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In July and August 2022 Wendy and I travelled to Europe and to the United Kingdom (no longer in Europe - at least politically).

This, our first European trip since the Covid-19 pandemic, began in Berlin to visit my daughter Emily, her Partner Guido, and their children, Leander and Tilda, our grandchildren there.

Part 1 of this report touches on places in Germany then on a Baltic Cruise, landing in: Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Sweden and the Netherlands. Part 2 takes place in northern France; and Part 3, to come later, in England and Scotland.

 


 

 

Getting to Lichtenburg, where our family live when in town, is easier than in the past. The new (and very long awaited) Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) "Willy Brandt" is where the old Schönefeld regional airport was - but now the station is in the airport and the connection, at Ostkreuz, doesn't require lugging bags from S-Bahn to U-Bahn as was once the case to-or-from Schönefeld.
It's also closer and much improved on that terrible old Tegel airport where they once lost my bag.

The Berlin apartment is much the same as it was last trip but the children are growing and becoming more competent, just as a proud grandparent expects.

 

The large road nearby (in the photograph above, bottom right), is Frankfurter Allee, under which the U-Bahn (metro) runs.

At Strausberger Platz it becomes Karl-Marx-Allee. This was re-built as a monumental boulevard during the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik - East Germany), having been totally levelled by the RAF (British Royal Air Force) during WW2. The low-level bombers used this street and the adjacent railway to navigate their way into the city centre, bombing all the way, thus new, soviet-style, apartment buildings replaced the ruins along here as the city recovered.

Contrary to poplar belief and western propaganda, these were much sought after as they had: lifts, bathroom and toilets and hot and cold running water in the kitchens.

Emily and Guido's block, on the other hand, a couple of hundred metres away, was structurally sound and was comprehensively repaired. The internal bathrooms and modern kitchens had to be retro-fitted. There are still no lifts and the high ceilings result in more stairs. But coal fires and stoves, that once heated the city, are gone and every (legal) dwelling is centrally heated and double-glazed. Yet, not everyone is so well-off. Like every large city Berlin has some rough sleepers.

For most trips to and around the city Magdalenenstraße U-Bahn station is nearby and the most convenient of several public transport options.

It's also historic and interesting. It retains its East German character, with murals depicting the Marxist battles for workers' freedom and rights: including revolutionary struggles and, of course, two world wars.

 

 

This was the nearest station to the Stasi headquarters - now a museum - two blocks over from Emily and Guido. I've talked about that at length after earlier trips.

In 1995, after reunification, these paintings were to have been covered by advertisements, but this was prevented by the culture department of the Berliner Senat and they were again preserved when the station was renovated in 2004-05.

Fortunately, in my opinion, the Berliners are not (yet?) into historical revisionism. No knocking down Robert E Lee statues or objecting to Captain Cook, that otherwise record that past, without which, none of us would be here.

Berliners still love their Ampelmännchen (little traffic light man), who still regulates pedestrians in what was the Eastern sector, too.

The city retains both a Karl-Marx-Straße and a Karl-Marx-Allee (previously Stalinallee - prior to his disgrace). Stalin lost his various place names under the DDR (who were definitely into historical revisionism).

As a priority, I wanted to show Wendy the Kunstgewerbemuseum (museum of decorative arts), which she had missed on previous visits. It has a big fashion section and I had bought her their: 'Fashion Art Works - 1715 to today' book and she had wished that she had not turned down 'another museum' last time.

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We had some lunch at a pub at Potsdamer Platz and then headed up to the Brandenburg Gate and Unter den Linden.

It's an interesting piece of trivia(?) that since it was restored after the war the chariot on the top of the Brandenburg Gate faces the other way.  The gate was in the DDR and, when restoring it, they turned it around, with its back to the Tiergarten, then in western sector of the city. Now, charging into the city, and away from Brandenburg, seems a bit bizarre.

From here I was out-voted on going to an outdoor market - a lot of walking - by which time afternoon tea was in order at a rooftop café.

 

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Tilda is watching a large parade by members of Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), a far-right religious cult that, coincidentally, uses a reverse swastika as its logo.

