Day 12 and 13: Sailing (Eating) and Mariehamn, Finland

 OK... Day 12 of the cruise was just sailing to Mariehamn from Gdansk, Poland. 

We ate a lot of delightful, delectable, delicious dishes on the Viking Star.

There was even a Team Trivia game we played with our Travel Buddies, Cal, Myra, Craig and Terry. Good grief! Cal must have a photographic memory. 

We attended a lecture called "Spectacular Swedes" and learned about Swedish baroque composer Johan Roman, botanist Carl Linnaeus, Alfred Nobel and feminist Elfrida Andree.

And in the evening, there was entertainment again. It was called Celtic Kate featuring cruise director, Kate Syrett. All the performers on that Viking Star are indeed extremely talented and we enjoyed all the shows they put on.

Instead of the originally scheduled Helsinki, Finland cruise stop, (before Ukraine's invasion by Russia) Day #13 would find us on the island of Åland visiting its capital, Mariehamn. 

Mariehamn is the capital of Åland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty. Mariehamn is the seat of the Government, and 40% of the population of Åland live in the city.                                                             --Wikipedia 

It was really interesting to see all the tiny islets of the Åland Islands as we neared the port of Mariehamn. 

We joined the bus tour of Mariehamn after our usual bountiful breakfast.

Our guide, Katarina told us that Åland is part of Finland, but independent. They achieved autonomy in 1921-1922 and were therefore about to celebrate their 100th year of independence.

The Åland archipelago includes nearly three hundred habitable islands, of which about 60-80 are inhabited; the remainder are merely some 6,200 skerries and desolate rocks.

We visited the medieval stone Church of St. Olaf which dates from 1260 to 1280. It is thought to be the oldest Christian church in Finland.

After the little bus tour, we were back at the ship for lunch and then took the shuttle back into town. We wandered around, bought some souvenirs and walked back to the ship. 

Our trip was coming to a close and we were treated to the entertainment I confess I enjoyed the most. It was an evening of Beatles songs and you could see everybody was loving it.

It still surprised us to have the sun setting finally after 10:30 PM.

Our final country was coming up and we were looking forward to Day #14 which would be Stockholm, Sweden.

Day 11: Gdansk, Poland

We started our morning doing laundry, having breakfast and walking to our bus for our day's excursion.

Our 9:15 AM excursion for the day was called City of Gdansk on Foot. It was a chilly day and our tour guide's name was an older fellow named Adam who probably wanted a second career as a stand-up comedian. He told us "An apple a day keeps Putin away." 😆 Adam told us 3.5 million refugees from Ukraine had come through Poland.

It was a 20 minute bus ride into Gdansk from the cruise dock.

Adam told us that Chicago is actually the biggest Polish town. Since we lived there for over three decades, I would believe it. Our daughter joins the lines at the bakery for paczkis every year. Chicago schools even had Casimir Pulaski Day off every first Monday in March. He was a Polish born general who fought for the United States during the American Revolution and died during the siege of Savannah. 

After getting off our bus, Adam led us through the Green Gate which would be our meeting place, and several other sites around Gdansk. 

He told us to be sure to visit the Old Town Hall which had been damaged and repaired after WWII. 

And he advised us NOT to miss the upstairs Red Room. It was truly impressive. The structure had been built between 1327 to 1336.

We met an older fellow there who was watching to make sure no one damaged anything in the rooms. When we told him we were from Hawaii, he said he hadn't heard of it. However, when I mentioned we lived in Chicago, he said, "Aaahhh.... I know Chicago!" 

As we were leaving he asked if we were Chinese. I told him we were of Japanese descent. He seemed puzzled and replied, "Hmmm... Japanese with American accent?"

Our next stop was St. Mary's Church.

We were struck by the sadness the Pieta conveyed of Mary's grief at the death of her son.

The astronomical clock intrigued us. The sign explained it, but I still didn't quite understand.

