Copenhagen

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Copenhagen is beautiful as the photographs show. Denmark has a population of about five million and about one million of them live in Copenhagen.

Denmark is a socialist democracy with a monarchy (ceremonial with little power). Income taxes are about 50%, and brace yourself, they also have a 25% VAT (Value Added Tax), which is a sales tax like Canada's GST. Every time you buy anything they add 25% to it and the prices are higher than Canada to begin with.

Our city tour guide was proud of their tax system because it provided excellent free schools and universities, free health care and old age pensions. Our taxi driver told us there is a 100% tax on cars, because they are considered a luxury item. He was driving a Toyota Camry for which he paid 225,000 Kroner (about US$36,500), which is more than you'd pay in Canada. This however was the exempt price because he was using the car to earn a livlihood, not as a luxury. A Dane buying the same car for personal use would pay double!

Tivoli Gardens is an amusement park with restaurants and gardens and fountains a mini Disneyland. The major difference is that it is located right downtown.

Visby

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Visby is a small village that was once a Viking port. Many of the photographs are of buildings built in the from 1100 to 1400 and the walls and gates built to protect Visby during attacks from Sweden and others. The beautiful gardens are a legacy of a local society of men that created them and have maintained them for hundreds of years.

Today Visby is a popular tourist spot attracting 750,000 tourists a year over three months.

Stockholm

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A city tour by boat with several stops and an on and off as you wish policy was available directly from the cruise ship pier so Jan and I hopped aboard. In the photographs you will see the photographs of the places we visited and a photograph of the tiny blond tour guide aboard the tour boat.

Stockholm consists of 41 islands, so travel by boat makes sense. We stopped in a beautiful garden cafe on Tivoli (backwards it says "I love it!") a separate amusement island for lunch and we were joined by a tiny yellow bird (see photographs). Like Denmark Sweden has high taxes about 50% income taxes and 25% sales tax.

Helsinki

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Jan and I both really loved Helsinki. We're not sure if this is because it was so clean and nice or because it was so clean compared to St Petersburg. Anyway, we liked it. Jan said, "I could live here." She's never said that in any other port.

The rock church (see photo's) is one of the most unique churches I have ever visited. It is built right into the rock and the thin windows that fit the contour of the rock fill the sanctuary with light. The architectural lines are crisp and clean (very Scandinavian) and contrast with the natural rough texture of the rock. The acousitics are amazing they were playing a classical recording of a famous Finish composer and we sat for a few moments, to enjoy the sheer spirituality of the place.

Jan was excited to visit the Meremekko shop to see their designs and fabrics and then we walked through the open market at the port.

St Petersburg Day Two

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On day two we had our original tour guide, Olga, with whom I began an e-mail correspondence in February. Our plan was to focus on the Winter Palace, which houses the Hermitage one of the greatetst museums in the world. The art collection is so huge that if you were to stand in front of each work of art for one minute each it would take seven years to complete the tour. Our plan was to focus on the Winter Palace rooms and works by the impressionists (IMonet, etc.) We had recently visited the Van Gogh and Rembrandt museum in Amsterdam and we had been to the Uffizzi in Florence twice, so it seemed appropriate.

There are no photogrpahs of the works of art because I couldn't use a flash but I could for the rooms. The photographs of the rooms and floors of the Winter Palace give you some sense of the opulence there. This is in stark contrast to the everyday homes of Russians many of whom share bathroom and cooking facilities and live in small apartments 4 floors up, without elevators.

St Petersburg Day One

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We didn't know what to expect. Travelling independently in Russia, we were repeatedly told, was not recommended. Anyway, I had made arrangements with Olga and she advised that for the first day we would have Svetlana with a driver and a nice van who would take us the Peterov, the Summer Palace, about 30 km outside St. Petersburg and a city tour with a stop for an authentic Russian lunch. We had obtained our letters of invitation and visa's so we were able to travel independently.

Only certain taxis and tour buses are allowed inside the port gates at St. Petersburg, so we needed to get one of these cabs to the port gates to meet Svetlana. It is too far to walk so there is no option. These taxi drivers don't speak much English and drive old Russian made cars and drive like race car drivers. The toll is US$5.00 per person and they try to get as many in the car as possible, even if you don't know each other.

We cleared customs when we got off the ship, caught a cab and went to the gates, where we cleared customs again. There was a bank machine at the exit and I thought I should get some rubles, even tough I had some American dollars and some Euro's with me. "What would I do my card doesn't come out?" I wondered to myself. I put my card in and made a withdrawl from my chequing account. Everything was fine.

Waiting outside the gates Svetlana was holding up a card with our names on it. She spoke perfect English, seemed quite confident and greeted us warmly. Our driver was excellent and he had a newish Chrysler mini-van. We were off to Peterov.

Ystad

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Ystad, Sweden is a small fishing village. We decided not to take a tour but simply walk around this village, visit the church and go for lunch. Ystad is a lovely spot very clean and the people are friendly. The church is quite ornate inside and the pews are enclosed with gates to enter.

