Friday 13 October 2017

Latest from David and Lee - The Baltic's (and Finland)

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Thursday, October 12, 2017


The Baltic's (and Finland)

No, I am not dead, not even close, just busy having adventures. It is probably time for a bit of a catch up, so here goes.
I have related the story of our close encounter of the divine kind with his holiness the Dalai Lama but omitted all the other bits of our Baltic tour.
We stared once again on a flight, from Heathrow to Warsaw, arriving in the rain, and that was to  stay with us for the next two days of our visit. This was not allowed to colour our view of the place, it is a beautiful city and well worthy of a visit from anyone tempted to go there.
One cannot help forming first impressions of one's travel companions some of which need at a later date to be revised. First was a young lady that I spotted on the plane. It was her hair which first attracted my attention, it was both a florists and a haberdashers delight with enough flowers to start a florist's shop and sufficient bows and ribbons to do the same with a haberdashery business. It seems she must have sourced her personality from that same places as she could be often heard bubbling away about something. She was definitely one of those people who grew on you.



Laurie had a new hairdo each and every day.

Another such person was Chris, a pony tailed, ear-ringed PhD in Bugology or some such. Anyway Chris became one of our closest friends along the way and along with another couple I don't think we missed an evening of drinks. I never thought that I would share so many beliefs in politics and life in general with a PhD in Bugology as I did with the said Chris. Just goes to show. And so along with wife, Jude, and the other couple, David and Jenny, we would enjoy a pre-dinner drink each night. Now this had an unexpected bonus in that David and Jenny were the proud owners of a 38 ft Cabin Cruiser on the Norfolk Broads where we intended to spend a few days before going Narrow Boating on our return to Britain. They very generously offered to take us for a days cruise on the Broads, an offer which was very gratefully  accepted.
Back to Warsaw where, I must admit, after such a time gap it is difficult to remember much of the detail of what we saw.


Warsaw at night from our hotel window.
(The large building in he background is the 7th of the castles built by Stalin, the first 6 are in Moscow)

All in all I was disappointed in Warsaw but this may have had something to do with the weather. We spent two days and two nights here and it rained the whole time. It could also be that my good wife and I have seen such a wealth of exciting places over the years that the lustre is starting to tarnish somewhat. We shall see.
Eventually the travelling road show moved on with our longest day of the tour, 500+ km and with stops along the way. Our bus driver was excellent, as I guess he should have been, but I think it helps immensely on such a long journey. We were to travel some 1500 km overall. First stop was at Grustas Park near the spa town of Druskininkai where there is a park devoted to old statues from the soviet era that were saved from the scrap heap after the collapse of Communism. It is a crazy pace but one can't help feeling some of what was meant in creating it. It wasn't long before Winston Peters was spotted lurking in the bushes, maybe wondering where his statue would be placed.



Wiley old Winnie checking out the chicken house.

As we went around the park we were at one stage asked to stand aside as a man in a wheelchair was pushed past by his minder. Later as we finished there was a cry, a shout and a flurry of activity as the man was pushed around the corner at the run, Winnie in hot pursuit. Fortunately they made their escape unharmed, but not so one of the members of our group who wanted "That unbeatable close up" and got a wee nip from old Reynard for his trouble.
A not so good sight in this park was that of some brown bears caged for the public to ogle at. To me there is nothing sadder than caged bears, they seem to represent all that is free in their natural  habitat but just the opposite when in captivity. The parks other occupants however deserved to be caged and ogled at by all and sundry, these were among some of the most horrible of men ever to have had the privilege of breathing. Stalin alone was responsible for the murder of some 20 million of his fellow countrymen. OK he was a product of his violent upbringing but no excuses, bad, bad man.


One of hundreds of statues of soviet heroes in this bizarre park.

Onward we pressed to our next stopover in Vilnius the capital of Lithuania where it's medieval old town is classified as an UNESCO protected site.


St Peter's and Paul's Church in Vilnius. Very spectacular!

