Stockholm (continued)
Helsinki
St Petersburg, Russia
Tallinn, Estonia
Warnemunde, Germany
Aalborg, Denmark
Though Helsinki was in top spot of our trip, we found the Russian city of St Petersburg to be the most interesting and fascinating. We had two days here and took the Thomson Cruise tours,with their Russian Guides, on each of the two days. Our tours all focused on the central areas where many buildings and Palaces have been restored to pre-revolution standards. There were visits to Menshikov’s Palace, the building of 12 Ministries of Peter the Great, the Academy of Sciences and Chamber of Curiosities. We saw the Neva River at its widest, the Naval Museum and then visited the Aurora battleship (shown on the right above) that signalled the beginning of the historical Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Later we visited St Isaac’s Cathedral (above left), Decembrist’s Square and the Church of the Spilled Blood. On the second day of our stay we took a canal cruise and saw most of the first day’s visit from another perspective. The highlight was a visit to Prince Yusupov’s Palace (centre above). It was here that Yusupov, amongst others, took part in the murder of Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian Monk who had the ear of the Royals. Time was again short and there was none available to visit the other interesting places such as the Hermitage. That will be for another day, but meantime Russia has a lot of hard work to get the former Capital of Russia back to its pre-revolution splendour.
This world Heritage site, Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, ranks as one of Europe’s most outstanding architectural havens.. The oldest surviving Gothic town hall in Northern Europe is in Town Hall Square, which the city’s medieval buildings and twisting cobbled streets lead into. Again we made use of the ‘Hop-on Hop-off’ open top tour buses. We visited the Song Festival Grounds, Russalaka Monument with the promenadw Kadriorg park Swan Lake the Presidential Palace and Song Festival grounds. Then on to the City Harbour (see view of the ‘Thomson Spirit’ above left, and the huge ‘Emerald Princess’. birthed alongside). Finally we returned to Town Hall Square where we rested midst the adjoining gardens and where we enjoyed the tulips and the wonderful sunshine before returning to the ship.
Warnemunde in Germany is a typical and popular beach resort and Spa for visitors from Berlin and Hamburg. It is also a popular spa and fishing hamlet - there was even a fishing boat selling Fish and Chips!(above right). It was possible to take a train to Rostock where the KGB had been active during the cold war but we decided to stroll around the harbour, shops and restaurants before joining a small tour boat for a trip round the very busy harbour and adjoining port and ferry terminal.
The party (left), with three cannons, welcomed us to our last port of call. We just had an afternoon to explore chocolate-box Aalborg. It is one of Denmark’s oldest cities and is packed with 17th century architecture. There are museums, galleries and cutesy boutiques. The timbered walls and courtyards of Aalborghus Castle hide a sinister secret in that its dungy dungeons were used to imprison anyone who opposed Denmark’s 16th century king. Thank you Aalborg for a pleasant end to our wonderful cruise and visits to all those Baltic Highlights.