of the marshy land upon which the cathedral is built, scaffolding (shown in […]
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Our second day in St. Petersburg we took the morning off and then went on a canal tour in the afternoon. Since the city was originally designed as a canal city, like Venice or Amsterdam, it makes sense that touring by canal would be efficient. Plus given the traffic in the city, canal boats are […]
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After lunch, we walked to the Hermitage, which was just a couple of blocks away. The Hermitage is a huge palace built in 1764 originally as the winter palace for Catherine the Great, who died before it was finished. It was occupied by her successor, Elizabeth. There is a very large square in front of […]
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Our very first visit to Russia. As a child of the cold war, I have embedded preconceptions about this place, and I find it amazing that I could grow up in an era where a visit to Russia was not even remotely possible, and now we can cruise into the harbor for a visit, and […]
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This begins a period of 5 days in ports. No sea days to write my blog, so I will begin to fall behind at this point, but I promise you we will be enjoying ourselves and will tell you about it as time permits. Estonia is a small country which was part of the Soviet […]
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The most visible remaining symbols of the division of Berlin into East & West are the few remaining parts of the Berlin wall. Some of these are crumbling, pretty much being allowed to deteriorate. Other parts of the wall have been decorated by local artists – the most famous section is simply called “The Kiss”. […]
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Due to the number of pictures – I divided this into two parts. Despite our delay enroute, we arrived on time in Warnemunde on time. Warnemunde, 120 miles north of Berlin on the Baltic Sea, was part of the former East Germany. We would have liked to look around the town, but went immediately to […]
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On our way from Oslo to Germany, while nearing Denmark, the ship changed course and sped up. Shortly the Captain announced that we had a seriously ill passenger on board who needed treatment at a hospital, and the closest one was Elsinore, Denmark, about a half hour away. We traveled to Elsinore and held our […]
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Our next stop after the Viking Ship Museum is the Kon-Tiki Museum. In 1947 Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Pacific, from South America to Polynesia in 101 days, attempting to prove that the Polynesian Islands were settled from explorers coming from South America. While it has since been established that the islands were settled from the […]
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