And guess what? I even found some money on the street. It was a very old, dusty 10 złoty coin which is probably worth less than a penny. 😄

It was a lovely day. I sent a photo of us to our Polish friend who now lives in Montreal and he was surprised and thrilled.

Doesn't technology boggle your mind? 

Our dinner that night ended with a lot of gelato. (By the way, that big plate of dessert is Art's. OK, sooo the chocolate thing is mine, BUT I did share that gelato with Art too.) 😁

It was the perfect ending to a lovely day.

Day 10: Bornholm, Denmark

We were now docked in the port town of Ronne on the Danish island of Bornholm. Breakfast was at 6:30 AM and then we were ready for another adventure.

After Russia invaded Ukraine, several changes were made to our 14 day trip. Our previous schedule had 2 days in St. Petersburg (Russia), a day in Tallinn (Estonia) and a day in Helsinki (Finland). 

It had been replaced with 2 extra days in Norway which brought it to 4 days there, a day in Bornholm (Denmark) and a day in Mariehamn (Finland) which is an island off of Finland. They were not happy changes, but we understood the difficulty that Viking faced.

Our excursion for Day #10 at 8:30 AM was called Scenic Bornholm. Our first stop was to see Hammershus Castle. We saw it from a foggy distance so Art did a close up with his iPhone. I then checked Wikipedia and found an even clearer photo.

Our Guide for the day was Kristina who was an American living on the island of Bornholm. She explained that Bornholm is the 5th largest island in Denmark. 

* There are 406 islands in Denmark, but only 70 are populated. 

* They never have true night in summer, it's more a twilight. 

* Their hares are the size of small dogs which Kristina said was disconcerting when she first saw one. 

* Because of the low crime rate, people keep their doors unlocked. 

After a ride around the island, we returned to the ship. 

After lunch we took a 5 minute shuttle ride into town.

It was OK.

And then it was back to the ship again.

Back in our room, I was going through the Viking folder of instructions and information that had been left for everybody.

I guess they must have a problem with people walking off with things? But gosh... $140 for that soap dish? $280 for the tissue holder. Wooow!

4:00 PM We all attended a lecture about the 1066 Battle of Hastings.

This is the site of what is probably the most famous battle in England’s history. In popular imagination 1066 is the date of the last successful invasion of England, the year in which William, Duke of Normandy, defeated England’s Saxon army, killed the king, Harold, and seized the throne.      --English Heritage

I am not going to explain how this is connected to the Vikings, but the whole thing signaled the end of the Viking era. It's just too complicated for my tiny brain to explain. I think I sort of got it during the lecture, but with lack of sleep and passage of time, my brain has lost what little grasp it had of the lecture.

Dinner was at The Restaurant. I had fallen in love with the Caesar salad/added anchovies. I love anchovies. Hmmm.... are there three desserts there? Hmmm.... how can that be? I'm sure they were very teeny portions. 😏

The ship sailed on during the night and we were on our way to Gdansk, Poland. Since we'd met a wonderful fellow from Poland while on another trip and several Polish people while living in Chicago, we did look forward to the next day.

NOTICE: 

I got an email notice that a blogger buddy had left a comment on a previous post but didn't see it at the end of my post. I was puzzled and checked the comments that needed to be Moderated but didn't see it there. Then I thought I'd check my Spam file and there were a bunch of comments from blogger buddies that had landed there. What the heck is going on? 😝 Sigh... So anyway, I marked them as Not Spam, but I see now that I'll have to check that Spam file all the time too. 😕

Day 9: Berlin, Germany (The Berlin Wall)

The Viking Star was now docked in Warnemunde, Germany.

We took out the left over room service breakfast from the morning before which we'd stored in our small refrigerator.

Our breakfast consisted of muffins, bananas and coffee that Art brewed for us.

We then headed out to meet our travel buddies for our train ride into Berlin.

There was a line to collect snacks for our trip. There were bananas, tangerines, water and pastries.

That was rather unexpected.

