Today we toured St. Petersburg, often called the Venice of the North. Saw the beautiful ‘Church of Spilled Blood.’
Then toured the magnificent Hermitage, museum and former home of the Tsars. Think a Louvre housed in a Versaille.
Next we visited a beautifully restored baroque palace, the former residence of the obscenely wealthy Yusupov family. Also the scene of Rasputin’s grisly murder.
Rasputin was a sleazy Siberian peasant who weaseled his way into royal circles. Jealous of Rasputin’s influence, Yusupov and his cronies tried to poison him, when that didn’t work they beat him, shot him and chucked him into the river where he finally died of drowning.
After dinner, we attended a folklore concert of musicians, singers and dancers. The Military Leningrad Orchestra, a men's chorus in uniform, and a troupe of dancers in colorful traditional costumes.
Picture Lawrence Welk meets Riverdance. The theater seats were hard and uncomfortable. Boriiiiiiiiing. The only saving grace was the intermission with complimentary champagne.
Today we ventured into Russia. Exited Finland customs and immigration like a breeze. Proceeded through an ominous stretch of woods between Finland’s border station and Russia’s called ‘No Man’s Land.’ Warning - no cameras or photos of officials. Each of us checked and stamped through. Inspectors did a thorough search. At the final checkpoint, a hefty, unsmiling pitbull of questionable gender barked out orders and signaled commands. The whole process took over two hours and we were finally released to continue on our way.
First off, we knew we’d entered Russia by the road conditions. Worse than California. Huge potholes, rough bumpy surfaces, dips and tilts. Most notably going onto and off of bridges like some Russian engineer miscalculated the level of the road with that of the bridge. Signage is now totally unreadable to us. The letters look like gibberish from a printer malfunction. Two-way roads with trucks, buses and cars playing ‘chicken’ in passing. Glad we backseat drivers are not sitting in the front. Peasants selling bundles of twigs for saunas along the way. Colorful makeshift cemeteries half-hidden in the woods adjacent to the road were decorated in vivid colors probably belonging to a band of gypsies.
Secondly, we went from pure Finnish drinking water to the nonpotable stuff you can’t even brush your teeth with. No uncooked fruits, vegetables, juices or ice. Here we go……
St. Petersburg, on the other hand, is a jewel, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Lovely old architecture, in a Venice-like setting with a river, bridged canals and cobbled streets.
Visited the Peter and Paul Fortress, St. Petersburg’s first settlement.
Entertained with chants and songs by a small men’s quartet.
After dinner, we had our private cruise of the NevaRiver through the center of Peter the Great’s capital.
Linda and Diane
Vodka, champagne, a basket of fruit and caviar canapés. Costumed singers and musicians entertained while we sailed past the sights of this classical city. After many shots of wodka, Linda was playing one of their wooden clackers, Ron was dancing with the lead singer, Diane was singing along in ‘Russian’ and Jerry was documenting the humiliating evidence for the record.
Our overnight cruise ship docked in Helsinki around 10 in the morning. After disembarking, we began our tour of the city. Helsinki is a port town with clean streets, nice people and pristine drinking water. We filled our small water bottles straight from the tap with their award-winning pure water. Also bought a huge jug at the local supermarket to get us through Russian and Belarus in the coming days.
First off we visited the “Church in the Rock” which has been cut right into the rock in downtown Helsinki. The acoustics are said to be splendid. They charged 0,50 Euro to use their WC.
Onward, we drove through nice gardens and stopped for a look at the Sibelius Monument. Sibelius was a famous Finnish composer whose works sound dirge-y and harsh just like the long frozen winters here in Finland. Depressing. Probably suffered from Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Anyway, the thing most interesting at that park was the porta-potty. It had a HUGE 3 ft wide, wok-like stainless steel basin that you hang your ass over, aim at the hole and go. When you flush, the water swirls in roaring, eddy-like fashion and if you slip and fall in, you will surely be sucked down the drain. Wish we had taken a photo of it.
Continuing on, we visited Finlandia Hall. Lucky for us, a military marching band was doing some kind of drill. Lots of guards and soldiers on this trip.
It was a good day for walking around the old town and doing a bit of shopping. Not so good for the statue of a horseman whose head is used as a perch. (Those pesky birds show no respect.)
After checking into our hotel, we walked down to the open market along the waterfront plaza. Mostly a farmer’s market, many stalls sold fur hats and scarves. PETA people would not likely be welcomed here.
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 WasaMuseum. 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?
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 15th 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.
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 ChristianborgPalace 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 FrederiksborgCastle and drove to the royal winter residence, AmalienborgPalace, 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.
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.
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 KaiserWilhelmMemorialChurch
After that we left the city of Berlin and drove out to the quaint village of Potsdam. We visited Frederick the Great’s 18th Century Garden Park and BacchalianPalace 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 CecilienhofPalace, scene of the historic Potsdam Conference, where Truman, Churchill and Stalin sealed the fate of Germany and Europe ushering in the Cold War.
