DAY 25 – ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND – SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2012 (after days 22-24 at sea)

After our longest time at sea, three days, we arrived on the North American continent again, and I have to say I am happy to be nearing home. For many travelers, cruising is the thing, and the ports of call are little side diversions to see a city or country briefly, then get back on board where the real fun takes place and the 4,000 calories a day are “free.” For me it is just the opposite, the culture of the country or city being visited is the main attraction. Perhaps I will do a blog post on the pros and cons of cruising, from my opinionated viewpoint. Or maybe not.

At any rate, I looked forward to being on land again and exploring our first “surprise” port of call, since Greenland had to be canceled. I knew nothing about St. John's, except that my brother, St. John Traxler spent time here (or was it nearby Labrador?) in the Army during the Korean Conflict. Fortunately, there was no conflict here. Since neither Princess nor St. John's knew we were coming until three days before, both scrambled to arrange tours, etc. The Emerald Princess has 3,080 passengers and it just so happened that another cruise line was in port the same day with maybe 2,000 passengers, meaning that a town of 100,000 had its population increased by 5% that day!

We decided to explore the town on our own, armed with maps and a little internet-based research. However, the research did not show that everything is up steep hills, not the best for Karen's stamina. We walked three blocks uphill to look at St. John the Baptist Anglican Church with its beautiful stained-glass windows, then decided we needed some help to get around. St. John's tourist bureau had red-vested folks on the dock and around town to answer questions and provide help. (As far as I know, none of them were Dixieland musicians.) Imagine being besieged by hoards of tourists wanting all kinds of information and wanting to book tours, taxis, and boat rides. The good people of St. John's took it all in stride, never losing their cool.

Discussing the people of the town with our dinner tablemates in the evening, we were amazed at how nice everyone was, absolutely wanting us to have a good time. Then we remembered that these were the same people who, when inbound international flights on 9/11 were diverted here, and thousands of stranded travelers were taken into homes all over Newfoundland, fed, lent clothes and other items if necessary, for several days until they could reboard their planes for destinations in the U.S. These are some great people!

We managed to book a bus tour in the afternoon, so with time to kill, we wondered up and down Water Street (which did not change elevation!) and found a great place to eat called the Gypsy Tea Room, although I didn't see any gypsies, and we didn't have tea. But we did have fantastic cod chowder with mussels.

Boarding the bus (which was actually a city transit bus pressed into tour bus service) our first stop was up the hill overlooking the city, the narrow inlet from the sea, and the Atlantic Ocean. This was the site of Cabot Tower, perhaps 300 feet (my guess) above the city. The tower was built in 1897 on the 400^th anniversary of John Cabot's discovery of a “new founde lande” in North America. What impressive views! The hill is call “Signal Hill” because on this site in 1901, Marconi received his first wireless transmission from Europe, a single letter S. Probably at about the same speed as our onboard internet today. :-) More about Signal Hill later.

The view from Signal Hill, St. John's, Newfoundland

From here we went down the hill (well, where else, come to think of it) and outside the city to a picturesque fishing village, Quidi Vidi, which means... well, no one knows what it means. Then back to the city along the streets with so many colorful houses, actually low rows of tenements. The guide explained in answer to a question that the town was 60% destroyed by fire in the 19^th century and had to be rebuilt in a hurry, so long rows of identical tenements were constructed. A rule was passed at that time that no two tenements in the same block could be painted the same color, hence the very attractive houses that would otherwise be dreadfully boring. Also, drunk citizens could find their home (as long as they were on the right street and block!).

Quidi Vidi - with Jimmi and Kareni - and no jackets! First warm day in two weeks!

I did not realize that until 1949, Newfoundland was a country, a British colony. That year they had a referendum with three choices: Remain independent, join in an economic union with the U.S., or become a province of Canada. The U.S. union was not at all popular, so it was dropped from the ballot and the citizenry voted by a narrow majority to become a Canadian province. Its history in the world wars was important, too, as the easternmost point in the continent, and thousands of British and American troops were stationed there as a first line of defense for the Western hemisphere. However, there was no invasion, of course, although German U-boats were in the area.

Our last stop was another St. John the Baptist church, this time the Catholic Basilica. We could not get a tour of the church, as there was a wedding in process, but we were able to peek in and see this beautiful church, also with incredible stained-glass windows like its Anglican cousin down the hill.

Back on the ship we went on our balcony to watch this huge vessel go through the narrows, with very little clearance on either side. As we made this passage, up on Signal Hill, hundreds of feet above us, there were a hundred or so citizens of St. John, waving goodby. Apparently this is a tradition in this town that does not get a lot of cruise ships. Again, we were impressed by these impossibly nice people!

As we cleared the narrows with the sun setting over St. John and we sailed into a dense fog, I had a foreboding feeling as a knock came on the door and a darkly dressed person entered, waving a pistol in my face. I immediately threw myself over Karen to protect her, and...

Oh, wait, that's a novel I'm writing. Never mind!

Jim

DAY 21 – REYKJAVIK, ICELAND – TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2012 (day 20 at sea)

As you know by now, I'm a country counter and proud of it. A couple places I never thought I would get to are Iceland and Greenland, and they are part of the reason I selected this cruise. So now I have been to Iceland and will describe that adventure here, but when we got back to the ship we received bad news: the call at Greenland has been cancelled! Oh, no! And for no particular reason, other than expected 21 foot waves, 40 knot winds, and icebergs in the area. What a bunch of wusses! (Says the traveler who was mildly seasick two days ago in less stormy seas.)

They have substituted two ports of call, St. Johns, Newfoundland and Saint John, New Brunswick. Big deal! I've been to Canada, eh? But I haven't been to those provinces, so maybe I'll start counting provinces. I've been to all 50 states but to only three provinces, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia. But this trip will end with my country count at 42 instead of 43. Dang! So, anyway, back to Iceland visit yesterday.

I had no idea what to expect as we began our tour, as I had done almost no research on Iceland. I'm betting most of you don't know much either. Here's a very short version: picture Yellowstone without any trees. Reykjavik (if you ignore the letter J, it's easy to pronounce) is a really nice, clean and somewhat colorful city of about 180,000 inhabitants, or just a little larger than Parma, I think! The entire country of Iceland has only 400,000 residents, less than the city of Cleveland. Our tour took us out into the countryside and we spent no time in Reykjavik other than to have some key sights pointed out to us as we drove through.

