Gail and John'sTravels: Northern Europe Adventure: Copenhagen and the first two ports

Trans Atlantic flights are rarely the most enjoyable of activities, rather a necessary evil in order to begin the fun at a further destination. Our Air France flight was uneventful (leaving 7 PM Toronto), and after landing in Paris we found our way through the labyrinth of Charles DeGaulle Airport to continue on to Copenhagen (arriving12 noon on Friday). We look forward to exploring this lovely city when we return later during one of the upcoming cruises. For now it was great just to get to the ship and settle in to our lovely room on the eighth floor, with a big comfy bed. Ahhh sleep.

Beautiful statues at the port

John looking at Copenhagen from the upper deck

The first port of call was Warnemunde, Germany, a quaint little town in what was once East Germany, from which may people took tours into Berlin. Gail had work to do on the ship and had a meeting with the assistant cruise director about the upcoming art classes, so it was a walk into town for the afternoon, while John escorted a thirteen hour bus tour to Berlin.

John left at 8:30 AM and headed to Berlin through what was once scenic East Germany. Much of the Russian architecture is still very much present in the countryside ... lots of dull, square, grey buildings with small windows. Berlin was interesting. We got to see a lake beach, on the edge of what was East Berlin, full of naked people ... acres of lumpy flesh (apparently bathing suits just get wet, so why wear them), a lot of reconstruction, lots of views of the river Sprey, and very busy streets. We visited the Allied Museum where the original checkpoint Charlie is stored, along with one of the huge airplanes used in the Berlin airlift in the late 1950’s after the wall around West Berlin was built. We got to go to where one km of the wall was left, as a memorial, all covered with commissioned paintings ... pretty impressive, especially the “killing zone” between the walls. The Berlin Wall was a double wall, with about a 10 m space between the two walls (i.e., the killing zone). After lunch at the Hotel Kempinski, we went to the Holocaust Memorial honouring those who died during World War II ... a very moving experience. After that we went on an hour walk through town ending up at the Brandenberg gates and the Reichstag , with a final stop at Charlottsburg Castle (see pictures). Finally, back to the ship arriving at 9:15 PM.

View of Warnemunde from the ship

Train station

This plane hauled supplies to West Berlin after the wall went up


John at the remaining piece of the wall (now a memorial)

Brandenburg Gates


Charlottsburg Castle Sunday was a sea day, so we rested to get over jet lag and taught our first art class in the afternoon. Monday we were in Lithuania (Klaipeda). Gail escorted a tour into the old town and John escorted a tour into the resort town of Palanga, which included an amazing (but not air-conditioned) amber museum (Baltic amber is quite prized). By the way, never believe weather reports. Everything we saw about weather in this region mentioned how cold it was ... so we brought a lot of warm clothing. The temperature has not been less that 32 C since we got here, including a blistering hot, extremely humid day today. On the Palanga tour, involving about 3 ½ hours of walking, there were 32 exhausted tourists when we finally got to the beer garden for snacks and a much deserved beer. Lithuanian beer is excellent ... though the glasses could have been larger. I should mention that, with the hot weather, the fact that the ship is all-inclusive is truly a blessing. John