June 22, 2010

Tallinn, Estonia
High 68
Sunrise: 4:03 am
Sunset: 10:43 pm

Estonia is a country of great scenic beauty with many forests, lakes and islands. It is bordered by the Baltic Sea, the Russian Federation and Latvia. Tallinn, the ancient Hanseatic city and capital of present day Estonia, has many historical and architectural monuments, particularly in the old town. It is located on the Gulf of Finland and is an important Baltic seaport with a large fishing industry and a naval station. Estonia was independent from 1919 to 1940, when the republic was annexed by the USSR. Occupied by German forces in 1941, then retaken by the USSR in 1944 and served as the capital of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic until 1991, when Estonia again became an independent republic.

Our ship docked right at the edge of the old town and we did a walking tour of the village. The town was almost empty but they were preparing for a celebration and we were apparently too early. Many parts of the walls are falling down and in dire need of repair but it was interesting to see.



June 23 2010
Riga, Latvia

Riga is the capital and largest city in Latvia. It is the largest city of the Baltic States and third largest in the Baltic region behind St Petersburg and Stockholm. During World War II Latvia was occupied first by the Soviet Union in June 1940and then by Nazi Germany from 1941-1944. Forced industrialization and planned large scale immigration of large numbers of non-Latvians, particularly Russians, changed the demographic composition of Riga. Latvians are still trying to find their place in a divided country. Once again celebrations were taking place and many people were coming from the local farmers market with flowers, fruit and vegetables in their baskets. Bicycles and walking are the mode of transportation for most of the Baltic countries. We enjoyed a roam around old town and returned to the ship for a late lunch and nap.



June 24, 2010

Visby, Gotland, Sweden
SUNNY and warm

It is a glorious day in Visby and the sunshine and warmth are most welcome. We have been very lucky with our weather as the entire region has had unseasonably cold and dreary weather before our arrival. But this is the first clear and sunny day we have had. Visby is on an island of the coast of Sweden and one of the best preserved medieval cities in Scandinavia and has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We roamed the beautiful gardens and climbed steps and hills and walked charming narrow roads to the top of the hill and outside the walled part of old town. Bill and I both thought we could stay for 3 or 4 days and ride bikes and hike. Our next stop will be Copenhagen.

These are some pictures from St Petersburg that I forgot to include. The Icon is from ST Peter and Paul Church in the Peter and Paul Fortress. The others are from Peterhof's Palace

St Petersburg Day 3
High 66 Partly Cloudy
Sunrise 4:36 am
Sunset 11:25
Light: ALL NIGHT

It is our final day in St Petersburg and after 2 days and 4 tours, 2 lasting into the wee hours of the morning I tried to opt out of our tour today, but Branca, our tour guide from Go Next Travel convinced us that this day would be more than worth our while so off we went to Peterhoff, the Versailles-like summer residence of Peter the Great to the west of the city. As we approached we saw many of the dachas of the aristocracy of St Petersburg. The Palace has been restored to pristine pre-Revolutionary splendor by the cities conservators and curators due to St. Petersburg’s 300th anniversary. The Russians' love for largess and excess, and the fact that the czars were among the richest men who ever lived shows in the extravagance and richness of the design and furnishings. The many acres of gardens designed in the English and French style with over 100 fountains is a perfect setting for this beautiful palace. We toured the palace and then spend a wonderful hour just wandering the canals and gardens. The palace sits on the Gulf of Finland and has developed an ingenious natural downhill flow for it’s irrigation system.
We returned to the ship and set sail at 6 pm bound for Tallin, Estonia

St Petersburg Day 2
Sunday, June 20, 2010
High 66
Sunrise 4:36 am
Sunset 11:25 pm

Our morning takes us the Hermitage Museum in a drizzling rain. It is but a short ride to the museum and we are the 3rd or 4th bus to arrive. They let the buses carrying passengers from the cruise ships enter at 9am while the rest of the museum opens at 10:30. There can be 20,000 at the Hermitage in a day so we were so fortunate to be so early and were able to move from room to room easily for the first hour. The building is simply amazing with marble, granite, malachite and many types of wood covered in gold leaf. By the time we left the lines were way down around the block. Only 20% of treasures are on display at one time. The rest are stored below ground. This part of the city was spared bombing during the war but many of the palaces outside of town were partially or totally destroyed.

