Below are photos from our trip to the Baltic Sea. Cruising aboard the Silver Seas cruise ship "The Silver Cloud" from Stockholm to Helsinki, St Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) and ending with a stop in Copenhagen.

 

Here is a link to the Silver Sea Cruise Line to  get a good look at the ship and accommodations.

 

We sailed on the Silver Cloud from their Italian fleet. It is less than half as small as other "Carnival" type ships. The crew outnumbered the guests. All rooms had private balconies, something missing on the massive cruise ships.

Our room was three rooms from the bow of the boat and just above the water line. We never once heard the sound of the engines or felt any vibration. Only the soft crush of the waves along the side of the ship.

 

 

Here we go...!

A channel on the TV displays a 24 hour GPS tracking system to show where the ship is at all times and a red line to show the progress from port to port as you sail. This kept Anne from constantly asking crew members..."are we there yet"......

 honoring the history of the Nobel Peace prize. There are even displays such as the original bottle of penicillin with the original sample of penicillin presented by Louie Pasteur.

Stockholm city hall in the center of old town Stockholm. A massive building where the banquet honoring the Peace Prize winner is held. It is massive and fabulously decorated.

View from the grand hall onto the Baltic which flows through the city. Stockholm is built and spread out over 14 islands. Like most Baltic cities, canals much like what you see in Venice Italy run throughout the city. These are like roads to the citizens.

Each tile you see here is the size of your pinkie fingernail. The white looking mosaic tiles are actually gold in color. In the next photo, you will see the millions of tiles that make up a mosaic portrait telling the history of Stockholm.

Here is just one end of this hall. Note the sitting bench at the bottom of the wall and how it shows the massive size of the wall. It took years to finish the room. The detail of the tiny gilded tiles is amazing.

The nation of Sweden, as is the case with most of the cities we visited, has Monarchies. Here is the Queens palace in old Stockholm.

Leaving Stockholm. For two hours a pilot navigates the ship through the Archipelago. Over 30,000 ( yes 30 thousand) islands of all sizes. Once through, a pilot boat runs along side the ship at full speed. The pilot climbs down the side of the cruise ship and hops onto the pilot boat...yes...at full speed on the ocean. Impressive!! We gave him a standing ovation just for the rope climbing trick alone.

We now set sail for St Petersburg...once known as Leningrad. This photo was taken at 12:45 AM...the sun had still not set. The sky will hold the sunset for hours. then set. The sun will then come back up...three hours later.

Once we entered the sea port at St Petersburg,  the pilot boarded the ship to navigate us into the port.  It took two hours of slowly moving through its channels. The port was massive.

Our first stop was Peterho'fs Palace. Home to Peter the Great. famous for over 150 fountains. There is not a water pump on property that powers the fountains. The water flows by gravity from the springs on the high hills behind the Palace. 40 miles of water pipes. You could shoot rolls and rolls of film of all the room. It was an amazing place.

Now on to the "Hermitage Museum", the Russian equivalent to the Louve in France.

It is the winter palace for the Czar, Catherine the Great in particular. The winter palace, where they would go for about 2 months per year. The exterior was being restored...basically they were painting it and so much of its lavish architecture was covered up. The rooms were the size of gymnasiums. and long expansive hallways.

This room has spectacular gilded columns and note the massive marble statue at the end of the hall. The statues are on both ends of the hall.

The oldest known sculptor of Michelangelo called "The crouching man". Unlike most of his sculptors that are finely polished, this still shows the original chisel marks by the master himself.  From 1530. The art collection was purchased over the years by czars and empresses.  They bought complete works by the masters of the time especially during the Italian renaissance and medieval era.

This photo did not focus correctly. The art students from the academy are allowed to come in the morning to "copy" the works of the masters which include Rembrandt, Van Gough, Monet...etc. Note the perfect copy this art student is making...like a mirror image.

Catherine the Great had these massive granite statue columns installed...you can almost see the cars on the street and their size in comparison to the base of the statues. The window you are looking through is probably at least 16 feet high.  They are not the type of accessory you would find at the Home Depot.

As you leave the winter palace (Hermitage museum), you enter "Lennin Square"...now known as St Petersburg square. There was little mention if any of the Communist years. All emblems have been removed and we saw the only remaining statue of Lenin in St Petersburg. It still stands in a small park along a main roadway.

Once home to what was called...The KGB. They have named it something else now...something like the Local Friendly Community Security and Recreation Center. Like most if not all Communistic elements, removed from the culture. This building is quite large and not shown here. It seemed to cover say two city blocks.

The famous "Little Mermaid" statue. Over the years vandals have cut her head off two or three times and the last time she was damaged...they stuck a piece of dynamite under her ass and blew her clean off the rock...again she was replaced......So the Little Mermaid is much like "Lassie"...there were many.