May 19 2017 Silhouette Baltic (+ Berlin) Photo Review Silhouette Photo Review

[afto]

May 31: Stockholm, Part Three

 

Skansen has windmills, a children’s playground, farm animals, and lots of interesting architecture. You could easily spend a whole day there and still not see everything. The grounds were lovely and the lilacs were in bloom while we were there.

 

 

We had only sketched out a rough itinerary for our time at Skansen (shocker, I know), and what I enjoyed most was an unplanned visit to the Oktorp farmstead. [info here: http://www.skansen.se/en/oktorp-ua] DH was poking around in the outbuildings because he grew up on a farm and likes to look at antique tools. There were no other visitors at the farm, and while I was waiting in the courtyard for DH, someone dressed as an old-time farmer (dressed rather like DH, come to think of it) asked me if I would like to see inside the house. It was decorated for a festive occasion with delightful painted linen wall hangings. The wedding feast at Cana, painted by folk artists who re-imagined it as a wedding feast in 19th century Sweden:

 

 

 

Grapes being carried to the feast. The creator of this panel had read in the bible about grapes but had never seen one in real life:

 

 

I think I can be forgiven for failing to immediately recognize the above as biblical scenes. The interpreter seemed pleased that I was so interested in the wall hangings; he had me guess what the various panels were meant to represent and he must have spent 20 minutes discussing them with me. A highlight of the day.

 

At one point we encountered this squirrel who was busily looting one of the barns. Not sure if it was gathering material for a nest or just causing trying to make a mess, as squirrels love to do. They are such trouble-makers.

 

 

Approach Skansen’s free-roaming domestic geese at your peril. They were about the size of the average guard dog and just as friendly.

 

 

From various points around Skansen’s hilltop site there are nice views across to Gamla Stan and other parts of the city.

 

 

 

Why yes, as a matter of fact I agree with you that I have posted far too many pictures of Skansen. It was a very photogenic place, but enough is enough. Next up: things that are not in any way related to Skansen.

[raudacruise]

I was on my way to visit DH (temporarily working in Sweden) when the Estonia sank. We had been discussing taking a tourist trip on her to Tallinn. Still bothers me. So many lives lost.

[afto]

I was on my way to visit DH (temporarily working in Sweden) when the Estonia sank. We had been discussing taking a tourist trip on her to Tallinn. Still bothers me. So many lives lost.

 

Indeed it was a very sad event for all the families involved. And not ancient history either.

[dodger1964]

..

Structures have been brought from Lapland to recreate a Sami mountain camp at the top of the hill. This storage shed is built on posts to keep its contents safe from animals. The Indigenous Sami people are the only people who have the right to herd domestic reindeer in Sweden.

 

 

 

 

At one point we encountered this squirrel who was busily looting one of the barns. Not sure if it was gathering material for a nest or just causing trying to make a mess, as squirrels love to do. They are such trouble-makers.

 

 

.

 

That house looks like it could just walk away.

 

I'll bet you didn't know that you took a picture of the rare "Sam Elliott Northern European" species of squirrels.

[afto]

 

I'll bet you didn't know that you took a picture of the rare "Sam Elliott Northern European" species of squirrels.

 

You're right! Thanks for the help with identification of this sub-species; I will be sure to update the caption in my photo album.

[afto]

May 31: Stockholm, Part Four

 

We exited Skansen via the main gate and caught the #7 tram for the short ride to the Vasa Museum. As we entered the museum, a French-language version of the film was just about to start; since most versions also have English subtitles, we were able to catch the film before touring the museum. The film is really a must, and if you can see that first you will probably enjoy the rest of the museum more.

 

Let’s say that you had an old sailing ship sitting around in your (very large) garage and you wanted to make some money by charging people to go in and see it. And let’s say that you thought you could make more money by making up some kind of crazy back story to attract people. It would be really tough to make up a story more amazing than the story of the Vasa. Built in 1628, sank at the very beginning of its very first voyage, lay in the mud for over 300 years, and then raised — raised!

 

To me, the most remarkable part of the story is that about 95% of what you see in the museum is original. (Unlike, say, most of what you see at the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg.) Where a replacement piece has been introduced, this is obvious because it does not match the weathered wood of the rest of the vessel. I don’t want to use a lot of technical jargon but, in the picture below, if you look closely at the round thing-a-ma-bobs that have rope threaded through three holes in them, you may be able to see that the replacement pieces are light-coloured wood while the original ones are almost black. (Is there a clever person out there who can remind me what those are called?)

 

 

The museum is designed so that you can get very close to the ship on several different levels. The stern of the ship is especially interesting because of the elaborate carving. This is just a tiny piece, and not very well captured, but it is astonishing that it is being seen by human eyes again after so many years at the bottom of the harbour.

