Oceania - Cruise The Baltic

Transcription

1 Oceania - Cruise The Baltic Monday, 26 July 2010 We arrived in Stockholm's Arlandia Airport and bypassed an customs check on the way to a waiting bus by eight o'clock. Too early to be received at Oceania Regatta, they had provided an unscheduled bonus driving tour of the city until the staff could let us board the ship. Twenty five people were ushered onto a 60 passenger bus and Gabriela, our guide, introduced herself and the driver set out. We drove a half hour to reach the city and then past the old city island of Gamla Stan, Stockholm's southern island named Södermalm, the old prison island of Långholmen and around the island of Kungsholmen. We drove to a point where we could overlook the canal of Djurgården. We then continued past Fjäderholmarna, Prince Eugen's Waldemarsudde, the Vasa museum, and Slussen. 75

2 Trotzig. Unfortunately we would not have time for that. All the while Gabriela spoke of Sweden's history, current political status, population, and school system. Of course, she was charged with entertaining weary passengers who had traveled almost twenty-four hours to get here and were anxious to get to their ship. Having been to Stockholm twice before, the last time in 1989 when Liz and I stayed a week, I had hoped for time to revisit the Vasa Museum (home of the 17th century warship which sank on her maiden voyage) and to once more have lunch at the Restaurant Mårten We did have the opportunity to go to the Royal Palace although we missed the changing of the guard. One of the benefits of being in a small group on a bus of travelers ready for a cruise is that you may meet people you would like to get to know over the next two weeks. Such was our meeting with Angela and Dave Witt, from Sacramento. We struck up a conversation, introduced ourselves, and exchanged cameras to have pictures taken with a guard. By this time we had completed our blixtar turné (lightning tour) and we reported to the ship where our luggage was quickly transferred from the bus to the hold and we were ushered on board to check in. We were then asked to wait a few moments for the primer passengers to process first. Still, we were finished for lunch-time in the lounge. While we were waiting for the rooms to become available we also met Robert and Donna Wright and mentioned to them, and the Witt's, that we had reservations for the next evening at the Toscana Restaurant and asked if they would join us. They agreed it would be fun. While we were exploring the ship we stopped at the reservations desk and had them change our reservation for two into a table for six the next evening. 76

3 By then the rooms were open and we discovered that half of our luggage was already set outside. We unpacked what had been delivered and then prepared for lifeboat drill which would take place in 45 minutes. With that finished, we returned to the stateroom where Edgerton, our steward, had delivered our remaining bags. Storing the items in the mini-bar plus two long, thick bathrobes to give us more space the in closet, we finished settling in cabin in time to join the Wright's and the Witt's for a cocktail in Martini's Lounge before going to the Grand Dining Room for dinner. This is the regular dining room for the ship and the menu was very impressive. For our first evening dinner selections Liz ordered an appetizer of Harmony of Cantaloupe Melon Flower and Grapefruit Segments with Sweet Côteaux du Layon Wine. I ordered the Steamed Shanghai Dumplings, Stuffed with Ground Pork and Reduced Chicken Soup. We both ordered the Beef Consommé with Diablotins from the soup course. Liz selected the Sicilian Salad with Baby Greens, Onion, Tomato, Black Italian Olives and Capers and I chose the same. For the main course I selected the Veal Medallions Oscar with Asparagus Spears, Snow Crab Claw and Glazed with Hollandaise Sauce and Liz opted for the Tagliatelle Crudaiola tossed in Arugula and Garlic-Marinated Fresh Tomatoes. We both ordered sides of Steamed Vegetables, Sautéed Spinach, and String Beans. For dessert we shared the French Apple Tart and the Piña Colada Cheesecake. I noticed that Bob was wearing a gold watch with the Shell Oil logo and wondered about his profession. He graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis and spent five years in the submarine service. He proudly displayed the Submarine Warfare Insignia (Dolphin) in his lapel. After active duty he then left the service and worked for Shell Oil out of Houston, Texas for the rest of his career. Dave and Angela Witt were both in law enforcement careers in Sacramento, California. Angela worked for the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information (BCII), AFIS/NATMS ID Section. I believe Dave was involved with firearms licensing and sales violations for the state. Tuesday, 27 July We were up at five o'clock and out on our walk fifteen minutes later. Other than two crewmen cleaning up the walking track and one of the hot-tubs, we were alone on the deck. We wanted to begin early and enjoy a sit down breakfast today. Our body clocks were out of adjustment but we knew a good breakfast was in order and we would not dock in Helsinki until approximately eleven o'clock. We had over an hour before our excursion would be called in the Regatta Lounge. We walked off the ship and proceeded a block up the quay to the market.

4 Kauppahalli Indoor Market is located near the Market Square by the harbor in a red brick building. As you walk into the market, the century-old building (1899) was busy with vendors setting up their food stands and people having morning coffee and pastry or buying a freshly-made lunch to go. It's a large sun-lit complex with antique wooden food stalls lining the building's interior. As you walk down the long walkways, looking at the various foods, we noticed the way everything was nicely displayed and presented. It was tempting to see all the cheese, smoked salmon and seafood cases and the bakery breads. There are also interesting food items like smoked reindeer meat and Finnish produce. We also spotted a wine stall and purchased a few bottles for our stateroom. Then we explored some of the outside tents which were being set up and stocked with crafts and foods for the day. We would return through here after our tour but now we took our wine and treats back to the ship. When we got to our room there was a card reminding us of a change to our reservation for dinner this evening... only it was in error. The light blinking on our phone alerted us to a message from Dave saying he also had received a card and wondered if Liz and I had put in another change to the reservation. He had tried to go to the reservation desk to determine what was happening but they informed him, the change was correct and out of their hands. Liz and I also went to the desk, told them what was initially planned and had them adjust to that and reprint three cards, which we delivered to the Wright and Witt staterooms. Then we went to the lounge to turn in our tour announcement. Our excursion for the day was: Highlights of Helsinki This driving tour provides the definitive overall view of Finland's capital. It starts at the harbor and follows a coastal road past Embassy Park, an open-air market, and expansive Senate Square, dominated by an elegant Lutheran Cathedral. (Its steep steps are where director Warren Beatty shot scenes for his film "Reds," substituting Helsinki for Saint Petersburg.) The drive then continues down the chic Esplanadi, a boulevard lined with designer shops, and along Mannerheim Street, Helsinki's main thoroughfare. Its landmarks include the imposing Parliament building, the National Museum, and Finlandia Hall, a concert hall designed by renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. Further along, you will see the stadium that hosted the 1952 Olympics, the new Opera House on Töölönlahti Bay, and the highly unusual Rock Church, an underground house of worship blasted out of native granite and capped with a copper dome. Finally, at Sibelius Park, you will stop at the amazing, stainless steel-tube monument to the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. At the end of the tour, you may return to ship or remain downtown to explore on your own. [Oceania Cruises] Our guide, Cornelia, introduced herself and handed out city maps to assist people when following the tour. She began by saying, Helsinki is a small, compact capital, with a population of half a million people. If we add three suburbs or 'greater Helsinki', then we reach 1.2 million. The population of the whole country is 5.2 million so 1/5 th of the population lives here in Helsinki. Finland speaks two official languages, Finish and Swedish but only 6% speak Swedish as their mother tongue. For historical reasons, Finland has been part of Sweden for seven centuries. Here on your left you will see Finish Fortress Island which was built in 1748 by the Swedes when they joined forces with the French in an alliance to fight the Russians. 78

5 Finland is famous for shipbuilding. You may have heard of Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas which was the largest ship built [in Turku, the southwest coast of Finland]. At a passenger capacity of 5,600 people this is an enormous giant. How many passengers does your ship have? (Regatta has 684 passengers). Finland is also number one in the world for building ice breakers. Not only for itself but also for other countries such as Canada, Sweden, and during the Soviet Union time. Driving by a central monument, Cornelia explained this was dedicated to Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, the Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defense Forces, Marshal of Finland and a politician. He was Regent of Finland ( ) and the sixth President of Finland ( ). He made a career in the Russian army, rising to general. After the Bolshevik revolution, Finland declared its independence but was soon embroiled in a civil war along class lines. The workers overwhelmingly held a socialist ("Red") creed and bourgeois, farmers, and small businessmen held a capitalist ("White") creed. Mannerheim became the military chief of the Whites. Twenty years later, when Finland was at war with the Soviet Union from , Mannerheim was appointed commander of the country's armed forces. Finland was the first country in Europe to allow women to vote (1906) and the first in the world to allow women to be members of parliament (1906). Today 45% of our unicameral parliament are women. Twelve of our twenty ministers are women. Our President is a lady and our Premier also is a 41 year old woman. Our first stop took us to the Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Kirkko) which was designed by architect brothers Timo and Tuomo Suomalainen. Construction began in 1968 and was finished a year later in The architects chose a rocky outcrop rising about 40 feet above street level in a residential neighborhood and blasted out the walls of a massive block of natural granite from the inside. The church is circular and enclosed by walls of bare rock. The ceiling is a giant disc made of copper wire. The interior is lit by natural light streaming through 180 vertical window panes that connect the dome and the wall. Since this area is popular locally and for tourists, it is fronted with tourist shops on the two corners of the road that forms a T-intersection with the church entrance. The twenty minutes planned for this pause stretched to twenty-five but offered a souvenir hunting opportunity before setting out for another section of the city. Helsinki was founded in 1550 by King Gustav Vasa of Sweden and originally known as Helsingfors. It was intended as a new trading post in the southern part of Finland and as a rival to the city of Reval (today known as Tallinn, the capital and largest city of Estonia), on the opposite shore of the Gulf of 79

6 Finland, which dominated local trade at the time. In 1640, Helsinki was moved from its original location at the mouth of the river Vantaa, which proved unfavorable. After Helsinki was temporarily occupied by Russian forces, first in 1713 and again in 1742, the Swedish army decided to fortify the town, constructing the sea-fortress of Suomenlinna in After Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War, begun in 1808, Finland was annexed to Russia in 1809 as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within Imperial Russia. In order to reduce Swedish influence in Finland, Czar Alexander I of Russia relocated the Finnish capital from Turku, at the edge of the Baltic sea, to Helsinki. The city's downtown core was rebuilt in the neoclassical style to resemble Saint Petersburg. Another scheduled stop on our excursion was planned at Sibelius Park. Here we visited the tribute to Finland's famous composer, Jean Sibelius ( ). The main part of the Sibelius Monument consists of approx. 600 acid-proof stainless steel tubes of various diameters, welded together individually and hand-textured by Eila Hiltunen. While several specialists were consulted on metallurgy, structural calculations and welding methods, the physical accomplishment of this structure, which measures 10.5 (length) by 6.5 (depth) by 8.5 (height) metres and weighs 30 tons, is the work of two people, Eila Hiltunen and assistantmetalworker Emil Kukkonen, 21 at the start. The work lasted almost four years in Helsinki's Lauttasaari suburb, in a temporary studio erected for a previous high-profile project, the equestrian statue of Marshall C.G.E. Mannerheim. A great shed, it was primitive, dark and ice-cold in winter. Fortunately, the new photo studio of Otso Pietinen, Eila Hiltunen's husband, offered modern amenities next door. Welding stainless steel is challenging, as it is easily deformed by heat, and special jigs were employed to keep the tubes straight. Eila Hiltunen used the then new MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding technology to texture the surface of the outer pipes. Wearing a 1930s leather jacket and red overalls scattered with holes from welding sparks, she would sit on a tube for hours, with the welding torch in one hand and a water-hose for rapid cooling in the other. This exposed her to toxic metal fumes in spite of protective masks, resulting in chronic bronchial asthma. From here we traveled to our last scheduled stop, Senate Square. Here we could view the lovely Helsinki Cathedral and, if we chose, leave the tour to walk three blocks through the Helsinki Market to the ship. We chose that rather than bus back to the terminal. 80

7 Originally Russian Orthodox, the Evangelical Lutheran cathedral of the Diocese of Helsinki was originally built as a tribute to the Grand Duke, Nicholas I, the Tsar of Russia and until the independence of Finland in 1917, it was called St. Nicholas' Church. Another very ornate church on a hilltop across the horizon was Uspensky cathedral, the Finnish Orthodox Church. Completed in 1868, it is the largest orthodox church in Western Europe. It is an autonomous Orthodox archbishopric of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Church has a legal position as a national church in the country, along with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. Liz and I then walked through the market area we had seen being set up earlier this morning. Crafts were offered and we did buy two pottery cups and some amber trinkets. We passed on buying Viking horned or fur hats. I also passed by the lunch counters which featured reindeer casserole. As much as the idea of reindeer stew seemed a unique dish, we had reservations for dinner at Toscana tonight. Toscana, along with the Polo Grill, are the type of restaurant other ships consider subscription establishments and charge an additional fee for the additional service. On Oceania these restaurants are open to all passengers without the fee. One has a minimum eligibility of two reservations or more per cruise depending on stateroom category. As it turned out, when we returned to our room I had a message from Angela Witt which said Dave was under the weather and would have to cancel out of our dinner engagement. We relaxed and cleaned up before joining Bob and Donna who were having a cocktail while listening to the string quartet in the Upper Hall. They had explored Helsinki on their own and shared with us what they had seen. After telling them of our adventures we all went up to dinner. We informed the Maître d' that we were now a party of four instead of six and he seated us at a lovely table overlooking the harbor as we sailed out to see. Our headwaiter told us of special offerings as he presented our menus. The menu was elegant and we began with Antipasti: I selected Mozzarella di Bufala Caprese (Tower of 81