Even before we left the outskirts of the city, we began to observe the lava fields, vast areas of what appeared to be giant gray sponges that stretched for miles. Some had no vegetation, but most had some mosses, lichens, and at times grasses growing on them, but no trees whatsoever. It seemed like a moonscape. As the elevation increased we began to see steam coming out of various places on the hillsides. We stopped at a bubbling mudpot area where wooden pathways had been built over the hot areas. Our guide said, “Stay on the pathways. Tourists can be soft-boiled in four minutes!”

We also drove past lakes in the mountains that have no inlet and no outlet, but are fed from springs. Since Iceland was formed “only” a few million years ago, virtually all the land is basaltic rock. They have no granite or sandstone, for example, so almost everything is black or brown. It is a fascinating landscape. We did go through farming areas, where the rock has broken down to form soil. They have an abundance (relative to the human population) of sheep and cattle, and crops are mostly vegetables and hay.

Icelandic horses are very interesting. They are not much larger than ponies, but are truly horses. They have stubby noses and long fur. Our guide said they are the only horses in the world with five gaits. Besides the normal walk, trot, canter and pace, they have a unique gait where only one hoof is on the ground at any point in time. She said the ride with this gait (which can be as fast as needed) is so smooth you could drink a cup of tea while riding without spilling a drop.

We stopped for lunch at a little town called Stokkeyn, where we were served very efficiently in a family style with lots of veggies, salad, potatoes, and.... langustini (sp?). They are similar in size to prawns but taste like lobster, and they were delicious! They came well-cooked in wooden bowls with loads of garlic butter. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. We threw politeness and gentility to the winds and tore into them with our hands, pulling out the meat, gobbling it down, then reaching for more. I don't know how many I ate, but surely you would have to count in dozens. Yet with eight of us sharing that bowl, and most as greedy as I, there were still three of the little critters left in the bottom of the bowlwhen we left. Also wonderful was the bread, which we dipped in the garlic butter in the bowl. Best meal of the entire trip, and there have been some great ones.

This town was within sight of Eyjafjallajokull (easy for them to say), the volcano that erupted in 2011 and caused all air traffic in Europe to be canceled for several days. Also, we could see the Myrdalsjokull glacier. Glaciers cover about 10% of Iceland (so, despite the name, it's 90% ice-free!). The lowlands near the coast are green in their summer, but the highlands that cover most of the island are pretty much barren. The climate, at least in the inhabited coastal lowlands, are surprisingly temperate, despite being further north than most of the rest of the world land areas. She said Reykjavik rarely gets below 20 degrees F in the winter, actually more moderate than Cleveland in January. However in the summer, if the temperature gets to 70, it is a major heat wave. (It was in the 40's but sunny on our day there, comfortable with layers of clothing.) They benefit from being in the Gulf Stream flow, of course.

Like all the other Scandinavian countries we visited, it is very much a high tax country with high levels of government provided services for education, medicine, and other benefits. Despite their recent financial troubles, almost entirely due to the banks, they are a very prosperous nation (4% unemployment) with the average income at about $36,000 per year. The first $12,000 is tax-free and the rest is taxed at 27 to 47%. They have no army, but are members of NATO. They have not joined the European Union for a number of reasons, principally because of EU restrictions on fishing, which is Iceland's largest industry.

One of the most interesting aspects of Iceland is that geothermal resources are their primary source of energy and heat. They drill down 1,000 feet and are supplied with extremely hot water or steam which they can convert to electricity or use to heat their homes and businesses at very low cost, perhaps 20% of our costs. It is so cheap that a major Australian aluminum manufacturer ships its bauxite ore all the way to Iceland to be smelted, which has a major energy requirement. Despite the cost of shipping ore halfway around the world, then shipping the finished product to market from Iceland, it is cheaper than producing it in Australia!

Hope I didn't bore you with a bunch of facts and figures. I'm an information junkie. But you can understand from all this, perhaps, that Iceland is like no other place on earth. It's worth a visit, and I learned that if you fly to Europe for vacation, you can make a stop in Iceland, stay up to seven days before continuing, and it is still the same flight, i.e. it does not add cost. A great idea, and one way to alleviate jet lag.

Well, now it's three days at sea before we see land again, as we cross the Atlantic to North America, so you probably won't hear from me until after Newfoundland, unless I begin to suffer from blogging withdrawal. Nothing that exciting on bored, I mean, on board, except for round 2 of the Princess Pop Choir, coming up tonight. Oh, What a Night! No, you misunderstand. That's the name of our first song.

Jim

DAY 19 – BELFAST, NORTHERN IRELAND – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2012

Only a few years ago, no cruise ship ever stopped at Belfast, for obvious reasons. With the decades-long sectarian violence there, no cruise line could guarantee the safety of its passengers on a port call there. Thankfully, those days are behind for the good citizens of Belfast as well as travelers who want to see the beautiful city and the striking vistas of the coastline of County Antrim. That is not to say that the differences and generations of mistrust do not simmer beneath the surface, but to almost everyone's amazement, there is peace in the city and a somewhat integrated government. More about that later.

We had chosen a tour to see the Antrim coast, including the Giant's Causeway, a World Heritage Site. The Antrim coast begins just north of Belfast and goes around the northeastern tip of Ireland to the town of Portrush. Our bus driver skillfully negotiated a narrow winding road that hugs the coastline most of the way giving breathtaking views of the Irish Sea, high cliffs, and rolling hills that include “stepladder farms,” so named because they have the hillside divided by horizontal and vertical hedgerows that from a distance look like stepladders.

We had an excellent guide (haven't had a poor one yet!) with a delightful Northern Irish accent (at least it sounded different from Dublin) where every diphthong that we would pronounce “ow” as in “town” came out sounding “eye” so “town” became “tyne.” “House” was “hice” and “south” was “sythe” and so forth. I had to smile every time I heard it – after I figured out what she was saying in the beginning.

We stopped at a miniscule town called Carlough with about 300 of our closest friends in 7 buses for tea (or coffee) and scones. What appeared to be a small cafe kept opening up into more and more rooms until all were seated and promptly served. Amazing! Obviously set up to handle bus tourist crowds and presumably a contract with Princess.

Then a photo stop at Portnareevy to take pictures of a rope bridge. Really? Well, once I understood what it was, guess so. It connects a mainland cliff to the cliff of an island maybe 100 yards away. The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge was used by fishermen to take their gear to the island and to bring their catch back to the mainland. One could say that it has been “shored up” to be a tourist attraction now and you can take your life in your hands to walk across it, but we merely got a few photos from several hundred feet above it, got back on the bus and continued to the main attraction.