We were assigned to a train car.

It was supposed to be a 3 hour ride.

It was not 3 hours. 

It turned out to be more like 4 and a half excruciating hours because of rail construction and giving priority to regularly scheduled trains ahead of our cruise car.

Our tour guide, Lena met us at the train station and led us to her bus.

Our first stop was the Allierten Museum. The museum documents the political history and military roles of the Western Allies in Germany (especially Berlin) between 1945-94 and their contribution to liberty in Berlin during the Cold War.

We saw a display of an underground tunnel where the U.S. was monitoring (spying) on the Russians during the Cold War. Actually the Russians knew we were spying on them, but that's another story.

It was rather a surprise to see a display about John F. Kennedy.

Our next stop was the Berlin Wall. It was a strange feeling to stand next to the famous Wall that once separated East and West Berlin.

Lena showed us how a brick (I think it's brick) line in the pavement indicates where the rest of the wall once stood.

What a surprise to go from 50 to 60 degree F weather to 80! Doggone it! I wish I'd packed and worn capris. It was too hot!

We were happy to be taken to a beer garden restaurant for lunch in air conditioning. We weren't sure what kind of German sausage that was with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. However, it was tasty. The sauerkraut was on the sweeter side and different from what I've had before, but it was good. The apple strudel was OK. (Art says he liked it.)

After lunch we were out to do more sightseeing.

It felt hotter and more humid.

The memorial to victims of war was a sad reminder of what Ukraine is going through.

I wish I knew more about that very interesting hand pitcher pump.

It was fun to see the famous Brandenburg Gate also. At that point, I couldn't take it anymore and zipped off the bottom of my pant legs.

AND.... then it was ANOTHER 4 and a half hours back to the ship. However, this time, we had a ton of fun talking to Joyce and Ann, a mom and daughter traveling together and seated right across from us. It made all the difference as we swapped stories about our travels. They were from St. Louis, Missouri which does happen to be next to Illinois where we lived for over 35 years.

It was surprising that when we got off the train, we had to pass through a very strict security check point before we could head toward the ship.

Dinner was relaxing at the World Cafe.

And what I came to truly realize was that any trip is so much happier when you are sharing the adventure with others. People make the difference.

By the way, did you know that Gummy Bears originated in Germany? No kidding! 

Hans Riegel Sr., a confectioner from Bonn, started the Haribo company in 1920. In 1922, inspired by the trained bears seen at street festivities and markets in Europe through to the 19th century, he invented the Dancing Bear (Tanzbär), a small, affordable, fruit-flavored gum candy treat for children and adults alike, which was much larger in form than its later successor, the Gold-Bear.  --Wikipedia

Despite the awfully tiring train ride, it was another interesting day.

Day 8: Copenhagen, Denmark

We were now docked in Copenhagen. Along with our travel buddies, we decided to order a room service breakfast because our first excursion was going to be at 8:15 AM. 

We were shocked when our free room service delivered what we ordered from a menu list. When we checked fruit, we didn't expect a plate full. We thought we were getting a small bowl like we get at the buffet. There was just too much of everything so we stored some of the items in the refrigerator for another time. We never did room service again.

Our first stop was to see the statue of the Little Mermaid. She sits on the “Langelinie” cruise harbor. 

In the Hans Christian Andersen story, there is no happy Disney ending. The poor 15 year old mermaid gives up her lovely voice and tail to become human in order to win the prince's love. She would be OK unless the prince should wed another. Sadly he does (some guys can be clueless) and she transforms into sea foam, but her spirit floats into the air.

We also stopped to see the Gefion Fountain and then walked over to Amalienborg Square where the Danish royal family lives. Apparently the Queen was at home because the flag was flying on the rooftop.

There was a royal guard much like the guards in London. We also saw the royal yacht.

We returned to the ship for lunch and took the shuttle back into Copenhagen to do some souvenir shopping. Denmark has an (Ouch!) 25% sales tax. However it pays for their universal health care and free higher education. 