We only had the one night in Vilnius and tomorrow it was on to the beautiful Trakai Castle where we would break our journey to Kaunas, Lithuania's second city.


Trakai Castle

The next place of excitement was the "Hill of Crosses" just before crossing over the border into Latvia. This site of pilgrimage was started in the 1830s after the 1831 uprising and the tradition of places crosses there has continued ever since. No attempt has been made to count the crosses as the number increases daily but it is estimated that there are hundreds of thousands if not millions in the park. Npw it is not only a symbol of remembrance but also one of celebration. People come to be married, celebrate a birthday or like us, just to look.



There are a few acres of park covered in crosses.
(This is a crazy crazy place)

Lunch today was taken at the entrance to Rundale Palace, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture by F B Rastrilli who was also responsible for the Summer Palace in St Petersburg. In common with the Summer Palace, Rundale is not shy when it comes to displaying it's excesses.



 From top to bottom. The Palace, The interior, The garden and a bevy of beauties we managed to pick up along the way.

The day ended in Riga, the capital of Latvia. Riga is a most lovely city with many streets of Art Nouveau  buildings which are progressively being restored to their former glory.




  

It must also be home to the worlds smallest coffee cart.

We spent two nights here in Riga and I must say that to date it is the highlight of the tour.
What could be better than Riga?   Tallinn perhaps? Well perhaps is correct but then again perhaps not. I liked Riga, maybe it was some thing to do with a handshake from the Dalai Lamabut who knows.
We arrived Tallinn after two days in Riga with only the briefest of stops for the brave to dip their toes in the Baltic. Now it seems that one would have been better employed tasting the sea water, not refreshing one's toes in it as it has a very low salt content. See what comes through being friendly with a PhD in Bugology. The Baltic has a salinity of just 0.5 to 0.8% compared with the normal 3.5 to 4% in other seas. This makes it borderline fresh water and you can barely taste it. Further, as we were to find later, around half the Baltic freezes  over each winter whereas this would be less if the salt level was higher. There are many reasons for this low salt level but mainly it is caused by very high rain fall and different layers of density caused by vast differences  in depth acting as a barrier to the fresh water escaping.

Tallinn is a city of narrow medieval lanes and is a great place just to wander around.


  
Just Goofing around in Tallinn




Looking down on the Old Town, Tallinn.

Again two days seemed to fly by all to quickly and so it was that we found ourselves on an immense ferryboat across the Baltic to the capital of Finland, Helsinki. Now this was the largest ferryboat that I had ever come across, carrying some two thousand passengers and boasting a full department store complete with escalators all it seems to get the poor old Finns to part with their hard earned cash. You see one of the prices the Scandinavians have to pay for their generous welfare system are very high taxes, both on  income and sales and so they make regular ferry trips across to Estonia to buy up on all the cheap goodies, much to the delight of the Estonians. The ferry companies are not shy about wanting a slice of the action.  I knew not what to expect of Helsinki but soon learned of it's charms and the price of it's goods, i.e. an evening pint downtown. A beer for me and a Prosecco for Mrs Currin costing some 18 euros, yes almost $30.
The Seafront area is quite charming and I could have spent much longer exploring, but we were very happy with what we were able to see in the time provided. I mentioned earlier how 40 - 50% of the Baltic freezes each winter. Well this causes a bit of a problem on the shipping front as you can well imagine. To deal with this a fleet of five ice breakers are kept in Helsinki at the ready to keep the sea lanes open.





Top to Bottom. The Ice Breakers, a fleet of old sailing boats, The "Church in a Rock" and our ferryboat berthed in Helsinki. (please note the use of magnetic mooring devices, a kiwi invention I believe)

Well that about ends our whirlwind tour of the Baltics, I have omitted  more than I have included, partly through bad memory and partly through lack of time. Needless to say many more adventures were had but to read of these you will have to buy the book, coming to a bookstore near you soon. For now we have a plane to catch and on Sunday a day on the Norfolk Broads. What could be better.
In the meantime take care and all the best.

Go the Makos

David

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