The cult trades heavily on having been banned in China and on its consequent vehement opposition to Chinese Communism. It supported Q-anon and gave financial and membership support to President Trump's re-election. They are also anti-abortion; Creationist; reject modern (evidence based) medicine; oppose racial mixing; and oppose greater gun-control in the US.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission Foreign Correspondent program investigated the cult in 2020 and you can see the program on YouTube

 

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Wikipedia tells us:
"Falun Gong extensions include The Epoch Times, a politically far-right media entity that has received significant attention for promoting conspiracy theories, such as QAnon and anti-vaccine misinformation, and producing advertisements for former U.S. President Donald Trump. Shen Yun has also received significant media coverage for its emphasis on, for example, anti-evolution statements and promotion of Falun Gong doctrine, while presenting itself as founded upon ancient tradition."

They were a rather ominous sight, marching in large numbers in Berlin, where people initially laughed at the Brownshirts.

 

Over the next few days Emily had planned some interesting excursions that would also keep the children amused. 

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The weather stayed balmy and we enjoyed the outdoors - not to mention the eateries and playgrounds.

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Just over an hour's drive from Lichtenberg (Berlin) is the Brandenburg Forest where there are amazing canopy walks through the forest treetops. A forty-metre-tall viewing tower at the hub has a lift to all levels or if you want some exercise, you can use the stairs, at least to return to earth after your 'spazierengehen' - stroll.

 

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Steel towers, at different heights, support two winding canopy walks. Below, are the ruins of the historic Beelitz Heilstätten hospital now being regained by nature, with trees springing from the very rooftops.

 

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Amazingly, this has taken but a few decades. It was still a fully functioning hospital when the Russians abandoned it in 1995 following German reunification - six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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The old hospital was then vandalised and fell into ruins.

It had been the site of one of the last battles between the Russian 'liberators', our WW2 allies, and the remnants of the defeated German 'Nazi' army. It was a reminder of a past many wished to forget.

The victorious Russians had restored it as a hospital and one of its last patients was Erich Honecker, their erstwhile puppet, who had led the German Democratic Republic (DDR, East Germany) for 13 years, and oversaw the building of the Berlin Wall. He came here for treatment for liver cancer in December 1990, thus escaping a planned show-trial and retribution, and died three years later, exiled to Chile. Much of the signage on the buildings is in Russian.

But Beelitz Heilstätten's most famous former patient was a young Gefreiter (corporal), who had been blinded by a British gas attack and wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme, earning him his first Iron Cross for bravery (second class - the first class one came later). Without these awards Hitler would never have had the credibility to lead the Munich Putsch and, subsequently, the Nazi Party.

The gas-filled shell may well have been fired by my grandfather who was a British gunnery sergeant in the battle.

My grandfather was also awarded a medal for bravery, the Military Medal. I have speculated on this chance of history on my website see: Adolf Hitler and me

No wonder the hospital was not reinstated. Instead, it was abandoned for an appropriate passage of time, as wounds healed, until its present rebirth as a nature-walk-and-café country excursion.

Long before these events, the hospital began its existence as a 'state of the art' sanitorium for tuberculosis patients.

The architect, Heino Schmieden, and his childhood friend and business companion, Martin Gropius, (grandfather of Walter Gropius of Bauhaus fame) promoted people-oriented, yet beautiful (decorative; pleasingly proportioned?), architecture. They cooperated on the design of the Applied Arts Museum in Berlin. In 1898 Heino Schmieden conceived the Beelitz Heilstätten complex.

Initially a 600-bed recuperative complex, equipped with the latest technologies, it allowed patients to revel in country air and forest walks and to undergo 'state of the art' treatments, like those we saw in Albuquerque, New Mexico, some akin to torture (water-boarding, electric shocks and so on).

According to the spiel online:
"The patient pavilion, which included terraced balconies used for ‘air-bath’ treatments, was divided into four quadrants: the women and men were housed on the west and east ends, respectively; while the north-south axis divided the contagious, quarantined patients from the others. In 1908, the site was expanded to accommodate 1200 beds, and the hospital became a city unto itself, with its own post office, restaurant, nursery, bakery, butcher shop and stables, as well as two kitchens and two laundry houses."

I found it all very interesting.

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But none of this interested the grandchildren, they just love running the canopy walks and, in particular the cage-like tunnels that curve over and under the walkway, tens of metres above the forest floor.

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Not for those afraid of heights.

After our stay in Berlin, we were to fly to Amsterdam to begin a Baltic Cruise.

But before we could go, we needed another, official, Covid test, in addition to our international vaccination certificates (quadruple vaccinations).