8 Fresh Bufala Mozzarella and Vine Ripened Tomatoes, Basil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Emulsion). Liz chose Code di Scampi Avvolte nel Prosciutto Crudo di Parma (Sautéed Jumbo Shrimp tenderly wrapped in Prosciutto di Parma Ham and served with Candied Cherry Tomato). The next course, Le Zuppe: Minestrone Alla Genovese (A Northern Italian Vegetable Soup finished with Fresh Pesto and Chopped Potatoes) and Zuppa di Fagioli alla Toscana (Hearty Tuscan Bean Soup with Homemade Quadrucci Pasta). Already more ambitious than our morning workout would warrant, we perused Le Paste with anticipation. Having enjoyed a great visit to Tuscany, and remembering how much we had enjoyed this city, We couldn't pass up Pennette San Gimignano (Penne Pasta tossed with Roasted Porcini Mushrooms and enhanced with a delicate Rosemary Meat Sauce). Our other choice was Trio Toscana (Tortelloni di Ricotta e Spinaci, Fettuccine Fresche alla Carbonara and Lobster Risotto). Le Insalate: Insalata Mista (Farm Fresh Field Greens with Roma Tomatoes, Shredded Cucumbers and Aged Modena Balsamic Vinegar Dressing) and Insalatine di Campo con Formaggio di Capra, Pomodori e Olive Nere (Baby Spinach with Crumbled Goat Cheese, Tomatoes and Kalamata Olives in a delicate Lemon Oregano Vinaigrette). I Secondi: Osso Buco alla Milanese (Tender Veal Shank slow-oven-braised in a Porcini-enhanced- Stock served with Saffron-Infused Risotto); Liz ordered the recommended special, shark salmon, which had been brought on board here in Helsinki. Then to insure we were overwhelmed, the waiter brought out a menu consisting of six varieties of olive oil, four infused olive oils, and five balsamic vinegars. I would love to suggest that I knew the differences between the choices but frankly, we just selected those which sounded intriguing for dipping our Italian breads. Liz selected Fructus Ardoino Imperia olive oil (dark and rich) while I decided on Costanza Batia a Settimo Frienze (a fruty and peppery olive oil). To accompany these oils Liz ordered Balsamico d Modena Sasso Torinno Vinegar (dark and rich) while I thought Balsamico d Modena Monari Federzoni (woody and fruity) Vinegar would be tasty. Though totally unnecessary but a part of the "full catastrophe" we ended the scrumptious meal with Semifreddo di Zabaione con Crema al Cioccolato e Rum and Cannole de ricota con salsa di ciliege alla Marsala. And rich coffee as well. As the courses were served we enjoyed the pageantry of the service as well as the richness of the dishes as orchestrated by the executive chef, Mickael Tocchetto. Our dining experience took several hours and while we delighted in tasting everything to the last morsel; we secretly admitted we were glad we had only one reservation at Toscanna. More would have place a serious strain on our weight programs. The Regatta String Quartet was featured as the evening entertainment but we were full, exhausted, and facing and early morning. We needed to walk our three miles very early as we had our first excursion call-out at eight o'clock in the morning. And we knew it would be a very demanding day as three tours would fill our first of two days in Saint Petersburg. 82

9 Wednesday, 28 July 2010 As we sailed through the Bay of Finland into Saint Petersburg I was amazed at how narrow the channel seemed to be. Chanel marker buoys seemed to be one hundred meters on each side of the ship. Outgoing tankers seemed to pass in convoy off our port side, less than a rock throw away. I also wondered how ships would have to follow ice breakers during the winter season when the Bay of Finland became solid for the season. A Russian visa costs $ each but if one is on a cruise ship excursion it is not required, only if you intend to travel on your own. However, one still needs to carry a passport, the only country that required one during the Baltic Treasures. This requirement changed disembarkation procedures as well. For all other ports of entry one exchanged and excursion ticket for a bus assignment card and then proceeded off the ship and onto a bus. In Saint Petersburg the Regatta staff issued a numbered bus sticker and required each passenger to carry their passport, ship identity card, and the excursion ticket to be shown to Russian passport control agents alongside at their English Embankment facility. They then stamped your document, kept an immigration identity form you filled out (first disembarkation only), and issued a red, laminated day-pass which would remain with the passport until it was collected when you returned to the ship. This was repeated every time you left the vessel. Our first tour of the day would be to the Winter Palace (the Hermitage) which would open for our tour before being opened to the general public. Welcome to Saint Petersburg, said Svetlana (Светлана), our first guide of the day. I hope you enjoy this beautiful weather we have ordered for you. Statistically we have only 33 sunny days a year. Last year we had no sunny days but this summer we have had so many that probably for the future five years they will not have any. We are going to the Hermitage, which is the largest museum in Russia. We are in the center of the city so I won't have much time before we get there. I will issue devices (VOX) which you can use to hear me and I won't have to shout. You will be able to listen about five to seven meters away. You don't have to stay with me step by step, you may take pictures as you wish. The Hermitage, a Wealth of Art and History One of the world's most famous and esteemed museums, the Hermitage houses a vast collection of priceless artwork. It's also an architectural gem, as you will see upon visiting areas such as the Small Throne Room, the gilded-column Armorial Hall, and the sumptuous Malachite Room, which features more than two tons of ornamental stone. Walking through the ensemble of buildings, you will marvel at the seemingly endless exhibitions. There are displays of 15th- and 16th-century 83

10 French art, as well as Impressionist works from Renoir, Degas, Monet, Van Gogh, and Cezanne. You might see Leonardo da Vinci's "The Little Madonna," "Abraham's Sacrifice" by Rembrandt, and a Scythian gold stag from the 2nd century B.C. You will also browse through the Small Hermitage, a wing known for its exquisite marble colonnade, crystal chandeliers, and gilded, 18th century Peacock Clock. In the wing known as the Old Hermitage, there is a splendid collection of Italian Renaissance art, and in the New Hermitage, the Dutch masters are represented. Upon leaving the museum, you will walk through the Palace Square, passing the red-granite Alexander Column, a monument that commemorates Russia's victory over Napoleon. [Oceania Cruises] There are over 100 staircases in the museum but Svetlana advised us that we would not use all of them today. At the same time she alerted us to the fact that there was no air conditioning. It was already warm but not unpleasant. Once we were joined by more people after the full public opening, the temperature did rise and the air became close. A few of the ancient, double-casement storm windows, similar to those I first saw in Munich in the early 1970s, had small, open panels but no cross ventilation was evident. Later we wondered what impact the lack of climate and humidity controls had on these priceless works of art. The Hermitage Museum (Gosudarstvennyj Èrmitaž), that vast collection of Russian and human art and artifacts, has swollen to fill six buildings, the largest and most appropriate being St. Petersburg s Winter Palace, once home of the Tsars. This magnificent Baroque building and its contents fit well into the collection began in the mid 18th century by Catherine the Great. Starting 84

11 with an incredible collection of paintings, predominantly from the Old and Dutch Masters, the catalogue grew to engulf the best private collections put up for sale, and expanded from just art into artifacts, relics and gold - including important pieces from Classical cultures from Greece, Rome and Eqypt and a huge collection of ancient gold. It was Nicholas I who ordered the ordering and opening of the Hermitage to the public. In 1852 the first building was the first purpose built gallery in Eastern Europe. The Revolution nationalized the museum property further and 'absorbed' up the personal collections of the Tsars, including work collected by Catherine s forebear, Peter the Great and other wealthy families long associated with Russian rulers which bolstered up the collection with those of the Catherine and Alexander Palaces, known for their Old Masters and modern works by Picasso, Matisse and Van Gogh. With more than three million items and having expanded over six buildings and in other pockets around the world, the Hermitage Collection is best known for it s Russian regalia and Faberge collections as well as excellent collections of the works of Gauguin, Monet, Rodin, Renoir, da Vinci, Rembrandt, Michelangelo and Rubens. It also has collections from pre-history and the east, strong in Siberian and Central Asian Art. (Arnesta Szarkor) Like many large, world-class museums there are so many treasures to see that it would take weeks, instead of four hours, to view it properly. In fact, there are so many pieces of any one type or any particular artist that your mind begins to fog and cut out what you are experiencing. As we continued through the exhibits we noticed several of our party appearing fatigued. At one point a man leaned out to get a breath of fresh air from a small open window panel and brushed up against a guide rope which caused a buzzer to sound and one of the elderly women guards waved him away from the rope. I thought of it as a very poor security system. Whatever money the Hermitage can scare up... is sorely needed. Of all the world's great museums, it is in the worst physical shape. It is an enormous and, to the tourist, impossibly labyrinthine array of 1,050 rooms in six buildings along the bank of the Neva, the oldest of which, the Winter Palace, was finished in the 1750s. Though extremely art rich, the Hermitage is sustenance poor, from its crumbling basements to the cracking veneer on its intarsia doors. Its storage and conservation facilities are woefully inadequate: the walls weep with rising damp, and the lighting is poor -- the "babushka brigade" of women guards has the habit of lifting the frilly curtains of the gloomy galleries to expose fragile Rembrandt s and Poussin's to direct sunlight. Rumors abound that the primitive cataloging and 85

12 security systems have made it easy for thieves to purloin objects from storage to sell on Russia's flourishing black market. Our last exhibit was to the Pavilion Hall, designed by Andrei Stakenschneider in Located in the Northern Pavilion of the Small Hermitage, it features the 18th-century golden Peacock Clock by James Cox and a collection of mosaics. The floor of the hall is adorned with a 19th-century imitation of an ancient Roman mosaic. The Peacock Clock is the only large 18th-century automaton in the world to still be functioning in its original unaltered condition. It includes the figures of a cockerel and owl. All three of the birds move. Catherine II loved collecting, and Grigory Potiomkin ordered the piece for her (1772) from celebrated goldsmith and clockmaker James Cox. Surely by design, Svetlana steered us to the gallery a few minutes before noon. We were joined by people from several of our ship's excursions as well as from the public. There was a hush over the hall as technicians went inside the class cage and set the automaton in action. The cockerel crowed, the peacock spread it's tail fan, and the clock chimed out the noon hour. Everyone oohed and aahed the display, some applauded, and then we returned to our bus to get back to our ship. We had less than an hour to rush to the Waves Grill and share a Mahi-Mahi sandwich and a salad. We met Angela and Dave who were waiting for a hand-dipped, made-to-order milkshake. They also had been on a tour of the Hermitage and would later join us this evening for the Grand Imperial Evening of the Tsars. We told them we would see them later but had to rush. Then we were back out again, processing through passport control and back on another bus. My name is Tatyana (Татьяна), Tanya is less formal. We will be making lots of stops so remember our bus number! Moscow is the political capital of Russia but we still consider Saint Petersburg to be the cultural and intellectual capital of Russia. The city was founded by Peter the Great in People did not wish to live here permanently because there were swamps and marshes all around, the climate is not very good, and also there were mosquitoes. But strategically the land was very important because it gave access to the Baltic Sea. Highlights of Saint Petersburg The ultimate overview of Saint Petersburg, the city founded by Peter the Great in 1703, this tour takes in all the great landmarks. During the initial drive, you will pass the stunning, pale blue and white Baroque facade of St. Nicholas Cathedral and the Mariinsky Theater, the home of Russia's most fabled ballet company. After a brief stop to photograph St. Isaac's Cathedral, whose gleaming dome is covered with 200 pounds of gold, you will drive through resplendent Palace Square, a vast open space surrounded by Italianate buildings that once housed the Tsarist ministries. From here, you can easily see the soaring golden spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral, which lies within a fortress across the Neva River. While stopping at the cathedral, be sure to notice the tombs of the Romanov monarchs. Next, you will pass the Aurora, the cruiser that signaled the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution by firing a single round from its bow gun. Soon, the beautiful Field of Mars and the Marble Palace will come into sight, en route to the extraordinary Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood and the magnificent Smolny Cathedral, both wonderful settings for more picture-taking. Returning to the ship, you will drive along the famed Nevsky Prospect, Saint Petersburg's main thoroughfare, where you can glimpse the neoclassical Kazan Cathedral. [Oceania Cruises] 86

13 The city is located on 47 islands. We used to have more canals than Venice. You might have heard that Saint Petersburg is often called 'the Venice of the North.' There are 342 bridges over canals and rivers built at different periods. Some of them are small pedestrian bridges, such as Bank and Lion bridges, others are huge transport arteries such as almost one kilometer long Alexander Nevsky Bridge. There are about 800 small bridges across hundreds of smaller ponds and lakes in public parks and gardens, and over 100 bridges in various ports, marinas, yacht clubs and private industries. The total number of bridges in Saint Petersburg is over a thousand. The nearly 100- meter-wide Blue Bridge, said to be the widest in the world, spans the Moyka River. We are now on Nevsky Prospekt, the main street of the city, and on your right is the building where the famous jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé had his workshop. Of the 53 Fabergé Easter Eggs that were made, only 7 are in Russia and they are in the Kremlin in Moscow. Unfortunately all the rest are in museums or somewhere else abroad. You have chosen a very good time to come here, the period of the White Nights, said Tanya. In the winter time we have long nights when it gets dark about four in the afternoon and next morning at ten or eleven o'clock it still may be dark. It gets gloomy and very depressing; people try to hibernate or they eat chocolates. In the summer time, when we have sunshine, everybody tries to make the most of it. You will find restaurants and nightclubs open well into the early morning. People from Moscow say they can always identify us as being from here because, unless we sit in the sun, we look like chickens taken out of freezers. 87