There was another hooded crow at Kongens Nytorv (The King's New Square). 

There were blue and yellow ribbons on the pillars to show Copenhagen's support of Ukraine.

There was some kind of demonstration going on in the middle of the Square so we went over to investigate. It turned out to be Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day for the Tamil people of Sri Lanka. It showed the genocide that they had suffered during the Sri Lankan Civil War. I sent a photo to our son and daughter-in-law who are moving to Sri Lanka next month. And yes, they knew about the May 18th commemoration.  All this was making me quite nervous for them. It was a surprise to have this connection here in Copenhagen.

But then.... what? Would you believe we saw a restaurant that must serve some kind of Hawaiian food!!!  Goodness! In Copenhagen??? Wow!

We took the shuttle back to the ship and decided to enjoy the high tea of sandwiches and pastries while listening to a violinist and cellist at the Wintergarden. It was good. It was very good.

We ate salads for dinner again since we were still full from high tea and then attended a lecture about the rather sad, personal life of Hans Christian Andersen.

When we looked out from our balcony later that night, we saw windmills on the water.

This was a day of reflection, happy and yet with some disquiet.

Day 7: Aalborg, Denmark (Day in the Life of a Viking)

The ship was now docked in Aalborg, Denmark. The temperature was 64 degrees F so long sleeves with a windbreaker made for comfortable travel wear.

Aalborg is the 4th largest city in Denmark. We were told that some people from Aalborg emigrated to the U.S. and brought back the 4th of July holiday. Therefore, they actually celebrate the 4th some place in Aalborg.

We had a big breakfast a little later at 8:00 and walked around the ship. Because our breakfast was so late, we weren't hungry by lunch time and decided on just having a light salad... with a chocolate gelato and lime sorbet. 🙄 Yes, it's true. I wasn't being good. 

Our excursion, Day in the Life of a Viking was at 12:45 and would run until 5:15 PM. 

Our bus passed field after field of gorgeous golden rapeseed which is used to make canola oil.

The first stop was a prosperous 980 AD Viking farm. There were 9 houses.

We were instructed that:

* The Viking Age spanned 250 years.

* Vikings were explorers.

* Vikings discovered the Americas before Columbus.

* Viking women held the keys to the homestead. When the men were out exploring, they took care of the farm.

* Viking women could divorce their husbands, own and inherit property.

* In the 1800's (it's believed) some college students started putting horns on helmets to represent Vikings and it caught on even though there is no record of such a thing.

* Viking men wore cloth trousers and tunics. 

* Most men did not own iron swords because they were too expensive.

It was interesting to see what life was like for the Vikings.

The docent asked Art if he would like to try the Viking chain mail armor. Uuummm... 

The chain mail was about 30 pounds and NOT easy to put on. We had to hold up the armor to drape it over his shoulders. It was even trickier to remove it. I have no idea how they were able to fight with it on.

Our next stop was the Ring Fortress (Frykat). It was actually a group of long houses surrounded by a circular stockade.

Our tour guide had us try some sweet mead which was made from honey. Pretty good, actually.

Close by was Lindholm Hoje, a Viking burial site.

It's dated somewhere from 1000-1050 AD which was during the Viking age.

Stones were placed in a circular pattern for women and triangular for men.

This was the Viking funeral pyre.

And then it was back to the Viking Star for a scrumptious dinner. I loved that calamari fritti and the cold tomato soup which reminded me of gazpacho. 

And in the evening, there was another musical show which we loved. The singers were truly talented.

However, when we looked over at the dockside from our balcony, we saw a rather disturbing sign someone had painted.

"Cruising towards Climate disaster."

Hmmm....

POSTSCRIPT:

Thank you for your kind visits and wonderful comments everybody. I’m sorry I’m not able to check in with you for a while because I have my daughter and family visiting right now from Chicago for the next 3 weeks. I have blog posts about the trip scheduled ahead of time.  I’ll look forward to seeing what you’re up to when things are back to normal again.