 

 

We spent quite a while at the museum. Besides the ship itself, there is a large model of what the Vasa would have looked like on the day she sank, and there is another cutaway model that shows what life would have been like for workers below decks.

 

 

Lots of other interesting displays too. Conservation work continues, and you can watch work underway at one end of the lower floor. Really, “amazing” is an understatement when it comes to the story of the Vasa, and the museum is very well done. Allow yourself a couple of hours to make the most of it.

[Lotsof information about the ship and the museum here: http://www.vasamuseet.se/en ]

 

We spent a little while down at the waterfront behind the museum, where some historic ships are docked. The lightship Finngrundet was hard to miss with its beacon and bright red paint. In the background, you can see the funnel of Sweden’s first ice-breaker, the Sankt Erik.

 

 

Realizing that we were beginning to run out of steam, we sat and enjoyed the waterfront views for a while. Or, to put it another way, DH plunked himself down and refused to move until I promised to take him directly back to the ship.

 

 

 

I was thinking about taking the ferry over to Gamla Stan … but I was also thinking that we still had not packed for disembarkation. So I agreed to postpone the Gamla Stan walk until the next day. We walked back across the bridge and boarded the #76 bus back to Frihamnen.

 

Packing was easier than usual, since we were staying one night in Stockholm rather than flying out the next day. We enjoyed our final dinner in the main dining room. I finished with one last crème brulée to tide me over until next cruise, whenever that may be. We attended the show that night, which consisted of musical performances by the ship's orchestra and singers from the production shows; we actually enjoyed that more than the two production shows that we had seen earlier in the cruise. Since I had been up so early that morning, there was no way that I was going to make it to “Abba-Licious Night” in the Sky Lounge later on, and perhaps that was just as well. We were both really wishing that the Silhouette had just sailed around in circles for one extra sea day before arriving in Stockholm; we could have used one day of vacation before continuing with our vacation.

[afto]

June 1: Stockholm, Part Five

 

Although we had planned to take a taxi from the ship to our hotel, on the last day before we arrived in Stockholm we caved in to Celebrity’s hard sell and scare tactics and booked their transfers instead. Really, we have cruised enough to know better, but we did it anyway. Not only were we just about the last group off the ship, but there were not enough busses for the number of passengers, mass confusion erupted shoreside, and there was no Celebrity personnel on hand to sort things out. I was kicking myself as I stood on the balcony that morning noting that, contrary to Celebrity’s prediction, there was indeed a long line of taxis available.

 

 

Vowing never to book a Celebrity transfer again, we finally boarded the last bus at 10:10am. But on the bright side … we did not have a plane to catch, we did meet some nice people while we were waiting for the last bus to arrive, and all was right with the world again as soon as the driver turned on Abba’s “Dancing Queen.” That would not be the only time we heard the song during our stay in Stockholm — Swedish people must surely be sick of having to play Abba music for the tourists. Soon we were being dropped off at the Radisson Blu Royal Viking, about two blocks from the Elite Hotel Adlon where we were staying for one night.

 

FYI, for those who are considering taking the city bus: it’s about 800 metres (flat walk) from the passenger terminal, and the busses themselves did not look particularly luggage-friendly to us. On the plus side, remember that city busses may have dogs.

 

Once again, we were lucky enough to be able to access our room right away, so we dropped off the luggage and were out enjoying beautiful Stockholm in no time. We were a bit behind my roughed-out schedule for the day, so we took the bus for the short ride to City Hall. You can only visit the building on a guided tour and advance reservations are not available but there was space open on an English-language tour that was starting within 10 minutes of our arrival, so that worked out well. Our tour guide was rather boring, and he insisted on keeping us on a very tight leash but, nevertheless, the tour was very worthwhile.

[information on touring City Hall: http://international.stockholm.se/the-city-hall/ ]

 

We began in the huge Blue Hall, which is the site of the annual Nobel Prize banquet — and which is not blue, as you can see.

 

 

 

Upstairs, you will visit the council chamber, with its beautiful open beams and painted ceiling.

 

 

 

From the upstairs rooms, many tall windows let in the light and provide views of the gardens, the water, and Södermalm in the distance.

 

 

For better or for worse, there’s more on City Hall in the next post.

[afto]

June 1: Stockholm, Part Six

 

The highlight of the tour of Stockholm City Hall is the magnificent Golden Hall. I learned on this trip that I seem to be attracted to shiny golden things, so pictures of this room are probably what enticed me to add this tour to our Stockholm itinerary.