This was a small adventure in itself, as the testing station was in a carpark in which vandals had set fire to a small mountain of plastic waste (collected for recycling) and the local fire brigade were in attendance.

We made it in on foot and duly got the required virus-all-clear, jumping over puddles of water as the brigade efficiently dealt with the mess and briefly amused the children.

 


 

As in Britain during, during WW2, many Berliners were allowed allotments, on previously public land, on which they could grow vegetables and fruit. As in Britain, many of these have never been surrendered. Around Berlin, many of these are well out into the country-side, requiring a long bike ride, so camping overnight was often required and this led to the construction of shelters on the sites. Under the DDR (East Germany) these needed to be primitive, without services, to prevent them becoming permanent homes. But people found ways around this, so that many are actually diminutive but comfortable country-houses or 'datsche' (after the Russian dacha).

A few years ago Guido and Emily and several other couples purchased a large dilapidated building in the countryside at Steinhöfel in Brandenburg. And in the tradition of the datsche they have progressively made it more and more habitable, ripping out the guts and reinstalling floors and walls and so on.

There is now a common kitchen and a big living area and each couple has constructed their own apartment. They have been technologically innovative. There is underfloor temperature control, using a heat pump, and many other improvements.

Having achieved this level of comfort, they recently commenced on repairing the various out-buildings, reroofing the old barn.
It's a home away from home that really came into its own during the Covid pandemic. Yet it retains a datsche-country-farm-like ambiance.
In return for its use, they have agree to maintain an area of public land, right down to the lake, behind their property, giving them a very large garden on which to ramble, pick berries and keep bees, among other things.

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Leaving Berlin, we retraced our steps to Willy Brandt (airport) and got to the port in Amsterdam just in time to be hurried on board.  Due to the tide the ship was leaving early. Late arrivals would be bussed to a dock down river.

 


 

The Celebrity Cruises tour encompassed 12 nights: Amsterdam (Holland/Netherlands); Ronne (Denmark); Helsinki (Finland); Tallinn (Estonia); Riga (Latvia); Stockholm (Sweden); Copenhagen (Denmark); and back to Amsterdam.

 

 

The Celebrity Apex is a large ship. Much bigger than the Titanic (46,330 GT) that would comfortably fit within its outline, funnels, and all, with ample space for another boat or two.

At 130,818 GT she is about 40% larger than the Queen Elizabeth (90,000 GT), on which we have previously sailed.

This is mainly evident in the bathrooms, that are considerably bigger. Otherwise, our 'stateroom' was much the same, except for the enclosable balcony. Very comfortable.

 


Like the Queen Elizabeth she is diesel-electric, driven by fully rotatable electric azipods at the stern (no rudder) and equipped with four tunnel thrusters near the bow. The bow shape is also unusual. Instead of the usual torpedo-like forward projection, under the water, the hull slopes forward to encapsulate it, improving water flow, fuel efficiency and lowering turbulence and noise.

She has a published top speed of 22.7 knots and achieved this at least once during the cruise, as did the Queen Elizabeth on our earlier cruise - all without a huge team of navies furiously shovelling coal into her belly (as in the Titanic).

I was amused that the models one can buy on board, presumably to add to a collection, do not incorporate this distinctive feature. When I pointed this out the sales person, he had no idea what I was talking about and told me that: "The bow is the front of the ship sir."
OK then! That must mean that it is forward of the stern!

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There's also room for a bigger casino. But this one boasts more staff that players. At least, when on the Baltic and with about half the cabins unoccupied.

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As on the Queen Elizabeth, there is a large theatre in the bow. This one has very large LED screens forming the entire backdrop to the theatre (6m x 33.5m or 20' x 110' in old mensuration).

Initially gobsmacked, I imagined that this was a single curved screen with just one integrated door, that opened to let performers enter, and then, magically, disappeared, back into the prevailing image. But later in the cruise, sections opened to reveal a back-stage, as the huge panels separated and slid behind one another.

I learned on-line (yes, we had Wi-Fi) that it has 4K resolution and is comprised of 17 million LED pixels. Amazing computer power.

 

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Needless to say: the theatre has all the usual lighting and stage machinery, most of it hydraulic or motorised.

In addition to different guest performers each day, there's a resident troop of stage performers, highflying gymnasts and musicians. During the day there are talks (lectures) on interesting topics - like the ports to be visited.

