The Baltic Blast - Cruise Trek 2005

My wife, son and I just went on one of our most memorable vacations, a cruise of the Baltic Sea. Although I could probably write a book about the experience, I'll try to capture some of the highlights here without overwhelming the readers (however many or few of you there may be).

I should mention up front that we booked our trip through Cruise Trek, a company that invites Star Trek fans and people who have worked on the various Trek TV shows and films. It's like a mini-convention at sea for those of us in the Cruise Trek group. The Trek activities are only a small part of the cruise, but they added quite a bit of enjoyment for those of us involved.

The cruise left Copenhagen, Denmark on Thursday June 30 and returned there on Sunday July 10. We spent the day before departure in Copenhagen, which is a lovely city. Wednesday afternoon, we met a group of Danish Star Trek fans at a local eatery to get acquainted with them and learn more about Copenhagen. Pat, Ben and I ended up going to dinner with several of the Danish Trekkies, and later walking with them to visit Tivoli Gardens, a small amusement park right in the city. Legend has it that Walt Disney was inspired by this park for some of his ideas for Disneyland in California, and I can see why. It has beautiful grounds and a very nice ambience.

Thursday afternoon our cruise ship, the ms Westerdam of the Holland America Line, departed Copenhagen. After an evening of settling in and (re-)introductions to our fellow Cruise Trekkers, we had a day at sea on Friday. The Trek activites are only held when the ship is not in port, so several of them were crammed into this day. The actors' Q & A panel was held, where guests Garrett Wang (Harry Kim from Voyager), John De Lancie (Q), and Bob Picardo (the Doctor from Voyager) answered questions from the audience quite graciously. Bob P., in particular, is quite a gregarious guy, and kept us all entertained during this panel and every time he got in front of the group. There were Trek-related games and presentations throughout the cruise, and all of them that I attended were lots of fun. I placed second in a couple of the games but I don't know enough Trek trivia to beat out the more dedicated fans in those contests.

Saturday we spent in Tallinn, Estonia. I knew virtually nothing about the city or country before this trip, and while I can't say I am an expert on it now, I did find it to be a neat place to walk around. We spent all of our time in the Old Town, with its ancient streets and buildings including a couple of beautiful churches. We ate lunch at the Olde Hansa, a medieval restaurant housed in a very old building which apparently was used as a dining hall hundreds of years ago. The menu there includes game such as bear, elk, and wild boar, all cooked over open flame (no electricity!). We wussed out and settled for chicken. It was quite good, and the medieval side dishes were surprisingly tasty.

Sunday and Monday we were docked in St. Petersburg, Russia. We were glad to have two days here because there is so much to see. However, because the Russian visa process is so cumbersome and expensive, we booked our trips ashore through the cruise line because we didn't have to have our own visas that way. It worked out very well, and the excursions were well organized and informative. On Sunday morning we visited Catherine's Palace in Pushkin just outside the city, and in the afternoon we went to the Hermitage Museum downtown. Both are enormous places with gorgeous works of art and elaborate decor. Our tour guide said it would take years to look at each piece that the Hermitage has on display, and I believe it. Sunday evening we went to a Folkloric Spectacular performance, featuring energetic and colorful Russian music, songs and dances. A wonderful show which I missed a few bits of here and there from nodding off due to jet lag. After spending the night back on the ship, we took another tour bus Monday, this time to Peterhof Palace in the morning and more sights in downtown St. Petersburg in the afternoon. Peterhof is another grandiose complex of buildings with similar furnishings to Catherine's Palace, but the exterior grounds at Peterhof are its most impressive feature to me. There are acres of gardens, with lots of fountains, sculptures, etc. to enjoy. The main attraction of the afternoon tour was the Church on the Spilled Blood, an amazing Russian Orthodox cathedral whose interior is almost completely covered with astoundingly beautiful mosaics that have been painstakingly restored after damage suffered during World War II. Most of the palaces and major buildings in St. Petersburg have undergone extensive restoration, which is a testament to the pride that the Russian people have taken in their history and culture.

Tuesday's stop was Helsinki, Finland. While Helsinki doesn't have the ancient feel of the other cities we had visited thus far, it was still a cool place. My favorite sight there was the "rock" church. No, they don't play the Rolling Stones there at services; the name comes from the fact that the church was built by blasting the top out of a rocky hill and building a domed roof over the hole. It's one of the most unusual structures I have ever seen.

Wednesday: Stockholm, Sweden was our port destination. If I were to pick a city from this trip to visit again, Stockholm would be it. It is a cool city, with a fascinating old town section as well as a modern newer part with all the amenities of a major metropolis. The setting for the city is especially beautiful since it is built on 14 islands which we sailed among on our way out of port that evening. It reminds me of the San Juan Islands in Washington state. Lots more historic and interesting stuff to see here, much of which we didn't have time for. As the governator might say, "We'll be back."

Thursday we stopped at the Swedish island of Gotland and walked around the small but thriving town of Visby. We saw many ruins of old churches dating back as far in the 1200s, and (most of) a stone wall surrounding the city that is at least that old. The feeling of ancient history was strongest for me here of all the places we saw on this trip.

Friday we made port in Warnemunde, Germany, a seaside resort town. We didn't spend any time in Warnemunde, though; we took the first train in the morning to Berlin, a 3-hour ride away. We joined a small group of Cruise Trekkers who were riding the same train, and met with a local who is a friend of Richard Arnold, Trek historian and guest on the cruise who was our de facto leader on our "tour" of Berlin. Because we had another 3-hour train ride back to the cruise port, our time in Berlin was limited. Still, we saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the "Hollow Tooth" church, and a warp speed tour of the Pergamon Museum. Berlin is another place I would love to go back to when we have more time to see all it has to offer.

The last full day of the cruise was spent in Arhus, Denmark. (There should be a little circle over the A in Arhus but I don't know how to make that in this blog. The same goes for the two dots over the u in Warnemunde.) Arhus isn't a particularly remarkable city, but we saw some interesting places and had a nice walk through the downtown area.

The cruise ended on Sunday morning July 10 when we returned to Copenhagen. We were sorry to see it end, but were ready to head home. There is more to tell but I think that I have written enough for this entry. I hope you have enjoyed reading it a tiny fraction as much as I enjoyed experiencing it.