14 From late May to early July the nights are bright in St Petersburg, with the brightest period, the White Nights, normally lasting from June 11th to July 2nd. The White Nights (Beliye Nochi) are a curious phenomenon caused by St. Petersburg's very northerly geographical location - at 59 degrees 57' North (roughly on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the southern tip of Greenland and Seward, Alaska). St. Petersburg is the world's most northern city with a population over 1 million, and its stands at such a high latitude that the sun does not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to grow dark. In fact night becomes curiously indistinguishable from day, so much so that the authorities never need to turn the city's streetlights on! We then passed by the battleship Aurora, currently preserved as a museum ship. During the First World War the ship operated in the Baltic Sea. In 1915 her armament was changed to fourteen 152 mm (6in) guns. At the end of 1916, the ship was moved to Saint Petersburg (later Petrograd) for a major repair. The city was brimming with revolutionary ferment and part of her crew joined the 1917 February Revolution. A revolutionary committee was created on the ship. Most of the crew joined the Bolsheviks, who were preparing for a Communist revolution. On 25 October 1917, Aurora refused to carry an order to take off to sea, which sparked the October Revolution. At 9.45 P. M. on that date, a blank shot from her forecastle gun signaled the start of the assault on the Winter Palace, which was to be the last episode of the October Revolution. The cruiser's crew actually took part in the attack. Were were close to the Peter and Paul Fortress. The bus drove across a narrow bridge and dropped the passengers off before relocating to a parking area beyond the walls. The Peter and Paul Fortress is figuratively and literally the center of the city. When Peter the Great reclaimed the lands along the Neva River in 1703, he decided to build a fort to protect the area from possible attack by the Swedish army and navy. The fortress was founded on a small island in the Neva delta on May 27, 1703 (May 16 according to the old calendar) and that day became the birthday of the city of St Petersburg. The Swedes were defeated before the fortress was even completed. For that reason, from 1721 onwards the fortress housed part of the city's garrison and rather notoriously served as a high security political jail. Among the first inmates was Peter's own rebellious son Alexei. The Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul is the oldest church in St. Petersburg, and also the second-tallest building in the city (after the television tower). It is intimately linked to both the history of the city and to the Romanov dynasty, as it is home to the graves of nearly all the rulers of Russia since Peter the Great. Work began on the first, wooden church to be erected on the site just one month after St. Petersburg was officially founded, and the church was consecrated on April 1, In 1712, the current, stone Peter and Paul Cathedral started to be built, to a design by Domenico Trezzini. This one took slightly 88

15 longer to build - 20 years, in fact - and was consecrated on June 29, The Peter and Paul Cathedral marked a radical departure from traditional Orthodox churches, being built in early Baroque style. Its rectangular shape, bell-tower, and landmark needle are all features borrowed from the protestant churches of Western Europe - the influence of Dutch architecture is particularly visible - all of which was in accordance with Peter's wishes. One major attraction is the graves of most of the Romanov rulers of Russia from Peter the Great onward. Peter's grave is at the front right, and people still leave fresh flowers on it. Also here are both Catherine s, Elizabeth, all three Alexanders, Paul, Peter III, Anne - and now both Nicholases as well, as the remains of Nicholas II and his family were re-interred in the small Chapel of St. Catherine on July 89

16 17, The graves of the former rulers and their families are very extravagant, and well worth seeing. For example, monoliths carved from delicate and valuable stones including gray and green Altai jasper, rise over the graves of Alexander II and his wife, Maria. Top craftsmen from Peterhof worked on the decorations for 17 years. Our next stop of the afternoon was outside St. Isaac's Cathedral. St. Isaac's Cathedral was once the main church of St. Petersburg and the Russian Empire's largest church. It was built in by French-born architect Auguste Montferrand. One hundred and eighty years later the gilded dome of St. Isaac's still dominates the skyline of St. Petersburg. The facades are decorated with sculptures and massive granite columns (made of single pieces of red granite), while the interiors dazzle the eye with mosaic icons, paintings and columns made of malachite and lapis lazuli. A large stained glass of the resurrected Christ, located inside the main altar, is truly fascinating. The church, designed to accommodate 14,000 standing worshipers, was closed in the early 1930s and reopened as a museum. Nowadays, church services are held here only on major occasions. Across St. Isaac's Square is the Mariinski Palace, originally built as the Imperial residence of the Grand Duchess Maria, daughter of Emperor Nicholas I. Built between 1839 and 1844, the palace was filled with magnificent interiors and furniture and even boasted an enormous greenhouse, where it was said that pineapples grew rather well. In 1884 the Mariinsky Palace was bought by the government and became the seat of the State Council, the State Chancellor's office and the Committee of Ministers (later - the Council of Ministers). Since 1945 the palace has belonged to the city council and local administration. You will notice the Alexander Column, a monument to the defeat of Napoleon in The column was designed by Auguste de Montferrand and took two years to build. It was cut from the rock face of a cliff in Karelia. After completion, it was slowly transported to St. Petersburg, taking a year for the full trip. Surmounted by an angel of peace, the column was erected by 2,000 veterans of the war. This, too, conforms to the geometric formality of the Imperial structures and is positioned in perfect alignment with the entrance to the Winter Palace. We would have more time to go inside the Cathedral of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood (Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ) tomorrow but a brief stop near the vestry across the street gave us time to 90

17 marvel the sight of the magnificent domes and the wonderful colors of the cathedral. We had a brief opportunity to shop through the craft stalls for souvenirs before returning to the ship for another whirlwind pass through the passport control and back on board to refresh and change before our last excursion of the day. Grand Imperial Evening of the Tsars Relive the splendor of the 18th-century Imperial Russian court with an evening at the opulent Catherine Palace, where you will enjoy live performances and an authentic, gourmet Russian dinner. Royal Guards will greet you upon arriving at the palace, which was originally designed in 1752 by Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli. As you admire the lavish rooms and galleries, classical musicians will perform for your pleasure. It's a wonderful social event as you mingle with your fellow Oceania Cruises guests during the private champagne reception in the palace's Great Hall or Throne Hall. You will then descend the Grand Staircase to the courtyard, where the pageantry continues. The Imperial Guard will parade about, as a carriage arrives with a courtly couple that will perform a traditional dance. In time, you will depart for dinner at the Russian House Restaurant, an authentic Russian country house fronted by an elegant classical façade. As you dine on exquisite Russian cuisine, a Russian folkloric group will perform, the perfect finale to this magical evening. [Oceania Cruises] Tonight's guide, also named Tatyana, introduced herself and began an informational briefing on Peter the Great (Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov): Peter visited a lot of foreign countries and his favorite was Holland and he also liked the summer residence of French kings in Versailles. He was greatly impressed and wanted to have several summer residences in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. I suppose you are going to Peterhof tomorrow but the place we are going to this evening was built earlier. [Tsarskoye Selo or Pushkin ( named in 1937 after the revolution ), is approximately 17 miles south of the city of St. Petersburg and is the site of Catherine s Palace] The palace was named Catherine's Palace. Peter was married twice. The second time he was married in 1712 and his second wife's name was Catherine. She became Catherine I. The year they were married he presented the land to her as a wedding present. Built between , it has been renovated many times. It was heavily damaged by retreating German forces during World War II, but is now almost completely restored. What you will see today is the palace as it was designed by the Empress Elizabeth, their daughter. By the way, Peter the Great and Catherine I had 19 children. Eleven of them were born before Peter and Catherine were married. As we drove towards Pushkin we were treated to new views of the city. We crossed several key bridges and canals which helped us understand the city layout a bit better. Tanya pointed out Stalin Cake buildings, the nickname given to a group of skyscrapers built in the Stalinist style of architecture, which is also known as a "wedding cake" style because of the tiered construction that Stalin approved. When getting closer to the palace Tanya pointed out the Egyptian Gate leading to the town from Saint Petersburg which was designed by Adam Menelaws, a Scottish architect. This structure, erected in and intricately covered with hieroglyphics, bears testimony to the Egyptomania of the 1820s. 91

18 The first portion of the tour took us to two connected buildings away from the palace grounds. These hold carriages used by the Tsar and his family. Many of the collection were built in France and feature the Russian Imperial Double Eagle displayed prominently on the sides. Originally a Byzantine symbol, the double-headed eagle was adopted by the Russian tsars as their own. One eagle head represents the East and the other represents the West.. As we left the carriage display we walked back a block to the front of the palace. Our first glimpse was of the northern wing of Catherine Palace, topped by five golden domes of the Palace Chapel. Over 200 pounds of gold were originally used to gild the exterior of the palace, today it is just gold paint. Walking through the palace grounds we were greeted by music played by costumed military musicians reflecting the uniforms of the 1800s. Once ushered into the palace we donned booties over our shoes to protect the parquet floors. Then we collected our group in an anti-room to test the Vox transmitters and review photos of the damage and reconstruction of the palace. Although the palace is popularly associated with Catherine the Great, she actually regarded its 92

19 "whipped cream" architecture as old-fashioned. When she ascended the throne, a number of statues in the park were being covered with gold, in accordance with the last wish of Empress Elizabeth, yet the new monarch had all the works suspended upon being informed about the expense. In her memoirs she censured the reckless extravagance of Elizabeth, her predecessor. Upon Catherine's death in 1796, the palace was abandoned in favor of the Pavlovsk Palace. Subsequent monarchs preferred to reside in the nearby Alexander Palace and, with only two exceptions, refrained from making new additions to the Catherine Palace, regarding it as a splendid monument to Elizabeth's wealth and Catherine II's glory. When the German forces retreated after the siege of Leningrad, they had the residence intentionally destroyed, leaving only the hollow shell of the palace behind. Prior to the World War Two, the Russian archivists managed to document a fair amount of the contents, which proved of great importance in reconstructing the palace. Although the largest part of the reconstruction was completed in time for the Tercentenary of St Petersburg in 2003, much work is still required to restore the palace to its former glory. As we walked up the grand stairway there were more guards dressed in military regalia, presumably from the same time period of the musicians outside. Walking through the rooms Tanya described decorations and artwork favored by Catherine I and those installed by the Empress Elizabeth. Further entertainment was provided a flautist who performed in the Picture Gallery, in which almost every inch of wall space is covered with paneling comprising 17th and 18th century canvases. The instrumentalist was standing next to a 20 foot high Delft porcelain stove. Offices, reception rooms, and boudoirs were all lavishly furnished. Dinning rooms featured china made in England, France and Holland and reflected the wealth and taste of era. Most astounding of the rooms for me was the amber room. To create this extraordinary chamber, Rastrelli used the panels of amber mosaic originally destined for an Amber Cabinet at Konigsberg Castle and presented to Peter the Great by Friedrich-Wilhelm I of Prussia, and surrounded them with gilded carving, mirrors, more amber panels created by Florentine and Russian craftsman (comprising a total of 450kg of amber), and further mosaics of Ural and Caucasus gemstones. The room was completed in Due to the fragility of the materials used, a caretaker was employed constantly to maintain and repair the decorations, and major restoration was undertaken three times in the 19th century. The room was used to house a substantial collection of amber-work and Chinese porcelain. In 1941, when German troops took Tsarskoe Selo, the Amber Room was dismantled in 36 hours, and shipped to Konigsberg in a tawdry pretense at historical fidelity. As the Nazi war machine crumbled, the panels were crated up and moved out of danger, but their eventual fate is unknown. Continuing on to the next room we were entertained by a harpsichordist who played while we were served champagne and moved on to the The Great Hall, also known as the Hall of Light, measures 93

20 nearly 1,000 square meters, and occupies the full width of the palace so that there are superb views on either side. The large arched windows provide enough light to relieve the vast quantity of gilded stucco decorating the walls, and the entire ceiling is covered by a monumental fresco entitled The Triumph of Russia. Joined by another four buses of fellow Oceania cruisers, we sat in the Great Hall, making comparisons with the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, while listening to a string quartet in formal attire. After twenty minutes of sipping champagne our hosts, the Tsar and Tsarina, bewigged and dressed in royal robes, came before us and welcomed us to the palace. They proposed a toast and then asked us to enjoy the ballet performance of two dancers. When they finished we all walked to the inner courtyard. The military band we had seen at the entrance was serenading us and after a few pieces an open carriage, pulled by two matching black horses, circled the path and deposited a costumed couple who performed several waltzes. When finished the orchestra led us all to the gatehouse and the Russian House Restaurant where we would enjoy dinner and conclude our Evening With The Tsars. We walked into the dinning room and took seats at round tables set for ten people. Our table was next to a window which, like those in the Winter Palace, had double-casement storm windows with a small, one-foot square ganged panel of glass which was opened about four inches. One of the others at the table asked if I would open the window a bit more because it was quite hot in the room. Unfortunately the window was open as far as possible. Each place setting had glasses for iced vodka, champagne, wine, and bottled water. A small caviar dish with Mother of Pearl spoons were at the top edge of a salad plate. The salad had roast beef, cucumbers, tomatoes, and black olives and was dressed with a blueberry vinaigrette. This was followed by a delicious, thick cream of mushroom soup sprinkled with chopped chives. As the vodka was served we were encouraged to reply Будем здоровы (To health) in Russian but all of us had to say our toast in English. Some were surprised at their first taste of iced vodka but warmed to the idea as the waiters poured freely and often. This applied to all other beverages and were included in the dinner; all one had to do was raise a glass and it would be filled. 94

