Gdansk, Poland; Christianso, Borholm, Helsingor & Copenhagen in Denmark - 13, 14 & 15 August

The last 3 days of our tour were full but interesting. On Sunday we docked at the port of Gdansk in Poland. The town of Gdansk was badly bombed in WW11 and 80% of it has been rebuilt in its original style dating back 400 years. This town is also significant as while it was under Soviet control in the 1970's there were street riots against communism, then in the 80's dock workers went on strike which eventually led to the end of communist rule in Poland and soon after in East Germany and the Baltic countries. So firstly, we visited the memorial at the old docks to those events.

The old town of Gdansk was crowded with people with stalls and activities to celebrate St Dominic's day. After our guided walk, we bought some Polish glass then met up with 'the 6' for a lunch of Polish dumplings. Jim and Fi had climbed the old church tower and John and Jenny had gone up the Town Hall tower - the rest of us had shopped! 

On Monday, we arrived off shore of the tiny island of Christianso. This pretty island is less than 1/2 square km in area and has a population of 78. It is essentially a Danish defence island but has a small school, a church, doctor and fishing industry. It welcomes tourists on yatchs who come to its safe harbour. It is a very peaceful island with abundant bird life and a colony of seals basking on rocks just offshore.

In the afternoon, we docked at Bornholm, another Danish island. Here we visited a winery and an organic meat farm as well as a pretty seaside village. Bornholm was captured by the Germans early in WW11 and was an important lookout station and listening post for them.

On Tuesday, we arrived in the port of Helsingor which is the location of Kronborg Castle. This castle was the setting for Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. The castle dates from 1582 and sits on a prominent position as you come into the harbour and has a full moat around it. It has been carefully restored but the highlight of the visit was watching a group of actors present excerpts of Hamlet from different rooms according to where the scenes took place. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to watch the last dramatic scene but maybe that was a good thing as most of the cast end up dead!

Finally, in the afternoon we arrived in Copenhagen and had a couple of hours to go onshore and look around before the Captains Farewell dinner in the evening. One lady (Joan - who lives in Donvale) went for a walk in some nearby gardens and seeing a woman walking her dog, went over to pat the dog. On glancing at the dog's owner, Joan realised that she knew that face - it was Princess Mary of Denmark. They had a nice chat and Joan took a couple of photos. What a treat! Mary had two bodyguards with her, but the Danish Royals are known to wander around and mingle with the people. In fact next week Queen Marguerite is going to Bornholm island and will be visiting the farm we went to two days ago.

Now we have left "the 6" to enjoy a couple more days in Copenhagen as we start our journey home. We have missed you all and look forward to seeing you. We feel very blessed by the amazing places we have seen and the great company we have experienced, both in Portugal/Spain and around the Baltic.

Gdansk monument to the dock workers

Gdansk Old Town

Polish Dumplings (yet to come) for lunch

Christianso Island

Bornholm Island - Jan's last picture because here she dropped her camera and it broke!

Kronborg Castle - Hamlet

Jan found a pile of pirates treasure!

Keeping the Pirates at bay from Helsingor

Kronborg Castle - from the air. (Or is it??)

Polonius (I think) from Hamlet

Ophelia

Gotland Island, Sweden & Klaipeda, Lithuania - 11 & 12 August

On Friday, we arrived at the Swedish Island of Gotland early in the afternoon. We docked at the town of Visby which normally has about 85,000 inhabitants but this week is the time of the annual medieval festival with thousands of visitors, mostly dressed in medieval outfits. They were dancing, picnicking and enjoying a huge fair selling all kinds of medieval things. Actually it looked quite authentic amongst the old buildings within the walled city - that is until a medieval person pulled out their mobile phone!! We thought the little boys would have liked the wooden swords and knights armour to play with, but couldn't fit it in the cases! Sorry boys! It was quite a warm day and after a long walk over cobbled stones and up and down stairs, we were pretty hot - so of course, Jim stripped down to his undies and went for a swim off one of the rocky beaches. 

By 6 we were back on board and setting sail for Lithuania. We have enjoyed every meal - breakfast, lunch and dinner up on the outside deck, with some roof & side cover, watching the beautiful sunsets, watching the pilot who guides our ship out of each port jump from our ship to his boat & watching the amazing scenery of islands & coastline pass by.