 

After the Nobel Prize banquet, a ball is held in the Golden Hall; as I understand it, the dress code for this event is several steps up the ladder from “evening chic.” The tiny fleeing human on the left will give you an idea of the scale of this large room.

 

 

The walls are covered with glittering mosaic tiles. One end wall depicts the city of Stockholm personified as the Queen of Lake Mälaren; she sits on her throne at the centre of the universe and receives tribute from visitors far and near. There are 18 million mosaic tiles in the hall and yes, they are surfaced with a very thin coating of real gold. I think our tour guide said that only about 12 kilos of gold was used in this room, which is almost exactly what we had paid in Copenhagen for a hot dog and a beer. You might be able to see the golden shimmer better in this close-up view of a pair of birds. Obviously, the hall has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.

 

 

You can see a place setting from the Nobel banquet on your way out of the building. So if you are turned away at the door of the Blue Hall because you are wearing designer jeans, on the way out you can at least see what the china looks like. I'm only guessing here about the dress code; it's entirely possible that designer jeans are permitted IF you are also wearing a tiara, so if you have one you might want to throw it in your backpack just in case.

 

 

Near the exit there is also a nice little gift shop with many made-in-Sweden items, including the ubiquitous dala horses.

 

 

From the courtyard in the centre of the building, you can walk through the colonnade to the gardens for more wonderful views.

 

 

Fountains, with a view over to Riddarholmen Island. Nice spot to visit on a sunny day, even if you are not taking the tour.

 

 

At this point I should probably mention that City Hall also has a tower. Yes, you can go up the tower with a guide — halfway by elevator and halfway by stairs. Yes, I believe that there may be spectacular views from the tower. And you could probably figure this out for yourself but I will tell you anyway that no, we did not go up the tower. It does look very sturdy, but I was concerned that I might be too slow climbing the stairs and did not want to be holding anyone else up.

 

Question. Can anyone explain to me, using small simple words that even I can understand, why when I cut and paste text from Word, I have to insert spaces between words every so often? It would be nice if there was a way for that not to happen, so that I didn't have to spend forever-and-a-half fixing every post. Must be doing something simple and obvious incorrectly, but I am not sure what.

[TeaBag]

First of all, I have to say your review and your photographs are outstanding. I have enjoyed every bit of it. We did this cruise on Eclipse in 2015 and your pictures have brought back so many memories. We didn't go to Helsinki.

 

We were in Amsterdam Jun 15 - 18 and we loved your pictures. We didn't do much there as we were very tired having gotten off a 15 day busy river cruise....no sea days! We were advised by the concierge in our hotel to skip Zaanse Schans and I do wish we had not listened to him. Thanks so much for the photos of that lovely little place.

 

BTW, if you don't like the dark chocolates, ask your steward for the milk chocolates (next time!) We did, and she complied, but then she was exceptional!

 

With regard to your question about the spaces, DH says if you create a .txt file instead of .doc, this should correct your problem. I am only relaying what he said as I have no idea what he is talking about, but he does solve all my problems (that would be computer problems!)

 

We are not too far from you and spent the day last Fri in your corner!

[upwarduk]

Question. Can anyone explain to me, using small simple words that even I can understand, why when I cut and paste text from Word, I have to insert spaces between words every so often? It would be nice if there was a way for that not to happen, so that I didn't have to spend forever-and-a-half fixing every post. Must be doing something simple and obvious incorrectly, but I am not sure what.

 

 

That doesn't happen if you copy from 'Notes' on your iPad, which is what I use for my daily blog when on a ship, so perhaps it's using the same system in my case Apple, whereas Word is Microsoft.

 

However, I too have a problem which maybe someone can explain. Recently when I copy and paste a link to another thread on C.C it no longer highlights in blue. Not sure whether its happened since C.C changed the format, but it's certainly been recent.

[Harley57]

Excellent review and picture. Enjoying your sense of humor and reliving a similar itinerary we cruised in 2012. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[afto]

Thanks, everyone, for sticking with this lengthy saga, and thanks especially to those of you who have posted kind comments. It’s good to have you following along because it takes the pressure off my DD: poor thing had to take some vacation time to recover from the enormous effort of looking at my pictures of Amsterdam and Oslo. I don’t know if she will ever be ready for Copenhagen. A big thank you also to Jackie and to TeaBag’s DH for explaining how to transfer the text. Problem solved!

 

June 1: Stockholm, Part Seven

 

Caution: more golden things ahead.

 

From City Hall, we took a bus over to the Swedish History Museum, or Historiska. This is not to be confused with Nordiska, which is the Nordic Cultural Museum; someone asked the escort on our transfer bus about whether Nordiska was worth visiting, and she wrinkled her nose. This is Nordiska:

 

 

The Swedish History Museum is bright yellow, as you might expect. The museum has free admission; there is a small fee for the audio guide, which does not cover all the galleries.