There are two more-or-less identical performances each night and we generally went to the later one, when, as the ship was half empty, there was never any difficulty finding a seat.

Having seen 'Jersey Boys' on stage in London and in Sydney, I was moved to record part of this performance (songs only) that was also excellent. 

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Much of the lower Baltic Sea is in Danish waters and at the southern tip of Sweden is the small island of Bornholm and the town and port of Rønne, our first port of call  - around 800 nautical miles - quite a long way - from Amsterdam:

 

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On the dockside at Rønne were around a dozen wind-turbine nacelles. From a distance they look quite small - until you see a car pass one, like a little beetle (look at the relative size of the diggers).

These are very big conventional (geared - indirect drive) units (note the oil coolers on the backs) destined for off-shore wind farms. As this is Denmark, I assumed that they are Vestas V174-9.5 MW units for installation off the coast of Germany, for either the Baltic Eagle or Arcadis Ost 1 project (link on line: Vestas Offshore).

Looking up these huge machines led me to a small holiday diversion:  Could wind power really be less expensive than other sources of energy, as repeatedly claimed by the Australian Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen?

On-line, I discovered that the Arcadis Ost 1 wind-farm, under construction, has a projected project cost of 570 million Euros and will have a capacity of 257MW (approx. 2.2 $/W of installed capacity).

The Baltic is a great place for a wind-farm, with ample wind and shallow water, well away from those annoying people who complain about: the noise; bird strikes; and their appearance. Yet, near enough to German markets and the grid to minimise energy losses and additional grid infrastructure. But is it cost effective?

Wind has an Achilles-heel: the capacity-factor, the proportion of the time the wind is blowing, this seldom reaches 50% even in the Baltic (more typically around 30%).

Except for solar (that doesn't operate at night for some reason) this is significantly lower than any other commercial energy source. To rely on it for more than about 30% of a region's electricity thus requires some means of expensive, potentially inefficient, electricity storage (like batteries of pump-storage losing 15% to 50% of the energy initially collected) that can easily double the capital cost.

In Germany (2021) wind provides less than a fifth of electricity generation. This means Fossil fuels (mostly coal) (44%); Nuclear energy (11.8%); Solar (8.5%); other renewables (hydro, biomass etc. totalling 11.8%); and other non-renewables (4.4%) fill the gaps.

If you've travelled in Germany and seen all the wind-farms I bet you thought wind provided a lot more than 19% of the electricity? 

As anyone who reads other articles on this website knows, I am an advocate of nuclear power. So, I wondered how much nuclear electricity costs per Watt of installed capacity.  

On-line I discovered that the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, currently under construction in the UAE, that has a capacity of 5,600MW has a project cost of $US32 billion (1.75 $/W) and the new Shin-Kori units 3 and 4 under construction in South Korea with a capacity of 3,000MW has a project cost $6.3 billion (2.1 $/W). These are very much in the same ball-park as the Baltic Eagle and Arcadis Ost 1 windfarms. But these are base load and, in addition, can anticipate seasonal; weekly and hourly demand fluctuations. They do not require additional capital expenditure on energy storage or suffer the consequential losses and inefficiencies.

Notwithstanding this debate, in most of the world, it seems, Europe is out of step: there is still just one, on-going, low-cost choice to provide baseload electricity; and that's fossil fuels (mostly coal and gas).  

The construction cost, per unit of generating capacity, of off-shore wind is currently almost eight times that of an equivalent thermal station. For example: the new Patratu coal-fired plant in India has a generating capacity of 4,000MW at a construction cost of US$1.16 billion or about 29 US cents per Watt). But then comes the ongoing cost of the fuel. 

Nevertheless, there continue to be hundreds of brand-new coal-fired stations under construction worldwide.  

According to New Scientist (issue 3384, 30 April 2022), construction of new coal-fired stations is progressing unabated: "The global figure is barely changed from the 181 GW that was under construction in 2020". In 2021, 176 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity were under construction in 20 countries, predominantly in Asia (led by China and India).

There are even more gas fired generators. Why else is the price of coal and gas at record levels? It is not just due to sanctions on Russia. Demand for fossil fuels is ever increasing.

The obvious alternative to fossil fuels is nuclear, yet, as Britain has found with the latest project, it's so bound-up in regulations and protests that it's very much quicker, and initially cheaper, to install new fossil-fuelled generation. And to hell with the climate impact.