21 The entrée was salmon accompanied by carrots Julienne. The salmon was perfect and an excellent choice as far as Liz and I were concerned. This was followed by what I would describe as a blueberry upside-down cake. to sell anyone a bottle... they gave it to her. Saint Petersburg is known as the beer capital of Russia and it's five breweries furnish 30% of the nations production. We usually try to taste the local wines or beers and although we didn't see any being offered, I asked for a bottle to share with Liz. The Baltika beer was very refreshing, especially in the heat. Later Liz asked to buy a bottle of champagne to take back to the ship. The restaurant was not prepared Our entertainment was The Russian Divertissement Ensemble and featured Alexander Nikitin. Consisting of two women and three men, the group sang Russian folk songs and operatic arias to the accompaniment of accordion and balalaika. The tunes were easily recognizable and the Russian lyrics were appropriately moving through the baritone interpretation of Mr. Nikitin. One fascinating sound was that of the Treshchotki (tri-shot-ki), a set of boards on a string that get clapped together as a group. I thought of them as a type of Russian castanet. Several were passed out at each table and we were shown how to play them. Later we could purchase these as well as CDs of the group. Earlier we had seen an artist selling prints outside the carriage house and we asked if he had a water color of the Cathedral of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood and he said he did not but would find one and show it to us later. Now, as we were ready to re-board our bus, the man came up with exactly what we wanted. We asked the price and he said, one hundred dollars. We thanked him for the effort but declined. He then quoted a price of $80.00 and we again said, no thank you. He then asked what we would like to pay and Liz said she would pay $20.00 and he agreed. 95

22 Thursday, 29 July 2010 I suspect the heat of last evening plus the prodigious amounts of beer, champagne, vodka, water and wine we drank flushed all effects of alcohol aside. We woke early for our walk and experience no discomfort which was welcome because we had another busy day ahead. We only saw crewmen working at five thirty o'clock and the dinning room was sparsely populated. Apparently the buffet was better attended. But by eight o'clock people were assembling in the lounge to collect bus assignments for the day. Peter the Great's Grand Palace - Peterhof Peterhof, the magnificent residence of Peter the Great, lies in the flat, forested countryside outside of Saint Petersburg. It features a commanding view of the sea down a Marine Canal that allowed the tsars to sail between Peterhof and the Gulf of Finland. Inside the main palace, you will see a wealth of spectacular sights, such as the intricately gold-gilded main staircase, the opulent Throne Room adorned with royal portraits, a fabulous exhibit of Russian porcelain, the royal bedchamber, furnished with a huge Turkish sofa from Catherine the Great, and Peter's oak study, which has survived unaltered from the original design. Lavish period furniture, chandeliers and paintings are throughout the residence. After touring the palace, a guide will escort you through the gorgeous Peterhof Gardens, which features both French and English influences, and is punctuated with ornamental ponds and cascading fountains. [Oceania Cruises] Alisa (Алиса), our guide, introduced herself and prepared us for the fifty-five minute drive. Thirty kilometers southwest of Saint Petersburg; with direct access to the Gulf of Finland, Peterhof - which means 'Peter's Yard' in German - became the site for the Tsar's Monplaisir Palace, and then of the original Grand Palace. The estate was equally popular with Peter's granddaughter, Empress Elizabeth, who ordered the expansion of the Grand Palace and greatly extended the park and the famous system of fountains, including the truly spectacular Grand Cascade. 96

23 Improvements to the park continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Catherine the Great, after leaving her own mark on the park, moved the court to Pushkin, but Peterhof once again became the official Imperial Residence in the reign of Nicholas I, who ordered the building of the modest Cottage Palace in Like almost all St. Petersburg's suburban estates, Peterhof was ravaged by German troops during the Second World War. It was, however, one of the first to be resurrected and, thanks to the work of military engineers and over 1,000 volunteers, most of the estate's major structures had been fully restored by The name was also de-germanicized after the war, becoming Petrodvorets, the name under which the surrounding town is still known. The palace and park are once again known as Peterhof. As we continued our drive we transferred from the residential districts of the city on to industrial parks interspersed with large, high-rise tenement complexes built in the 1950s. Parallel with and alongside our road were trolly tracks with a seemingly endless line of two and three-car passenger cars moving people toward the city. These seemed to follow very closely so that one could anticipate that if you missed your car, another would follow in less than two minutes. Certainly mass transit is alive and well here. 97 As with our Hermitage visit yesterday morning, Oceania had arraigned to gain access to Peterhof before it would be open to the public. Still, we were a few minutes early as the bus parked on the far side of a crafts and souvenir complex which was being prepared for tourist traffic. We walked through the area and out to the front of the palace and the Upper Garden. While security personnel and ticket agents reported for work we had about ten minutes to wander the grounds before entering. Walking between rows of linden trees (we were later informed this wood was a perfect medium for gilding) I looked back at a foursided cupola, with a weathervane in the shape of the Russian Imperial two-headed eagle, installed there in 1751 by order of Empress Elizabeth. This is made of three views of the symbol so that one faces the proper image whatever way the wind turns. Before we entered the building from the Upper Garden we were informed that photographs are forbidden inside the palace The largest of Peterhof's palaces looks truly

24 imposing when seen from the Lower or Upper Gardens, but in fact it is quite narrow and not overly large. The Chesma Hall is decorated with twelve large paintings of the Battle of Chesma, a stunning naval victory of the Russo-Turkish War, These were painted between 1771 and 1773 by the German artist Jacob Philipp Hackert. His first renderings of the great battle scenes were criticized by witnesses as not showing realistically the effect of exploding ships the flying timbers, great flames, smoke, and fireballs. Catherine II assisted the artist by exploding a frigate in the harbor of Livorno, Italy, for the benefit of Hackert, who had never seen a naval battle first-hand. Hackert also did not research the actual positions of the Russian and Turkish forces during the battle, so the scenes depicted are somewhat fanciful, but do effectively convey drama and destruction of naval warfare. The East and West Chinese Cabinets were decorated between 1766 and 1769 to exhibit objects of decorative art imported from the East. The walls were decorated with imitation Oriental patterns by Russian craftsmen, and hung with Chinese landscape paintings in yellow and black lacquer. Another room, positioned at the center of the palace, bears the name of the Picture Hall. Its walls are almost entirely covered by a series of 368 paintings, mostly of variously dressed women, differing in appearance and even age, yet most were drawn from a single model. These were purchased in 1764 from the widow of the Italian artist P. Rotari, who died in St. Petersburg. I found the simplicity of the Tzar s oak study charming and yet quite impressive. Four latticed windows with small square lights, so characteristic of the period, open on to the quiet Upper Gardens, completely still in Peter's day, undisturbed even by the sound of splashing waters. One of the room's three doors leads to a balcony, another to the interior of the house, and the third to a spiral staircase descending into the garden. Isolation was essential for this apartment, intended for study and often used by Peter for private interviews with high-ranking officials and foreign diplomats. Concluding our tour of the inside of the palace we entered the throne room, about seventy-five feet long and thirty feet wide. It gave a better perspective of the entire building because one can view the upper and lower gardens from here. When we first entered I thought there was a painting of Peter the Great behind the throne however it was described as, the chair of state placed on a dais before it, is richly decorated. Its central portion is occupied by a large picture presenting Catherine II on Her Horse Brilliant, the work of Vigilius Erichsen. The picture has a molded frame of oak garlands and is flanked by beautiful wreaths of oak leaves, roses, and laurels. 98

25 We now had forty-five minutes to walk through the gardens and view some of the more prominent features of the fountains throughout the grounds. All of this led to the eleven o'clock highlight of the tour. Hundreds of people from our tour groups as well as the general public, lined the canal to listen to classical music as the fountains of the Grand Cascade were engaged. The fountains of Peterhof are one of Russia's most famous tourist attractions, drawing millions of visitors every year. Fountains were intrinsic to Peter the Great's original plans for Peterhof - it was the impossibility of engineering sufficiently powerful jets of water that prompted him to move his attentions from the Strelna site to Peterhof - and subsequent generations competed with their predecessors to add grander and ever more ingenious water features to the parkland surrounding the Grand Palace. The most famous ensemble of fountains, the Grand Cascade, which runs from the northern facade of the Grand Palace to the Marine Canal, comprises 64 different fountains, and over 200 bronze statues, bias-reliefs, and other decorations. At the center stands Rastrelli's spectacular statue of Samson wrestling the jaws of a lion. The vista of the Grand Cascade with the Grand Palace behind it, the first sight to great visitors who arrive in Peterhof by sea, is truly breathtaking. The Grotto behind the Grand Cascade, which was once used for small parties, contains the enormous pipes, originally wooden, that feed the fountains. [The fountain system works by gravity, without any machinery or pumps.] As we learned yesterday, we would have little time to unwind between excursions. Since we had only an hour to ride back to the ship and then return through passport control for the next excursion, we had little time for lunch. Just a bit of iced tea to help us relax and move on. St. Isaac's Cathedral, Kazan Cathedral & Spilled Blood Cathedral Golden-domed St. Isaac's Cathedral, a masterwork designed by French architect August Montferrand, dominates Saint Petersburg's city center. Its vast, opulent interior covers 43,000 square feet, making it one of the world's largest cathedrals. The sights inside are just as impressive and include an incredibly beautiful relief of St. Isaac, St. Catherine's marble chapel, and hundreds of 19th-century works of art. Kazan Cathedral, the second church on this tour, stands on Saint Petersburg's most famous thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt, which attracts attention with its stately views and the elegant proportions of the dome and colonnades. Inspired by St. Peter's in Rome, the majestic cathedral was designed by Russian architect Andrei Voronikhin and built between 1801 and It's an outstanding example of the early 19thcentury Russian architecture. After touring here, you will visit the Church of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, also known as the Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood because it sits on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was killed in Completed in 1907, the church is a riot of color and features nine onion-dome cupolas covered in gold, enamel and mosaics. The interior is also adorned with mosaics and has been compared with that of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. [Oceania Cruises] This would be our fifth excursion of a two day marathon and it must have shown on our faces because our guide, another Svetlana, introduced herself and said, well, are you tired of Saint Petersburg yet? Tired, maybe, but not of Saint Petersburg. We have previously seen each of the three cathedrals from the outside, either on the highlights tour or en-route to Pushkin or Peterhof. But this afternoon we would have the opportunity to go inside each of 99

26 them and take pictures, except for Kazan Cathedral which is a functioning place of worship and photography is discouraged during services. Saint Isaac's Cathedral is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral (sobor) in the city and was the tallest Eastern Orthodox church upon its completion. It is dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great who had been born on the feast day of that saint. The church was ordered by Tsar Alexander I, to replace an earlier Rinaldiesque structure. A specially appointed commission examined several designs, including that of the French-born architect Auguste de Montferrand ( ), who had studied in the atelier of Napoleon's designer, Charles Percier. Monferrand's design was criticized by some members of the commission for the dry and allegedly boring rhythm of its four identical pedimented octagonal porticoes. It was also suggested that despite gigantic dimensions, the edifice would look squat and not very impressive. The emperor, who favored the ponderous Empire style of architecture, had to step in and solve the dispute in Monferrand's favour. The cathedral took 40 years to construct, under Montferrand's direction, from 1818 to Under the Soviet government, the building was abandoned, then turned into a museum of atheism. The dove sculpture was removed, and replaced by a Foucault pendulum. With the fall of communism, the museum was removed and regular worship activity has resumed in the cathedral, but only in the left-hand side chapel. The main body of the cathedral is used for services on feast days only. The neoclassical exterior expresses a traditional Russian-Byzantine formula: a Greek-cross groundplan with a large central dome and four subsidiary domes. It is similar to Andrea Palladio's Villa La Rotonda, with a full dome on a high drum substituted for the Villa's low central saucer dome. The design of the cathedral in general and the dome in particular later influenced the design of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. and the Cathedral in Helsinki. The exterior is faced with gray and pink stone, and features a total of 112 red granite columns with Corinthian capitals, each hewn and erected as a single block: 48 at ground level, 24 on the rotunda of the uppermost dome, 8 on each of four side domes, and 2 framing each of four windows. The rotunda is encircled by a walkway accessible to tourists. 24 statues gaze down from the roof, and another 24 from the top of the rotunda. Svetlana turned in our group pass to the ticket taker and we immediately came upon a wooden model of the unique structure designed specifically to lift the 67-ton granite columns to the height of 40 m and install them around the dome drum. The actual scaffolding allowed each column to be lifted into place in 45 minutes. We additionally learned that the dome initially had been covered with 100 kg of gold which had been applied with a mercury process similar to spray-painting and caused the death of many workers. It is recorded that the financial outlay was 23,256,000 rubles, which was more than six times that of the Winter Palace. But what value should be put on human lives that were painfully lost during the forty years of construction. Hundreds of serfs lost their lives in the quarrying and transportation of the marble. Untold numbers of serfs and laborers who worked for 15 hours a day without holidays were crushed or fell to their deaths from the scaffolding during the main part of construction up to

27 Then at least 60 and maybe many more indirectly, died from inhaling mercury fumes during the gilding processes that took place under the domes. No expenses were spared to decorate the cathedral with the most expensive materials - fourteen different colors of marble and many semi-precious stones such as lapis lazuli and malachite were used, one of the reasons the cost of the cathedral ballooned to almost ten times that of the Winter Palace. The most renowned artists of the time, including painter Karl Briullov and sculptors Ivan Vitali and Peter Clodt, collaborated to create the most striking decorations. Brullyov created the magnificent fresco inside the dome, depicting Maria surrounded by saints. At the center of the fresco, in the copula at a height of about 80 meters (263 ft) hangs a silver pigeon. The large pigeon - with a wing span of 1 meter 65cm - represents the Holy Spirit. Of course, like tourists everywhere, we ogled the floor mosaics, stained glass windows of the sanctuary, the main iconoclasts, and the oil paintings braced at stand-alone positions throughout the area under the dome. And as much as I can appreciate the value of Saint Isaac s Cathedral as a museum, it is heartening that the left nave has been returned to church use and to know that at times, the full cathedral is used for Russian Orthodox service. 101 Our next cathedral was also downgraded like many other churches in Saint Petersburg. It was closed soon after the revolution of 1917 and for many years was used as a storehouse. It is the most colorful of the churches and has a grand history of its own. Cathedral of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood was erected on the place where Russian Emperor Alexander II was murdered on the 1st of March, The tsar was mortally wounded by the terrorists from the People's Will revolutionist organization. Already on the next day the Municipal Duma on its extraordinary meeting decided to construct the cathedral to commemorate the tsar-liberator. The cathedral was constructed in the style of the 16th-17th century Russian architecture and has a lot in common with the Church of St. Basil the Blessed that stands on the Red Square in Moscow.