The Giant's Causeway is a four mile stretch of coastline with basalt columns which look like a giant must have stacked some hexagonal poker chips, oh, maybe 37,000 or so stacks. Some are a few feet high and some are 50 to 100 feet high. It's not like anything I have ever seen before (except in one of the internet forwarded emails about fantastic sights – where I have seen them!). Now geologists explain that they were formed from lava flows that apparently cooled slower than usual for some reason and contracted and crystallized into mostly hexagonal columns. It's almost impossible to describe with words, so I'm going to gamble that I can reasonably upload at least one picture on the tortoise-like internet on the ship.

Giant's Causeway - one small section of it.

Now for the real story: The causeway was made by Irish giant Finn McCool who wanted to get access to a giant living on the Scottish island of Staffa. He built the causeway from stone and went to defeat the Scottish giant, but retreated quickly when he saw the the Scot was much larger than he. Finn came home scared and his wife told him to wrap himself up in a blanket and go sleep in the bedroom. The Scottish giant came across the causeway to Finn's house to see what was going on. His wife told the Scot, “Oh, my husband is out at the moment, but if you'd like to see my baby boy, he's sleeping in the bedroom. The Scot was so shocked at the size of the “baby” that he was panicked by the imagined size of the baby's father and ran back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway as he went. By the way, the same geologic formation surfaces from the Irish sea at the Scottish island!

This was one of the highlights of our trip so far – one could say a “giant” highlight. It's worth seeing if you come to Ireland. Reluctantly leaving the site, we had “lunch” (really dinner) at a Portrush hotel, near the Royal Portrush Golf Club, where the Irish Open was recently held, a first for Northern Ireland. At the hotel we had the same dinner I remember having at virtually every hotel on a coach trip of Great Britain many years ago with Karen, her brother Ken, and her mother Alice: roast beef, two kinds of potatoes, peas and carrots, and Yorkshire pudding. It was very good, however, and I finally got my pint of Guiness!

On the return trip, our guide gave us a very objective view of the history of the conflict between the Protestants and Catholics, including the partition as a result of an agreement reached between the British government and the new Irish Free State in 1921, which was opposed by many in Ireland, in fact sparking a civil war throughout Ireland between former allies in the struggle against England. But in the end, the partition has stood and reunification with the south is very unlikely.

She mentioned that 93% of children in Ulster are educated in sectarian schools and opined that integration and friendship between the two factions will not happen until Catholic children and Protestant children are educated in public schools together and find out they are not so different after all. She seems like a wise woman to me.

One final word about St. Patrick, who grew up in Northern Ireland. It was here that he became converted himself to Christianity and vowed to bring all the Irish people to Christ. It is interesting that he did so in a very inclusive way. The Celtic Cross, for example, incorporates a circle that represents the sun, a symbol used in pagan worship on the island. In so doing, he brought people gradually to a belief in Christ, and the pagan ways faded. I think he would have agreed with our guide as to the way to bring all of Northern Ireland together.

On to Iceland!

Day 18 – Dublin, Ireland – Saturday, September 15, 2012

I'm baaaaack!

I write this as we are docking in Reykjavik, day 21, so I'm a few days behind, but happy to say that we are both doing well... now! Your prayers for a quick end to my cold worked, but then Karen got bronchitis, I got a cough, and I also was mildly seasick yesterday as we had extremely rough passage to Iceland. Consequently, we have had four visits to the medical department. Hopefully we have seen the last of them, although Karen will be on antibiotics for 7 days.

I had briefly described our trip to Loch Lomond in Scotland and the brief description is enough, so on to our next port of call, Dublin. We decided to explore Dublin on our own and bought a ticket on the HOHO (hop-on, hop-off) bus.

Our first stop was at Dublin Castle, the seat of English rule in Ireland for 700 years. It was built originally near a pool of black water, which in Gaelic is Dubh Linn, hence the name of the city. One of the pictures you will see eventually (if you come back after I have added pictures to the blog) is that of the statue of justice above the gate – minus the blindfold and admiring her sword – hardly the image of justice, eh? As Dubliners say (with apologies for minor bad language), “There she stands, with her face to the palace and her arse to the nation.”

Next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral, which I would have assumed to be Catholic, but to my surprise it is the “Church of Ireland,” i.e. Anglican! I wanted to see this church primarily because this is where Handel's Messiah had its premiere performance as a benefit for the poor. It was well received in Ireland, but was ignored in London for about 10 years thereafter. The cathedral is also of interest because its dean for 32 years in the 18^th century was Jonathan Swift, author of “Gulliver's Travels,” intended at the time as political satire. The church was built in the 13^th century on the site where St. Patrick first baptized local pagan converts.

We had lunch at the Temple Bar, a famous nightclub in the best party district of Dublin. I didn't have a Guiness due to still suffering at the time from my cold. We didn't party much.

Because of time limitations I decided to skip the tour of the Guiness Storehouse, probably the most popular tourist attraction in Dublin. I wanted to get to Kilmainham Gaol (jail) which was highly recommended by my Rick Steves travel book. Glad we did, although I almost passed it up when I saw a long line to get in, but then decided if there is a long line, it must be worthwhile. After a 20 minute wait to get to the gate, I was told that they only accept cash (euros) of which I had none. But they were very nice, telling me there was an ATM just around the corner, and they would hold our place in line for the next tour, which they did.

The excellent docent for our tour gave us a very informative and inspired talk about the jail and its prominent place in the Irish struggle for independence from the British. It was opened in 1796 as a debtors' prison and was supposed to be a model facility, but very quickly became a terrible house of punishment for political prisoners, leaders of rebellions throughout the 19^th century, leading up to the Easter Rising in 1916. A major rebellion took place that year because the leaders felt that England would be too busy with WWI to deal with an uprising in Ireland. However, the rebellion was not successful and 14 of the 16 leaders were summarily executed in Kilmainham Gaol. The result of these executions by the British general without trial, was a major shift in sentiment by the Irish people from a preference for Home Rule within the British Empire to a strong desire for complete independence. Had this not happened, Ireland today might have a status like Scotland, which does have home rule. I learned more about Ireland's history in this hour than I had in my previous 72 years! There is a lot more to the story than I presented here, but you didn't sign up to read a book, so I'll move on.

