“Why do you take her out? What does she get out of it?” Rose said this about my blind wife when we were in Vietnam and Jane said the same thing about Tracey when we were on the Rhône River cruise. Did the question come from pity or were they just being judgmental? Or could it be that these comments came from a low wattage prejudice against the handicapped? As you read my entry on the Baltic States, it is my hope that you will understand that my blind wife does get a lot out of these trips and that it is worthwhile to take her out of her comfort zone for awhile.
Saturday, May 17th: Bruges
Our first day off the ship was cancelled because of mechanical problems. The captain, using the ‘Voice of God” to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, told us of the cancellation. We used the unplanned free time to book two more cruises. Norwegian Cruise Line is doing a one and done cruise from Cape Town, up the West African coast, and finishing at Southampton, UK. Before the cruise was over we booked yet another trip to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai. This was also a one and done cruise so we felt like we couldn’t pass it up. Our vacation schedule is full for the next year and a half because of the special deals we made while on the ship.
Sunday, May 18: London
We were able to spend more time sight seeing because it was Sunday and there was so little traffic going into the city. Our first stop was at Whitehall Gardens, which is situated next to Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, and Parliament Square. Big Ben and Buckingham Palace were was just a short walk away. The international heroes of Britain have statues dedicated to them in the Whitehall Gardens and they include Gandhi, Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln.
Our tour guide for the day was Linda and she pointed out the unusual buildings of London with the funny nicknames like Gherkin, Scalpel, Walkie Talkie, Cheese Grater and the Pregnant Lady. Linda said, with a sniff, “pretty soon London will be just like Manhattan,” and then she curled her lip. I thought that it was funny that she didn’t like London being compared to New York.
The highlight of the day was visiting the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. A conveyer belt had been installed since the last time that Tracey had been there and it kept the tourists moving past the jewels. If they didn’t get enough then they were encouraged to ride past them again. Sean was the attendant with the jewels and he let Tracey feel the reproduction of the jewels that were set off to the side of the real thing. What made it special was that Sean spent about a half hour with Tracey and gave her a lot of information that others may not get. It was wonderful.
Just out side of the Tower were statues of the animals that used to live in the on-site menagerie: a polar bear, baboon, and an elephant. Obviously, the statues were erected so that the tourists could take some selfies with them, but it was all in good fun.
Monday, May 19: Amsterdam
Augie was our guide through Amsterdam and she took us on a long canal ride through the city. My dilemma was that I could either stay inside of the boat and hear Augie speak or I could stay on the deck and enjoy the beautiful day in Amsterdam. Our compromise was that Tracey stayed with the guide while I took a lot of pictures on the outside.
It is better not to have any expectations. I didn’t have any for London or Amsterdam, which was good because I wasn’t disappointed when we didn’t get to see everything that these two cities had to offer. There was no way that we were going to be satisfied with being in the cities for just a few short hours but our appetites were whetted for another trip to Europe.
Tuesday, May 20: Day at Sea
This was our only scheduled day at sea and it gave me time to question why we take these trips. The simple answer is that I love being treated like royalty. For example, one of the excursion workers called me Majesty after I suggested that he could call me “My Lord” or “Majesty.” You have to make it fun.
After all of the trials of just getting on the ship, I was happy to just sit in the restaurant dining room with Tracey. We took a slow breakfast and dinner whenever we could, appreciating where we were, the fantastic food, and getting to know each other again. It was nice.
Wednesday, May 21: Denmark and Sweden
Popito was our guide and he promised to take us to the main attractions so we started with the statue of “The Little Mermaid” in Copenhagen, Denmark. We saw the beautiful Lund Cathedral in Sweden where they had a 3D scale model for Tracey to feel. There was a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Malmo, Sweden so we took our picture under the sign while clinking our KFC glasses, just like we did in St. Lucia all of those years ago. Before driving back to Denmark, we stopped at the fountain in Stortorget Square, which is in front of City Hall. The main figure in the fountain was supposed to be a clown entertaining the king; it is made of bronze, has water squinting out into a pool of water, and is an unusual piece for such a prestigious place. Our final stop was back at Copenhagen where we saw the famous colored houses. These houses are set on the water and are painted in bright colors to help the sailors identify their homes when they returned from the sea.
Thursday, May 22: Berlin
We knew that this was going to be our only trip to Berlin so we blew our budget on a luxury van tour of Germany’s capital. Fortunately, it was on this day that we had our best guide for our whole vacation. His name was Kilion and he had dramatic windswept white hair which made him look like an imp. Having been a tour guide for over thirty years, Kilion knew all about the historic sites and he showed us the Brandenburg Gates, the Reichstag, Hitler’s Bunker, the Holocaust Memorial, the Tiergarten, Check Point Charlie, and the Berlin Wall. I taught history for 31 years and it was very rewarding to visit all of these places that I had lectured about in class so many times.