Were wind and solar cheaper sources of electricity, per MWh produced, demand for steaming coal, gas and oil would soon fall. But they are not and it hasn’t. Don't fall into the trap of comparing the lowest bids on the energy market with the actual cost of energy overall (I go into this at length elsewhere see: How does electricity work? - The Australian National Electricity Market).

Check it out yourself, compare your electricity bill now with one from a decade ago, when the proportion of renewables was lower. Compare electricity prices in South Australia (with 39% wind) with those in the rest of Australia or Denmark (with 43% wind) with the rest of Europe. Both 'enjoy' the highest prices in their region.

It’s the price we must pay to bring down carbon emissions but let’s not coat it in 'alternative facts' (Mr Bowen).

Here endeth the lesson.

 

Between us and Celebrity Apex (to the left - not the small ship) - Bornholm's Energy & Supply
fossil fuelled electricity on Bornholm - even in Denmark

 

Enough of the hobby-horse. Back to Rønne. 

 


 

Rønne is a small town, servicing a holiday resort and second home region, with an interesting history. Preserved, in the middle of a suburban street, we were shown the point at which the Swedish 'oppressors' were vanquished.

 

 

Of course, the Swedes, similarly, believe that they were once oppressed by the Danes.

But more recently, during WW2, the town was an important German communications base and after the German surrender, the German Commander, Gerhard von Kamptz, in the absence of a British officer, gave his command up to the Danish Resistance, of whom he was, obviously, aware.  Shades of the BBC TV series: 'Allo 'Allo!

  

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I was particularly interested, because my mother's Danish uncle, Paul Kofod, distinguished himself in the Danish Resistance, which was very active against the German occupation on Jutland and that was no joke.

However, the Russians were not having this. So, they bombed the town, killing the mayor and several other Danes, who had, wrongly, imagined that the war was over. 

The Russians then invaded and did not leave until 1946. They held von Kamptz, as a POW, until 1954.  According to our local guide he later returned to Bornholm where he was well received and hailed as something of a hero, possibly deservedly. He had earned the Iron Cross and Knight's Cross (multiple medals) for valour during the war. He lived to 96 and is buried in Keil in the same cemetery as a number of other German Naval officers.

 


In the local museum was an exhibition - 'The Russians are Coming' - that had a particular currency, considering the recent outbreak of war in the Ukraine.

Unlike Sweden, Denmark is a member of NATO. So, any renewed Russian attack, perhaps on the small naval presence in the harbour, would unleash World War Three. People seemed unconcerned.

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The mysterious pieces of gold foil (above) are embossed with images. They pedate any known group of islanders and have been found in their thousands. Their purpose is not certain. They could memorialise the dead or could be tokens of wealth, like bank notes, as they are too flimsy to have been used as coins. The clocks were also important for some reason, that I've forgotten (first in Denmark?).

Quite a large part of the exhibition recalled the Russian bombing and subsequent occupation - mainly photographs and a film.

 

At sea again and relaxing in Eden - aft - the bar at the stern - "it's the back of the ship sir".

 

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Our first mission in Helsinki was to go shopping. Quel dommage! Wendy's hair wand had gone kaput. But she doesn't necessarily require a reason to go shopping.

The ship's bus-shuttle service deposited us near the inner harbour and pointed us to the Cathedral square. The Cathedral itself is reached by a high flight of long steps (like Sydney Opera House). As it is a Lutheran church it's quite plain.

The faith competing for the souls of the less spartan Fins is Finnish (Russian) Orthodox, at the other extreme, when it comes to church decoration.

 

 

There's a long boulevard (Esplanadi) leading from the harbour to the shopping district, where coffee shops also abound.

The Russian influence can also be seen in the streets, that resemble St Petersburg (without the canals).

Before embarking on the cruise, we purchased a number of guided shore excursions. Here, we chose to see some of the countryside and were taken by bus to several locations, the most interesting of which was the house of a woman who opens her house and provides local food to bus groups like ours.

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The nearby forest provided some interesting vistas, in addition to forest berries, I was reminded of Steinhöfel in Germany.

For some reason her departed husband had felt the need for a large-calibre German field artillery piece (dated 1918), that was probably in working order when acquired.

Maybe it was in case the Russians invade. It seemed to be in pretty good nick, with suitable ammunition it could still make a mess of a Russian tank.

