Atlantis Baltic Cruise
July 14 – 21, 2007

Seven days from Copenhagen, Denmark to Stockholm, Sweden with no luggage.

If you have comments, or see a picture you really want, drop me an email by clicking here (sorry to email address is masked to prevent more spam).

 

Copenhagen, Denmark

We begin our trip. I begin mine with no luggage thanks to SAS. After a frenzied day of phone calls and emergency purchases, we finally go out to see the town...in the dark.

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Rostock, Germany

We arrive in our first port on a Sunday and visit the sleepy, former East German town of Rostok. We have a beer.

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Warnemunde, Germany

Later that day, we discover the hopping (hey, it's the only town open for miles on a Sunday) beach resort of Warnemunde. I shop for clothes and we eat banana and Nutella crepes.

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Tallinn, Estonia

After a day at sea, we arrive in Estonia. We tour the old, walled city with it's cobblestone streets and solid churches. I find a mall and spend some EEKs to replace my as-yet-unfound luggage.

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St. Petersburg, Russia
Day 1 - Catherine's Palace at Pushkin

It is hard to describe St. Petersburg, so I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. Catherine's Palace was almost completely destroyed by the retreating German army at the end of World War II. What was left was a burned out shell and a few hidden artworks and furniture pieces. What you see is all restoration.

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St. Petersburg, Russia
Day 1 - Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral

This will be the first of three incredibly ornate churches we will visit.

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St. Petersburg, Russia
Day 1 - The Hermitage Museum

It is almost impossible to fathom the amount of artwork in this museum. With over 3 million pieces in the collection, it's difficult to even scratch the surface in three hours. We did our best!

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St. Petersburg, Russia
Day 2 - The Peterhof Palace

If Catherine's Palace was a woman's domain, the Peterhof is surely a man's. Battle scenes grace almost every room and the graceful gardens of Catherine's Palace give way to acres of raucous fountains.

We were also fascinated (and maybe a bit perturbed) by the hundreds of huge bags of ammonium nitrate sitting uncovered and unguarded along the entire entrance road to the cruise ship pier.

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St. Petersburg, Russia
Day 2 - The Church of the Savior on Blood

This church was built as a memorial to Alexander II who was mortally wounded by an anarchist who detonated a bomb near the Tsar. It is said that the section of the canal embankment where he was wounded was enclosed within the church walls. The walls and ceiling are completely covered in intricate mosaics.

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St. Petersburg, Russia
Day 2 - We say goodbye to Russia

For such a tourist destination, their cruise port could use a little work.

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Helsinki, Finland

Such a lovely, clean city. Look for the many Eliel Saarinen buildings.

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Stockholm, Sweden

I was surprised how pretty Stockholm was. It's like a Scandinavian version of Venice with its canals and waterfront architecture. We managed to catch the changing of the palace guard...a 45 minute show with a military band on horseback, shiny helmets, and more moves than a halftime show. My luggage arrived on this day, the last of our trip, having traveled to no less than five cities.

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Panoramas

For those of you who saw me clicking away and spinning, here's some of the results.

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© 2007 Joseph Hoffman