Our evening tour took us to the palace of Catherine the Great for a Grand Imperial evening of the Tzars. We were greeted by Royal Guards at the Palace and musicians played for us as we entered the palace. The lavish palace was covered in gold leaf wherever we looked. As we descended the grand staircase the Imperial Guard paraded by and a horse drawn carriage arrived with a couple to do some traditional dances. We then had champagne to toast the evening and proceeded to go to a Russian dinner at a traditional Russian country house.
We had a wonderful dinner with vodka toasts and singers and dancers to entertain us. Our last picture was of the sunset at 11:30 pm as we departed for the ship 45 minutes away. How mixed up are we if we stay up until 1 am in the morning. The last picture in the center is taken at 11:45 in the evening just as the sun was setting.

Tuesday, June 19
St Petersburg, Russia, Day 1
11 hours later than Tucson
Partly sunny, high 77F, low 61 F
Sunrise 4:36 am
Sunset 11:25 pm

St Petersburg has just opened a large new passenger port to accommodate the new “larger” (huge) cruise ships. It is about 40 minutes out from the center of the city. Our ship is much smaller is comparison with 680 passengers maximum. We were therefore able to cruise up the Neva River almost to the center of town. The Neva is the city’s main waterway with most of the city built on both banks of this river and on 44 islands formed by the Neva River and 90 other rivers and canals. Canals and natural waterways connect the navigable Neva with the Caspian, Ural and White seas and also with the Dnepr and Volga rivers, making St Petersburg the port of exit for much of the Caspian, Ural and Volga areas. Although the harbor is frozen from November to April, ice breakers keep the channel open except during the severest winter period. The population of St Petersburg is 4.7 million, approximately 3% of the Russian population.
There are many elaborate palaces, the most famous of which is the Winter Palace. An ornate Baroque building completed in 1762 be fore the Revolution of 1917. It now houses the Hermitage Museum.

Our morning tour took us of an overview of the city founded by Peter the Great in
1703. We first saw the pale blue and white Baroque façade of St. Nicholas Cathedral and the Mariinsky Theater, home of the Russian Ballet. Then it was on for a brief stop at St Isaac’s Cathedral whose dome is covered with 200 pounds of gold. We passed by the beautiful Field of Mars and the Marble Palace en route to the extraordinary Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.


Our evening took us to the Russian Ballet performing Swan Lake. Saturday, June 21st was a big celebration in the city with graduates from the Naval academy, colleges and high schools having their celebrations along with the summer solstice celebration. In addition there was a summit meeting with Russian dignitaries including Mr. Putin in attendance. So, naturally many streets were blocked off with bandstands being set up in several locations. Our bus parked 5 blocks away from the theater so we walked through the streets with the celebration students. We returned to ship just before 12 pm as the sun was setting. At 4 am the sky was light and many people were still walking along the quay and sitting on the steps by our ship. What crazy light!

Good morning from Riga, Latvia on Wednesday, June 23, 2010. The time is 7:35 am which is 9 pm Tuesday in Tucson. Internet connections have been poor at best for the last 5 days and therefore I have been unable to do any postings. I was surprised that connections were not better.

We departed Tucson on Tuesday, June 15 at 5:45 am and arrive in Chicago right on time. Our seats were in first class to Stockholm with sleeper seats. And we needed them. We spent 3 hours having a complete tour of every runway at O’hare trying to fly out as the weather was full of rain, lightening and hail. Finally they let us stay on 1 runway and we were number 17 in the line.

We arrived in beautiful Stockholm about 11 and were transferred to the ship in time for lunch. Our cabin was ready by 2 and we immediately took a nap. I wish we would have come in a day earlier so we could have enjoyed what a beautiful city Stockholm is. It is called the Venice of the north and rightly so because it is made up of many islands. Unfortunately many of the streets and exhibits were closed because of the upcoming Royal Wedding between the Crown Princess and a commoner on Saturday the 19th. It was a very exciting time for the Swedes and people from neighboring countries were coming in by the boatload. The city is home to many colleges, universities, the Royal Library, The Nobel Foundation which overseas the awarding of Nobel prizes. One of the best museums is the Vasa Museum which houses a fully restored 17th century ship that sunk in the waterways and was resurrected 333 years later. It is a city of parks, waterways, boats galore and much is located on a fresh water lake where many classic wooden boats are berthed. We sailed at 4 pm with fanfare from the ships band and lots of toasting. Unfortunately we did not get many pictures as we were not able to make many stops because of the crowds and street closures.