 

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Finland has a very long common border with Russia and they have invaded before, most notably in November 1939 when the Russians suffered huge losses and encouraged Hitler to tear up his agreement with Stalin (to carve up Poland between them) and invade Russia.

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Estonia is another country somewhat wary of Russia. It was formerly part of the Soviet Union and like a number of other members gained its independence in 1991.

 

Again, we had a shore excursion that took in the picturesque parts of the city and the remnants of the old fortifications, in addition to a visit to a restored fishing village, displaying historic buildings and rural lifestyles.


Estonia has a particularly strong choral tradition.

According to Wikipedia:
"In 1869 Johann Voldemar Jannsen established the Estonian Song Festival while the nation was still a province of the Russian Empire. This festival was considered responsible for fostering an Estonian national awakening. After that, the new tradition was born and the festivals are still held every five years."

We were taken to the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds that were rebuilt, as we see now, during the Soviet period.

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But this largess came back to bite them in 1988 when a famous Singing Revolution took place in these grounds that contributed to the overthrow of Soviet rule. The grounds are now used for musical events of all kinds and have hosted stars from José Carreras to Andrea Bocelli and The Rolling Stones to Lady Gaga (a list too long to mention here).

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There are numerous churches in Tallinn - most empty and as they are mainly Lutheran, they are quite plain, in accordance with the Jewish and Protestant (original) second commandment (not creating graven images etc). 

It's a bit academic because according to an international Gallup Poll: Estonia is one of the "least religious" countries in the world (ahead of Sweden and Denmark), with only 14 percent of the population declaring religion to be an important part of their daily life. 

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Yet, it has the fourth lowest crime rate in Europe (less than half that of the USA) and a correspondingly high safety index and no one seems too miserable - unlike those in many of the world's most religious nations. See: Gallup Poll finds: the poorest Nations are the most religious.

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Tallinn Town Hall provides both an interesting museum and a lookout over the town (not to mention modern toilets)

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As mentioned above, we took one of the ship-sponsored outings into the countryside that took in a restored fishing village with heritage cottages. and some local food for lunch.

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The House of the Blackheads

 

 According to Wikipedia:
"Riga began to develop as a centre of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages" and soon became an important Baltic centre of trade and a founding member of the 'Hanseatic League'", an association of powerful traders who, in time, came to dominate the Baltic trade and thus trading cities as far away as Holland.

They even raised their own armies, like the British East India Company. The building that dominates the town square is The House of the Blackheads, a guild for unmarried merchants, shipowners, and foreigners in Riga.

Yet it is essentially a replica. The original was bombed by the Germans in 1941, when Hitler turned on his erstwhile ally, Stalin, in Operation Barbarossa. The Russian occupiers then levelled it. After independence, the Latvians completely rebuilt it in 1999, as proclaimed on the façade, and it's now a museum (with replica contents where the originals were lost).

Riga struck us as another very liveable city.

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It is not without some modern aspects.

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As is the case in many communities, ethnic identity is defined (encompassed?) by language, shared values and, to a lesser extent, religion.
In most Baltic states the religion, since the Reformation, has been predominantly Lutheran Christianity with Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christianity in the minority.

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Until the 1935 census Judaism was also among the minority groups but they did not fare well in the following decade.

Latterly some Muslim refugees have arrived in most Baltic States. In 2018 the Office of International Religious Freedom (of US Department of State) estimated that religion in Latvia was split as follows: Lutheran (36%); Roman Catholic (17%); Eastern Orthodox (9%); Other Christians (2%); Other Religions (1%). Those declaring 'no religion' made up the balance (35%). So, Latvia is more religious than Estonia; and Sweden; and Denmark but still a long way short of the United States.

 


 

Sailing into Stockholm a couple of things were evident: 

First why it was so attractive to the Vikings. There are many small islands surrounding the city and a convoluted channel for larger ships that would make it very difficult to attack an entrenched adversary equipped with fighting long-boats. 

Second, judged by the harbourside properties, that appear to be both well appointed and prosperous, Sweden is among the top ten best-off countries in the world. Around the Baltic its wealth (and income) per capita is exceeded only by little Denmark. Much larger Germany comes a distant third. 

 

 

From the ship we could hear women and girls screaming. It was coming from an amusement park called Gröna Lund. There are several tall towers up which patrons are hauled before being dropped in a variety of ways: some first spun out on wires, as in a centrifuge, before the cataclysmic fall.