Sweet Molly Malone and a tourist

By the time we exited the gaol, our time in Dublin was growing short and I wanted to make sure we had enough time on Grafton Street for Karen to take my picture with my arm around Sweet Molly Malone, so we took a taxi rather than waiting for the HOHO bus. And there she was, my Molly, or the “tart with the cart” as the locals call her. After a walk down Grafton Street and a stop for a latte at a coffee house, it was back to the ship.

The short time precluded so much I would have like to have seen, including Trinity College with the famous Book of Kells, a beautifully illustrated book of the four gospels preserved from the 8^th century on calfskin vellum! They turn one page per day for display.

One reason, as mentioned before, I don't particularly like cruises is that the time in ports is so short, it's like taking one sip of the finest wine, but then being told that's all you can have. But the one sip was indeed grand. On to Belfast and more history lessons of the Emerald Isle (from on board the Emerald Princess).

Jim

DAY 15, 16, 17 AND BEYOND!

Just a quick update to let you know we are still alive and breathing, just barely, in my case. I have caught a cold and have spent most of the time on the ship sleeping to try to shake it off. When I'm feeling better and we are at sea again, I'll catch up gradually. Since six of the last seven days are at sea, I should be able to catch up before we land in New York.

The port call at Kristiansand, Norway on Wednesday (Day 15) was canceled because we needed to beat the remnants of tropical storm Leslie and hurricane Michael to Scotland. Otherwise we would have been going right into the teeth of the storm. It was very rough anyway (8-12 foot waves and 40 knot winds) and Karen lost her cookies (and several other morsels) at one point. I managed to survive the rough seas, but didn't escape the cold germ. So we were at sea for two days and arrived at Glasgow, Scotland late in the evening yesterday (Thursday).

Today we had an excursion (in the afternoon, thankfully) to Loch Lomond, which was quite beautiful, but our loch, I mean, luck ran out on the weather, cold and rainy. At the quaint village of Luss, with quaint houses, quaint tea shops, quaint WC's, and quaint parking lot for tour buses, we had a great view of the Loch. As I walked out to the end of the pier, I noticed something moving in the water that had three humps AND I REALIZED THAT I WAS SEEING THE... No, wait, that is a different loch. I really messed that up didn't I? You could call me the Loch Mess Punster...

Check back in a few days. In the meantime, pray for a miracle cure for the common cold! And keep Karen safe from it!

Jim

DAY 14 – OSLO, NORWAY – SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

(Blogger's note:  Due to the agonizingly slow bandwidth on the ship, I regret to say that I will not be uploading any pictures.  I regret to say that because now you have to be entertained by text only, an infinitely more difficult task.  However, when I get home I will edit the post and add pictures, so then you can go back and read everything over again!) :-)

The second part of our cruise has begun, which takes us back to Oslo, then another stop in Norway, the port city of Kristiansand on the western coast. From there we cross the North Sea to Glasgow, Scotland, thence to Dublin, Belfast, Iceland, Greenland, and New York City. Although we are on the same ship, this is considered a separate cruise, so we are now on our second Princess cruise: Trans-Atlantic. That makes us Gold members of the Captain's Circle with so many benefits. Let me count them: 1. We get to attend the Captain's reception, along with a thousand or so of our closest friends, 2. We might get a discount on our next cruise.

After 15 cruises, we reach Platinum, for which we get the additional benefit of free laundry. Wow!

But enough of the cynicism. Upon disembarking from the ship in Oslo, we hopped on a Hop-On/Hop-Off bus. We eschewed (there's that word again) the center city stops in favor of seeing again the Vigeland Park which I described in an earlier blog (see Aug. 31). Since we were not on a guided tour this time, we could take our time and admire these incredible statues by Gustav Vigeland. We took our time until it started pouring down rain and we ran for the entrance. The only disadvantage of the HO/HO busses is that if you just missed one, as we did, then there is another half hour wait. So we went to the cafe in the park to use the WC. Oops, they are pay toilets! Need 5 kroner coins! Not very tourist friendly, I say. But the cashier in the restaurant was kind enough to exchange two dollars for two coins. Yep, a buck to pee!

Finally back on the bus and on to the Kon-Tiki museum, where we saw the boats of the famed explorer and scientist Thor Heyerdahl. You readers who are nearly as ancient as I am will remember his amazing voyages. . The Ra II was a boat of reeds, basically, that sailed 3,000 miles from Morocco across the Atlantic to Barbados in 1970. (It was the Ra II because the Ra I didn't make it.) The point of the journey was to prove that Africans of several millenia ago could have made that journey.

Even more fantastic was the voyage of the Kon-Tiki from the west coast of South America to the Polynesian Islands in 1947. They built a raft of balsa logs, which were light enough to float, but support a superstructure of essentially a large hut and a large sail. Instead of a keel it had four vertical boards that provided stability in the water. They had to cut the logs in the interior of Ecuador, construct a temporary raft to take them down the river to the sea and navigate south along the coast to their starting point in Peru, where they constructed the Kon-Tiki (the name taken from an ancient god). The voyage was 4,300 miles across the Pacific, which isn't always pacific, if you catch my drift. (See what I did there – drift, heh, heh.) The voyage established that the Pacific islands could well have be settled by Incans of South America (although anthropologists doubt that they did). For both voyages, nothing was used in the construction of the boats nor in the navigation which would not have been available to the natives of the time.

We watched a good portion of the Kon-Tiki movie, narrated by Heyerdahl, which actually won an Oscar in the documentary category in 1951. I will get a copy of the movie when I get home, for about half the price of the version being sold in the gift shop, I'm sure!

We also visited the Maritime Museum, which showed a wonderful movie about the western coastline of Norway on a 180 degree screen, a la a mini Imax. What an incredibly beautiful country! And what a hardy populace to live, farm (a little), and fish (a lot). No wonder they were, and are, such a sea-faring people, exploring all over the world, including the North and South poles, especially Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen in the early 20^th century. I may wax philosophic about the Viking spirit on our day at sea coming up.

Day 12-13 – At Sea and Copenhagen (again!) Sunday, Monday – September 9-10, 2012

Sunday – at sea.

Very often on a cruise you will have as many days at sea as you do in ports of call. But with the Scandinavian cruise the ports of call are all so close together that most are reached overnight. So in a way it has been a grueling cruise without time to breathe. So today (Sunday) it was nice to get up late, have a leisurely breakfast and wander around the ship.