On Saturday morning we arrived in Lithuania at the port city of Klaipeda. We chose to do a tour of the Cold War museum which was 1 1/2 hours drive from the port out in the wooded country side. This museum was formerly a Russian Missile Base from 1963 until 1978, hidden underground amidst forest and pig farms. Here the Russians had missiles ready to fire at various European cities if Moscow gave the order. Four deep silos for firing the missiles & a maze of underground rooms were dug out by hand shovels by 10,000 Estonians bought into Lithuania by the Russians. The reason for this was that the Estonians couldn't speak Lithuanian and only a small amount of Russian so they couldn't tell the locals any secrets about what was going on there. Everything was built to make it hard to detect from the air,  but satellite maps showed that the Americans knew about the base. It was a fascinating tour to see up close what the Soviets were up to during the Cold War - no missile was fired from that base fortunately. 

Back at the town, we had time to explore the local streets & Dad found a good coffee place for us (with Jim & Fi). Despite having a bit of Lithuanian glass already, we couldn't resist some Baltic Amber which is the main souvenir of this area. The other 4 of our group had done a walking tour of the city in the morning. 

All aboard again and overnight we sail to Gdansk in Poland.

Visby on the Swedish island of Visby is a walled city

Locals in traditional dress

One of four underground silos for the launching of Russian nuclear bomb rockets

Russian soldiers with intercontinental ballistic missile

All that's left of the beautiful church of St John after WW11. Does the picture remind you of Marty & Doc (with a bell instead of a clock!).

Estonia & Latvia - 8, 9 & 10 August

We arrived in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, on Tuesday morning and embarked on the usual tour of the old city with a local guide. This tour was mostly on foot rather than in a bus but there were also 2 other ships in port (1 carrying 4,000 passengers - we have 107) and this made for very crowded streets. We visited the upper and lower parts of this city that goes back to the 13th century.  Estonia has been invaded by the Danes, Swedes, Germans and Russians but has now been a free and independent country since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

John took a bike riding tour around Tallinn with 15 others which also took them over the cobbled streets of the walled city. We enjoyed a free afternoon in the city, having lunch in the main square and exploring the side streets. Jim of course, climbed the town hall bell tower! 

That night we sailed to the Estonian Island of Saaremaa which was so peaceful and quiet as we were the only ship in port. It was a beautiful sunny day as we set off on our chosen activity - John went on a nature tour and walk; Bob, Anne, Jim & Fi went on a tour of the town and castle; Jan, Jenny and Susie went to a cooking class on a neighbouring island (over a causeway). The cooking school was on an old Estonian farm in an idyllic setting. We spent at least 5 hours there putting together a 4 course lunch under the instruction of a French trained, Dutch chef. It was a lot of fun and we all (about 17 of us) learnt more about the art of cooking. Jenny said it was the highlight of her trip so far. 

Once again sailing overnight, we arrived this morning in the Latvian capital of Riga. We had chosen to do a wooden boat ride along the canal and river that surrounds Riga. This was very pleasant and afterwards we stayed in the old city to explore it. Riga has some amazing buildings in the Art Nouveau style and as inTallinn, they are still restoring old buildings that were damaged or neglected in WW11 and the Soviet era. A highlight was listening to a midday organ recital in an old Lutheran cathedral. We enjoyed a lovely lunch in one of the town squares and then coffee and cake in a very quaint medieval building. After going up a church tower (by lift) we walked back to the ship, once again doing more than 12,000 steps, which is very necessary considering how much we eat!

Entering Tallinn by ship

Tallin castle

View over Tallin

Lunch in the Town Square

On the way back to the ship

On Saaremaa Island for the cooking class

Albert, the chef, instructing the cooks.

Jenny with other cooks

Small wooden boat ride in Riga

Art Nouveau building in Riga

Riga Doma where we attended an organ recital

St Petersburg, Russia - 6 & 7 August

We docked in St Petersburg, Russia at about 7.30 Sunday morning and commenced two very busy days that have certainly tested our energy levels! We left the ship at 9am and after a long wait to get through Russian security with our passports, we headed off to visit the Winter Palace which houses the Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great purchased 255 paintings from Berlin. It is now one of the most prominent art museums in the world. 

We did a 2 hour tour through the palace and museum looking at paintings by Leonardo Da Vinci, Rembrandt and Titian among many others and a sculpture by Michaelangelo. Our favourite is the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt - it is very moving. 