Below there are big and little dippers racing about.

Because of the time delay it was hard to decide which of these terrors evoked the greatest screech-decibels (the official measurement of amusement park 'fun').

As on previous port visits, we had purchased a guided tour - again into the countryside.

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Unfortunately, on this occasion we were taken to a pottery museum (warehouse) with rather expensive (it is Sweden) china/porcelain for sale - for far too long. The supermarket turned out to be more interesting (comparing prices).

We also got a walking tour of one of the better suburbs and were invited by our guide, somewhat breathlessly (covetously?), to "imagine living here". 

I must confess that on my morning walks around the Mosman slopes I have been guilty of breaking the 10th Commandment: Thou shall not convert thy neighbour's house. The list goes on: nor his wife; his servants (actually slaves); his ox; or his donkey. The second group are pretty safe from my avaricious thoughts. Yet, 'that house'. Get ye back Satan!

Similar covertness briefly assailed me when visiting friends in Santa Barbara (around Oprah Winfrey's little shack). 

But here, not a twinge!  And no one on the tour was too sure about their choices in house paint!

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At the time I was moved to write that Sweden is a particularly egalitarian country. It's certainly renowned for it's welfare state and social security. But on my return to OZ I fact-checked this and discovered that comparing the Gini index of financial inequality, where 0 (perfect equality) and 100 (extreme inequality), Sweden comes in at 88.1, which is worse than the United States (85.0). More egalitarian, yet still wealthy, countries like: Australia and Japan Have a Gini index in the 60's.

So maybe our guide has more grounds to be covetous than we?

In the old city there is a shopping precinct that seems to attract many pedestrians, including a few shoppers.

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Sweden is a Constitutional Monarchy, like Australia, and that generally requires at least one palace (although ther are none in Australia, as the UK has quite enough). In Sweden part of the Royal Palace doubles as a museum. Could this be a way forward for the British monarchy?  A stroll around Buck house or Windsor castle?  

And as an aside: Why are we repeatedly told that some or all of the royal wealth, like the Duchy of Cornwell, is theirs alone, when it was obviously bestowed upon their Guelphic ancestors by the British Parliament by the Act of Settlement in the 18th century? This Act requires that: the British monarch must be a descendant of the German Princess Sophia (the nearest Protestant heir to William of Orange - who died without heirs to the British throne) and be in communion with the Church of England.
To my knowledge, most if not all of this property pre-dated 1701. A good deal of it having been sized, somewhat dubiously, by the Tudors (rather tenuous ancestors). Surely it's in the gift and goodwill of the Parliament, representing the British people?  And hasn't that Parliament recently made changes to the succession?

 

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A short walk away there are several other museums including: an ABBA museum; a Viking Museum; and a Nobel Prize Museum. I chose the National Museum.  It turned out to be very worthwhile. 

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A veritable cornucopia. With previously unseen (by me) impressionists by the handful, in addition to Flemish and, of course, local art as well as furniture and cabinets brimming with objet d'art. Shades of 'Antiques Roadshow'.

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Modern and contemporary art is elsewhere.

Getting back to the ship I was alarmed to discover that Wendy had not yet returned - she was on one of her shopping adventures.

But she made back it with minutes to spare - and all's well that ends well. She posted an account on her Facebook Page.

Back at sea we were on our way to Copenhagen, a city that we have previously visited in more depth than we expect from a brief shore excursion.

See:  Denmark

 

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As it turned out, we did see some things nearby that we missed last time, when we rented an apartment across-town near the main station. Among these: a wealthy sailors' marina; a memorial to lost mariners; 'The Little Mermaid'; and the Citadel - all a short stroll from the ship.

"But why do the boat owners need to be wealthy," we asked (the boats in the marina were not particularly impressive)?  "It's expensive to moor here because the boats need to be taken out of the water each winter - when this bay freezes solid," we were told.


 

From the ship we chose a bus excursion around Copenhagen. First stop was the Royal Palace - yes Denmark is a Constitutional Monarchy too. And if that persists long enough the monarch will eventually be part-Australian, thanks to the Crown Prince meeting a nice Australian girl, Mary Donaldson, in a Sydney bar.

The couple have four children in-line (second onwards - sequentially) to the throne. The marriage has resulted in new links being established between the two countries, particularly in health-related initiatives.

