Riga, Latvia and Visby, Sweden - Aug 29 and 30

Riga is a funky city located at the mouth of the Daugava River on the shores of the Riga Gulf of the Baltic Sea.  Riga and Latvia enjoy one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.  Riga is a transportation Hub for the region.  Again a mix of old and new buildings. Old town has been rebuilt as it was mainly destroyed by the German's and Russian's.  They have restored the charm to the area.  The Dome Cathedral is the home to the famous 19th century Dome organ containing over 6 thousand pipes.  Our plan was no plan, just a leisurely walk around old town.  That quickly changed when we were approached in the square of old town by a young man who wanted to give us a guided tour.  We had a very interesting and informative time.  And as it turned out his father was a technician on the bobsled team that were in Calgary for the Olympics.  The guides recollection of his father returning from the Olympic was fresh bananas.  In the winter months they had very few fresh fruits and he was so excited to have bananas.  I am hoping tonight we will not have the motion of the ocean as we had last night.
Visby, Sweden didn't happen. The water was very rough and they weren't able to tender us to shore. We went straight on to Copenhagen.

St Petersburg and Tallinn, Estonia, Aug 27th and 28th

Another sunny day in St Petersburg.  Our first stop was the subway, What a unique experience.  This is the worlds deepest metro, the station we started at is 330 feet deep,  What a ride on the escalator.  They are so clean and a train was arriving every 5 minutes (weekdays the train is every 2 min).  Out of the metro to St Petersburg shopping area.  We were there too early and the shops weren't open.  Then on to St Nicholas Cathedral and also a visit to the Synagogue.  Finally we on to the Hermitage, a wealth of art and history.  You can spend days just touring the Hermitage but we squeezed as much as possible in 4 hours.  Starting at the gold room to view some of the most impressive architecture such as the Small Throne Room, the gilded-column Armorial Hall and the Malachite Room, which features more that 2 tons of ornamental stone.  On to art work by Van Gogh, Renior, Monet, Leonardo da Vinci and more.  There were lots of wows.  We lunched at the Vodka Museum, excellent food.  The last stop was the Spilt Blood Church that is decorated completely in mosaics.  It is hard to believe we have seen so many sites and there are still more to discover.  We were tired and a little sad that we were leaving such an amazing city.

On to Tallinn, Estonia were you step back in time as we toured the beautifully preserved medieval town.  The streets in old town are cobble stones, narrow and windy.  We had a very enthusiastic tour guide who was very proud of her heritage and the way Estonia received its independence from Russia.  At one point 14 of us joined hands and she explained that thru joining hands and singing in peaceful protest is how they accomplished there goal of freedom. Our time in Tallinn was too short as we only had 5 hours.

Helsinki & St Petersburg - Aug 24&25&26

We discovered Helsinki on a walking tour.  Helsinki is mix of old and some new buildings. Probably the most interesting stop on our walk was the Rock Church whose base and lower walls are solid rock.
There was much evidence in Helsinki of its control firstly by Sweden, then Russia and finally its independence in 1917. Most streets signs are in Finish, Swedish and Russian.  Surprisingly,Finland found rule under Russia much easier than under Sweden as they were allowed to use their own language and currency. Interesting facts, there are more saunas than cars in Finland, education & health care is free.Taxes are extremely high, the value added tax is 25% as it is in Norway and Sweden. And we complain about 5% GST.

I don't think there are words to describe St Petersburg, the city is a work of art. There is block after block of beauty. The first day we visited Peter and Paul Fortress, the Yuspov Palace, the Nation Museum and St Isaac's Cathederal. Each one more impressive than the last. St Isaac's Cathederal will accommodate 14,000 people and there are no pews (in any church in Russia).  The doors on the church weigh 20 tons and are 20 feet tall. The Cathederal is one of the most magnificent we have ever seen.
The second day we drove out of the city to Catherine's palace and park and then St peter and Paul's Church,the gardens and fountains (150 fountains).  They just keep getting more impressive.  We had a beautiful day for walking in the gardens and among the fountains. Today we had crowds of people and it took us a while to tour Catherine the Greats Palace.  There are eight of us touring the tour and guide and driver are excellent. 
St Petersburg has 62 days of Sun and so far we have had 2 of the 62.  From Oct to March the Neva River is frozen.   It was the first planned city in Russia.  The city was built on rivers and canals. There are a total of 68 river channels and canals in the city. The main river channel is 22 meters deep while the Gulf of Finland is only 5 meters deep and special channels have been dredged in the Gulf for larger ships.  Pilots are engaged to bring in larger ships. Peter the Great was the first Ruler to visit other European countries and wanted the new city to have a European flavor. As a result many architechts, skilled trades and artists were brought in from Europe to help design and build the city.
We have seen so many weddings at the various sites we visited, we have stopped counting.  After the wedding,family and friends go to the many parks and historical sites for pictures.   

