Final Days in the Baltic

So much has happened over the last few days and it is hard to keep this blog up to date. The basic problem is that the days are so long and as a result we are active for so many hors that it is hard to find time to record our doings.

Our next port of call after St. Petersberg was Visby. This was a cute little town on the Swedish islano of Goteburg. It is still surounded by its medieval walls and has a number of medieval houses still remaining in its narrow cobblestone streets. It is a pretty city and well worth a few hours.

Our day in Berlin was an interesting one, but a long one. We travelled by train through the old East Germany for about 3 hours watching the passing scenery. There was a lot of plain looking buildings and run down places along the railway line. Much of the country was forrested and we could see the occasional deer along the way.

Berlin was really pumping with World Cup activity – especially since they were playing Cnoatia on the day that we were in town. We drove in from the station through the old Russian sector of Berlin, seeing the soviet style apartments that were meant to be palaces for the workers but were only occupied by communist party members and officials. Our tour took us to the Reichstagt and climbed the new modern dome for a view over the city. Berlin looks like is one large construction site. It looks to be a grand city with a lot of large impressive buildings. It would be a good place to revisit in a few years once it is completed (lf ever).

I was looking forward to seeing the Brandernburg Gate and while it is very impressive, it was somewhat hidden behind all the football bunting. In the afternoon we did a little tour of the city and took a rlver boat tour along the River Spree (I don’t think that I would have previously known the name of the rlver on which Berlin is situated).

I think that we need to spend some more time here. A better time to returr would be when the city wasn’t so busy or so hot. It was 33 degrees which made it very hot to walk around – especially by the time we were at Checkpoint Charlie and the site of the Berlin Wall by late afternoon. It was 9 pm before we got back to the ship and it had been a very long and hot day.

Our final port on our cruise was the Danish city of Aarhus. This was a university town and mostly unremarkable. It did however have a very interesting outdoor museum of old houses from all over Denmark.

We said goodbye to everyone on our tour when we returned to Ccpenhagen on Thursday (22nd) ard headed off in different directions. We are going to a little vlllage in Norway called Kragero where Jill’s great grandfather was born.

Bruce

Bruce is a keen traveller and photographer. This web site describes his travel and family interests

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Europe Memories New Zealand

New Zealand WW1 Centenary Trails

I’m feeling a little pleased with myself after a WW1 Centenary Project Team working for the New Zealand Government saw one of my images and asked for my permission to use it in their project materials. It is displayed on their website and on printed banners (to be placed in libraries and schools around the […]

Read More
Europe

The Gardens at Manoir d’Erignac

This was or last day in France.  We had all day to get to the airport at Bordeaux from where our flight to London left at 7.30 pm. We thought that we could use some of the time by driving north to  the town of Erignac to seem some rather beautiful gardens. They were large and […]

Read More
Europe

Dordogne River and Lot River Areas

Over the last few days, we have done quite a bit of exploring. We have already visited most of the popular places near Sarlat, so over the last two days we have extended our travels a little further to some  more distant towns. The highlight of our day yesterday, was a visit to Rocomadour, which […]

Read More