28 In the decor of interiors Italian marbles and Russian semiprecious stones, such as jasper, topaz, rock crystal and others are used. On the socle of the cathedral, there are 20 granite desks, dedicated to the major events and reforms of the ruling of Alexander II, and on the belfry there are coats of arms of all the regions and provinces of Russia. The height of the tallest dome is 81 meters. The domes are gilt and covered with colorful enamel. The Savior-on-the-Blood was greatly damaged under the Soviets. Like many other churches in Saint Petersburg it was closed soon after the revolution of 1917 and for many years was used as a storehouse. By the late 1960s the unique monument of Russian architecture had been in drastic condition and in 1970 the restoration works that lasted for almost 30 years were started. Such duration of the restoration was difficult to explain and people talk that unless the scaffolding stood, the Soviet power would last. It is strange but the scaffolding was taken away in 1991 short before August crises in Moscow. So the prophecy turned out to be true. The interior seems to be entirely covered with mosaics. The floor, walls, and interiors of the onion domes all reflect this art form. In order to erect the belfry, which stands on the spot where the Russian emperor had been attacked by terrorists, the body of the Spilled Blood Church was extended beyond the line of the embankment and thus juts out into the canal. As a result, the building of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ lacks symmetry and doesn t have the usual central entrance. Instead, it has two porches one on either side of the bell tower each with a sloping roof and a doorway leading into the church. We again had the opportunity to shop the souvenir stalls across the street. We looked for some sort of Saint Petersburg tea towel but that was not fruitful. Of course it was no surprise that they had no more stock than we saw the day before. After a few minuted we boarded the bus and drove to the last church of the tour. Cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan was built between 1801 and 1811 by the architect Andrei Voronikhin. It has a very large stone colonnade, encircling a small garden and central fountain. The cathedral was inspired by the Basilica of St. Peter s in Rome and was intended to be the country s main Orthodox Church. After the war of 1812 (during which Napoleon was defeated) the church became a monument to Russian victory. Captured enemy banners were put in the cathedral and the famous Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, who won the most important campaign of 1812, was buried inside the church. The cathedral was named after the icon of Our Lady of Kazan, which the church housed till the early 1930s. The Bolsheviks closed the cathedral for services in 1929, and from 1932 it housed the 102

29 collections of the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism, which displayed numerous pieces of religious art and served anti-religious propaganda purposes. Regular services were resumed in the cathedral, though it still shares the premises with the museum which is now the Museum of Religion. The image of Our Lady of Kazan is said to have come to Russia from Constantinople in the 13th century. After the Tatars besieged Kazan and made it the capital of their khanate in 1438, the icon disappeared, and it is not mentioned again until the 16th century, some years after the liberation of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible in After a fire destroyed Kazan in 1579, the Virgin appeared in a prophetic dream to a 10-year-old girl named Matrona and told her where to find the precious image again. As instructed, Matrona told the archbishop about her dream, but he would not take her seriously. After two more such dreams the girl and her mother dug up the image, buried under the ashes of a house, where it had been hidden long before to save it from the Tatars. The unearthed icon looked as bright and beautiful as if it were new. The archbishop repented of his unbelief and took the icon to the Church of St. Nicholas, where a blind man was cured that very day. Hermogen, the priest at this church, later became Metropolitan of Kazan. He brought the icon to Kazan's Cathedral of the Annunciation and established July 8 as a feast in honor of the Theotokos of Kazan. Svetlana then informed us that in 1998 the whole cathedral was consecrated. A year later an agreement was reached between the government and the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg that the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism would vacate the cathedral by Later, the Patriarch of Moscow established the status of the cathedral as a Metropolitan Church and the seat of the Eparchy of St. Petersburg. In 2002 the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan was returned as the main iconostasis of the Kazan Cathedral. We observed a large queue of supplicants in line before the Icon of Kazan alongside the altar. Each individual took a minute of so to venerate the icon, presumably say a prayer, and make the sign of the cross. Mindful that this service, as well as that of a grouping of people at the other end of the cathedral who were listening to a choir of young men, deserved our respect; the visitors from our tour removed their hats and quietly observed what was taking place. Cameras were also put away so as to not interrupt the service. Re-boarding our bus, we returned to the ship at five o'clock. Sail away was scheduled for two hours later. We were tired and ready to sit and relax. With the pace slowed down and a cocktail before dinner we were admiring the Rosenthal china service by Versace (Butterfly Garden) as we sailed out of Saint Petersburg. I even speculated on what it would be like to place an order for an elegant dinner service for 600. We had lost two hours as we sailed east from Stockholm; we looked forward to gaining an hour back as we returned west to Tallinn, Estonia. 103

30 Friday, 30 July 2010 Good morning, you are most welcome here in Tallinn, our capital of Estonia. My name is Taimi Piehel and this morning we will see our town. It will be mostly walking but for the first ten minutes we will take the bus. The town has two parts, the upper town and the lower town. It is cool today, the first day in almost not quite two months. Tallinn & Old Town Departing from the pier, begin with a scenic drive around the Old Town, which offers magnificent views of the medieval city walls. See the watch-towers, graceful spires and winding, cobbled streets. Visit the Russian Orthodox Church, inaugurated in 1900 and filled with a stunning array of superb icons and the 13th century Gothic style Dome Cathedral. View the exterior of the Castle which is now the seat of Estonia's parliament. Built on a cliff, the Upper Town provides superb vantage point from which to view the red-gabled roofs and spires of the Lower Town. Your tour continues down Long and Short Leg Streets to the Lower Town. See the apothecary, which opened in 1422, the Great Guild House, Blackheads Brotherhood House and the 15th century Gothic Town. Enjoy some free time on the grounds of the Dominican Convent at a colorful market, St. Catherine's arts and crafts center, before rejoining your coach and returning to the pier. [Oceania Cruises] We are a very small nation, there have been wars which have devastated the country, and the number of people has diminished. So we have only 1.3 million people here. Tallinn is our biggest city with 410,000 inhabitants. Our first stop will be at Toompea Hill to view Estonia's main Russian orthodox cathedral - Aleksander Nevsky cathedral. It is most opulent Orthodox church in Tallinn. Built in 1900, when Estonia was part of the tsarist Russian empire, the cathedral was originally intended as a symbol of the empire's 104

31 dominance both religious and political. The cathedral was built during the period of late 19th century Russification and was so disliked by many Estonians as a symbol of oppression that the Estonian authorities scheduled the cathedral for demolition in 1924, but the decision was never implemented due to lack of funds and the building's massive construction. As the USSR was officially non-religious, many churches including this cathedral were left to decline. The church has been meticulously restored since Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in As we waited for another group to enter the cathedral we stood along a side wall of the the old Estonian Royal Palace which is now the Parliament building. Two towers were pointed out in the old walls. These were Fat Margaret and Tall Herman. The legend was that a long time ago a young, plump girl (Margaret) was in love with a tall, slender young man (Herman). They did not live in town but loved to come and walk here. During White Nights they lost track of time and failed to leave before the midnight curfew. As the bell rang they ran in two directions to get out and at the last strike of the hour they were punished and turned into stone. The towers were then built where they were petrified. When it was our turn to enter the cathedral we passed by signs that prohibited the taking of flash photos. That made it almost impossible to capture any pictures as the interior was too dark. After walking through the sanctuary we assembled outside to walk two short blocks to the next cathedral. The Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin (Dome Church) was established so long ago that the earliest history of ancient building can be based only on suppositions. Soon after the Danish invasion in June 1219 the first wooden predecessor of the present church was built. Ten years later, in 1229, a group of Dominican monks from Danish monastery of Ribe arrived in these parts. Their aim was to found a new monastery on Toompea, north of the fortress. They also commenced the building of a new stone church to replace the existing wooden one. The new monastery that had only begun to take shape perished in a violent conflict between the Danish vassals and the monks of the Order of the Knights of Sword in

32 Along the walls are numerous family crests and banners of the prominent merchant families that lived here. Additionally there are armorial epitaphs around the walls to people such as Sir Samuel Greig ( ) of Inverkeithing. Admiral and Commander in Chief in the Russian Navy. Fought against the Turks (1770) and Swedes (1788). He was known as Father of the Russian Navy. When Greig died Catherine the Great had his body entombed here because he was protestant and couldn't be buried in an orthodox cathedral. The first wave of Reformation left the cathedral untouched and the Catholic bishop retained his superior position until Then the cathedral was reformed as well and changed into the main church of the Lutheran diocese. In connection with the Reformation, certain changes took place also in building traditions. The chapel that had primarily been a room of worship now began to be used as burial place. In the 16th and 17th centuries one such burial chapel was built to the east of the main porch and another against the west wall of vestry. On the first floor above the porch a room was built for the cathedral's library. It has retained its initial function till the present day. In the course of time the congregation members donated to the church a whole collection of works of art and valuable fittings. All that was destroyed in the tragic fire that broke out on June 6, The whole town of Toompea, including the cathedral, burnt down. The bishopric institution was reconstituted in Estonia in 1919, when Jakob Kukk was elected to be the first bishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church. In 1923 the Dome Church was proclaimed bishopric and the bishop could now hold the messes, no matter that the German congregation was the holder of the church. March the 27th in 1927, when bishop made the German congregation to leave the church, is the birth date of the Estonian congregation. The inside of the church reflects heavily of the Germanic influence and importance of the the Hanseatic League, an economic alliance of trading cities and their guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe in the later Middle Ages. It stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period (c.13th 17th centuries). The Hanseatic cities had their own legal system and furnished their own protection and mutual aid, and thus established a sort of political autonomy and in some cases created political entities of their own. After we left the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin we walked to an overlook of the city. It presented a curious mix of red tiled, steep roofs, steeple spires, and modern architecture. The streets of the Old Town consist of homes built one next to the other with narrow facades and high triangular pediment. Behind these facades there were rows of privately-owned buildings stretching out along long, narrow plots of land: large residences and small houses, servants' lodgings, rental apartments and ancillary structures. This is what the property of a wealthy town- 106

33 dwelling merchant of the Middle Ages looked like. The plot usually stretched from one street to another through the whole block. Hence the system of main-and by-streets built up with homes of the most varied architecture. While in Upper Town Liz walked through several shops and did manage to find some amber earrings. We looked for rings, as we often do, to serve as our particular trip souvenir. They had some adjustable rings but nothing I wanted so we saved that part of the hunt for later. But for now we took advantage of the opportunity to descend two floors and through some of the old city walls to find a restroom beneath a merchants shop. From the Upper Town we descended through winding cobbled streets to the Raekoja plats (Town Hall Square), which is dominated by the imposing facade of the Raekoja, or Town Hall. The building was constructed in the 14th and 15th centuries and is the only surviving late Gothic town hall in Northern Europe. Its soaring steeple bears a 16th-century weather vane portraying the medieval warrior, Old Thomas, guardian of the city. Old Thomas (Vana Toomas) is one of the symbols and guardian of the city Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Since the year 1530, there is a wind vane on the top of the City Hall tower with the shape of a old man with a hat, who holds a spear in his hand. The legends tells that in medieval Tallinn, every year an archery contest was held to see who could shoot a wooden parrot off the top of a high pole. This, although, was a game held only for the rich and aristocratic people. The legends says that no one could shoot down the parrot, until a young boy called Thomas gave it a shot. He hit the target with remarkable precision. For that, he got in trouble, for he was from a poor family. But, instead of getting tied up to the Post of Shame, he was made an apprentice guard, because he had such remarkable skills. Thomas eventually became an expert soldier and a great guard loved by many. When he died, the city made a metal statue and put it on top of the City Hall, so Thomas could still look after Tallinn until the end of times. The citizens of Tallinn still believe that as long as Old Thomas is up there, looking after them, nothing too bad can happen to the city. We had time to walk through several shops where Liz did find matching amber rings with three perpendicular pieces of yellow, traditional, and green amber. We left the tour here and walked the short distance back to the ship, stopping at one of many cafés around the square to sample Saku Originaal, the local beer. Saturday, 31 July 2010 I was looking forward to going to Latvia when we were planning this cruise. One of my great friends in the Army, Val Puzulis, was born in Latvia. When he was a boy of seven years, his family escaped Soviet occupation and escaped to Germany. They arrived in Würzburg only days before that city was bombed by the British on March 16, As a family of refugees they endured the ravages of war, ultimately gaining transportation to the United States. Moving to California, Val struggled through a strange school in a strange country and ultimately joined the U. S. Army. We met on my second tour in Germany when Val was assigned as a Chief Warrant Officer with technical expertise as a Calibrator. We became good friends and our families traveled together many times in this and subsequent tours of duty. I administered his oath of office when he was promoted to CW5. It was meaningful to me to see where he was born. Charming Riga - the Pearl of the Baltic 107

