Baltic Cruise: Days 4-5

Page 1: Tuesday, June 29 to Friday, July 1. (Amsterdam airport, Copenhagen)
Page 2: Sat., July 2- Sun. July 3 (Estonia, St. Petersburg)
Page 3: Sun. July 4 - Mon. July 5 (St. Petersburg, Helsinki)
Page 4: Wed., July 6 - Thurs., July 7 (Stockholm and Visby, Sweden.
Page 5: Fri. July 8 - Mon. July 11 (Wismar and Schwerin, Germany; Aarhus, Denmark; Copenhagen again!)

Sat,. July 2, 2005

Tallinn, Estonia

Here’s the view to which I awoke this morning! Since my first visit to Estonia three years ago, I’ve been saying that this has to be the best-kept secret in Europe! Well, since then, the secret is obviously out! There were hundreds of tourists here and the town seems to be thriving.

We had a GORGEOUS day, weather-wise: sunny and not too hot. Terry, Aili and I met up with my friend, Monika Veisson, who, after some immediate bonding, took us around town. In the past three years, there were renovations and restorations, and it was a joy to see some of the amazing architectural details, like the gentleman to the left (whose will specified the addition of this bust to the building, if I got the story right, just above his former apartment, so he could continue to spy on his female neighbors across the street).

We walked, shopped, visited a couple of churches, took pictures, and had a wonderful lunch at a medieval themed restaurant (servers in costume, dark wood benches and tables, timbered ceiling, candles everywhere for light, all in a building hundreds of years old). Very cool place. You can see me with Aili and Terry by the huge cauldron in front of the place in the photo below.

I remember finding some beautiful and inexpensive woolens here last time and added a few more pieces to the collection today! I also found a fantastic amber necklace (although I’m told that amber is not a product of Estonia, and probably came from Lithuania, Poland or Russia). But hey, gorgeous is gorgeous and it’ll be a fine souvenir, regardless of where it was “born.”

It was a wonderful day. I loved seeing Monika again and the four of us teacher educators certainly had a lot to talk about! It was also great to see a very special bond develop between Monika and Aili, whose roots are Estonian, who speaks the language quite well (for my money) and who shares a similar history with Monika.

So we’re back on the ship, just now gently backing out of the Tallinn harbor, on our way to St. Petersburg.

By the way, I know these photos are small. I would like to do another slide show, but the wireless connection is a little too slow to pull that off right now.

Sun,. July 3, 2005

St. Petersburg, Russia

A full day, winding down with a walk on the deck with the sun still up until a little after 11:30 tonight. Amazing.

So here’s what we did today: We started with an excursion to the Hermitage. I had been there on my last trip here in 2002 and as on that trip, there was a band to greet us as we walked off the ship (playing Hava Nagila, Besame Mucho and Chatanooga Choo-Choo, among other things.)

And while I did see a number of things I had not seen before, this trip felt more rushed and crowded than the last time I was here and it did not feel like I saw quite as much.

I certainly enjoyed what I saw (including the reproduction of Raphael’s loggia above, the original of which is in the Vatican and not open to the public), but don’t recommend visiting on a Sunday during tourist season, if it can be avoided. I really love this place and would love to be with with a smaller group, or on my own.

I also found the street vendors to be more numerous and more aggressive than I remember, though the guy selling the “McLenin’s” tee-shirt on the left was pretty laid back.

We got back to the ship, had lunch and then went back to our rooms where I immediately fell asleep. (I’ve taken more naps this week than I have in years!) Awake and refreshed in time to take a brief computer class, Leo Laporte’s Top 20 (software) recommendations. Great stuff!

We ended at 7, as many of us, including Leo, were heading off to this Folkloric presentation of traditional Russian music and dance—truly a visual and auditory feast. The costumes were amazing. The singing was amazing. The musicianship was amazing. And the dancing was truly breathtaking. (I would have loved to have captured some of the Cossack moves, just to prove they were real, but those guys moved way too fast.)

We had great seats, right up front. I spent almost as much time watching the musicians as I did watching what was going on up on the stage. Traditional costumes and instruments, incredible talent.

During intermission, many of the singers, dancers and musicians were out, mingling with the audience, selling instruments, crafts and recordings of the show. I bought the CD. Should be an interesting addition to my rather-ecclectic-anyhow collection. And I picked up a few handmade souvenirs.

We are all so blown away by this midnight-sun business, and everyone was commenting on the fact that the sun was still pretty high up in the sky when the concert was over, well after 10:00. (I think I’ve mentioned it every day since I got up here!)

Tomorrow, we don’t have any excursions until 1:15 so for the first time since I left home, I can actually sleep in! Good thing, too, as it’s nearly 1:30 a.m. (Losing an hour every other day—on top of a pretty good case of jet lag and all this wonderful daylight!—is definitely doing a number on my body!)

Other “Highlights” pages: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008. For an index to all blogs, photos, and other personal information, click here.

Jane’s current Blog.

Where in the World? 100 Countries: Check progress on my life goal.

Baltic Cruise: Days 4-5

Sat,. July 2, 2005

Tallinn, Estonia

Sun,. July 3, 2005

St. Petersburg, Russia

Changing Schools—One Heart at a Time