[info on the Swedish History Museum here: http://historiska.se/home/ ]

 

The Gold Room at the museum is located in the basement and the museum’s web site will inform you that it houses 52 kilos of gold artifacts, among other things. Stockholm seems to be very precise about the weight of the gold housed in its public buildings.

 

A good number of the objects on display pre-date the Viking Age. This 7th century non-golden helmet was found at a burial site just over 100 km north of Stockholm.

 

 

A Bronze Age cloak brooch.

 

 

We skipped the Viking exhibit, because we were just about all Vikinged out by now, but we toured some of the galleries on the upper floors: medieval art, modern history of Sweden, all kinds of interesting things.

 

It would be easy enough to come away from this trip with the false impression that everyone used to live in palaces. So I appreciated an exhibit about how a person’s way of life was affected by social class; it was illustrated with food, clothing, etc.

 

 

One more room to visit before leaving the museum. Signs on the washroom doors reminded us that there is an inner Viking in everyone.

 

 

It’s too bad, really, that modern airport security now requires me to leave my battle-axe at home when when I travel. Oh, for the good old days.

 

We walked a couple of blocks to Strandvägen and caught the #7 tram back over to the island of Djurgården.

 

[afto]

June 1: Stockholm, Part Eight

 

We were on our way to Gamla Stan (the old town). We got off the #7 tram right in front of the Abba Museum, which I had seriously considered adding to our itinerary. I might have done so if I had had one more day in Stockholm, and if I were married to someone who would not have to be dragged there kicking and screaming.

 

 

From the tram, it was a quick walk down to the passenger ferry stop at the foot of Allmänna Gränd.There were lots of young people heading for Gröna Lund, the amusement park next to the ferry, and the ferries that we saw were all busy too.

 

 

 

It’s an interesting short ride across to Gamla Stan, with lots of traffic in the harbour.

 

 

Passing the little citadel (Kastellet) on Kastellholmen Island.

 

 

Stockholm harbour is essentially a series of excellent photo ops. And so is Gamla Stan.

 

[travellerin1984]

What a great review! I live in Stockholm and moved to Sweden from Finland for ten years ago. So impressive, you spell everything correctly in Swedish/Finnish and have really nice way of telling things. I enjoy the review ( altough I know all the places you visited!) You must have done a lot of planning! Great job!

[afto]

What a great review! I live in Stockholm and moved to Sweden from Finland for ten years ago. So impressive, you spell everything correctly in Swedish/Finnish and have really nice way of telling things. I enjoy the review ( altough I know all the places you visited!) You must have done a lot of planning! Great job!

 

Thanks for your comments. The planning kind of fell apart on the last morning in Stockholm, as you will see later, but for the first couple of days everything went smoothly. You are lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world!

[afto]

June 1: Stockholm, Part Nine

 

Since we had nothing planned for the evening, we were not on any particular schedule as we strolled through Gamla Stan. I won’t say that we “wandered” because we had a particular path to follow — of course. With all of its lovely architecture, cobblestone streets, and interesting history, it’s easy to see why Gamla Stan is such a draw for tourists; my camera was practically over-heating from all the shutter action.

 

We saw some of the points of interest that are mentioned on all the walking tours, such as the rune stone used as a building block on the corner of an old building and a narrow stair-street known called Mårten Trotzigs Gränd. I have to say that I was surprised to see quite a bit of graffiti here and in some of the side streets.

We stopped at Stortorget, the central square, to admire the colourful buildings and relax for a few minutes with a drink and an ice cream cone.

 

There were some beautiful churches that we could have visited — and sitting back here in Canada writing this, I’m thinking that we SHOULD have visited them — but it was a bit late in the day by the time we got to Storkyrkan (Stockholm Cathedral, at Stortorget) and Riddarholmen Church and both were closed. I hadn't wanted to rush our two earlier stops to get there before closing time, and so I had not planned to visit them; we had already been to a lot of churches on this trip, anyway, and we were enjoying being outside under mostly sunny skies. That said, when we walked around the corner to the Royal Palace, the royal doors were still open and we did pop in for just a couple of minutes, only to find that we were once again in ... ta da! ... a church. Or to be more specific, the royal chapel. It had a lovely ceiling and organ, but we did not linger.

 

 

You can just barely see the cupola of Storkyrkan reflected in this guard’s helmet at the Royal Palace.

 

 

The gift shop at the palace was still open but, as I mentioned earlier, we are not really shoppers so we just walked on by. I might possibly have stopped in to pick up, say, a royal fridge magnet, but it was not entirely clear to me that riff-raff like ourselves would be welcome in such a store anyway.