34 Riga, the capital of Latvia, was founded more than 800 years ago and has now grown into the biggest city in the Baltic States, with a population of nearly 1 million. The last 15 years of independence and two years as a member of the European Union have brought great changes and development to the city and to the country itself. During the city tour you will have a chance to discover the history of Riga on foot. You will get acquainted with the 13th century St. Peter's, St. George's and St. John's churches and walk through the medieval John's yard. In the Old Town you will also see the medieval dwelling houses known as the "Three Brothers" and the Large and Small Guild buildings. The tour will take you to the center of the Old Town - the Dome Square, where you will see the magnificent Dome Cathedral. The bus will take you through the boulevards of Riga's city center with its fine examples of Art Nouveau architecture from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You will pass by the symbol of Latvian independence - the Freedom Monument, which was erected in 1935 during Latvia's initial period of independence and was at the heart of the Latvian freedom movement in the late 1980s. During the tour you will also have a chance to see the architecture and lifestyle of contemporary Riga. [Oceania Cruises] It was amazing, the Regatta's Captain Jahn Rye could be seen giving instructions on a hand-held radio to his crew and, apparently the longshoremen on the dock. He just parked the ship alongside the pier as quickly and more assuredly than I can parallel park my car. The maneuver placed us in the middle of town, a short two blocks from a crosswalk that would take us to the center of town. Our excursion was scheduled a few hours later so we grabbed our packs and set out walking early on our own. The Cruise Director, David Shemet, had announced that when we would arrive at the crosswalk we would see a glass case with a caveman of some sort. When we got to the case we discovered the figure was not a caveman but was instead the legendary founder of Riga. In ancient times, before Riga had been built, a very large man named Kristaps (Latvian form of Christopher) built himself a hut on the right bank of the Daugava River. He earned his living by carrying people across the river on his back (in some versions, in his ferry boat). They disembarked at the spot where Riga now stands. 108

35 One night Kristaps awoke to the sound of a child crying on the left bank of the river. He waded over, picked up the mournful babe and began carrying him back across the river to the hut. With each step, Kristaps found that the child became heavier until by midstream only with the greatest of effort could Kristaps made it to shore. [The babe was really the Christ Child bearing the weight of the sins of the world.] With his last ounce of strength, Kristaps laid the child on the rug in front of the hearth in his hut and dropped off into an exhausted slumber. In the morning Kristaps awoke to discover that the child had disappeared, leaving behind a coffer filled with gold. Kristaps was a humble man and from this treasure, he spent not a centime (santims is 1/100th of a lats) until his dying day. Then he gave all the money to build Riga near the spot where his hut once stood. As we walked about the town on our own we came to a very striking building at the main square. We learned it was initially a very important center for public life, first mentioned in 1334 as the New House of the Large Guild, near the Town Hall Square (Ratslaukums). The building was erected by the city itself, and originally it was rented to the merchants of the Large Guild and the unmarried merchants, the Brotherhood of Blackheads, who purchased the building in The Blackheads were a union of young, unmarried merchants and ship captains in the Hansa cities, which chose St. Maurice to be their patron. St. Mauritius was an imaginary African black moor (hence Blackheads). Due to their exceptional status the Blackheads played an important role in the society life and traditions; many VIPs of that time (including Russian tsars) took part in events organized by the Blackheads. As a German merchant club the Brotherhood of Blackheads existed in Riga until This long-standing cultural monument was destroyed during World War II in Due to an explosion the slate covered roof was torn off revealing the wooden constructions underneath, which were destroyed by fire. During the Soviet occupation in 1948 the burned out walls were blown up. After the Republic of Latvia regained its independence, the restoration of the House of Blackheads started, which was completed in In the center of the town hall square is the statue of Roland, the favorite nephew of Charlemagne. Roland died in the famous battle 109

36 of Roncevaux Pass in 778 in the Pyrenees. Roland is now a symbol of freedom and justice. It was now time to return to the ship for our ten o'clock excursion. We met Rita... from Riga, our guide for the morning. Initially we took a drive along the Daugava River and later would walk through the center of town. Riga is the capital of Latvia and the largest city of the three Baltic states. Approximately 800,000 people live in Riga and that makes 1/3 of the whole population of the country. There are 8 million people living in all three Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. I always like to speak of all three countries together because we have similar history for 300 years. Many people from abroad think of us as one. They say, 'Why do you have to have three different countries; why do you have different governments; why do you have different currencies?' Well, that is how history is developing! There are two parts of Riga, New Riga is 150 years old and old Riga is 809 years old. The Old Town of Riga used to be surrounded by walls. Over the years most of its walls either crumbled, were destroyed by invaders, or were torn down in the 1800s. What survives is the Old City Walls and Swedish Gate. The remains of the fortifications were used to fill in the moat or leveled to form gardens and parks. The Swedish Gate, so named because it was built by ruling Swedes in 1698, is the only gate still standing. Riga was founded in 1201 by Albert of Bremen as a base for the Northern Crusades. It developed as the major trade hub of the Eastern Baltic during the high days of the Hanseatic League, ruled by the Archbishop of Riga. The Reformation reached Riga in 1522, which ended the Archbishops' power. After the fall of the Hansa, Riga became a part of first the Swedish and then the Russian Empires, before becoming the capital of independent Latvia in Riga remained the capital through the Soviet period, and emerged in the 1990's as the capital of newly-independent Latvia. Germans have inhabited the city since its establishment by Albert, and throughout most of its history Germans were the elite while Latvians remained a lower class. Their position as the elite continued through the Imperial period of Riga. As such, much of the architecture in Riga has been heavily influenced by Germany. Riga is home to the largest concentration of Jugendstil (German Art Nouveau) architecture in the world. The Germans were forcibly repatriated after the Nazi occupation of Much of Riga was bombed in World War II--the ruins were left to decay until independence, when the government, realizing the tourism potential, began to invest in reconstructing and restoring the old buildings. Because of this, Riga has one of the most complete old towns in Europe. Our official language is Latvian, but Riga is bilingual with Latvian and Russian as the main languages: 50% are native speakers of Latvian and 50% of Russian, though the vast majority is bilingual and English is widely spoken by younger people. As we continued driving about the city Rita continued her dialog with some humor. When we drove down a major thoroughfare she mentioned that the Esplanade and had been named Lenin Street and had a large statue of him in the center. The monument of him has moved to the cemetery in 1991 when the country was proclaimed an independent state. 110

37 As we left the bus to begin our walk we passed in front of the opera house and someone asked about the rate of unemployment. Rita said the rate was the highest in the EU and then explained that many of the younger people have been attracted by jobs outside the country in the UK and Ireland. Additionally it is easier to move about freely now that they are in the European Union and have only one border. Neither explanation seemed suitable and no one asked for more clarification. We made a stop at the Victory Pub and had Lāčplēsis beer. Lāčplēsis (Bear-slayer) is the national epic of Latvia and the military has the Order of Lāčplēsis. We each had two beers, shared an order of onion rings, and split a blueberry pastry from the bakery next door. Then we were strengthened to look for souvenirs and rejoin Rita for the next part of our walk. Here we see the Freedom Monument. It was erected in 1935 honoring soldiers killed during the Latvian War of Independence ( ). It is considered an important symbol of the freedom, independence, and sovereignty of Latvia. The sculptures are arranged in thirteen groups, depict Latvian culture and history. At the top a 19-meter (62 ft) high travertine column bearing the copper figure of Liberty lifting three gilded stars, representing the regional districts of Latvia. We continued walking into the park an saw a young bride and groom posing for pictures. As it was in Saint Petersburg, it seemed that the tradition was to have wedding photos taken at the Freedom Monument and other prominent government and religious locations. Here we observed a footbridge where newlywed couples take part in a relatively new tradition. A padlock, engraved with the names of the couple, was locked on a bridge railing and then the key was throw into the water below. It is a way of declaring the bond between them forever. "Here is St. Peter's Church which was mentioned in records dating to Built of masonry it was undamaged by a city fire in Riga that year. St. Peter's history can be divided into three distinct periods: two associated with Gothic and Romanesque building styles, the third with the early Baroque period. 111

38 The church burned down 29 June Conservation and restoration began 1954 with research by architect Pēteris Saulītis. The work was carried out from 1967 to Renovation began with the metal tower frame. A rooster a precise reproduction of the previous rooster and the seventh rooster in all was placed atop the steeple in The renovated tower clock began to show time in According to tradition, it has only an hour hand. The bell music began in 1976; it plays the Latvian folk melody "Rīga dimd" five times a day and bells ring at the top of every hour. St. Peter's Latvian Lutheran congregation resumed services in the church 1991, and the church was returned to the ownership of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia in Sunday, 01 August 2010 We finished our tour at the Guild House and town square which Liz and I had observed on our own four hours earlier. Our bus was parked next to the Museum of Occupations. After the Nazi occupation during the war, Latvia passed into Stalin's hands in "The following years saw the Latvian people terrorized by Russian totalitarian ideals, with thousands deported to the gulags whilst the rest endured a program of 'Russification' - as the USSR tried to suppress and kill any sense of Latvian identity." One could leave the tour to visit this museum and then walk back to the ship... everyone chose to forgo the experience and rode back to the Regatta together. We are scheduled to tender at Visby, the city of roses and ruins. With 2.1 miles of ancient walls, it has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is said to be the best preserved medieval city in Scandinavia. Medieval Visby Discover Visby's stunning beauty and storied past during this wonderful visit to Gotland`s capital city. Visby, the Capital of Gotland, boasts a swashbuckling history that began in the Viking Age, and was followed by a flourishing Medieval period and the growth of the powerful Hanseatic League. Today, however, Visby is best known as the Town of Roses and Ruins, and one of Sweden`s most popular vacation resort destination. Depart the pier for a drive along Visby`s coast to Hogklint. From this dramatic cliff top viewpoint, you will gain a geographical perspective of the walled city, and enjoy marvelous views and photo opportunities of Visby and the Baltic Sea. You will then head back towards town by way of the old 112

39 Hanseatic harbor of Almedalen. Along the way, you will pass by the Kruttornet, a powder tower that has the distinction of being Visby's oldest structure, before stopping for a scenic stroll through the Botanical Gardens. After rejoining your coach, you will then drive through a gate and follow the 13th-century city walls past the Maiden's Tower, part of the remaining 1.5-mile-long, 13thcentury city wall. A stop will then be made at Dalmansporten, a wonderful Medieval city. Dalmansporten is one of the gates through the wall surrounding Visby. Upon arrival, you will take a 1-hour, guided walk down its narrow, winding streets. Along the way, you will pass by the evocative ruins of Dalmasnsporten's many Medieval churches before reaching the impressive Cathedral of St. Mary's. Following your walking tour, you will re-board the coach for the return drive to the ship. [Oceania Cruises] Torbjörn Jern, our guide, had retired from the Swedish Intelligence Service and had worked here for 45 years. After this introduction he said, "Gotland is an island and it's strategic position in the Baltic s made the history of this island. It was independent until 1361 when the Danes conquered the island. In 1645 the Swedes conquered it. The Danes returned in 1676 and stayed for three years before the Swedes came back and threw them out. In 1808 the Russians conquered the island for a few weeks but we are Swedes. We were given the concept of the tour and would be going first to the Högklint Nature Reserve, a cliff (50m) just south of Visby.. Later we would bus to the city and the botanical garden. The bus will then meet us on the other side and drive us to the top of the city where we would walk down hill. Winding up through narrow roads that would test anyone's ability to drive a car much less lead a convoy of four buses, our driver parked and we walked to the observation point and then many of us walked thirty meters down to a rock outcropping. The blue flag with the white ram is the provisional flag of Gotland, the biggest island in the Baltic Sea. It is 145 Km (90 mi) long and 50 Km (31 mi) wide. The population as of the first of this year is 57, 221; of those 22, 919 live in Visby which is the only city on the island. Farming is very important in Gotland, about 8% of the population is dependent on that. Cattle raising produces 75% meat production and 25% dairy production. We also butcher about 100,000 pigs every year on the island. Most of our farm production is exported to the Stockholm area. There are around 800,000 visitors each year. Most of them come in the summer season and while we have people arriving all year long, May to September are the busiest times. There are 2,000 people employed in the tourist industry. This year 73 cruise ships will arrive in Visby. This is the second busiest cruise ship destination 113

