Where's the Baltic Sea , asked some, when we announced we were going
there on a cruise ! Well thats where we went for a recent holiday
and here's a little tale of our travels to that part of the
world.
The countries
that surround the Baltic sea experience long
harsh winters , while their long summer days are limited, some countries have
only about 30 of them !! Being so far north, theirs are not the fiery
sunrises & sunsets of the tropics. Instead in June , the farther
north you go, the summer sunsets linger long & low on the
horizon, & the skies are hues of pastel purples & pinks till as late as
midnight. And before you know it, the sun rises again by 1.30am !!
Gilt edged clouds of purple drift above the Baltic Sea
Just half an hour from midnight - they waft by majestically
O’er glassy surface, golden path, extending straight to me.
If I could walk that golden path, I’d touch the setting sun
Just as it slipped away from sight… Oh wouldn’t it be fun
To be one with air and water, one with golden light,
One with misty shadows heralding the night…
That only lasts for two short hours
Before the sunshine hymn shows it never went to sleep at all
Just dipped beneath the rim.
Written
by a fellow passenger on the Tahitian Princess, M. J.
Macpherson.
The
Baltic countries are glaciated lands, with hundreds and thousands of
glaciated islands that border them.
We began our
jouney in Stockholm, Sweden, on the western side of the Baltic Sea. The city is built on 14 of the archipelago's
24,000 islands, thus often known as the Venice of the North. The Old Town of
winding cobblestoned streets, is lined with buildings , drenched in history
from the 16th century , including the palace of the present king. Outside the
old town , Stockholm
is a modern metropolis, with hitech buildings, & green
parks. Many elite neighborhoods on the 14 islands have splendid panoramas
of the sea. Most people also own a boat, for
recreation during their short summer months. Stockholm's City Hall with its gold dome
spire, is where the Nobel Prize is awarded every year. Alfred Nobel established
his foundation with the fortune he made by inventing dynamite! Ironically,the
profits of destruction were chanelled to promote science , literature &
peace !
Nearby the Vasa Museum
houses the powerful warship Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage in
1628. Found again in 1956, it was raised & preserved using the most
modern technology of that time. Today it is the oldest , fully preserved ship
in the world , boasting 700 elaborate wooden carvings on its exterior.
Our home for the
next 14 days was the beautiful white ship,the Tahitian Princess. She would
dock at Baltic ports almost everyday, giving us a full day to explore each
charming city.
We boarded her
in Stockholm, from where she made her way
out of the myriads of islands & headed north into the Gulf of
Bothnia, towards Lulea, in the
northern laplands of Sweden.
Lulea is
hardly 70 miles south of the Arctic Circle .
Its original settlement, Gammelstad, 7 miles upriver from the coast, is a
Unesco World Heritage Site. Here are hundreds of modest cottages where
the Lapps still live in traditional attire, bake their own bread in brick
kilns, & make & sell their beautiful craft. They performed
their folk dances for us & still use horse carraiges for their
transport. Traditions & customs are lovingly kept alive thanks to these old
time families.
From Lulea , our northernmost point on the cruise, we sailed
south to Mariehamm, the capital of the Aland group of 300 islands,
which lie between Sweden
& the Finland In the Baltic Sea. Altho politically autonomous territory of Finland, the inhabitants are almost
entirely Swedish in language & culture. We walked into the main street of
this little charming town, exploring the local craft shops. To our surprise, we
even found a little grocery store smelling of Indian spices & masalas, nuts
etc in this far corner of the globe.
Finland is a
land of 200,000 lakes ! Its capital, Helsinki, is a city of graceful
neoclassical buildings, striking modern architecture, boulevards &
parks. The Finns have produced great
composers & artists, & are famous for their ballets & operas. It is
the birthplace of NOKIA & the Sauna ( their are 2 million of them), &
their national animal is the bear. They are ferocious readers - 1 in 2 Finns
possess library cards, probably because there are only 30 days of sunshine a
year ! Politically, Finland
belonged to Sweden
in the 13th century. Toward the end of the Napoleonic wars in the the 19th
century, it passed to Russia
by treaty, thus there is much Swedish & Russian influence in Finland.
Only in 1917 did Finland
declare independance from the Soviet Union.
Remember the Olympic Games were held in Helsinki
in 1952? We visited the Temppeliaukio
Church, carved &
blasted from solid granite & covered with a huge copper dome, a must visit
for its most striking architecture. A bus tour gave us an insight of the old
& new cities, while a boat tour showed us how much the locals depend
on the sea. Many live on the islands & own boats & sea planes.
St. Petersburg was
designed by Peter the Great, though it was named after the patron saint.
Nearly 7 feet tall, Peter the great had tremendous energy & struggled to
modernise Russia.
After seizing it from the Swedes in 1703, he recruited thousands of men to
reclaim the swampy mouth of the Neva
River to build a new
city resembling Venice
to some degree. Italian, French & German architects designed baroque
buildings, & canals & bridges linked the 42 muddy islands into a
new cityscape.
Outside the city
he built the opulent Peterhof Palace to rival Versailles,
& then on to Catherine(his wife) Palace & Pavlovsk Palace.