[afto]

June 1: Stockholm, Part Ten

 

If I were a shopper, I would enjoy shopping for antiques in Gamla Stan, because some of the shop windows looked very interesting. The clock on this shop’s sign was as least three hours north of being accurate. But then if you wanted a super-accurate clock, I suppose you wouldn’t be shopping in an antique shop, would you? I have an antique clock at home that I never wind, but it does show the correct time twice a day and I am quite satisfied with that.

From the Royal Palace, we walked across the bridge to Riddarholmen Island, which is surprisingly peaceful considering its location in the heart of Stockholm. Here’s the lacy spire of Riddarholmen Church, with a couple of bonus spires thrown in for good measure.

 

 

Delightful dragons! (They are dragons, right?) I was thinking that these would be even more delightful if they were covered in gold …

 

 

It was getting late in the afternoon by this time and the light was interesting for a couple of pictures at the waterfront. This statue, and the plaza where it is located, honours Swedish musician Evert Taube.

 

Looking in the other direction, a view of the convention centre with the Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel behind it. There must be great views from those upper floor rooms.

 

Silhouette of City Hall’s tower from Riddarholmen. On the very top of the tower, you may be able to make out the three crowns that are a national emblem of Sweden. This is my favourite photo from Stockholm (tied with Battle Axe Woman from the sign at the Swedish History Museum).

 

 

Sunset would be beautiful from this vantage point, but sunset was still a long way off and we had some luggage-shuffling to do before flying out the next day. We walked over the busy pedestrian bridge that connects the serenity of Riddarholmen with the hustle and bustle of Vasagatan.

 

We settled on fast food for dinner, since we had been dining mostly on slow food for over two weeks now. I had heard about Max, Sweden’s home-grown burger chain, and we decided to give it a try. I knew that it had some novel menu choices, but we failed to figure out how to order any of those, so we ended up with a boring chicken sandwich and a boring burger. Overall assessment: meh. No one to blame but ourselves for that, and I’m sure that there is very good food in Stockholm for those who seek it.

[afto]

June 1: Stockholm, Part Ten

 

What? Still in Stockholm? Yes, but soon we will be moving on to Berlin.

 

Surprisingly, we made it from dinnertime to morning even without any emergency rations in the form of pillow chocolates. I did miss those little squares though. I also missed my room service poached eggs, a balcony to eat them on, and views of the Baltic Sea while I ate them. But we did have a great buffet breakfast at the hotel. DH misplaced himself once more and when he returned he was carrying a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, etc. I had not noticed that the buffet extended to two rooms in the restaurant where it was served, so when he found me I was just tucking into a Scandinavian breakfast of bread, meat, cheese, and veggies. Yes, there were also three different types of herring, but I can confidently say that herring will never be part of my morning routine. Both meals were delicious, but it was as if we had breakfast in two separate restaurants, on two separate continents.

 

 

We were actually really happy with our hotel choice in Stockholm; for the reasonable price that we paid, I would definitely recommend the Elite Hotel Adlon.

We were originally scheduled for a morning flight to Berlin, but SAS had a schedule change and we ended up on a flight at 1:30 pm. I didn’t want to plan too ambitious an itinerary for the few extra hours that we would now have in Stockholm, so I thought that a library visit might be just the ticket. But in terms of actually getting where “we” wanted to go and seeing things that we wanted to see, our last morning in Stockholm was a bit of a write-off. Sometimes we just have to accept that when it comes to tour guides, we may very well get what we pay for.

 

One of the dangers of planning too far in advance is that a person could think that she knows everything and therefore decide not to consult her notes before setting out for the day. Knowing that I was going to the library that morning, I didn’t bother consulting my paper map; I just typed “National Library of Sweden” into my phone, and we were off.

 

I routed us via Sergels Torg solely because I had seen a picture of it on the Visit Stockholm web site and the triangles looked cool. There’s a lot of construction around this site right now, but it was still interesting to see it in the morning with people on their way to work casting long shadows.

 

As we progressed, the route did not seem quite right, and when we arrived, the building did not look as expected. I circumnavigated the entire (large) structure, just in case I was missing something. At some point it dawned on me that it was actually the STOCKHOLM PUBLIC LIBRARY that I wanted to go to, and not the National Library of Sweden. Oops!

 

Poor DH, who didn’t really want to go to ANY library, thought he was off the hook at that point, but I rerouted us and we continued our poorly guided morning walking tour through the streets of Stockholm. I pointed out to him that if we hadn’t gone to the wrong library, we would have missed the opportunity to enjoy the lovely gardens at the National Library and this terrific statue of Carl Linnaeus.

