Baltic Cruise July 2009

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 !