But even this day was not without its busyness, because Karen and I are singing in the “Princess Pop Choir,” so we had two rehearsals and sang for our supper in the atrium area, where there was a good crowd on the three floors that open onto the atrium. We actually did quite well, considering that we only had four hours of rehearsal and sang from lyric sheets, no music. Since I'm not really into pop music, I didn't know half the songs. Nevertheless, I learned them, along with the choreography(!) and the audience was enthusiastic, cheering and giving us a standing ovation on every song. Of course, there were very few chairs, so they had to stand.

Our dinner table friends took pictures and even made a video recording which they will send to us, so you may even get to see it!

Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive

Monday – end of the first phase of the cruise – Copenhagen

This was the end of the 11 day Scandinavian cruise and about 2300 or the 3100 passengers got off here, with only 800 continuing on for the Atlantic Crossing cruise. However, new passengers came on board, don't know how many, but now we experienced sailors have to break in a whole new crew.

Karen and I went into Copenhagen and took the canal boat cruise, which was very nice, and we got to see (besides lots of buildings) the back side of the Little Mermaid statue. To see the front side you have to be on land, so we'll have to go back someday so we can see her front.

We had lunch in the Nyhavn area (where the boats depart from) and it was only $50 or so. (See how I'm not complaining?) I had raw salmon on bread and Karen had liver pate with mushrooms, so I know that certain in-laws will be very jealous they didn't get the chance to share these delicacies. (You know who you are!)

So back on the ship and sailing for Oslo – again! This is the only duplication from the first cruise, but since I complain about the limited time in the ports of call, I'm happy. We'll do the “hop-on/hop-off” bus tour this time and eschew the cruise line excursion. (Eschew is one of my favorite words...and I'm not even sure what it means.)

Enough frivolity for now. The serious educational in-depth travelogue will resume tomorrow.

By the way, if you are following the blog, drop me a brief email. It would be nice to know who is reading it (if anyone!). jimtraxler@gmail.com.

Day 11 Stockholm, Sweden - Saturday, September 8, 2012

(Blogger's Note:  Since it took 10 minutes to load one &*^%$#@ photo, that's it for this post!!!)

Well, Karen has returned once again to the home of her ancestors, Sweden. Karen's mother's side of the family came from Gotland, an island east of the mainland that we are probably passing in the night as I write this, and her father's side of the family was from Malmo, at the southern tip of Sweden, which we will be passing tomorrow during the day on our way to Copenhagen. (I am quoting Karen's heritage from my memory without reference to Karen's excellent records back home. If I got any of it wrong, her brother Ken will correct me.)

The Drottningholm Palace

Since both Karen and I have seen the old city (Gamla Stan), I decided to choose a tour of something we haven't seen, the Drottningholm Palace in the countryside west of the city. It is the permanent home of the royal family since 1981, despite a much larger palace in Stockholm. It was originally built in the sixteenth century, but after a fire (of suspicious nature) it was rebuilt in grand fashion at the direction of Queen Hedvig to be in the style of Versailles. Although not as grand, it is impressive in its own right and I felt good about my choice of a tour.

We began the tour at a remote part of the grounds where a “Chinese Pavilion” had been built as a surprise birthday present for the queen at the time (I think Luvisa -it gets confusing). Then we walked about a half mile through beautifully landscaped formal gardens to the palace. The style of the decorations in the palace was rococo or baroque, so no part of a wall, ceiling, or floor was without some kind of elaborate decoration, often in a Greek or Roman theme. Since the Swedish royalty didn't have a lot of money at the time, they cleverly painted the halls to look like marble, the ceilings to look like stucco work, and then loaded the walls with paintings, mostly of themselves or other European royalty, since they are all related one way or another.

One of the more interesting buildings was a theater constructed in 1766, again by Luvisa, if my sad state of memory serves me. She didn't have any money to build it, so she negotiated a loan from the architect. When it was done and the architect asked to be repaid, she said, “Sorry, we don't have any money left.” So he never got his money back, or his commission, but they gave him a permanent bedroom in the theater! After a period of dormancy in the 19^th century, it was restored to full use with the original sets, sound effects, seating, and décor in the 20^th century. It is the only known theater that has remained unchanged for over 200 years. The theater, the Chinese Pavilion, and the palace itself are designated as World Heritage Sites.

The time in Stockholm was way too short. I would have liked a couple days to explore, but we had to be back on ship by 2:00, because the water passage out of Stockholm through its “archipelago” is 80 miles long and takes about 4 hours to navigate before getting out into the open waters of the Baltic Sea. Sweden requires cruise ships to be out of the archipelago before dark for safety reasons. There are literally thousands of islands in this area, most of which are inhabited. I enjoyed sitting on our balcony watching the sights go by, even though the temperature was about 60 degrees. At one point we went through a hailstorm! I was just barely smart enough to retreat from the balcony during the storm. But after the storm we were treated to a gorgeous sunset over the islands.

I haven't mentioned the food on board so far. The dining is nothing short of exquisite. We have had a four course gourmet dinner every night with excellent service. It is a gourmand's paradise! Last night lobster, the night before scallops and orange roughy, the night before, beef Wellington, and so it goes. And it's all free! Well, except for the umpteen thousand dollars we paid for the cruise, of course. The efficiency of the galley and the wait staff blow me away. Just imagine the responsibility of serving 3,000 four course dinners every night!

Tomorrow, a day at sea, returning to Copenhagen. The Princess Pop Choir makes its debut (and final) performance in the atrium, to a potential audience of thousands! Well, maybe hundreds. Or maybe a few dozen. Our reward will be champagne and chocolate covered strawberries afterward.

Day 10 – Helsinki, Finland – Friday, September 7, 2012

In my post about St. Petersburg, I left out an important place we visited, so I wanted to back up and mention the Church of the Spilled Blood. Besides I have a rare picture of me in front of it.

Church of the Spilled Blood, St. Petersburg

As you can hopefully see in the picture, it is a beautiful church with multicolored and gilded domes. It was built in honor of Czar Alexander II, who was murdered by terrorists on that very site in 1895. Many of the czars deserved that fate perhaps, but not Alex II, who was the “Liberator Czar,” having freed the serfs from their virtual slavery and implementing many other reforms. But the terrorists were determined to overthrow the royal family, which did happen 22 years later, as his successors were weak and incompetent rulers, bringing about the revolution. The royal carriage which was bombed is displayed inside the church on the exact spot on which the dire deed took place, and his blood stains are still there 117 years later.

