Velcome to Wiking Vorld!

Sweden is the mother country of IKEA, Volvo, Electrolux, Trolls, and Pippi Longstocking.

Inga, our local guide for the day, took us to see the beautifully designed City Hall with its 8 million mosaic tile Golden Room (where the annual Nobel Prize presentation banquet takes place after the award presentation ceremony).

We then crossed to the medieval heart of the city to see the Cathedral and the Royal Palace, the king’s official residence since the 18th century.

Next on the itinerary was the Wasa Museum. The Wasa is a 16th Century Galleon built in Stockholm that sank on her maiden voyage, drowning 50 sailors, and destroying the most expensive and largest ship in the Swedish fleet right in front of the King and a huge crowd of spectators amid the fanfare. Would have loved to see their faces and all the finger-pointing after it went down. Top-heavy with big cannons and thickly carved woodwork, it tilted with the first gust of wind in its sails, rolled over, filled with water and sank. Rediscovered 300 years later in the 1960's, it was raised, preserved, partially restored and put on display in its own museum. It’s very impressive.

Spent a couple of hours shopping in the old town. At 5 o’clock, we were sailing aboard the Silja Serenade for an overnight cruise across the Baltic Sea to Finland. The ticket office got everyone’s room assignments all mixed up, e.g. strangers with strangers. What a nightmare! Once the problem was cleared up, we had dinner and drinks. The temperature was warm out and the sea was as smooth as glass. Winding our way through many of the 20,000 tiny islands was as picturesque as a Maine coastline. 

Who should we pass but the Constellation, the Celebrity cruise ship we last sailed on to the Caribbean two years ago? What a co-inky-dink. Compared to that beauty, our ship was a several rungs down the coolness ladder. And to add insult to injury, we all were given ‘Inside’ Cabins. The first and last time that’ll ever happen again. No windows! Claustrophobic! 

Did I mention Drag Queen Miss Divet, was the entertainment headliner? 

PS She/he didn’t look this good in real life.

Dancing Queens

Today started out with a little excitement at breakfast when Ron set the revolving toaster on fire…literally. No glazed pastries in the toaster. Dumb American. After the smoke cleared, we checked out of our hotel and headed out for Sweden. Caught the ferry (coach and all) to cross the narrow strait that separates the North Sea from the Baltic Sea. 

We sailed past the 15^th century fortress, Kronborg Castle. Big sucker. Shakespeare chose the castle as the background for his classic work Hamlet.

Our ferry ride took us from Helsingor Denmark to Helsingborg Sweden where we set out on a long drive to Stockholm, stopping for lunch along the shores of beautiful Lake Vattern. To break up the monotony of the many hours on the road today, they put on an ABBA dvd. ABBA is one of the biggest things to ever come out of Sweden. We were swaying in our seats and (silently) singing along to all their old hit songs of the 70’s and 80’s that many of us know by heart (you know who you are). Well, anyone who saw the movie Mamma Mia would know them too.

 

Patches of rain off and on during our drive but once we reached Stockholm, it had stopped. After checking into our hotel, we found a nice Italian ristorante. A lot of Goth types in leather and wild tights in this town with nose rings, tongue studs and weirdly shaved haircuts. We fit right in.

Copenhagen Denmark

Denmark is the home of the Danish pastry, Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales, plastic Legos, and the smorgasbord buffet. Also the Little Mermaid bronze sculpture normally in the harbor was AWOL, having been loaned to a world exhibition in China for several months. 

 Today we toured all the sites of the city of Copenhagen. The old towers, canals, waterfront, historic buildings and canals. Lots of old rectangular brick buildings. The Christianborg Palace is the seat of the Danish Parliament and Royal Reception Rooms. We had to wear elastic coverings over our shoes to protect the beautiful wood floors while we toured inside and were not allowed to take any pictures. None. :o(

After our lunch in the old market square, we drove along the picturesque coast lined with expensive mansions and through quaint villages with cozy thatched roof houses. We toured the Frederiksborg Castle and drove to the royal winter residence, Amalienborg Palace, and watched the Changing of the Guard. Diane was even able to make the ramrod straight guard at the gate crack a smile.

We concluded being royalty would not be such a bad thing if you didn’t, like, have to marry your own cousin.

Berlin --> Copenhagen

Said goodbye to the land of King David Hasselhoff and headed North from Berlin through fields of brilliant yellow rapeseed planted with wind generator pinwheels.

And the occasional nuclear power plant.

Spring arrived late this year in this region after a record cold winter and everything has exploded in a riot of color. It’s mid-May and tulips, cherry blossoms and hyacinths are just now blooming. Chestnut trees are awash in white clusters.

When we reached Rostok on the northern coast, we caught a 2 hr ferry over to Denmark and drove on up to Copenhagen.

Our ultra-modern Royal hotel was designed in the 1960’s by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen who created the well-known ‘Egg’ and ‘Shell’ chairs especially for this hotel. Now it looks a little too Jetson for our taste.