Built as symbols of Russain imperial might, these palaces surpass anything in
the west. The Pavlovsk particularly looks untouched by the ravages of
time & history. In actual fact, it is an extraordinary replica.
Destroyed by the Nazis in 1944, it took 25 years to recreate the monument ,
following detailed logs, plans, prints & correspondence that loyal
palace staff hid, buried, & warehoused, protecting a large no. of
furnishings & artworks.
His daughter
Czarina Elizabeth & Catherine II continued his work & built the Winter Palace
which houses the Hermitage
Museum. The
1000 rooms of the palace are as impressive as the exhibits. They
have busily patterned parquet floors, crystal chandeliers, inlaid
marquetry, molded & painted ceilings, gold leaf, objects of jasper, lapiz
lazuli, amber, so much that they almost upstage the bountiful art
collection of Rembrandts, da Vinci's etc. It would take 9
years to cast a brief glance at each of the museums 150,000 works on
display (& thats only 5% of the collection).
The ornate
church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood is a significant monument & much
photographed. Another landmark is the impressive Yusupov
Palace (so named after a wealthy
muslim businessman from central Asia). It was
here in its basement that the sinister Rasputin was assasinated by the Czar's
relatives.
St.Petersburg is
also the cultural soul of Russia,
home to poets, musicians & composers. So what better way to complete our
visit than to enjoy the famed Russian ballet , the Swan Lake!
The beautiful
city of Talinn, is the capital of the Republic of Estonia. Once under German,
then Sweden,
then Russian rule, it obtained its independance in 1991. Within this modern
city lies a well preserved medieval town, rising dramatically above its
port. Within its old city walls are gothic buildings &
churches, & the lovely town hall square is the center of town
life. Here outdoor markets draw visitors & locals alike everyday
during their short summer. Talinn is famous for its woolen products,
their colorful sweaters stealing the show.
Neighboring Latvia's capital is Riga. A larger city, Riga remains frozen over
4 months a year. Within its fortifications, is the old town with its
narrow cobblestone streets, castles, churches, cathedrals & market
squares, quaint houses & baroque towers. Outside its walls lies new Riga, 19th century wide
boulevards, & over 800 buildings in Art Nouveau style. Architectural buffs
will find it a veritable treasure of expressionistic art in plaster &
stone. Riga was
also home to a vital jewish community destroyed during the holocaust - 30,000
alone were massacred here.
Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania boast a similar political
history, lying side by side. Lithuania's capital is VILNUS which is
deeper inland. We landed at the port ST KLAIPEDA, situated at the mouth
of a lagoon formed by a 100 km spit. Here, instead of exploring the old town
again, we decided to go further airfield to the Hill of Crosses. Situated
about 70km outside Klaipeda,
is a low hill covered with crosses of all sizes. The suppression of rebellion
in the mid 19th century led to the first crosses appearing on this low hill. It
is not a graveyard. Later the Soviet authorities started to destroy the Hill of
Crosses, but the more they destroyed , the more the crosses would appear in the
night! Today over 100,000 crosses from all over the world, even from
tourists, commemorate peoples' suffering , hope & gratitude.
The Kiel
Canal in Germany is a technical marvel of the late 19th century, designed
to link the Baltic & the North
Seas. A litttle
over 60 kms long , it is the worlds busiest wateway surpassing even the Suez & the Panama
Canals in the number of
ships.
As we waited in
the entrance lock for the water to rise, a 30 piece german brass band came
aboard to entertain us for the day on the deck. It was a beautiful sunny
day & our cruise through this beautiful valley took us through
farms & parks, fields of flowers & cattle. There were
hundreds of modern electric windmills as there were swans & ducks on the
waters of the canal. People cycled along the tracks that run almost the
whole stretch of the canal, & picnickers & fishermen waved to us all
day.
It is
traditional to receive a certificate that certifies one has transited the
canal, as we did !
Our last port of
call was Amsterdam, the capital of the
Netherlands.
Almost half of the country lies a few feet below sea level. The historic
city center consists of concentric semi circles of elm lined canals, plus 160
smaller canals connecting them to create a fanlike patten. To traverse these
waterways are 1,281 characteristic bridges !
With only 8
hours before our ship sailed away, we hired bicycles to explore this city
of canals.
Our guide led us
through both busy & quiet neighborhoods & over the many
bridges. We saw the famous AnnFrank's hourse, & Rembrandt's, not
forgetting the famous red light district !!
Along all these
waterways are townhouses & warehouses built by merchants in the 17th
century. Traditionally they were built 4 or 5 stories high & narrow ,
because land was expensive & property taxes steep. Most have fanciful
gables , and are architecturally characteristic of their country, &
colourful. These tall & thin houses allow only narrow winding stairways.
So, no question of moving furniture up these stairs. Instead, every house
has a sturdy iron hook at the peak of its roof , on the outside, to be used for
rope & pulley. Even during our short bicycle tour, we saw beds &
fridges being hoisted up to the proper floor, then pulled through the window!
After 14 full
glorious days at sea, we docked just beside the white cliffs of Dover in England
& sadly parted from our white Princess, a few inches wider at the waist
from all the food on board !
