10 July 2008

10 July 2008
Swedes will tell you that Stockholm is Europe’s most beautiful capital. By my observation after three visits, they may be right. But then, I haven’t visited all of Europe’s capital cities. Stockholm is unique in that it is built on fourteen small islands. As the city grew over the centuries, the locals just built a bridge to another island and planted more homes and business buildings. Nearly a third of the city is devoted to parks. Squares and airy tree lined boulevards, along with water ways that seem to be everywhere, do make Stockholm different and quite handsome. Yet the city is a bustling metropolis with glass and steel skyscrapers everywhere but all within a five minute walk from twisting medieval streets and water side promenades.
The Gamia Stan district, situated on the island of Stadsholmen, is Stockholm’s old medieval town that emerged in the 13th century and is home to the present Royal Palace with areas open to the public and a ceremonial changing of the guard at noon on weekdays. The Royal Palace is one of the largest royal castles in the world. It contains 680 rooms and is till in use by the royal family. A Stone wall nearby, built in 1250 AD, gave the city its characteristic shape of a heart. The Stork Yrkan cathedral, located in the oldest quarter of the city, was built in 1279 and is used for royal weddings, baptisms and coronations and open to the public.
During our day in port, I gathered a map from the greeters on the dock and headed into town. Since this would be my first stop in four during the next month, I decided I needed first to find an ATM to get some Swedish Kronor, second find a post office to buy stamps and mail some letters, and third to find an internet café to catch up on whatever might be in my lap top. The first two were easy, the last impossible. I asked several people along my route where I could find each of my destinations. All were helpful with the first two but only one had a possibility for me to follow. The suggestion was made that there might be an internet café at the ferry terminal that I had past on my walk.
I returned to the ferry terminal to find no internet café. What I did find was a snack shop that displayed a beer I had never heard of before. The shop had some outside tables where I could watch the terminal traffic flow by so I sat myself down in a sunny spot and enjoyed my Swedish Beer, this time a half liter. The people flowing off of the Helsinki Ferry reminded me that a guide had talked about the advantages Swedes gained by taking the ferry to Helsinki, Finland to do most of their shopping. The cost of the one hour ferry ride was more than compensated by the significant difference in prices on almost everything imaginable. Everyone off loading from the ferry was loaded down with big plastic bags, ratty looking suitcases on wheels and push carts. One couple that stopped to rest in front of my table was pushing a heavy duty hand truck loaded with cases of canned goods and beer. The load was almost more than the mad could handle. The lady in the twosome had a thirty inch suitcase on wheels that bulged to the point that it looked like it might explode. By their antics and equipment I guessed that their quick trip to Helsinki was a common occurrence. I recalled that the guide also told us that laws regarding the public consumption of alcohol are very strict in Sweden. For that reason many folks use the ferry to Helsinki as a conveyance to party time.
The weather for the most part has been sunny and almost warm. I wore a wool shirt into town today and it would have been perfect except that I am a vigorous walker and I could have gone with something lighter. A brisk wind for the last couple of days has made it uncomfortable for my fellow passengers to sun bathe, but they do it anyway. After lunch today I stripped to my bathing suit and basked in the sun sans breeze. Luckily I woke from a short nap and covered up. The warm sunshine that lulled me to sleep was already beginning to do its work on my freckled skin. A few more quikies in the sun like today and I’ll look like a real sun worshipper.
Those who enjoy sunlight would really enjoy the Baltic Sea in June. Official sunrise today, according to the ship’s bulletin, was 3:37 AM with sunset scheduled for 10:04 PM. As we travel eastward and more to the north the days will be even longer. I recall the pleasure my Russian friends had during a trip in 1989 when they took me out on a river boat at Leningrad ( now St. Petersburg) at midnight to show me that you could read a newspaper by the “midnight sun”. I could.
The Norwegian Jewel sailed away from the Stockholm pier with no bands playing, no serpentines floating down from joyful passengers, as a matter of fact, not a single soul on the dock once the landing lines were released. In the silence of the moment, broken only by the ships deep horn sounding its farewell, a sky full of seagulls appeared as if on cue. The gulls soared, dived and squawked as if the local chamber of commerce had hired them to gull lull us back to the dock to spend some more money with local merchants. We’ve all seen the spectacle of gulls following fishing boats into shore knowing full well that the gulls were there to feed off of the remains of fish cleaning. I looked over the side of the ship to see if staff was feeding but saw nothing of the sort. I could only conclude that the gulls simply liked us……….they really liked us!
Helsinki, Finland was our next port of call. My vivid memories of my past visit to Helsinki was one that remembered a quiet water front scene with blonde teenagers hanging with friends all looking wholesome and neat. It was evident from this visit that my limited vision related to the area where Dee and I stayed following a visit to Russia in 1990. Actually, the visit was marred by the fact that our Soviet visas were not returned to us when we left Moscow for Helsinki. Our intent was to return to Moscow to catch our “paid for” flight back to New York. When we arrived at Helsinki we discovered our lack of visas and immediately tried to phone Troitsk for help from our friends. Soviet telephones were never known to work very well and we never made contact. I spent most of our three day visit scurrying around trying to find a way home. The consulate finally helped us obtain tickets but the only thing available was Business Class and the shock of the sticker price lingers on. We got home but our attempts to get Aerflot to return our money on our unused tickets was for naught. I guess we really didn’t have time to see much of the town on that visit.
A more recent cruise ship stop provided us with a tour of the countryside and we still didn’t see downtown Helsinki. This trip I took the shuttle into downtown and found just another large city that wasn’t very pretty. My search for an internet café took me to the train station where everything always is within a stone’s throw. A few well placed questions and a found the internet café; a free facility run by three young bright people who made using their machines the simplest thing since learning to brush your teeth. After I used the free time to clean up my overloaded email, I found a post office and mailed some letters, bought a few post cards and just wandered for a while. The city was bustling and noisy and not nice enough to recommend that it be made a high priority for visiting when in Finland.
The Norwegian Jewel tied up for two full days at St. Petersburg, Russia. Since I have visited St. Petersburg three times in the past and toured the big sites and a few smaller ones, I decided not to leave the ship but rather catch up on a writing project I’ve been working on. Most of the passengers left the ship at least once during our stay to visit The Hermitage, one of the world’s great, museums and art galleries, Peterhof, Peter the Great’s summer palace, The Ballet and the Opera. My visits in 1989 and 1990 took me to all of these places and I’m sure that the Kirillovs will want to take Dottie and me again when we visit in August. Incidentally, one still can’t wander around in Russia without a visa. Dottie and I have ours for our August visit but they are only good for two specific days. If you are with a tour group you are exempt from the Soviet era visa requirement.
Our weather has been changing by the hour. The mornings have started with a drizzle at dawn evolving into mid-day with warm sunshine and puffy white clouds yielding to overcast skies at sunset, which by the way will be at 11:20 PM tonight. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the marvelous ship board food that I have tried to experience in a selective manner. Imagine if you will being served all of your favorite foods and dishes all day long with an automatic ice cream machine around every corner with plates of cookies always within reach. All one needs to do is take a good look at the more seasoned of the travelers on board with broad smiles and girths aplenty and the allure of all these goodies diminishes a tad………but not completely!
Love to all,
Grandpa Bill, Dad, Bill and Mr. Berck