What can we say? Such oppulence as we never imagined. Palaces with gold everywhere, on the walls, on the doors and on the ceilings. Comparing the oppulence on board our mighty ship, and today's effort fails to impress. On Friday we went to the Hermitage museum, magnificent, and for a canal cruise. St Petersburg was establisehd on a swamp and the canals we built to drain the water away. Then they became an asset for transporting goods and people. After lunc...

Today was a day at sea en route to Estonia. Pa attended a seminar on Tallinn and St Petersburg while Gran played bridge. We attended a concert by a very versatile violin player in the evening. Today was a day of research and housework. We used the laundromat, visited the highest and lowest part of the ship, investigated alternative eating places and then had a formal night meal in one of the restaurants. Tomorrow is an earlish start and the next two days ev...

Travelled to Rostock, a northern port city in Germany, overnight. We travelled by chartered train to Berlin where we met our guide. Berlin is a clean ond ordered city with some wide streets and many fine buildings. We visited the Reichstart (parliament) and allied museum, the Berlin Wall or what is left of it, the Brandenburg Gates and checkpoint Charlie. We had a terrific lunch at the Maritim Hotel. Back to the ship about 8:30 and on opur way to Tallin in E...

Aahus is in northern Denmark. Today's tour was to Ebbetoft and was mostly scenic. We did however see the preserved 1800s frigate the Djusland and walked the cobbled streets.

Overnight we travelled to Oslo. We had a look around the city. The Vigeland Sculpture park was magic. 211 sculptures in an 80 acre park in the middle of town. We also went to the open air museum which has displays of houses from 1100AD onwards. The Ski Jump which was used in the Olympics was terrifying.