White Nights in the Baltic

We are finally home but I had another picture I wanted to share.  This picture was taken about 11:oo pm on the night we sailed from St. Petersburg.  Unfortunately the sun is setting behind a cloud which is just above the horizon.  The Baltic countries refer to the summer solstice (June 21st) as Midsummer.  The Scandinavian countries and St. Petersburg refer to the time around the summer solstice as White Nights.  The days are so long that there is no real darkness and only a short amount of time as twilight.  Many residents will paddle small boats or walk along the River Niva in St. Petersburg.

Stockholm, Sweden

This is a picture of the Vasa which was a Swedish ship that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1628 on its maiden voyage just 1,500 meters from the coast. The ship was built too top heavy and was too narrow. A gust of wind came up and the ship just tilted over. In the 1950's the ship was discovered in the bottom of the sea and a massive effort was started to raise the vessel in tact. The project was a huge undertaking and lasted many years. After the ship was raised, it was dried out and coated with chemicals to keep it from deteriorating any further. It is now the oldest intact vessel of its kind. The museum also showed how life on a ship worked, the colors of the wood carvings on the ship and how much was learned from the restoration. This is my last blog entry until we arrived home since we will be leaving the ship tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed!

St. Petersburg, Russia

This was our second day in St. Petersburg, Russia. Today we took an hour drive to see Peterhof which is one of the places where Peter the Great held court. He also lived on the grounds in a small house. The grounds are full of fountains. It is a little hard to see but there is water running down the steps on both sides of the main waterfall and a huge fountain behind me and many other smaller fountains. The water originates in the hills above Peterhof and continue down the long canal from the base of the house to the Gulf of Finland just a short walk from here. This was really one of the highlights of the trip. The amount of restoration done on these historical treasures since the end of World War II is simply amazing.

St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg, Russia! Besides being a beautiful city we are also in former Soviet Russia. Everywhere else we just walk off the cruise ship and entered the city; but in Russia we had to give the port officials a copy of our passport and get our passports stamped. We also had to be with a tour guide the entire time. So our tour today included Catherine's Palace just outside of St. Petersburg. The picture here is of the Mirror Room inside the palace. All the gold is gold leaf! The room was designed in the early 18th century to copy the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles, France. We also visited several other spots in St. Petersburg including St. Peter and Paul Catherdals and the Catherdal of the Spilled Blood. Tomorrow we go to the Peterhof.

Tallin, Estonia

Tallin, Estonia is a beautiful historic seaport on the Baltic Sea. Fortunately not as much of the city was destroyed during World War II so there are many more 12 and 13th century buildings to enjoy. This picture is of the old town hall building. There is still a ring hanging from the outside wall that people found guilty of a crime would have to put their head and hands into and have to stay there for a certain amount of time depending on their crime. Outside this area on most days is an open air craft market of wonderful hand made crafts including felt hats, wool sweaters, linens, wood carvings and glass jewelry.

Riga, Latvia

It's Saturday - we must be in Riga! A different country every day is starting to wear on us. Today unfortunately it has been raining all day; but we did get to visit part of the old town in Riga. Riga has 42 churches for a population of 700,000. This ornate building was reconstructed after World War II. All the streets in this area are cobblestone.

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Klaipeda is a small port town in Lithuania. This is the main square in the town and there was a folk group singing. We went to an Amber museum and learn all about amber which is very popular in this part of the world. Amber is really tree resin and is millions of years old and comes in yellow, orange, brown and even green. Our tour guide took us to a local pub to have some locally brewed beer. I'm not much into beer but Steve said it was very good.

Gdansk, Poland

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This is a picture of the main street in Gdansk, Poland. The street was only open to foot traffic with restaurants and shops lining the side. We happened to be there for a religious festival and heard a band playing "When the saints come marching in". We felt quite at home. Since Gdansk was practically leveled by the end of World War II everything we saw was built about sixty years ago.

The Berlin Wall

This is me in front of what is left of the Berlin Wall. I always imagined the Berlin Wall being huge and really thick. It is probably only 10 foot tall and very thin. On this area that I am standing in front of; different artists were invited to paint certain sections of. You can also see some of the graffiti painted over the artist's work. We spent the entire day in Berlin visiting Checkpoint Charlie, the Allied Museum, Brandenberg Gate, and the allied airfield where the planes landed everyday for nine months with supplies to service the people of Berlin. Our tour guide today actually lived in West Berlin during that time.

Gottenberg, Sweden

This is a picture of Gottenberg, Sweden. It is a very beautiful town with pretty fountains commemorating Poesiden, beautiful gardens and lots of old history. Not very many old buildings have survived due to the fires over the years. Most buildings are made of wood.

Changing of the Guard

There were so many people that we hardly could get anywhere close to the fence to see the actual changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (well until Steve let me crawl up on his shoulders - what a guy!). But we did get a picture of the band marching over from the guard house to Buckingham Palace. All the pomp and ceremony was fantastic!

Three days in London

Sorry no pictures yet but Steve and I just spent three days in London before boarding the cruise ship to start our Baltic Sea cruise. Let see - we saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, the Crown Jewels, Windsor Castle and HARRODS! London is an amazing city. The people are very friendly. We rode the hop-on-hop-off bus, the tube and the train. We are now sailing to our first stop in Sweden.