Berlin, Germany

We arrived in Germany at a costal resort town and elected to take a three hour bus ride to Berlin. We were glad we did. It is quite a city with tons of history. (Some good and some very bad) We saw the rebirth of the city as the capital and the remains of the Berlin Wall. We didn't have a chance to explore the many museums, but that will have to wait for another trip.

Pictured are the American Sector sign, Georgia at the route of the Berlin wall as shown by the double rows of cobble stones, the Jewish Holicost monument, the Bradenberg Gate and the new government buildings on the Spree River.

Gotland, Sweden

After leaving Riga, Latvia, we went to Gotland, Sweden. Gotland is an island about three hours by ferry from Stockholn. It was very relaxing and quite a pleasant surprise. The gardens on the island as well as the walled city of Visby were beautiful.

St. Petersburg, Day 3

The thrid day in St. Petersburg, we triveled about 25 miles out side of the city to see the summer palace of Peter the Great. The palace was amazing as wat the setting and detail. All of the yellow shown in the pictures is either solid gold or gold plating.

Tallin, Estonia & Riga, Lativa

After leaving St. Petersburg, Russia, we spent a day each in Tallin and Riga. Both are seaports, have simialr histories, and old walled areas of the respective city. The first three photos are of Tallin and the last two are of Riga. They were very similar.

St. Petersburg, Russia, Day 2

Our second day in St. Petersburg was spent seeing the Hermitage Museum during the day and seeing Catherine's palace in the evening. (The Hermitage was the Czar's winter palace before the revolution.) At Cathrine's Palace we experienced dinner and champagne, as if we were guests of the Czar.

If you saw all of the items in the Hermitage and looked at each item for 15 seconds, you would spend 10-11 years in the museum and would have walked about 11 km. The "Gold Room" will match the Queen of Englands jewels. Also, besides the works of art, the building was very beautiful.

The first three pictures are of the Hermitage and the last two give you a feeling of Cathrine's palace. At Cathrine's Palace we even saw a carrage in the stables that contained a toilet.

St. Petersburg, Russia

After stopping in Helsinki, we sailed into St. Petersburg for three days. The first day we took a tour of the city and then saw "Swan Lake" at the St. Petersburg ballet. The city is interesting but you can not freely walk it with out a visa and guide. (I guess the Russians need to work out the security issues a bit yet.)Attached are pictures of two of the churches we saw. The Peter and Paul church was something to remember with the painted ceiling. The last picture is the Church of the Spilled Blood, which had lots of onion domes.

Sweden and Finland

We arrived in Stockholm on June 15th to spend two weeks crusing around the Baltic. After two days in Stockholm, we sailed to Helsinki. Both ports were very clean and the vegetables in the farmer's market in Helsinki were beautiful. They told us that a lot of them were grown locally in greenhouses.

The first three pictures are of Stockholm and the last are of Helsinki.