Stockholm - Aug22&23

Finally we joined the cruise.  It was great to be able to unpacked, do the laundry and of course we enjoyed an excellent dinner at Toscanas.  We have meet a couple that were on the same cruise that we took to South America.  There was a meeting of the Cruise Critic group to update our land tours.
 
Then another day in Stockholm.  We did a tour of the canals, passed under 15 bridges, went thru two locks, from the Baltic sea to Lake Malaren.  Stockholm has so much to offer from the numerous museums including the Noble Museum,to an interesting City Hall, street entertainers  and of course churches. At 4:00 we left port and started our journey thru the Archipelago and on to the next stop.

 

Stockholm - Aug 20&21

Stockholm's central train station was a maze for us.  We did go around in circles for a
little while until a kind person took pity on us.  She took time to show us to the right
level to catch the train to the hotel. 

We have spent many hours in Old Town in Gamla Stan.  Gamla Stan is Stockholms most charming part with narrow winding cobblestone streets.  It is one of the largest and best preserved medieval city centers in Europe, where you can enjoy the special atmosphere that only Stockholms old town can provide.

One of the biggest outdoor culture festival events was being held during our visit.  In the evening we attended a performance by the Stockholm Symphony.

 

One of the favorite attractions in Old Town is the Royal Palace, which is one of the largest

palaces in the world with over 600 rooms. We did see a parade of soldiers and the changing

of the guard.

The Vasa Museum, is a must for anyone visiting Stockholm.  It is home to the royal flagship Vasa, built to fight the kingdom of Poland in the early 1600's. It sank in Stockholm harbor before it could ever engage another ship. More than 300 years later it was successfully raised, preserved and restored by Swedish divers and scientists. The Vasa is so large you can't photograph the whole thing at once. 

Trondheim to Ostersund, Sweden - Aug 18-19

The majority of our time there was spent researching relatives of my mother's maternal family around Stjordal and Hell, Norway.  The owner of the B&B  took time to drive us to where my Great Great Uncle farmed.  We met the couple that own the farm now and they gave me some of the history of the farm and my uncle.  Our next stop was to the farm that my Great Grandmother and her parents lived at until they immigrated to Minnesota.  We were not as successful there but the owners were most accommodating.  Then on to the library to do more research.  While we were at the library there was a phone call for us from the owners of my Uncles farm.  They may have found a living relative.  So on to see if this could be confirmed.   We met with  a 81 year old man and the people that own his farm now.  They were a delightful couple and were our translators as the 81 year doesn't speak English,  We are not sure if we are related but they are going to do some more investigating and we will contact them when we are back from our travels.  I can't tell you how helpful everyone was that we met.  

  Farm of Great Grandparents

We did tour the Hegra Fortress that is a series of underground tunnels and living quarters.  This was built in 1908-1910 to protect the border against the invading Swedes.  It was not until German invasion in the 1940 that it was first involved in action.  And for a month around 200 Norwegian resistance fighters held out against the German attack.  The fortress is eerie as it is still in its original state. 

There was a chance that we would have to  skip our trip to Ostersund;  So much rain had fallen that the roads and railway had slides and they were both closed.  Fortunately for us the road opened and we were transported by bus from Norway to the first town in Sweden where we caught the train.  We were met in Ostersund by Ake and Margaretha.   We had a great visit with them and tour of Ostersund.  We hope to see them in Calgary as their son and daughter-in-law live a few blocks from us. 

Our accommodation by Stjordal

The railway station at Hell

Ake and Margaretha's Home

Bergen-Trondheim Aug 16-17

Hardanger Fjord was our last stop.  It was an adventure from start to finish. But
the excitement started just after midnight.  The University in Bergen was having orientation
for the new students this week.  I really don't have to say more, but they woke us up with
all the partying. We just returned to sleep and when there was one H of a crash.  Someone hot wired a vehicle and in their get-a-way attempt,smashed it into another van, also destroying chairs and benches in front of a small coffee shop, as well as garbage cans etc.  The vehicle stalled and the next thing we saw was the vans owners armed with boards from the broken furniture chasing the thief. The police arrived with in seconds and so did the police dog.  The event made front headlines in the local paper. We had front row seats as we could see all that was going on from our balcony. Unfortunately he got away.

Anyway back to the morning.  We rode public transit for 1 1/2 hours to reach the fjord. 
Then took a 3 hour boat ride stopping at many little villages and reaching our destination
of Eidfjord.  What a picturesque day, from the high granite walls and numerous waterfalls to
the orchards.  The village of Lofthus has over 500,000 fruit trees.  Apples, pears, plums,
and cherries.  It was a splendid way to end our stay in Bergen.

We arrived at the Trondheim airport in the rain.  Then Off to find our B&B.  Now that was a
challenge, we had to stop and ask directions a number of times and everyone just kept saying
a kilometer further, which end up being 7 km. My first impression of the B&B was what have I
got us into.  The place is charming and the building we are staying in was remodelled a year
ago.  It was originally used for storing dried food.  The owners are most accommodating and
treat you like family.

