A Day in Copenhagen

Here are some pictures from my day spent walking the city of Copenhagen.

The main canal street

A cool church with a spiral that I climbed up to the top of

View from the top

Christiania is almost a country of its own located in the middle of the city of Copenhagen. Founded when a bunch of hippies took over an empty section of an old naval base, they squatted there for a long time, and slowly became accepted as just part of things.  Now they are being give the right to buy all the land and become more fully independent. 

The very famous "little mermaid statue"

The old royal family palace

Top deck for the sailaway

A Birthday in Russia

Another day of touring a new city.                    Also this is my 250th post!

St. Petersburg, one of Russia's top cities. 

Russian, and St. Petersburg flags

My tour would take us throughout the city and then to the Hermitage Museum, one of the worlds largest.

Our first stop was to the Church of Spilled Blood. Which looks exactly like one would imagine when someone says Russian church. Covered in mosaics, and topped with colorful onion domes.

Later we visited St. Issac's cathedral, which was built in a more European style 

It took 40 years to build during the 1800's and its dome is covered in pure gold.

During the cities siege in WW2 the dome was painted over to make it less of an obvious target from the air.

Main dome with dove in the center.

After lunch we began our tour of the Hermitage.

The Hermitage Museum, one of the largest in the world, consists of 6 main buildings that used to be the palaces of the Russian Emperors. Including the Winter Palace

In total there are 3 million works of art in the collection. With only a fraction of that on display, but those you can see include many painting by famous artists.

Entire rooms of works by Rembrant, Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Renoir, and many many more.  Also originals by Leonardo Da Vinci, and Raphael.

There are so many painting of great artists that if you spend even just a few minutes in each room, you wont have time to see much at all.

Hermitage from outside

 Also many of the rooms are still decorated as they were when the Royal family used it.

Walls covered in gold, floors made of very intricate wood inlay.

Tables made of solid gold, and Peter the Great's burial tomb, which was made with over one ton of silver.

One of many ornately decorated rooms

The Ambassador Staircase

We had about 3 hours in the Museum, and our guide moved fast, so we were able to see many of the rooms in the time we had. But still our guide told us we saw about 3% of the total collection.

Pro-tip:  The Hermitage is not air-conditioned and it gets very warm.  If you can visit on a cloudy/raining day, as I did.  It will still be hot inside, but I can only imagine how brutal it would have been if it was a sunny day out.  I guess the emperors only used it as a winter palace for a reason.

My one day in St. Petersburg is not enough, and I was not able to see some of the things I wanted to. Including the Peterhof Palace, said to be greater then Versailles, but even though we were in the city for 2 days, that night was my birthday, and not having to be up early the next morning for a tour was good with me.

Quick day in Helsinki

Nothing much to report on this day.

Just a bit of walking around Helsinki

Train Station

Church

Stockholm and the Vasa Museum

If you thought the Titanic had a bad first voyage, then the Vasa might top it.

Built from 1626-1628 to be one of the largest and most powerful ship in the world at the time.

The Vasa launched on August 10 1628 from Stockholm harbour and then sank less then a mile from the dock, still in the main part of the city, and in full view of the citizens who were out to see its maiden voyage.

The Vasa was lost until the 1950's and was raised from the bottom of the harbour where it had rested for 333 years.  Partly due to the area it sank the ship was extremely well preserved.  95% of what you can see to day is all original.

The Stern. With finely detailed carving. Which were brightly painted at the time.

The Vasa had 64 Cannons of various types 

The bow with a lion decorating the very front

The reason for the Vasa's sinking was due to its poor design.  There was not enough ballast, and to many cannons to low to the water.
When a gust of wind caught the sails the ship tipped and the lower gun ports allowed water to rush in.

The ship was designed to be a troop carrier and would normally have 300 troops along with its crew of 150 sailors.
But on the maiden voyage the ship was filled with family of the sailors who were going to be changed with the troops after the ship left the city limits.
Due to this many people died when they couldn't swim to shore.

I had wanted to see the Vasa for a long time, and I was very impressed with the ship.

Royal Palace of the King of Stockholm

Stockholm City hall.  Where the Nobel Prizes are awarded

Long tour in Berlin, Germany

Berlin is about 3 hours from the port of Warnemunde where we docked.  So this made for one of the longest tours I have ever done.  Possibly only the tour to the dead sea being longer.

Our train into the city was really nice, big seats, and room to move around.  A big improvement over getting stuffed into an airplane.

Once we arrived in Berlin we started a tour of the city.  Taking us past major sights like the Berlin wall, east side gallery, Checkpoint Charlie in the morning.

Berlin TV Tower

East Side Gallery

Original section of the wall

Checkpoint Charlie

At Checkpoint Charlie, I got various old stamps for my passport including Russian, East German, USA, French, and England all of who had troops in the city after the war.

Hotel where we had lunch

Our lunch was server in a former East Germany hotel that was built to impress, and has hosted many famous people over the years.


After lunch we went to the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Allied Museum, as well as passing so many other landmarks that I cant remember them all.

Berlin had a lot more impressive architecture then I expected.

Brandenburg Gate

Reichstag

Victory Column
For victory over Napoleon

A short day in Amsterdam

A city that when I first went 10 years ago our tour guide called The "Dam"age

There is a lot to see and do in Amsterdam.  

Unfortunately it was a busy day, my replacement was coming on board, so all I had time for was a bit of basic sightseeing.

 Amsterdam Train Station

 Standard Canal

On our sail away the ship goes through a long canal called the North Sea Canal with ends in a lock similar to the panama canal.  

Rising up to the North Sea

Oslo, the Final Norway Port

After a series of tiny towns, we arrive in the capital, Oslo.

And another big change was the weather. Which was sunny, and quite hot.

I did a walk around the town.

Stopping at the Royal Palace, City Hall, Parliament, and passing through the old fortress on my way back to the ship.

Royal Palace

Hard Rock Cafe.

Norway's City Hall.  Also were you go to pickup your Nobel Peace Prize 

Norway's Parliament building

Sailaway from Oslo.

A modern Viking Ship

North Sea at Midnight

 It was a nice relaxing day, and I managed to have just enough Norwegian money left for a souvenir magnet and nothing else.

Norway is a beautiful country, to see.  Just don't come hungry, or you will leave poor.

The Path of the Trolls

The Path of the Trolls, is a section of road near the town of Alesund, Norway.  And it also connects to the Eagle Road I was on yesterday.

View of the town

Looking down to the valley from the lookout point

A view of the winding turns down to the valley floor

Our bus in a hairpin turn

At the bottom of the valley

Where we stopped for lunch

Our last stop.  That cliff face is the largest shear cliff in Europe, at over 100m.