Day 6: Oslo, Norway (Fram, Kon-Tiki)

Our 7:00 AM breakfast with our travel buddies, Cal, Myra, Craig and Terry. It was the usual wonderful with so many choices that it was just mind boggling. 

I had oatmeal with fruits and a little smoked salmon. 

Viking even provided me with almond milk since I am lactose intolerant.

Before joining our excursion we all decided to go and check out the gift shop that was set up on the pier.

We found two shirts for our grandsons which... uummm... turned out to be much too big. Ahhh well... I'm sure they'll grow into them.

Our excursion on Day 6 was to the Fram, Norsk Maritime and Kon-Tiki Museums.

The Norwegians certainly had some very brave and resourceful explorers. 

Darn! I thought you'd be able to read what I wrote with the photos, but I see it's too small.

Fram ("Forward") is a ship that was used in expeditions of the Arctic and Antarctic regions by the Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen, Otto Sverdrup, Oscar Wisting, and Roald Amundsen between 1893 and 1912. It was designed and built by the Scottish-Norwegian shipwright Colin Archer for Fridtjof Nansen's 1893 Arctic expedition in which the plan was to freeze Fram into the Arctic ice sheet and float with it over the North Pole.                                 --Wikipedia

We were impressed with the comfortable accommodations onboard the Fram. They even had a sewing machine!

I'm hoping the print here is large enough. This is what we saw downstairs. We were told the myth that Viking ships were burned on the ocean during a funeral is not correct. However, some Vikings were buried with the ship along with things they might need in their afterlife.

It was interesting to be told that Thor Heyerdahl was actually afraid of water after a childhood experience.

The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha, for whom "Kon-Tiki" was said to be named....

...Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have reached Polynesia during pre-Columbian times. His aim in mounting the Kon-Tiki expedition was to show, by using only the materials and technologies available to those people at the time, that there were no technical reasons to prevent them from having done so....              --Wikipedia

I saw this bird on the dock that looked awfully like a crow except for the coloring so I checked online. I was wishing my Canadian blogger friend, Red were here to tell me what it was for sure. However, when I typed in Norwegian crow I got this.

The hooded crow (Corvus cornix) (also called the scald-crow or hoodie) is a Eurasian bird species in the genus Corvus. Widely distributed, it is found across Northern, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as parts of the Middle East.

Since we returned to the ship at 1:45 PM, we decided to walk across the street to the Akershus Festning Fortress.

Akershus Fortress (Norwegian: Akershus Festning, or Akershus Castle is a medieval castle in the Norwegian capital Oslo that was built to protect and provide a royal residence for the city. Since the Middle Ages the fortress has been the namesake and centre of the main fief and later main county of Akershus, which was originally one of Norway's four main regions and which included most of Eastern Norway.                                       --Wikipedia

We also saw these iron chairs next to the fortress. A plaque next to it read:

From this site on 26 November 1942, 532 Norwegian Jews were put on board the ship Donau and deported to the death camp at Auschwitz. On 25 February 1943, a further 158 Jews were sent from Filipstad Quay on the Gotenland. Other transports brought the total number of Jews deported to 772, of which 34 survived. Altogether 250 families were exterminated. 

This monument commemorates the Jews who were deported and killed during this dark chapter in Norwegian history.

Our guide had told us earlier that Prime Minister, Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonsson Quisling was executed by firing squad on October 24, 1945 at the Akershus fortress for crimes against Norway. He was a Nazi sympathizer who invited the Nazis into the country. Now, nobody will name their child Vidkun.

Our travel buddy, Cal had signed us up for another dinner at The Chef's Table which was a lot of fun and so very interesting. I hate to tell you but I loved the Red Lotus palate cleanser the best. It was basically shaved ice with flavors of lychee, guava, cranberry juice, lychee liquor.

Then again, I'm not an epicurean. My other favorite is gelato. Oh, but I already told you that before. 😄