Bergen, Norway Aug 14-15

Gary and I experienced our first long train trip, 8 hours from Oslo to Bergen Norway.  The time seemed to fly by as the scenery and altitude changed as we went along.  We started at sea level and at the town of Fines we were 6700 ft above sea level and then back to sea level in Bergen,   Some of the areas we passed thru reminded me of the Crownest Pass and then others similar to around Babbs, Montana. We passed thru farm land and some with huge barns but never really saw any farm animals except for a very few sheep. In some regions there were a lot of houses painted black, other areas the houses had grass roofs.  At the highest point the land was very rocky and desolate and thru this region there were numerous bike and hiking paths.  We saw many waterfalls. The last hour into Bergen seemed like one continuous tunnel as you were constantly in and out of them.  Trains are a pleasant way to travel, except for the tunnels.
In Bergen We are staying at a quaint B&B. The name is Skansen Pension which is easy to remember but then try the  streetaddress 29 Vetrlidsallmenningen.  The Pension is about a very steep 100 steps up and before the steps you are coming up a very steep incline for several blocks. (Sylvia, we had to count our own steps.) We had thought about pulling our luggage up from the train station but it was raining so we hired a taxi.  The taxi had problems with the narrow road and switch backs.  Even the smallest cars have to back up a couple of times to get around the corners. I would have never made it pulling the luggage.

Bergin is a great place to visit.  It seems like every turn you find some interesting site, shop or cafe.  The habour tour  provided us with a history of Bergen.  We were amazed at the size of Bergen, 250,000 people surrounded by 7 mountains (or big hills). 300 cruise ships a year come to Bergen.  A number of visitors are here for the hiking.

 Our room is the one with the balcony.

Oslo Norway Aug 12-13

I don't know what happened but we arrived in Norway and walked off the plane, gathered our luggage and never passed thru a customs check point.  Hopefully they will let us out of the country. 

Our first experience was getting tickets for the train into Oslo.  The airport is 45 km from Oslo.  Then to each maneuver two pieces of luggage down the escalator.  Some how I survived all.  The hotel we are staying at  is conveniently located a 1/2 block  from the train station.   We had a quiet day on arrival and enjoyed a stroll thru the various streets, window and people watched.   We were also reminded that Oslo is one of the most expensive cities.  Gary has had to open his pocket book.  We shared a medium pizza and a pepsi for dinner, cost $52.  It is a good thing that breakfast is included in our accommodation at the Radisson Blu which is $170 a night.
Now that is a breakfast buffet, it has just about everything from breakfast food to vegetables including peas in the shell.   Today we did the Hop On Off tour.   Stopped at the Viking Museum with three well preserved Viking ships.  These are centuries old wooden vessels, discovered by archaeologists, and now restored. These ships were originally used for ocean voyages and finally as tombs for the wealthy and included food, valuables and transportation to the next life. There are steps to an alcove so that the visitor can look down into the boats and see their interior layout. We also had a superb visit to the Vigeland Scuplture Park featuring 212 bronze and granite sculptures all designed by Gustav Vigeland.  This evening we walked by the site of the destruction in Oslo, it is only few blocks from the hotel.  The church ground close to the devastation is still covered with flowers, candles and stuffed animals.  It is an eerie feeling walking around the grounds.  I think to some extent the city is still in shock.

Iceland-Aug 11

We arrived in Iceland at 6:25 am on Thursday and picked up our car rental for the day.  By 8:00 am we were on the road after checking in at the hotel in Keflavik.  With the help of Julia, who set us up with a GPS, we had no problems finding our way.  Even when we didn't have the use of the GPS we had no issues.

On our couple hour drive to the Geysers, we made a few stops at points of interest including visiting a dormant volcano.  The geysers erupting were a fascinating sight. We were amazed at the temperatures of the water which was from 60-100 degrees Celsius.  I couldn't get over how lush and green the country side was around the geysers.  From there on to the Gullfoss falls, see below.  Gullfoss (The Golden waterfall) is Iceland's most famous waterfall, and one of the natural wonders of the world. Gullfoss is actually two separate waterfalls, the upper one has a drop of 11 metres and the lower one 21 metres.

Then on to Reykjavik, there we visited the Hallgrimskirkja church.  The Hallgrimskirkja Church is the tallest building in Iceland. It is situated in the city center and has become one of Reykjavik's best known symbols. The bell tower, accessible via an elevator, provides the best views in the city.  The inside of the church is really uninspiring but has a massive pipe organ which they allow visiters, closely screened, to play.  

Now back to the hotel and then on to the Blue Lagoon, the geo thermal spa..  The lagoon is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant .  What a great way to finish the day.
 
We sincerely thank Wayne and Sylvia for suggesting a visit to Iceland on our way to our Baltic Cruise. We would put Iceland on our list of places we would like to return to.