We then drove for 25 kms to Pushkin for lunch in a quaint Russian style restaurant with entertainment of folk music and songs as we ate traditional Russian food.  After lunch it was a short drive to Catherine's Palace which is lavishly decorated (over the top!) with gold engravings on walls and 

ceilings, huge chandeliers, exotic furnishings from all over the world and more incredible art works. This palace also contained the Amber Room (Amber is a gem found in the Baltic Sea). This room had been almost totally covered in Amber designs but in WW11 the German army took up residence in this palace, stole many of the art works and removed the Amber panels - some of the art works were later found, but not the Amber, so in the1980's the room was reconstructed using the original design. 

The Germans never got right into St Petersburg, but they did a lot of damage to the outlying palaces and reconstruction has been going on since the 1970s.

After a quick dinner back on the ship, we dressed up to go to the Hermitage Theatre to watch the Swan Lake Ballet. This was very enjoyable and probably of higher quality than the last time we saw it there. So our first day in Russia ended about 11pm which is late for us oldies!! 

This morning at 8.20am we were off to visit the Peterhof Palace on the Gulf of Finland. (on the way we passed another palace that Vladimir Putin has renovated for himself!)  Peterhof is also large and ornate but its main feature is its gardens and gold statures in the fountains.  The highlight of this tour was a return trip to our ship by hydrofoil.

After lunch we took another look at the city, visiting several main sights before returning to the ship by 5pm. Now we have upped anchor and have set sail for Estonia (my grand-dad's homeland).

The Hermitage - outside

The Hermitage - inside staircase

By Leonardo da Vinci

Sculpture by Michaelangelo - with his friends Jim and Anne

Catherine's Palace 

The fountain cascade at Peterhof Palace

Baltic Cruise - 1, 2, 3 & 4 August

Wednesday 1st August was a travel day - flying out of Funchal (Madeira) to Zurich then dashing through the airport to connect with another plane to Stockholm. We arrived at the hotel after 8pm but  soon were able to locate our 6 travelling companions in the lounge & joined them for awhile. 

On Thursday afternoon we were picked up by APT and taken on a tour of Stockholm before being taken to the ship. Part of the tour included a visit to the Wasa ship - 17th century ship that sunk 20 mins after setting sail. We had seen this last year and the others had seen it the day before (from our recommendation) but we enjoyed another quick look at it. We also did a walk around the old city and enjoyed a light lunch there while listening to a classical pianist play in front of the cafe. 

Finally we settled on the ship - no more packing and unpacking suitcases for 2 weeks! Jim & Fi, Anne Susie & dad & I are in cabins on the lowest deck. Jim is boasting because they have 4 portholes in their cabin and we, Anne & Susie only have 3! John & Jenny are on a higher deck and have a large window. Jim & Fi are appropriately next to the ship's hospital. Last night at the Captain's dinner we met the ship's doctor - a stern looking Russian called Vladimir - think we will try not get sick!! 

Thursday we docked at Mariehamn which is the capital of Åland, an autonomous group of islands under Finnish sovereignty who actually identify more with Sweden & speak Swedish. We enjoyed a guided tour of the island and in the afternoon had a special trip on the Zodiacs (rubber dinghies) of some of the waterways. 

We set sail in the evening again and arrived in Turku - on the Finnish mainland - at 7.30am on Friday.  Turku was the former capital of Finland but when the country was under Russian rule, they moved the capital to Helsinki (in 1812) to be closer to Russia than Turku which is closer to Sweden. Once again we had a tour of the city, Lutheran Cathedral and Turku Castle which has a history going back to 1280's and then a lovely afternoon spent at the botanic gardens and a forest walk along the water's edge looking at some of the big summer houses built there. 

What I found interesting is the connection between Hungary, Estonia, Finland and Lapland. Apparently they were originally all settled by the same tribes and have considerable similarities in their language and genetics. This differs quite a lot from the Germanic languages. The Finns believe in being very prompt, obeying the rules and seem to work fairly hard. They say they have a policeman in their head who tells them not to cross the road unless it's a green light! That sounds like me too! 

Leaving Stockholm

First dinner on the ship

Old farmhouse on one of the Åland Islands - with horse!

Ruins of the Russian fortress of Bomarsund in Arland

Canons at the fortress

John and friends on one of the Zodiacs

The Turku Castle

The Botanical Gardens

Finnish "Summer House" (ie holiday house) with Sauna on the shoreline

Leaving Turku at sunset