Incredibly, the Lenin government, which closed and destroyed many churches, was going to blow up the entire building, but decided not to because it was too close to residential buildings. So they turn it into a warehouse! After the communists lost power in 1991, it again became a place of worship, but it took 17 years to completely restore the interior.

OK, on to Helsinki. I remember again coming to Helsinki on the Promise tour, as we flew from Moscow to Helsinki, thence on to the USA. It seemed to me at the time that we had been in a black and white movie in Russia, and suddenly stepped into technicolor in Finland, a la Wizard of Oz movie. The contrast was not quite so stark this time, but Finland is such a beautiful country with smiling people, good government and economy, and so technologically advanced, ranked # 1 in the world in that category. (USA is #2.)

18th Century Rural Lutheran Church

I picked a tour which took us to Finland's version of an open air museum, a staple in Scandinavian countries. It was called Seurasaari and it contains rural houses and churches as they were in 18^th century and earlier times, including very crude homes of Lapplanders, the people of the Arctic Circle. We walked about, experiencing what life was like without running water, indoor plumbing, central heating, electricity, and... the internet!! Interesting that in those days, the Lutheran church was the civil authority in small towns, meting out punishment to miscreants. We were treated to delicious cinnamon buns and coffee in the equivalent of a cafe in the 18^th century, a nice respite under cover, as we were walking around in a light rain. (Our extremely good fortune with the weather came to an end today.)

Sibelius Park Monument - Helsinki

An obscure Ohio composer with a world famous composer

On the way back into town, we stopped at Sibelius Park. My musical friends will know Jean Sibelius and Finland's greatest composer, producing seven symphonies and a large body of other works. He is most famous for “Finlandia,” composed to keep the Finnish national spirit alive when threatened by Russia. I've had the privilege of conducting that dramatic piece several times. So the park is unusual, in that the principal monument is a sculpture that resemble organ pipes and do produce sound when the wind is right. This monument to Sibelius was so controversial that the sculpter put up the portrait of Sibelius next to the pipes to mollify the critics.

Next stop was Senate Square, dominated by the Lutheran Cathedral, a magnificent structure. As with all the other Scandinavian countries we have visited, although nominally Lutheran (80-90%), most people do not go to church, except for weddings and funerals.

Tomorrow Stockholm.

Days 8 and 9 – St. Petersburg, Russia – September 5-6

Day 8 – Hermitage and Ballet – September 5, 2012

The last time Karen and I were in St. Petersburg, it was 1995 with the Promise Choir of Bay Presbyterian on a mission/concert tour. I remember we had a concert at a Baptist church the day we arrived, when we all had jet lag. We warmed up in the basement of the church with a piano horribly out of town, and I thought “This concert is going to be a disaster.” The piano in the sanctuary was in tune, and all the exhaustion evaporated and it turned out to be a wonderful concert.

At that time Russia was just emerging from the collapse of the Soviet Union, but just barely. I remember that the buildings along the Neva River were beautiful on the river side, but if you walked one block away from the river, things were gray and bleak, and the infrastructure was almost non-existent, barely paved roads, unreliable plumbing and electricity and people that looked very sad.

In 2012 there is a radical difference from that time. People seem cheerful, stores are full of merchandise AND people buying it. Infrastructure still needs improvement, but much better than 17 years ago.

Entrance Hall to Hermitage

Our first tour was at the Hermitage, the Winter Palace of Peter the Great, and later Catharine the Great is a spectacular building inside and out. The opulence of the furniture, furnishings, and décor is something to marvel at as you roam from room to room, of which there are over 1,000! The two hours that we spent there was like skipping a rock across a pond, barely penetrating the surface. Nevertheless, it was magnificent to see a great number of Impressionist works and two extremely famous paintings by Da Vinci and two by Rafael, all of Madonna and child. The Princess tour groups get in a little before the museum opens to the general public, so we didn't have much competition at first, but by the time we got to the Renaissance masterpieces, it was a mob scene. But it was worth a few minutes wait at each picture to get a glimpse and maybe take a picture of these marvelous works not seen anywhere else. With three million works of art, it is said that if you spent 30 seconds at each work, it would take 20 some years to get around to all of them. By which time I imagine there would be thousands of new works added.

Edgar Degas - Place de la Concorde

The Hermitage is a collection of five adjacent and connected large buildings. Across the plaza in front of the Hermitage, the former Army headquarters, an incredibly long semi-circular building, is being renovated to become a part of the Heritage museum. If you are an art afficianado, you must come to St. Petersburg and plan on several days in the museum. I wanted to shout at the guide, “STOP, STOP! I want to look at each painting!” But since we didn't have 20 years to spare, we had to move on.

Leonardo Da Vinci - Madonna and Child
(sorry for the reflection - picture is under glass)

We then had a couple of hours on our own to roam around the city. Karen and I had a very nice lunch at the Grand Europe Hotel, at Grand Prices! (There I go again...)

Swan Lake at St. Petersburg Ballet

Back to the ship to dress for our night at the ballet. Good news/bad news. The good news was that “Swan Lake” by Tchaikovsky was being performed, the principal dancers were excellent, and Karen and I should have won the prize for best dressed people in the audience, had there been such a prize. The bad news was that I was disappointed in the company's performance, they seemed underrehearsed. (I am a dance expert, because I have watched “So You Think You Can Dance!”) Other bad news, sort of, is that I was the only man in the entire audience with a tux on, and we almost missed the third act because of the long line at the only WC in the entire building. Infrastructure needs improvement there as well. But in all, a nice evening and the Prince and Odille defeated the evil magician and lived happily thereafter (I presume). The orchestra was good, except the tuba was too loud at times; that's the way it is with tuba players.

Day 9 – River Cruise – St. Petersburg – September 6, 2012

Karen on the River Neva

This was very special. Although cold (50's) and windy, still the sun shone part of the time and the architectural marvels along the Neva River are nothing short of spectacular, St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in 1702, so it is not an ancient city like most European cities. He wanted a European flavored city like Paris, London, and Berlin, where he had traveled, so it is laid out very logically and the central city is all neoclassical architecture in varying pastel colors. The cathedrals are magnificent, often with gilded domes with tons of gold leaf. In a way it resembles Venice or Amsterdam with many canals, although many from his time have been filled in. It is built on 42 islands by last count. St. Petersburg was the capital and royal family home from 1702 until 1918, when Lenin moved it to Moscow after the Bolshevik revolution.