 

So very Swedish. [i don’t have to tell you who Linnaeus is, because we all learned about him in high school. But just in case you want to brush up on your Linnaeus trivia so that you will be ready for potential questions on TV quiz shows, you can read his biography here: https://www.famousscientists.org/carolus-linnaeus/ ]

 

We did eventually arrive at the Stockholm Public Library, which did not open until later. This is what happens when you double-check the opening hours for the WRONG LIBRARY. Sigh.

 

 

We should have just waited for the library to open, but by this time DH had little faith in his tour guide and asked for a refund. And that’s when we got on the wrong bus. Actually it was the right bus but the wrong direction — I was a bit mixed up because we were arriving from an unexpected direction and then I had circumnavigated this library too, looking for an open entrance. Nice ride out to the university though. Waiting for the correct bus to arrive, we had a pleasant chat with a couple of students about how many km it was to the nearest ticket-purchasing location if the driver should refuse to accept DH’s non-functioning bus pass. But it all worked out and we lived to tell the tale, boring though it is. Fast-forwarding now …

Central Station is huge, but I had checked on the location of the Arlanda Express within the station and chosen a hotel that was close by. We walked across the street, one short block to the station, and the platform was just inside the door and on the same level. The door to the car is level with the platform, so it’s all very smooth and easy to do with luggage. The train is quite expensive but if you book at least 90 days in advance on their web site there is a substantial savings. Another option for getting to the station would be the less expensive Flygbussarna bus service, which is very straightforward as well. I decided against that because it is a longer trip, and I had wanted to have as much time as possible for trying to find my way into various libraries that morning.

Flygbussarna web site: https://www.flygbussarna.se/en

Arlanda Express: https://www.arlandaexpress.com

 

The train ride takes 20 minutes, about half the time of the bus. It makes two stops at Arlanda Airport, so make sure that you know which terminal you need before you get there. We were seated in the airport departure lounge in no time, and having a hard time believing that our cruise was well and truly over. We had plenty of time to not very seriously consider purchasing a tanned reindeer hide at an airport shop. Consensus: we already have enough tanned reindeer hides.

 

 

At some point, I meant to mention that we did not obtain any Swedish currency. We were prepared to visit an ATM if necessary but our credit card was all that we needed during our time in Sweden.

 

We were glad that we booked one night in Stockholm after the cruise. There is a lot to see in the city itself — not even taking into account the day trips that are available — so if you have time to spend a few days here, so much the better. If I only had one day in Stockholm, I would visit City Hall first, have lunch in Gamla Stan, and then visit the Vasa Museum last. We walked right in at the Vasa Museum with no line-up at all when we arrived there mid-afternoon.

 

Farewell, Stockholm! In the immortal words of Abba, “Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye … ”

 

[ecslady]

Farewell, Stockholm! In the immortal words of Abba, “Here is where the story ends, this is goodbye … ”

 

Once again, I am so enjoying reading your review. Brings back lots of memories of my Baltic cruise, but also makes me want to take another to see the things I missed the first time around.

 

But, I hope the story does not end here and you continue to post from Berlin.:)

[afto]

Once again, I am so enjoying reading your review. Brings back lots of memories of my Baltic cruise, but also makes me want to take another to see the things I missed the first time around.

 

But, I hope the story does not end here and you continue to post from Berlin.

Thanks, ecslady. I was trying to decide whether I should include our days in Berlin. What I post won't be very useful for readers who are visiting on a day trip from Warnemunde or Rostock, but perhaps it will be of use to those who are considering where they might spend a couple of days before or after a Baltic or Mediterranean cruise. Flights within Europe are generally quite inexpensive, so there are lots of options. I have done some travelling in Europe before, and Berlin was actually at the very top of my remaining list of European cities that I want to visit. I wanted to have a few days there and in the end we settled on four nights, giving us three full days of sightseeing. So I will carry on with Berlin after I sort through "a few" photos. Here are some preview shots, for starters.

 

Berlin’s cute little Ampelmann told us to walk, and we obeyed.

Tour bus passing a section of the wall.

 

 

Upper level of Berlin Hauptbahnhof — we were in and out of here at least a couple of times each day.

 

Market gate of Miletus at the Pergamon Museum on Museum Island.

The German Church at the Gendarmenmarkt.

 

 

Contemporary architecture at the Potsdamer Platz.

 

 

Auf Wiedersehen for now; will try to make a start with the Berlin posts later tonight.