Friday, May 23: Gdańsk
The cruise ship didn’t dock until the afternoon so we took a two hour “Behind the Scenes” tour. We saw the bridge, the theater, and the laundry but the highlight was the kitchen. The NCL “Dawn,” for example, has 197 staff members in the galleys alone and it serves twelve thousand meals per day. And that doesn’t include the buffet. It was fascinating.
In the afternoon we had Joanna for our guide and she took us from the Green Gate, through the Old Town, to the Gold Gate in Gdańsk, which is better known as the Royal Route. The most distinctive feature was Neptune’s Fountain, which was built in the early 17th century and dominates the Royal Route. Also, the “Four Quarters Fountain,” which has four life-size lions lying down while guarding each symbolic corner of the Old Town. It was completed in 2007 and is a favorite among the children because it is a splash park with 24 jets of water.
To round out our day in Gdańsk, we saw St. Mary’s Cathedral and the rebuilt Great Synagogue. What made these two places special to Tracey and me was that they had a 3D scale model for Tracey to feel. She got a kick out of feeling the bronze and I took a lot of great pictures of her enjoying the moment.
Saturday, May 24, Klaipeda, Lithuania
Usually I try to emphasize the good things about our trips and avoid writing anything bad; however, our trip to Klaipeda was ruined by our guide. Sigita was on some kind of power trip. She wore a short cropped hair style and dyed it red to demonstrate her aggressive nature. All that she had to do was to give us a tour of the amber factory but there were too many people for the too small rooms that she took us to, so the rooms quickly became hot and over crowded. When people began to avoid the rooms by moving on or lagging behind, Sigita became angry. “Stop,” she yelled as loud as she could when people went to watch the polishing of the amber without her. “This is a working factory!” She was incensed, saying “This is not a democracy,” And yet the artists working in the factory didn’t seem to mind us looking over their shoulder. In fact, I think that we were a welcome distraction. She just didn’t like the fact that she has lost control over the situation. There were many other micro-aggressions by Sigita throughout our tour but I am sure that at no time during her training was she told that it is alright to yell angrily at the tourists.
Sunday, May 25, Riga, Latvia
Our rule of thumb is that when we sign up for the excursions we avoid the shopping tours and the beach. All I wanted to do was to take a walk around the beautiful cities of old Europe. Anita was our guide in Riga and I told her that we were like glue because we were sticking to her. While the other tourists split up and went their own way during free time, Tracey and I stayed with Anita and she gave us a private tour of the old city. As we approached the former KGB building, she said that it was the tallest building in Riga. “It is only five stories high but they say from inside you can see all of the way to Siberia.” She laughed at her own joke and then pointed out that there were several statues of cats because we were near the wharf and the cats kept the rats out of the warehouses. Anita made our day in Riga.
Monday, May 26, Tallin, Estonia
I love not knowing what we are going to do for the day because it is nice to be surprised. The ticket for our excursion said “Medieval Experience,” which could have meant anything. Oliver was our guide to the Rakvere Castle, which was pure kitsch and a tourist trap, but we enjoyed it immensely. They had stations where you could practice hoisting a pole for jousting, archery, and a torture chamber. Rakvere Castle is mostly a ruins now but by turning it into a theme park they have the money to reinvest into the site and there was a lot of scaffolding erected to improve the structure.
Tuesday, May 27: Helsinki, Finland
We had another unforced error by a tour guide who insisted on following the schedule given to her by corporate. It all started off well enough when we saw the Nicholas II statue in front of the Government Palace in the Senate Square. Then the tour turned into a death march. One of the other tourists clocked the walk from the Senate Square to the Rock Church at almost three miles. Lowra was our guide and, while she did have a microphone and a speaker, she had it turned to her front so literally no one could hear her because we were all behind her. By the time that we made it to the Rock Church our fellow tourists were all spread out along the route and Tracey and I were among the last to arrive. Blind people have mobility issues and, while I usually like to be next to the guide so that Tracey can hear her speak, I gave up this time around and we drifted towards the back of the pack. The tour was supposed to walk back to the Senate Square because we were supposed to have a coffee break before reboarding the bus and Lowra was determined to get us there in time for it. When it was pointed out that we wouldn’t have time for coffee if we walked back, Lowra called for the bus. We complained loudly that we didn’t want to stop for coffee so the bus drove us back to the ship. It was hard to be angry with our guide because Lowra was just following the schedule but we were exhausted from the death march and frustrated because we couldn’t hear so we had no idea of what we were looking at.
Wednesday, May 28: Stockholm, Sweden
We disembarked from the ship at 8:00 in the morning and returned to our condo at just before midnight. It was almost 24 hours worth of travel. We slept all day on Thursday and most of Friday because we were exhausted. This trip wasn’t for everybody. There was a lot of pain flying to Europe and back. On the plus side, Sean, Kilion, and Popito were great guides and we got to visit the Tower of London, the Colored Houses of Amsterdam, and the Brandenburg Gates. On the negative side, Sigita and Lowra were horrible guides and experiencing a death march the day after taking a seven hour tour was too much for even a seasoned traveler. I know that in the long run, we will forget the bad things and remember only the good times, so our trip to the Baltic Sea was worth it.
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