Neoclassical buildings on the canal

And hey! We got cheap champagne in plastic cups. What could be better! Then more time on our own, mostly to search for WC's that did not require roubles to use. Yesterday we used the ones in the Grand Europe Hotel. Today we found free toilets in the basement of the Russian Museum. The terms “restroom” or “bathroom” are not used in Europe.

Day 7 – Tallinn, Estonia – Tuesday, September 4, 2012

When starting this cruise, I had high expectations for some ports of call, such as St. Petersburg, and low expectations for Aarhus and Tallinn, mainly because I knew nothing about them. So far my low expectation towns have been the highlights of the trip. (See Day 4 for Aarhus post.)

Estonia is one of those Baltic countries, along with Latvia and Lithuania, that we knew little about except they were unwilling Soviet satellite countries. Estonia has only 1.3 million people, of which 450,000 live in its capital, Tallinn, making it the same size as Cleveland in terms of the city, but of course we have over two million in our metropolitan area, so it's not really comparable.

Estonia has a lot in common with Finland, including a similar language (which means it is impossible to learn). Like Finland, it has been alternately dominated by much larger neighbors Russia and Sweden in olden days. They both got their independence in 1920 after WWI and were prosperous in 1940, but Estonia fell prey to the Soviet during and after WWII. In 1989 there was an amazing peaceful protest by two million Baltic citizens, forming a human chain from Vilnius in Lithuania to the south all the way to Tallinn, an unbroken “Baltic Chain” of 360 miles, singing patriotic songs! Our guide Liina said she was 9 years old at the time and was afraid to take part because violent reaction by the Soviet occupiers was feared. But her mother and father both were there and in retrospect she wishes she had been, too. (There was no violence, as the Soviet Union was already falling apart.) They got their independence in 1990 and have done quite well, joining the EU and installing the Euro last year. Check out www.singingrevolution.com for more of this amazing story.

Toompea Castle with "Tall Tower"

But enough history. The Tallinn PR folks have come up with the slogan, “A Medieval Gem,” and for once the PR people are right. The Old Town is divided into two parts, upper and lower. The upper town was the stronghold of the Estonian people and the heights made it difficult to capture. So the Toompea Castle (+ an 18^th century Russian addition) is still the seat of the Estonian parliament, dominated by high walls and the “tall tower.” Also on the upper town is the Dome Church, an odd mixture of Catholic-like structure and trappings, but it is Lutheran today.

Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral

Practically next door is the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, obviously of great importance to the Russian population, which is about 20% of the population, a deliberate attempt by the Soviets to dilute the Estonian culture, Here's a little trivia for you, a new revelation to me. The so-called “onion domes” of Orthodox churches are actually representations of flames, as if permanent lit candles to God. Behind the Nevsky is a fantastic viewpoint overlooking the entire lower city and a view of our Emerald Princess at the dock, taller than any building in the old city, although they do have some skyscrapers in the newer part of the city.

That was the morning excursion, but Karen and I came back in the afternoon to walk around the lower old town, just a delightful city largely preserved the way it was in the 1500's or so. The buildings are colorful and quaint, and the cobblestone streets give you a great foot massage! If you tour Scandinavia, don't miss Tallinn!

Lower town from viewpoint

That night we saw a show with the ship's resident string quartet, which we had seen playing classical music several times, really good! This particular show was a bit different, but very entertaining. They were dressed in stunning gypsy outfits and playing gypsy music quite well, backed up by the ship's show band. The most amusing and yet amazing song was a very fast-fingered song (don't know the name, but you would recognize it), When they finished the lead violinist got a volunteer to come up and “play” the violin, which consisted of the volunteer holding the bow firmly in a vertical position while the violinist moved the violin up and down, strings against the bow while fingering the difficult song. It was a wow! feat.

Typical quaint street

Tomorrow – St. Petersburg.

Day 6 – At sea in the Baltic Sea, destination Tallinn, Estonia – September 3, 2012

In my last blog, I mentioned that we got to sleep in today. Our exhaustion from our Berlin outing, plus moving the clocks ahead one hour, meant that we woke up – at noon! Since we are at sea all day, that meant our most major decision for the day was: do we have breakfast now, or lunch? We decided upon lunch. We hadn't done much on board ship because every day has been a port of call. So we went to the fitness center and worked out for three hours. No, we didn't!

We did find out that there is a pops choir for passengers, so we went to a rehearsal and may perform in it the last night of the first part of the cruise, but listen up, Pioneer Ridge Glee Club: they are not up to our standards.

The Commodore and First Mate

Tonight was formal night. I was in my tux and Karen in her finest to show up for dinner. I think we looked good, if I do say so myself. We showed up at our table to share a bottle of champagne with our eating companions, as we celebrated our anniversary again. Princess showered us with gifts. No, they didn't! We got two balloons outside our stateroom and a little cake with a candle after dinner. Big whip! But our tablemates enjoyed the celebration, especially since I bought the champagne.

I mentioned in a previous post that initially we were at a table by ourselves, as the other couple never showed. I requested a change and we were seated at a table with two couples from New Zealand (where we vacationed last year) and the two men both worked in the computer industry, as I did, so we had lots in common to talk about and they are all most pleasant. We look forward now to dinner each night.

Cheers!

Tomorrow Tallinn, Estonia, which will be country # 38 for me... but who's counting? (I guess I am.)

Day 5 – Berlin – September 2, 2012

One of the great things about this cruise is that it has catered to our preference to sleep late and eat breakfast whenever. That all came to a screeching halt today when we had to take the train to Berlin from the port town of Warnemunde at the ungodly hour of 6:45 AM, which meant the latest we could get up was 6:00 AM and no shower or breakfast. (OK, we could have gotten up at 5:30 as many crazy people did, but give us a break!)

We endured the three hour train ride to Berlin in a comfortable car with one cup of coffee and some granola bars I brought on the trip, dozing on the way and arriving neither bright-eyed nor bushy tailed! But with the efficiency of both the German tour company and the Princess organization we were immediately on our bus and being given historical background of Berlin even as we pulled out of the parking lot. Our guide, Karin, spoke excellent English with very little accent and was quite sterling with her commentary.

Our first stop was at one of the few sites where the Berlin Wall still exists and is now protected as an historical site. At the invitation of the government, artists (not of the graffiti type) were invited to paint murals, all very interesting. The mural that Karen and I are standing in front of for the picture is artistic, but many of the others are more symbolic, like the one that shows a Trabant (East German car of laughable qualtiy) crashing through the wall. Or the one of Russian Premier Brezhnev planting a kiss on the lips of East German premier Erich Honnegger! (That actually happened!)