Helsinki, Finland
Sunrise 4:40 am
Sunset 10:49 pm

Helsinki is the chief seaport of Finland and the country’s capital and is situated on a small peninsula. It was founded in 1550 by King Gustav I Vasa, king of Sweden. The wonderful scent of lilac blossoms filled the air and the colors were in deep purple, light lilac, white and pink. Helsinki was the home to the 1952 Olympic games and the stadium is in use today. There was a wonderful monument to Jean Sibelius. We stopped by a large open air market with fur hats, wool sweaters in the Stein Erickson design and many things for the cold winters here in the north. Not much use in Tucson, though. We are still struggling with the dramatic time change as it is now 10 hours earlier than Tucson. We sleep about 4 hours at night and then have to nap for 3 hours in the afternoon.
Good morning from Riga, Latvia on Wednesday, June 23, 2010. The time is 7:35 am which is 9 pm Tuesday in Tucson. Internet connections have been poor at best for the last 5 days and therefore I have been unable to do any postings. I was surprised that connections were not better.

We departed Tucson on Tuesday, June 15 at 5:45 am and arrive in Chicago right on time. Our seats were in first class to Stockholm with sleeper seats. And we needed them. We spent 3 hours having a complete tour of every runway at O’hare trying to fly out as the weather was full of rain, lightening and hail. Finally they let us stay on 1 runway and we were number 17 in the line.

We arrived in beautiful Stockholm about 11 and were transferred to the ship in time for lunch. Our cabin was ready by 2 and we immediately took a nap. I wish we would have come in a day earlier so we could have enjoyed what a beautiful city Stockholm is. It is called the Venice of the north and rightly so because it is made up of many islands. Unfortunately many of the streets and exhibits were closed because of the upcoming Royal Wedding between the Crown Princess and a commoner on Saturday the 19th. It was a very exciting time for the Swedes and people from neighboring countries were coming in by the boatload. The city is home to many colleges, universities, the Royal Library, The Nobel Foundation which overseas the awarding of Nobel prizes. One of the best museums is the Vasa Museum which houses a fully restored 17th century ship that sunk in the waterways and was resurrected 333 years later. It is a city of parks, waterways, boats galore and much is located on a fresh water lake where many classic wooden boats are berthed. We sailed at 4 pm with fanfare from the ships band and lots of toasting. Unfortunately we did not get many pictures as we were not able to make many stops because of the crowds and street closures.

Helsinki, Finland
Sunrise 4:40 am
Sunset 10:49 pm

Helsinki is the chief seaport of Finland and the country’s capital and is situated on a small peninsula. It was founded in 1550 by King Gustav I Vasa, king of Sweden. The wonderful scent of lilac blossoms filled the air and the colors were in deep purple, light lilac, white and pink. Helsinki was the home to the 1952 Olympic games and the stadium is in use today. There was a wonderful monument to Jean Sibelius. We stopped by a large open air market with fur hats, wool sweaters in the Stein Erickson design and many things for the cold winters here in the north. Not much use in Tucson, though. We are still struggling with the dramatic time change as it is now 10 hours earlier than Tucson. We sleep about 4 hours at night and then have to nap for 3 hours in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we head for St Petersburg, Russia where it will be 11 hours earlier than home.



Tomorrow we head for St Petersburg, Russia where it will be 11 hours earlier than home.

Oceania Cruises Scandinavian & Russian Splendors

Our trip is just 7 days away and Bill is almost packed and ready to go. I don't like to rush into things so it will take me a few more days. Our flight is rather lengthly as we fly to Denver, then to Chicago and finally board SAS business class for the flight to Stockholm. It is wonderful to have flight miles to upgrade. We will try to post daily as we travel from port to port but it is easiest and quickest when we are docked and have a land line. More later.

June 15, Tuesday, Depart Tucson 5:45 am

June 16 Wednesday Arrive Stockholm Sweden 7:30 am

June 17, Thursday, Depart Stockholm 4:oopm

June 18, Friday Helsinki , Finland

June 19, Saturday,St. Petersburg, Russia

June 20

June 21 Monday, depart St Petersburg 6 pm

June 22 Tuesday, Tallinn, Estonia

June 23 Wednesday, Riga , Latvia

June 24 Thursday, Visby, Sweden

June 25 Friday, Copenhagen, Denmark

June 26 Saturday, Berlin (Warnemunde) Germany

June 27 Cruising the Kiel Canal

June 28 Monday, Amsterdam, Netherlands

June 29 Bruges (Zeebrugge), Belgium

June 30 London (Dover) UK