[GTmom]

Thank you for your wonderful travel report and photos. My husband and I will be sailing on the Silhouette in late August but the reverse itinerary. We start in Tallinn. This is our first big cruise and your posts were very informative. I appreciate your advise about over analyzing between Alla and SPB. One important question relates to the immigration in St. Petersburg, my husband has mobility issues, he walks but standing around for long periods of time is really hard for him. Are there any handicap accesses or places where he can sit while we wait to disembark?

 

Also, we are debating whether it is worth it to take a Berlin Excursion. It seems to be a long train ride and then just a fairly quick bus tour of the highlights. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[afto]

Thank you for your wonderful travel report and photos. My husband and I will be sailing on the Silhouette in late August but the reverse itinerary. We start in Tallinn. This is our first big cruise and your posts were very informative. I appreciate your advise about over analyzing between Alla and SPB. One important question relates to the immigration in St. Petersburg, my husband has mobility issues, he walks but standing around for long periods of time is really hard for him. Are there any handicap accesses or places where he can sit while we wait to disembark?

 

Also, we are debating whether it is worth it to take a Berlin Excursion. It seems to be a long train ride and then just a fairly quick bus tour of the highlights. Any thoughts? Thanks.

 

GTmom ... I think you mean that your cruise starts in Stockholm? If you can work in an extra day or two there, you will probably find that well worth it. And there are lots of great excursions that you could take if you don't want to spend all your time right in the city.

 

I think disembarkation in St. Petersburg could mean an uncomfortable wait for your husband. We were standing the whole time but there were just one or two benches on the dock where people could sit once in the line-up off the ship — the rest of your group could “hold” his place in line, I’m sure. I did not see anywhere to sit once we were at the point in the line where we were actually in the immigration building, until we had passed through to the other side.

 

We did also have some standing around time at various points during our three days on tour, such as when we were waiting for the train in Moscow, lining up to clear security at the Kremlin, waiting for the guides to obtain tickets at various places, or while listening to information at museums etc., so you might want to keep that in mind too. Maybe a private tour with a later start time to avoid the crowds would be worth it for your circumstances?

Another traveller on the same cruise as us had a completely different experience, so if you haven’t already done so, you might check out post #45 in luvtravel88’s current review (“Baltic Cruise May 19, 2017 Review”) for her strategy for getting off the ship and avoiding a line:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2516878&page=3

She also has a good description of her day trip to Berlin starting at post #28 in that same thread.

 

I would say that the vast majority of people on our sailing did a tour to Berlin, by bus, train, or private van. I knew that the things that I most wanted to see in Berlin — Pergamon Museum, Reichstag dome visit, and Jewish Museum — would not be included in a day tour and so I never really considered doing that. Everyone that I spoke to about their day trip experience seemed to have enjoyed it and I did not hear people say that they wished they had done something different. It’s a shorter trip than going to Moscow by train, and we did do that day trip, but then we really wanted to see the Kremlin and Red Square and the Moscow trip did go to those places so it seemed worthwhile. For me, the deciding factor was, “Will I ever go to Moscow if I don’t do this day trip?” So if this is likely to be your only chance to see Berlin, I would say do it. But if you see yourself back in Europe again at some time, then spend a day or two in Berlin at a later date. We really had a super day on the Alla Tours “Hanseatic Rostock and Molli Steam Train” tour; I would strongly recommend that if you decide not to go to Berlin.

 

You are going to love the Silhouette and your Baltic cruise!

[raudacruise]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. "Berlin" is what caught my eye initially, but I've enjoyed all of the locations.

 

I was stationed in Berlin for two years. DH and I were Russian translators in the Army. (Married in Berlin.) Were never allowed to visit East Berlin and we left in '79. Thus a lot in your review will be new to me. Want to go back some day.

 

We used to get invitations for an annual "Fall of the Wall" party at the Germany Embassy. Regret never attending.

[afto]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. "Berlin" is what caught my eye initially, but I've enjoyed all of the locations.

 

I was stationed in Berlin for two years. DH and I were Russian translators in the Army. (Married in Berlin.) Were never allowed to visit East Berlin and we left in '79. Thus a lot in your review will be new to me. Want to go back some day.

 

We used to get invitations for an annual "Fall of the Wall" party at the Germany Embassy. Regret never attending.

 

Thanks for posting, Mary Beth. I hope you will set me straight if I get anything wrong in the next few posts. You must have some interesting stories to tell of those days in Berlin! I regret that we cancelled a planned visit to the Allied Museum in Zehlendorf which includes the Outpost Theater; you are probably familiar with that territory. It was pouring rain on the day that we were to go out there, and since some of the exhibits were outdoors we switched over to Plan B. This was the only day of the whole trip when the weather caused us to drop something from the itinerary. [Allied Museum web stie: http://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/en/home.html ]

 

Too bad you never made it to a “fall of the wall” party. As a 21st century visitor to Berlin, one is always aware of the wall as such a significant factor in shaping the modern city, and certainly there are pieces of it remaining here and there. But as east and west continue to reintegrate and new construction continues apace, it is not always apparent that you are crossing from one “side” to the other unless you happen to glance down and notice the double line of cobblestones that snakes across Berlin where the wall used to be.