At the Berlin Wall - Galleria Section

We learned many fascinating facts about the wall, too many to recount them all here, One interesting fact is how long the wall was, and its construction. I forget the numbers, but although we tend to think of the wall as being between East Berlin and West Berlin, but of course the wall actually went all the way around West Berlin, so that East Germans could not sneak into West Berlin from the countryside. Not only that, there were actually two parallel walls most of the way. A bit of trivia I bet you never heard is that some rabbits were trapped between the two walls and, rabbits doing what rabbits do, there were soon thousands of them between the walls! When the wall came down, their descendants spilled out into the city, many of them finding their way to the Tiergarten, a very large park near the Brandenberg Gate. (Hey Pioneer Ridge Book Club: I was in the Tiergarten! “The Garden of Beasts!”)

Lunch (let's call it mid-day dinner) was at Nolle, underneath the elevated train tracks. Roast beef, vegetables, two kinds of sausage, sauerkraut, two kinds of potatoes, lager beer, and the best apple strudel I've ever had, added to my already corpulent state from only four days on the ship.

Then it was onto our cruise on the River Schnee which passes through many of the best parts of Berlin for sightseeing purposes. I was a bit disappointed in the boat because it hat a roof structure which made getting a clear picture of a building difficult. But it was pleasant enough.

Back on the bus and on to the Holocaust Memorial, a city block full of crypt-like granite blocks with victims names on them. It seems apparent to me that the German people, by and large, are very remorseful about the atrocities of the Nazi era, even three generations or so later, and seem determined to keep the memory of what they did alive so it will never happen again. Our guide was quite open and frank about this terrible time in their history.

Holocaust Memorial

We passed through Checkpoint Charlie, the only point of entry into East Berlin after the wall was built, drove around the Victory Pillar, then stopped at the Reichstag for pictures. That is still the seat of government, even though it was severely damaged during the war, both by Allied bombing and by the Russians in the Battle of Berlin that ended the war. It has now been restored to its prewar condition, a magnificent building.

Checkpoint Charlie

Herr und Frau Drachsler auf die Reichstag

Back to the train for the return to Warnemunde. There was a pimiento cheese sandwich on white bread, a cheesecake with no flavor, a sausage stick (which for the first two bites I thought the plastic covering was part of the food...), a small apple, and an itty-bitty candy bar. I turned up my nose at this fare, but my mouth and stomach overrode my nose and I ate every bite.

I have mixed feelings about Germans, and I probably am 50% or more German (actually Austrian, but same race of people). They have produced the greatest engineers in the world and are incredibly efficient in everything they do. Yet they were for several centuries a warlike people with tendencies toward racism. I guess they had to hit bottom with Hitler and the Nazis to realize they had to change their ways and now are economically powerful but seem to be purged of militarily aggressive tendencies. Sehr gut!

Tomorrow a day at sea on our way to Tallinn, Estonia. We can sleep in!

Day 4 – Aarhus, Denmark – September 1, 2012

September already? Where does the summer go every year? Why can't we slow down time for three months; Oh, well, what does time matter to me anyway? I'm just adrift in the Baltic Sea where time has no meaning. And we've had (for Scandinavia) excellent weather. The sun has shown for at least part of the day each day we've been here and the temperature has peaked at 20 or 21 degrees every day. (That's 68 or 70 degrees F for those of you still stuck in the English system of measurement.) Our guide in Oslo told us they had five sunny days all summer and that day was one of them! We got a glimpse of what is to come today in Aarhus, as it was in the low 60's to start the day, but the sun came out at noon and it warmed up to 70. (Yes, it's much easier for me to think in Fahrenheit, too, but I have come up with a simple approximation formula: 20 C = 68 F, add 18 to get: 30 C =86 F, and again 40 C = 104. In between those benchmarks, add or subtract 2 degrees F for each degree C. Close enough! Example, someone says 23 degrees C, add 6 to 68, giving 74 F, close enough to the precise 73.4. Close enough for government work, anyway.)

So what did we do in Aarhus, Denmark's second largest city, which you've never heard of? It is in the Jutland part of Denmark, so named, I presume, because it's a part of Denmark that juts out north into the Baltic Sea. It is less of a tourist destination than Copenhagen,, so we experienced a little more authentic Danish life. We did not do a tour, figuring we could make our way around on our own. We did fine, but I have to admit I worry a little about Karen these days, as she does not have the stamina she did even a few years ago, so for the rest of the trip we will stick to the excursions, even though I hate tourist busses!

We began with the Aarhus Domkirke or Cathedral, 800 years old and the largest church in Denmark, 330 feet long and 330 feet high! It was originally a Catholic cathedral with exquisite frescos on the walls. But 16 years after it was completed, Lutheranism became the state religion, and everything including the frescoes were whitewashed over. In the 20^th century the whitewash was peeled off, revealing perfectly preserved frescoes underneath! The pulpit is in the middle of the church, common in Lutheran churches, so the front pews face the middle, creating an interesting problem for weddings.

Example of fresco 

Leaving the beautiful church, we found ourselves in the square where a music festival was going on. It being Saturday, the square was packed with people, most of them locals. We found what we thought was a nice Danish sandwich shop, only to discover it is probably a California chain, since the name turned out to be Sunset Boulevard. Duh! Nevertheless, good food at reasonable price (my definition of reasonable expands daily)

The most beautiful woman on the most beautiful street!

We then walked up the “most beautiful street in Aarhus” with tiny pastel cottages and hollyhocks or climbing roses on every house. That took us to ARoS, the art museum which was a memorable experience. The most famous work there is a squatting sculpture of a boy (titled... Boy, of course) by Australian artist Ron Mueck, 15 feet high, yet amazingly realistic, with eyes that seem alive and skin accurate down the the wrinkles on his elbows! 

Oh! Boy!

 We also saw an interesting exhibit of light and video art, pretty avant garde, but fascinating. Virtually all the art is modern. We then went up to the 10^th floor which is a rainbow ring walkway. As you walk around the ring you go from red tint to orange to yellow, etc. Viewed from the outside, the people in the ring are silhouettes walking around the ring.

Violet-Red (not shown: orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo)

We then walked up to Den Gamli By, an open air museum so popular in Scandinavia. However, it was getting late and Karen was getting very tired so we called a taxi and went back to the ship to rest.

Tomorrow – Berlin, Germany