40 after Stockholm. After we left the the cliffs we rode to the Almedalen - the medieval harbor of Visby. It was the trading hub in the Baltic Sea before Lubeck took over the role. The importance of Visby became too strong. Behind the city wall was the 42 meters long City hall, known as 'Vinhuset' (The Wine House). At the 2nd floor was the burgher's hall, at its first floor was the market-place and the money exchange offices and the cellar basement included the pubs and the store rooms for beer and wine. "We are entering the Botanical Garden by the ruin of the Romanesque church of St Olof. It was built in early 13th century, and was one of the biggest and most lavish churches. Only the west tower of the church is seen above ground. The Botanical garden in was created in 1855 by 'The Bathing Friends', and was early a place for useful plants. Today it's one of the best botanical gardens in Sweden with exciting trees and flowers. It's also enriched with plants from all over the world. Our foot tour continued along the narrow streets toward a corner of the old city wall (Ringmuren) where the oldest building in Visby, the Gunpowder Tower and former prison, still stands. Here too we saw the houses proudly decorated with rose bushes and arbors. Along this street were several, currently occupied, Viking houses. At another end of the block was a stone ram decoration and I wondered if it was created to reflect the Visby Coat of Arms as well as the provisional flag. 114 Re-boarding our bus, we rode to the high side of the town and got out near one of the remaining, more intact gates... Dalmansporten. Visby's limestone city walls, which date from the 13th Century, circle the old city and cover 3.5 km. They are studded with 44 towers, each around 60 foot high. The towers had 3 or 4 floors where the soldiers could fight from, and on the backside of the city wall the towers were connected with scaffolds made of wood. The Powder Tower (Kruttornet) overlooks the sea, while the Maiden's Tower (Jungfrutornet) is at the north end and is so called because legend has it that the daughter of a Visby goldsmith was

41 walled up alive in it. We walked through the gate an onto a meadow by the Cathedral of St. Mary. Dated from 1225, it is the only one of Visby's old churches which is still in use. It contains a spectacular walnut and ebony pulpit from Germany and a 13th Century red marble font. Some of the people on our bus chose to ride back to the ship for lunch however, we decided to leave the tour. Instead we shopped along fairly crowded streets. We looked for some books as it was recommended as a good source of English translations. We found a mystery for Mark and a few other souvenirs along the way. The we also decided to have lunch... locally. La Fontana Hästgatan had tables on the veranda overlooking the street. We people-watched as pedestrians struggled with wheeled luggage over cobblestone roads. Some pushed or held back bicycles, depending if they were walking uphill or downhill. There were many restaurants in a four block square and, depending on the luck of the draw, this is the one we selected. We shared a shrimp salad, a chicken salad, and an order of French fries. Then, of course, we asked for the local beer. Klosteröl (Monastery Ale) was a good draught beer made by Gotlands Bryggeri. Monday, 02 August 2010 Highlights of Gdańsk Your tour begins with a scenic transfer to Gdańsk. En route, you will drive through the small town of Oliwa passing the Abbot's Palace and gardens and the beautiful Oliwa Cathedral, located on the grounds of a former Cistercian monastery. Then, pass by the Gdańsk Shipyard and the Solidarity Monument Square with its famous monument commemorating the deaths of shipyard workers shot down in December 1970.Your motor coach will then stop near the Old Town of Gdańsk. Here, you will take a guided walking tour of the historic heart of Gdańsk, pointing out highlights such as the Long Wharf with its famous Crane, the impressive gabled architecture of the buildings and Long Market. Following free time to further explore this wonderful city, you will return to the ship. [Oceania Cruises] Gabriela opened with, "Ladies and gentlemen, if today is Monday you are in Poland. The country in the middle of Europe, 312,000 km 2, which is a bit smaller than Texas. The capital of Poland is Warszawa - Warsaw in English. Gdańsk is at the mouth of the Motława River, connected to the Leniwka, a branch in the delta of the Vistula River, which 60% of the area of Poland and connects Gdańsk to the national capital in Warsaw. After all the democratic changes Poland now has borders Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Czech Republic, 115

42 Germany, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Thirty eight 35 million people live on the territory of Poland. We are today a very homogeneous state, 95% Polish people. It was not like that during the historic time when a thousand years ago when Poland as a state and kingdom was formed. In the 13th century Poland and Lithuania became the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth and we grew east 15th, and 16th and 17th century, pushed by different Germanic tribes. That was the time when Poland was one of the biggest countries in Europe. When you see the shape of Poland today it is exactly the same shape of Poland when in the late 9th century the Polans managed to subdue most of the Slavic tribes between the Odra (Oder) and Western Bug [buk] rivers and between the Carpathians and the Baltic Sea. In the 10th century, Bolesław I the Brave, the Polish king from Poznań, organized under his control all the tribes who lived between these two rivers. Just now on your right, Markethalle, from 1935 and expanded 10 years ago from capitalism time, from 1990 Poland became democratic state and free market economy was introduced. Ladies and gentlemen you are in Gdynia. Gdynia is one of the youngest cities in Poland. During the 19 th century when Russia, Austria, and German Prussia divided Poland among themselves. For 100 years Poland as a state disappeared from the map of Europe. Then recent delegation to Versailles in 1918 after the First World War Poland again became independent. Gdynia's rise, or indeed catapult to fame is certainly unusual. For centuries it was little more than a humble Kashubian fishing village. However, with Poland's rebirth after the First World War, the newly resurrected country was in need of a port on its northern seaboard. The decision by the Allies to make nearby Danzig (Gdańsk) a free city, had complicated matters, and the Poles were obliged to build afresh. Gdynia was ear-marked for development, and progress was rapid. Two ports within such close proximity [15km/10mi] of each other led to predictable rivalry, with business in Danzig - a predominantly German city - suffering an unavoidable blow. It was the 'Danzig Corridor', a major bone of contention for the Germans, that eventually sparked the war, following Hitler's appropriation of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Although the ports themselves were destroyed (they were carefully rebuilt afterwords), Gdynia survived the war, and like Gdańsk, many new settlers came here from the lost eastern cities of Vilnius and Lwow. Gdańsk was 90% destroyed by March Everything was rebuilt and we shall see how that was done later on. But here you will see a Norwegian shopping center built 10 years ago. I mention it because from 1990, when capitalism started, we have now everything in our shops and no problem to buy. Today, as the economy fell off, the only problem for us is to earn enough for all those goods to buy. In 1989 we had Russian coupons for meat, sugar, chocolate, for gasoline... it seems a thousand years ago but was during my life time. I feel I have been living too long in Communist time because now I feel lost in the future shopping center. We have kilometers of shops and 14 kinds of washing powder and I don't know which one to buy. I ask my youngest son and he says buy something that was yesterday on TV. We have to learn from you how to resit all this. Now, the historic old city of Gdańsk was rebuilt during the 1950s and 1960s. Boosted by heavy investment in the development of its port and three major shipyards for Soviet ambitions in the Baltic region, Gdańsk became the major shipping and industrial center of the Communist People's Republic of 116

43 Poland. As part of German-Polish reconciliation policies driven by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik, German territorial claims on Gdańsk were renounced, and the city's full incorporation into Poland was recognized in the Treaty of Warsaw in This was confirmed by a reunited Germany in 1990 and In December 1970, Gdańsk was the scene of anti-regime demonstrations, which led to the downfall of Poland's communist leader Władysław Gomułka. During the demonstrations in Gdańsk and Gdynia, military as well as the police opened fire on the demonstrators causing several dozen deaths. Ten years later, on August 31, 1980, Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement, whose opposition to the Communist regime led to the end of Communist Party rule in 1989, and sparked a series of protests that successfully overturned the Communist regimes of the former Soviet bloc. Solidarity's leader, Lech Wałęsa became President of Poland in 1990 As we offloaded the bus and walked around the corner we came to the Radunia Canal (1338). On one side were some old warehouses that had either been bombed out or merely neglected but there was no noticeable effort of restoration. However, the other side of the canal was magnificently restored. And this was just the beginning. When we were stationed in Frankfurt we often went to Römer Platz which 117

44 was rebuilt according to the original historical architecture that existed before it was bombed in World War II. As lovely as it is in what was once equally as destroyed as Gdańsk, it pales by comparison with this Old Town. Although this also was rebuilt according to the original historical architecture that existed before it was bombed in World War II; Gdańsk's Old Town covers many square blocks of streets and cross streets. Much of the architecture reflect a Dutch influence. We were intrigued to find many four story, deep houses with narrow frontage, supposedly built to limit tax rates, as we saw in Amsterdam. It is by far a city's largest effort to rebuild one's history and culture from such devastation as we have ever seen. Much of the restoration has probably resulted in smaller apartments than must have occupied palatial estates but there are also restored administrative buildings, town gates, fountains and monuments. The Gdańsk Crane surely a symbol of pride in the Hanseatic League was the largest the largest port crane in Medieval Europe is a good indication of Gdańsk s significance as an international trading center. Now a maritime museum, it still reflects the history and power of the city. We walked over the bridge through the Green Gate, a building inspired by the Antwerp City Hall. It was built between to serve as the formal residence of the Polish monarchs. It was built by Regnier, an architect from Amsterdam, and reflects the influence of the Flemish architecture in the city. The Renaissance Green Gate stands on the site of the most ancient gate in Gdansk, the Koga Gate. This gate was built to serve as the formal residence of Polish monarchs, but was only used for that purpose once in its history. There are four arched passages through this gate and there is a symbol over each: The eagle of the Prussian Kings, and the emblems of Poland, Gdansk, and Royal Prussia. Today, the gate is managed by the Polish National Museum and is the home of a great many exhibitions and galleries. Former Polish President and symbol of Solidarity, Lech Walesa, has his office in the Green Gate. We came to Long Market, lined with beautiful Renaissance buildings, outdoor cafes, and shops. As we walked Gabriela pointed out several buildings styles and the Neptune Fountain at the town hall (now a museum). After leaving the fountain we walked past the town hall tower to Mariacka street and St. Mary's Church (Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). It is the largest brick church in the world [105.5 m long, and the nave is 66 m wide], and one of the largest Brick Gothic buildings in Europe. Until 1945 it was the biggest Evangelical Lutheran church in the world. The church can hold 25,000 people. St. Mary's is a co-cathedral in Archdiocese of Gdańsk, along with the main cathedral for 118

45 the Archdiocese (Basilica-Cathedral of Gdańsk-Oliwa). Unfortunately, 'Kosciol Mariacki' was severely damaged during the Second World War during the Soviet liberation of Gdańsk. The wooden roof burned, the windows were smashed in, and the heat was so intense that many bricks simply melted away. The floor was also destroyed, as looters ripped up historic tombs, looking for valuables to steal. In anticipation of the worst, many valuable pieces of art were hidden away during the war and survived the chaos, but many have not been returned to their rightful place. However, there are still a great many treasures inside this beautifully reconstructed cathedral. A 46 chord organ built by the master Marcin Friese, enchants all those who hear it. A late-gothic main alter depicts God the Father, Mary, and Christ sitting together on three incredible thrones. A number of other paintings, sculptures and religious artifacts provide an impressive backdrop for this house of God. The church is also home to an incredible timepiece. Built from 1464 to 1470, an astronomical clock stands at 14 meters! This clock contains 70% of its original elements and tells not only time, but also the day, month, lunar phase, the positions of the sun and moon in relation to the Zodiac, and also tells us that our ancestors were not the backwards people we have a habit of believing them to be! At noon, the clock depicts scenes of the Adoration of the Magi and the Annunciation, while Adam and Eve ring bells from atop this marvel. After leaving the cathedral and continuing up Mariacka street we came to the house of Copernicus where in a basement shop one may buy tins of cookies, each shaped in the forms of many of the famous city buildings. We purchased a few of the Copernicus house tins as souvenirs. Later we were guided to one of the very many amber jewelry shops for a demonstration on how to determine if amber 119

46 is genuine. The concept is intriguing. Amber floats while imitations sink in water. I am not sure how this information helps because all the amber we have seen has been mounted in broaches, rings, earrings or necklaces and such mountings would tend to weigh down the item enough to sink. Of course, after we arrived in Gdańsk we were informed Poland is the best location to buy amber... after we saw such shops in every other country so far. We then stopped at La Cantina, a promising little place with café tables out front. After asking for a Polish beer and being told "delivery not yet" we were informed we could have Budweiser; we almost left before Liz reminded me that Budweiser in Europe was the familiar Czech beer Budwar. We then ordered lunch and shared Staropolski bigos z kielbasa podamy z ziemniakami z wody (old Polish stew, sausages served with boiled potatoes) and Gołąbki z kapusta podanie z ziemniakami z wody (stuffed cabbage served with boiled potatoes). Both were delicious and gave us the energy to return to shopping. Later we would stop at another café for piwa (beer) - Tyskie Gronie (pale lager that is brewed in Tychy) and Lech Premium (pale lager brewed in Poznań). Tuesday, 03 August 2010 "Good morning and welcome to Bornholm, called the island of the sun. Bornholm is very far from Denmark, closer to Germany, Poland and Sweden," said Hans Kastner, our guide. "I am a Norwegian and Klaus, our driver, is a Bornholmer." Although quite well spoken, we later learned that Hans normally gave this tour in Spanish... this was the first time he would be giving it in English. The Best of Bornholm Enjoy both the historical and modern sides of Bornholm, as well as a taste of local specialties in this comprehensive half-day tour. Just off the coast of Denmark lies the incredibly picturesque Baltic Island of Bornholm with its charming capital city of Rønne. Your tour gets started with a brief panoramic tour of the city before heading off to the town of Gudhjem. Your route will travel through the beautiful and lush environs of the Almindingen Forest, which covers most of the Island. The enclave of Gudhjem boasts charming half-timbered houses with thatched roofs and narrow, 120