 

[afto]

June 2: Berlin (Day Zero, Part One)

 

I wish I could get the dates right for these posts. The last Stockholm post should also have been dated June 2 … how hard can this be, really?

 

Our SAS flight from Stockholm was uneventful, as all flights should be. It was a sunny day, and I could see many of the city’s landmarks on our approach to Tegel Airport.

 

At the airport, we stopped at the Visit Berlin tourist information office to pick up our transportation and sightseeing passes. There are a LOT of options for both, and the young woman behind the counter gave me a huge smile when I told her exactly what I wanted and saved her the trouble of explaining all the options. There is the Berlin Pass, the Museum Pass, the Welcome Card (sub-divided into different zones), the Welcome Card + Museum Island, the Berlin CityTourCard (“for hipsters and youngsters”) … visitors should really plan out their itinerary ahead of time to figure out what pass will work best.

 

We planned to use the bus for airport transfers, and we were not travelling much beyond the city centre (not out to Potsdam, for example), so we bought 5-day Welcome Cards, valid for all transportation within zones A and B. https://www.visitberlin.de/en/berlin-welcome-card

 

And we bought the 3-day Museum Pass. This provides access to 50 museums, not just the ones on Museum Island. https://www.visitberlin.de/en/museum-pass-berlin

 

We made very good use of both passes and thought that they represented great value. The transportation passes were easy to use because, unlike some cities (Amsterdam, Stockholm, Vancouver), you don’t have to show the pass or tap in and tap out when you board most vehicles. You just keep your ticket safely in your wallet and present it if asked by an inspector.

 

Tegel is a small airport and it was no problem to find the bus stop outside. We boarded the TXL bus to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main train station. These busses leave every 10 minutes or less, and it should have taken us about 20 minutes to get to our stop but traffic was heavy so it took about 40 minutes and we had to stand most of the way. This is not an ideal option for everyone, and a completely sane person might have taken a taxi, but where't the challenge in that? The bus dropped us at the north entrance to the station and, although the station is huge and very busy, it was a simple matter to wheel our luggage through and back out the south entrance.

 

 

We were staying at the Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt, right across the street from the station. There was nothing not to like about this property; room, service, and the included breakfast buffet were all great and we congratulated ourselves daily for making such a good choice. Best part was the bees: Steigenberger Hotels have their own hives and the breakfast buffet included honey still in the comb … so very delicious.

 

 

But I am getting ahead of myself with the breakfast description. By the time we had dropped off our luggage in the room it was almost 5:30 pm. We decided to have an early dinner at Hans im Gluck at the station; this place would probably describe itself as a gourmet burger chain but that would be a bit of an exaggeration. We were not particularly impressed with the food, but it was a warm evening and they had a nice patio and DH had his first German beer, so dinner was not a complete write-off. The restaurant is located next to the “Rolling Horse” sculpture, which I rather liked.

 

 

Berlin has a complicated public transportation system which is a result of its being a divided city for decades. Work is still being done on integrating the networks of the s-bahn (local and suburban trains, often elevated), u-bahn (city rapid transit of the former West Berlin, mostly underground), trams, and busses. For now, the u-bahn line from the Hauptbahnhof runs for only 2 stops to the Brandenburg Gate, where it connects with the rest of the u-bahn network. We usually found that the s-bahn was the most convenient way to get started on our day’s adventures. We took our first s-bahn ride to Friedrichstrasse Station and began our walk there.

 

To get to our first stop, we crossed Unter den Linden, the most famous avenue of the former East Berlin, with beautiful views in both directions and lots of construction underway. Our initial destination was the Gendarmenmarkt, a grand public square bordered by the Berlin concert house and two almost-identical domed churches known as the German Church and the French Church. The long evening shadows added some drama to the views.

 

 

I had read about a chocolate shop in pjs678’s “Russian around the Baltic” review and I tucked that information away for later use. So while at the Gendarmenmarkt we stopped in at Fassbender and Rausch to take a look at the replicas of various Berlin landmarks crafted out of chocolate. This one’s the Reichstag.

 

This stop was not in any way motivated by the possibility of obtaining pillow chocolates, but we did pick up a couple of treats and sat down on the red-carpeted steps of the Konzerthaus to eat them.