The Royal Palaces (four of them - relatively modest - as palaces go)

The bus tour provided glimpses of familiar and less familiar sites, like the statue of Hans Christian Anderson flashing past (not the one in the photo below - see our previous trip - here).

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Later I went off to the Museum of Modern Art only to find it closed.  But on the way back to the ship I decided to explore the historic star shaped fort known as the Kastellet (Citadel) with its mote and windmill - in addition to the compulsory old cannon.  It remains an active barracks, beautifully maintained, with guards on duty.  Even today, it would be difficult to attack, using infantry alone; or by rioters.

 

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 And so it was back to the ship for the last leg of our journey - out of the Baltic and around to Amsterdam.

 


 

 

Upon leaving the ship and after a ship-organised canal excursion around the city, most passengers wanted to be taken to the airport. But as we were staying, we asked to be dropped at the main station, which we had ascertained (using Google Maps) was walking distance to our hotel. Our first difficulty was finding our way out of the station.

Since I'm here writing this, we obviously escaped the station and then successfully walked to our hotel - with our two bags each, plus accumulated hand-luggage. This experience turned out to be useful, as we would be catching the train to Paris in a few days, and now we knew our way around.

Having deposited our bags at the hotel we set out to see more of the city.  Although the canal tour had been perfunctory: "on the left we are passing Anne Frank's House", it enabled us to tell one canal from another by the nature and style of the buildings.  Four canals (really three and many halves) encircle the city concentrically with the Herengracht, having the 'poshest' houses, the second innermost.

Not far from the hotel was Dam square, overlooked by the Royal Palace (I know another Constitutional Monarchy) with a convenient café (or two), that I took advantage of more than once.

 

 

The city is famous for its legal sale of drugs: mainly pot (marijuana) and magic mushrooms (psilocybin). In parts of town, I felt that it might be possible to get high, just by walking behind a group of younger tourists in the street. Wendy says that she can't smell it - probably just doesn't recognise it - the result of an innocent youth? 

Amsterdam is also renowned for the toleration of prostitution, where the sex workers are able to display their various attributes in shop windows. Most, if not all, the customers appear to be tourists. Mainly young men, although, the city was preparing for a large, upcoming LGBTQI+ event and quite a few mutually amorous, apparently same sex, couples were canoodling in local cafes and bars, like those in the main square.  Like pot, love was in the air.

 

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In the photo above the red curtained window has a notice informing potential customers that the woman doing business there will be present later in the evening. Nearby there is an entire street of such windows but they are not confined to that street. It's quite blatant, yet some women are past their prime and I can't imagine how there can be so much business. 

I did notice that the women were more circumspect in their 'sign language' when I was with Wendy than when I walked through the same area alone.

Of course, one can't visit Amsterdam without visiting the Rijksmuseum.  I've been there several times since the 1970's and on each occasion, there has been something different about the display of Rembrandt's famous painting 'The Night Watch'.  Once it had been slashed, and on another occasion, splashed with paint.  Now it's behind armoured glass like: Michelangelo's Pieta in the Vatican (St Peter's) and, as we would see later on this trip: Leonardo's Mona Lisa.  It makes them harder to see and even harder to photograph. 

But of course, the museum is not short of other iconic Rembrandts. 

 

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 Nor is it short of the odd iconic Vermeer or two - indeed, there is far too much to see in one visit.

 

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In addition to paintings and sculpture, it's a treasure trove of objet d'art and furniture, including some famous dolls' houses, ancient weapons and even a big model ship. There is also a large and beautiful library - housing ancient books.

Unfortunately, the Vincent Van Gough Museum (out the back) was booked out. Who would guess one now needed tickets? When I was there with Emily, in 1988, it was free (to us) and, as at an exhibition opening, we enjoyed complementary drinks and hors d'oeuvre, as we browsed the paintings.

 

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Instead, we went to an art extravaganza, featuring the paintings of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele set to music in an industrial building that was once part of a gasworks.  

It recalled a big Klimt exhibition in Budapest (I think) that I also got to see free.  On that occasion it was because I was an EC citizen (British) and of a certain age (no more - a citizen I mean). Quel dommage indeed!

 

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This marks the end of Part 1 of our 2022 Europe Trip.  Part two is in France and starts and ends in Paris.  Part three includes Scotland and starts and ends in London. If I get the energy and perseverance to put them together.

 

 

 

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