47 winding streets that beckon visitors to stroll and browse. Following a guided walk through the town center, you will pay a visit to a local glass factory where the famous Baltic Sea Glass is blown. Leaving Gudhjem behind, your tour continues on towards the northern tip of Bornholm, where you will see the Hammershus Fortress and a typical round church. Enjoy a guided walk and visit inside a traditional smokehouse where you can observe the smoking process at work. Following that, you will be treated to a sampling of the delicious smoked salmon or herring that Bornholm is well-known for. At the end your visit, your coach awaits to transfer you back to the pier where your tour concludes. [Oceania Cruises] Gudhjem is a small town and fishing port on the northern coast of the Baltic island of Bornholm, Denmark. Its population is 754. Tourists are attracted by its steep, picturesque streets, stunning views and a friendly atmosphere. Its history as a fishing village goes back many years. Its harbor was first built in the middle of the 19th century but was destroyed by a storm in 1872 and rebuilt in A second harbor was constructed between 1897 and 1906 to provide a safe haven for whaling and fishing boats. It was here that smoked herrings were first prepared, in the town's typical smokehouses. Since the 1840s, smoked herrings have been sent to Copenhagen. We drove through the countryside and one could not help but notice the many modern wind turbines used to produce electricity. These were in the middle of large wheat fields. Bornholm s mid-baltic location makes it the perfect place to exploit wind energy. At present, the island has 35 wind turbines with a total capacity of 30 MW. Twenty-four percent of the energy used on Bornholm comes from the island s wind turbines covering 33% of the electricity use alone, compared to the current average for the rest of Denmark of 20%. Our first stop would be at the round church, formerly used to protect the local farmers from Viking (?) invaders. Østerlars Rundkirke was built around 1150 AD in answer to two needs: a church for the locals and a fortress to give the locals a sanctuary and defense from the pirates and robbers that were numerous. A round church has two layers - the outer fortress or defensive layer and the inner church or religious layer. However, the two layers were not entirely separate - in the religious layer people would pray for divine protection from the attackers. The outside supporting pillars were added in 14th and 15th century to support the granite boulders that make up the main wall. 121

48 The round church is not a passive defense fortress. Archers would be positioned in the windows and shoot arrows at the attackers. The round ship is 3 floors high and one floor is the access to the arrow slits. The interior is decorated with medieval wall paintings. They depict Jesus' birth and life. After climbing up narrow stairs to the top storage floor, where provisions and weapons would have been stored when this type of church faced invaders, we then sat in the pews to admire the paintings in this stark building. We also wondered how long the defenders could withstand attack. From here we returned by another route to the Baltic Sea Glass studio where we would be given a demonstration and an opportunity to purchase objects from the gallery. The hot shop looked similar to that of the Hot Shop Amphitheater in Dale Chihuly's Museum of Glass in Tacoma. When I mentioned that Pete Hunner, one of the founders, said he knew of it and Dale Chihuly. Then I learned he was originally from Kansas and met his wife here some twenty years ago. The bus then took us to the coast where we walked in the picturesque town of Gudhjem, where the characteristic steep streets and alleys end at the well-protected cliff harbor. We could explore the village so we checked out the shops and then went to the Konditor Bager. I thought it must be a law that you have to get coffee and a Danish when you are in Denmark... and we did. Walking through several more of the shops we rejoined our party for a scheduled lunch stop. There is a long tradition of smoked fish on the island, particularly herring, mackerel and salmon. Many of the smokehouses are still in use with characteristic chimneys. Nordbornholms Røgeri had prepared tables for us and we took our places at tables set for six. Lunch included "Sun over 122

49 Gudhjem" - one of the not-to-miss delicacies - smoked herring with a raw egg yolk, chives and radishes served on freshly baked rye bread. A pint of beer or other drinks were included. Some of the group had never had smoked herring, some wrinkled their noses at the very idea, and others were flummoxed by the idea of boning the small fish. I was reminded of how my brothers and sisters disliked smoke fish so much when we were children that when my mother and my Aunt Margaret had a yearning for the delicacy they would do so at her house across the street do we wouldn't hold our noses and complain. Today I enjoyed the herring and remembered both of them. After lunch we continued on to the capital of Bornholm Hans said, Rønne is the main town and it is a ferry town with connections to Køge south of Copenhagen, Sweden, Germany and Poland. Towards the end of WW II - on the 7th and 8th of May, Rønne and Nexø were bombed by the Russians and it caused a lot of damage to the town center. Despite this there are still lots of old and charming buildings. Also 175 red timber houses, which the Swedish state donated towards the rebuilding of Rønne back then, are still present today. We walked in the pedestrian zone for a couple hours. More window shopping than purchasing, with a view of looking at crafts more than anything else. Later in the afternoon we stopped at Sam's Corner Café and ordered two half liter glasses of Tuborg beer which cost 90 Danish kroner ($15.76) and a plate of French fries is 30 kroner ($5.25). The Danes must have a fair amount of discretionary money to eat here... or anywhere, apparently. Wednesday, 04 August 2010 As we sailed toward birth we noticed two ferries crossing the narrow channel in front of the bow. Then it seemed as quickly as we passed their docks they again crossed behind the stern. They had a quick turnabout time in this narrow part of the Warnow River. Our last Baltic port-of-call was Warnemünde (Warnow river mouth) which is a sea resort and northernmost district of Rostock in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The major draw of this stop was the opportunity to take an excursion to Berlin. We opted not to do so because we had spent three tours in Germany. On last tour we lived in Frankfurt where authorized to take the U. S. Army Duty Train to Berlin numerous times. We were confident we could make much better use of our time touring Warnemünde and Rostock. Oceania helped us by scheduling a visit from personnel of the Rostock Tourist Office. We were able to obtain maps and get advice on the operation of the transportation systems. We knew we could easily 123

50 walk to the S-Bahn station and connect to a tram in Rostock to take us to the Neuer Markt. Although the ticket machine would accept a credit card, our Mastercard was not then coded for that purpose. We needed to wait ten minutes for a Cambio to open to buy Euros. From the ship to the town center took only 30 minutes. Only 10 miles from Warnemünde, the rise of Rostock began with its membership in the Hanseatic League. In the 14th century it was a powerful seaport town with 12,000 inhabitants and the biggest city of Mecklenburg. Ships for cruising the Baltic Sea were constructed in Rostock. In 1419 one of the oldest universities in Northern Europe, the University of Rostock, was founded. In the 20th century, important airplane manufacturing facilities were situated in the city, such as the Arado Flugzeugwerke in Warnemünde and the Heinkel Works with facilities at various places. It was at their facilities in Rostock-Marienehe where the world's pioneering jet plane made its test flights. Aeroplane construction ceased at the end of the Second World War. Large parts of the central city were destroyed in World War II by Allied bombing in 1942 and Through reconstruction and subsequent extension, the city became a major industrial center of the German Democratic Republic with the port being developed as the primary gate to the world. Much of the historic center has been faithfully rebuilt and much of its historic character rebuilt. This includes several buildings characterized by vertical brick ribs, a style common to the Hanseatic towns. Following the reunification of Germany in 1989/1990, Rostock lost its prior privileged position as the principal overseas port of the former GDR and became one of several German ports, now located in one of the least industrialized regions of reunited Germany. Despite large infrastructure investments, the city's economy declined in the 1990s but is now growing again. Rostock's population dropped from nearly 260,000 in 1989 to about 200,000 today, primarily due to suburbanization but also due to emigration to more prosperous western regions of Germany. At the Haupt Bahnhof we went to the central Stadtplan to check our location with regard to the Neuer Markt. The we check with a clerk at the Bundespost to determine the best streetcar. A few moments later we were at the main square. People were setting up fruit and vegetable stands and a few merchants were setting out inexpensive books, plastic ware, pots and pans, and T- shirts. We walked down the line to the Tourist Information Center and picked up a few brochures. Walking back behind the market we saw that the fixed stores were also opening and setting up small 124

51 displays on the sidewalks. We continued on to Kröpeliner Straße, a major road perpendicular to the market. Dominating the square was the Marienkirche. It has scaffolding around the upper portions, common enough in the evident Baltic reconstruction. Building started mid 13th century, but in 1398 the nearly finished building collapsed. After that a cross-shaped Basilica emerged, built in the style of the French cathedral style and the Marienkirche in Lübeck. Its tower is Baroque. The art treasures of the Marienkirche are worth seeing including the astronomical clock built in 1472, the bronze baptismal font consecrated in 1290, the Rochus altar from around 1530 and the Baroque organ. It was much too early to watch the impressive clock as the next scheduled movement was to be at noon. We turned right on Breite Straße and walked the Fußgängerzone. There were many coffees shops filled with people getting recharged for the morning. We walked on to Galeria Kaufhof to inspect what we hoped might be unique and interesting. Liz looked at some table linens and even some tableware but nothing we wanted to bring back to the ship and have to fly home. On the way out we noticed Weine & Mehr and while the idea appealed to us, we didn't find anything here either. Passing by the drained "Joy of Living" Fountain in University Square we noticed young people laying on the grass. They seemed to be students and maybe even squatters. The street around the front of the Universität Rostock was protected by construction zone signs and while one could enter the building people had to walk gingerly around workmen and their tools. The University of Rostock was founded in 1419 by Pope Martin V and thus is one of the oldest universities in continental Northern Europe. In Germany, there are only five older universities: Heidelberg (1386), Köln (1388), Erfurt (1392/1994), Würzburg (1402/1582) and Leipzig (1409). On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the university, Albert Einstein and Max Planck received honorary doctorates on 12 November This made the University of Rostock the world's first institute of higher learning to award this honor to Einstein. Interestingly enough, the doctorate was not revoked during the Nazi rule in Germany ( ), despite such orders by the Nazis. The reason for this remains unknown. The end of the Second World War in 1945 brought many changes. The university, now finding itself in the Soviet Zone of Germany (the later German Democratic Republic), was re-opened on 24 February The Faculty of Law was closed in 1951, a Faculty of Agriculture was introduced in 1950 and in 125

52 1951 saw the opening of a Department of Shipbuilding (renamed Faculty of Technology in 1963). The University of Rostock was the first traditional university in Germany to open a technical faculty. In 1952, the Faculty of Aviation was opened, but eventually relocated to Dresden. The university was named after Wilhelm Pieck in This was annulled after the German reunification. Around the corner was the University Bookstore. We bought one book and priced some T-shirts and hats to get some idea of what we might want as a memory here. Then we walked further up the street to Kröpeliner Tor which was Rostock's western city gate. It was first built in An addition around 1400 made it 54 m (177 ft) high. It houses a small museum of Rostock history. We made our way back using this street as our base and checking side streets looking for a place for lunch. Our mind's eyes we set on a gasthaus or keller and we became disheartened to see everything but those. We found the Hopfenkeller-Mecklenburg, a lovely restaurant in an old hops cellar. There was only one other table filled with patrons. In view of the fact that the place was otherwise empty, I wondered why it took a while for a waitress to find our table. Once she did and served us a beer, we were invited to help ourselves to the salad bar cart. We had Schnitzel nach Jäger Art with home fries. Wernesgrüner Pils (founded in 1436), which is now owned by Bitburger Braugruppe. I always liked Bitburger and this was good too. While the Schnitzel was not the best prepared we have ever had, the memories were better by coming here. 126

53 Returning to Warnemünde we now saw that the resort town was filled with tourists. We crossed a narrow bridge over the channel and I could not help but think of boardwalk promenade along the miles of white beach resembling the little seaside resorts in New Jersey. Bathers, café-goers, fishermen selling their catch directly from their cutters and tour boat captains were all busy up and down the inlet. We walked past the wedding museum and around through many tourist type attractions to Förderverein Leuchtturm Warnemünde, One of the best known landmarks of the Rostock area. After reunification, the lighthouse was leased to a preservation organization for restoration and development as a tourist attraction. Located in a public square in downtown Warnemünde, about 200 m (220 yd) from the west bank of the river Warnow just inside the entrance. Skipping the MacDonalds on the quay, we selected the Gaststätte Kettenkasten for one last German beer before returning to the ship. For more than a century, hungry sailors have been mooring their boats in front of what is now the Kettenkasten. Built in 1888 as a shop, it wasn't until a century later that it became a restaurant. A maritime theme features intricate model ships, antique maps, and oil paintings of ocean-going sailing vessels. This had a more traditional look than the Hopfenkeller- Mecklenburg but we didn't want another meal... just another pils. At the cruise terminal we saw plexiglass encased sand sculptures from a recent competition. When we entered the hall a young university student asked if he could take a survey. We agreed and he told us he was taking hospitality courses and wondered how we chose to stop here, and why we had not gone on to Berlin. I told him we had lived in Germany for ten years and had been to Berlin many times. Then he said he could conduct the survey in Deutsch and we said we have had no practice; the last time we were in Germany we used Deutschmarks. He was polite enough not to say, that was before my time. Thursday, 05 August 2010 Copenhagen was simply a through-port but I was impressed by all the wind turbines in rows in the harbor. They looked like huge fans on pedestals rising out of the water. Very progressive and another example of a great use of wind to produce energy. Shortly after we disembarked we secured our bags and walked to our bus. No customs inspection, just a drive to the airport and we were on our way home. 127