Again we had a lovely lunch at a small Swedish restaurant. I had a breaded, fried local white fish with home fries and salad and Jan had “a type of ham” which turned out to be something close to back bacon with roasted potatoes and salad. Both were very nice.

Skagen

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Skagen, Denmark is on a peninsula created over the centuries by the sands from the North Sea and Baltic Sea filling in the gap between a group of islands left by the retreating ice of the ice age. The sands still accumulate today and we visited a living dune on our tour. Other tours visited a church that had been buried in sand over the centuries where now only the steeple could be seen and had an opportunity to put their feet in the North Sea and Baltic Sea from the same point.

We decided to take the tour that included a visit to Eagle World a sanctuary, breeding and research facility founded by a Danish couple for birds of prey. We saw two types of falcons and two eagles first in an inside performance area and then and outside performance. I was very impressed with this centre and the opportunity to see such magnificent creatures up close.

After our tour, as is our custom, we went seeking an authentic Danish lunch which we found in a restaurant/hotel near the harbor. Jan and I were the only non-Danes present. When we went to the buffet Jan’s mouth dropped open and her face went white. This was a little more authentic than she anticipated. She had no idea what anything was except for the herring and the eggs. There was an assortment of cold cuts and cheese and the dishes included lightly pickled red cabbage, a tuna casserole, crisp cold cooked onions, a cold curried chicken casserole and pickles. Jan reports that the bread and butter were excellent.

Stavanger

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Stavanger, Norway is a beautiful village at the crossroads of several fjords. We took a small tour boat inland along a major fjord and saw some goats, drnak some water from a waterfall and stopped for waffles and jam on a small point of land where a covered picnic site had been created.

The star of the day was the natural beauty of the fjord and its brilliant green water (like Lake Louise).

Sail, Rail And Waffles

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From Amsterdam we sailed over night and all day (July 1, 2005) to the northern end of Norway entering the Sognefjorden, the largest fjord in Norway, about midnight. Over night, while we slept under our down duvets, the Prinsendam cruised the 100 miles (160 km) inland to the tiny village of Flam, population 400.

Jan woke up (July 2, 2005) and put on the quilted housecoat the ship provided and stepped onto the verandah as we approached Flam, and called me. “Larry, you won’t believe this, it is spectacular come and see.” This photograph taken as we sailed through the fjord doesn’t do the real life experience justice. From the photographs you can’t appreciate the scale of these mountains nor how lush the vegetation.

The village of Flam is tiny, yet it is a major tourist attraction in Norway for one reason – The Flam Railway. Jan and I boarded the train for the climb from Flam to Myrdal. Flam is 2m above sea level Myrdal is 866m.

The scenery is stunning with dozens of waterfalls, the most spectacular of which is Kjosfossen Waterfall in which, according to local legend, a maiden dances to attract men with her beauty and steal their souls. The first photograph shows the falls from the crest to the railway tracks the second is a close-up. Both fail to convey the beauty, the roar of the water and cool crisp air the falls generate.

When we reached the top Myrdal stopped at a rustic and quaint hotel for miniature waffles with clotted cream and homemade raspberry jam and coffee and tea. Jan had several helpings but because of my diabetes, I only had a taste. Wonderful.

On the train ride down I got a photograph of one of the valleys.

When we returned to Flam we visited some of the handicraft stores. Two items captured my interest; a reindeer skin, which sold for 695 Norwegian Kroner about $120.00 Canadian and some trolls that reminded me of some of our Canadian politicians.

As I write this it is 10 PM and it is a light as day outside and we’ve been sailing up the Fjord since we left Flam at 6 PM. Jan and I must pull the drapes and get some sleep to prepare ourselves for a visit to the City of Stavanger tomorrow on the southern coast of Norway

Amsterdam

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Bicycles everywhere, tall narrow ornate houses along canals, some leaning precariously, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, flowers and sex and marijuana for sale that is Amsterdam.

On the first day we went to the Rembrandt Museum and the Van Gogh Museum and took a canal cruise and briefly walked through the red light district (Jan was NOT comfortable). By 9:00 PM jet lag and our busy day caught up with us and we went to bed.

Dutch Countryside

For our second day in Amsterdam we decided to visit the Dutch countryside, since checkout at the hotel was 11:00 A.M. and check-in for the ship was 2:00 P.M. We arranged for a private car and English speaking driver with the hotel concierge for 65 Euros per hour. We asked to be picked up at the hotel and 10:30 A.M. and to arrive at the cruise terminal for 1:30 P.M. (giving ourselves 30 minutes grace) This allowed us three hours for our tour. Johann arrived promptly at 10:30 with his Mercedes S Class car to take us on our tour.

After talking with the concierge we decided to visit a tiny village of De Zaanse Schans (40 homes), because it still had five authentic windmills remaining from the seven hundred that used to dot the area. Today they use electric motors for pumping the water.

Next we visited the fishing village of Volendam, on Lake ???, a huge man-made lake built in ???, which is 250 km around. Johann joined us for a fish lunch at the highly recommended Spaander hotel in Volendam. Excellent.

After lunch Johann drove us to the cruise terminal arriving at about 1:45 PM. What a fantastic way to spend the time between checkout at the hotel and check-in for the ship.