Later we walked over to Tivoli, an amusement/pleasure park since 1843. It is said Walt Disney got his inspiration here at Tivoli. The lighted gardens are beautiful. To us, it seemed like Disneyland-Lite. Nice but not that exciting.

 

Linda and Diane

Hansel und Gretel do Berlin

Sunday morning, we spent 2 hours continuing on with our tour of Berlin.

Brandenburg Gate once the East-West border.

The double stripe of bricks on the road that mark the route of the former Berlin Wall. 

The Holocaust Memorial

Ruins of the bombed out Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

After that we left the city of Berlin and drove out to the quaint village of Potsdam. We visited Frederick the Great’s 18^th Century Garden Park and Bacchalian Palace aptly named “San Souci” which we think means something like “Don’t Worry – Be Happy – Let’s Party.”

 

Tossed down a quick lunch and drove on to the Cecilienhof Palace, scene of the historic Potsdam Conference, where Truman, Churchill and Stalin sealed the fate of Germany and Europe ushering in the Cold War.

Zum Geburtstag to Linda!

Today is Linda’s birthday. Even the rain and gloom all day didn’t dampen our spirit of celebration. After breakfast, we cabbed it over to our tour hotel, the Marriott Berlin near Potsdamer Platz. We stored our bags  then with raingear and umbrellas ready, headed out to see more of the Berlin sights regardless of the weather.

Our sightseeing included a stop at the legendary KaDeWe department store, Berlin’s version of Harrod’s. Then had lunch at an Italian restaurant across the way. Started the birthday celebration off with a big carafe of Chianti. That sure warmed us up some.

Linda (R) with travel buddies Ron and Diane

Trucked on over to Checkpoint Charlie, the former American Sector border crossing between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

Diane & Ron at Checkpoint Charlie

A few blocks over stands a remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, the former Death Strip and an exhibit recounting the history of Nazi crimes, all grim symbols of a divided Europe that endured four decades of uncompromising suppression.

Linda and Jerry at the Berlin Wall

Later on back at the hotel we met our Tour Director Elena and the rest of the group of 35 we will be traveling with for the next 16 days. Looks to be a robust mix of experienced travelers from Australia, the Philippines, South Africa, Germany, Russia, Canada, and the U.S. Three-fourths are younger than us. We toasted to our shared journey with flutes of sparkling champagne. On to our steak dinner with more Champagne, beer and wine. How about some birthday toasts - Prost! (Cheers!) Zum Wohl! (To you!) Langes Leben! (Long life!) 

Can you say ‘ein kleines betrunken’?

Sachsenhausen Nazi Concentration Camp

Today we spent four hours walking throughout the remains of the Sachsenhausen Nazi Concentration Camp with a local tour guide.

Established in 1938 just outside of Berlin, Sachsenhausen became the center of the whole concentration camp system that included the more widely recognized Auschwitz and Krakow camps in Poland. Among other things, this camp was a: training center for SS guards, an administration and records center, brickworks, forgery workshop, refurbishment and redistribution facility (mainly the personal property of incoming prisoners). It was the propaganda show place of all work detention camps. Hidden behind that picture of a model camp, brutal atrocities were carried out resulting in the deaths of over 100,000 victims, mostly through starvation, disease, cruelty, torture, medical experimentation on live subjects, infections from injuries left untreated, gas chambers, hangings, suffocation, and firing squad. The bodies were cremated and buried in mass graves or dumped in a nearby canal.

Inmates shared four to a narrow bed in stacked bunks. The barracks had no heat in winter, no cooling in the heat of summer. Prisoners had little food, no coats, gloves, and often no shoes. They were not only Jews but also Roma gypsies, asocials (artists, playwrights, ministers), political adversaries, foreigners, and homosexuals.

After the war, the camp was used as a gulag (prison labor camp) by the Soviets until it closed down in 1950.

 Entrance Gate

 Grounds, Wall and Towers

 Open Torturing Posts

 Mass execution wall

 Public Gallows

 Torture Rack

Partially destroyed Crematory Ovens

Crowded bunks

A sobering reminder of this terrible period in history.

London --> Berlin

Day Two took us from London to Berlin in a short 1-1/2 hr flight aboard British Midland Airlines, United’s code share partner. 

Berlin's Tegel Airport

Took a cab to our hotel in downtown Berlin.

Nh Potsdamer Platz hotel:

http://www.nh-hotels.comnh/en/hotels/germany/berlin/nh-berlin-potsdamer-platz.html.

Skies are overcast and rain is likely. At this point, however, we are walking zombies since we got very little, if any, sleep on the plane overnight. It never got dark out. The more north we went the longer the daylight (Land of the Midnight Sun) and eating up times zones brought morning all too soon. We have free WiFi at the hotel and as soon as we checked our email, there was a message from United Airlines apologizing for the trauma of the horrendous turbulence we went through. We would have been happier with a free drink or two, and maybe a replacement change of underwear.

We are heading out into the neighborhood in search of a quick dinner so we can try to get some sleep tonight despite the jet lag. Wish us luck.