Forty, Forty One, Forty Two!

Hi, everyone!

Grandma helped me make a list of all the countries I’ve visited.  Before this trip, I had been in 37 countries!  Denmark and Poland were numbers thirty-eight and thirty-nine, and the Baltic Republics — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — are numbers forty, forty-one and forty two. Even though the cities we visited were very old, their current country governments started about 30 years ago, when the union of soviet states fell apart.  Before that, they were all under the control of Russia.  Farther back, fights for control involved all their neighbors, as well as different religious groups.  Port cities are valuable properties that everybody wants!

In Lithuania, a musical group welcomed us when the Marina docked in Klaipeda!  We took a bus tour north to the resort area of Palanga.  First, we visited a very pretty park that used to be the estate of the Tyszkiewicz family.  I made friends with Egle, Queen of Serpents, a character from a Lithuanian folk tale!  I also made two new friends from the Marina who were on the tour, Mr. Penguin and his rescue puppy, Odie!

The family had to leave their home when invaders who didn’t like them took over the area.  Now, the building is a museum about amber.  Amber started out as a sticky substance that certain prehistoric pine trees made to protect gaps in their bark.  The same forces that turned animal parts into fossils made the tree resin very hard.  The result can be polished into a pretty gem stone for jewelry.  Many areas of the Baltic are sources of amber, which has been traded for other goods all over Europe for nearly a thousand years.

When the Tyszkiewicz family fled, they didn’t have time to take everything with them.  They gave a valuable tapestry to their maid, who kept it safe.  Years later, a scholar saw the tapestry hanging outside to air, just like a common rug.  He arranged for the museum to buy the tapestry back to display!  The museum also recreated the family gardens and maintained the pond.  Now the lawn mowing is done by a robot mower!

The Palanga reserve also has shops, restaurants and amusement rides on the street that goes to the beach.  I made flower friends and found a cousin to visit before we headed back to Klaipeda!

Back in Klaipeda, our guide showed us around the old parts of the city before we went back to MS Marina.  We saw a monument celebrating the union of Klaipeda with the rest of Lithuania and a sailing ship that Finland had to give to Russia as settlement for one of the many wars over the territory.  When Russia gave up control over Lithuania, the ship stayed here and became a restaurant!  Klaipeda has a lot of amusing art.  There’s a statue of money on the site of a long-gone bank.  One building has a chimney sweep on the roof!  I liked the mouse who is supposed to grant wishes and the large outdoor chess set.

The streets in the old section of Klaipeda are all paved with stone.  After walking around on them, I appreciated a chance to sit down with my new friends Mr. Penguin and Odie.  Then I watched some artists in the theater square make images with the wind and plastic sheeting!

When we got back to MS Marina, I helped Grandma find the very last piece of art on the scavenger hunt.  It turned out to be in the lounge where we have tea every day!  I was happy when Mr. Penguin and Odie came to have tea with me!

When I got up the next day, MS Marina was docking in the harbor of Riga, Latvia!  It’s a good thing we can check our position and see the image from the bow camera on the TV in our cabin!  Otherwise, I’d never be able to keep track of where we were!

We took another bus tour to a resort area, but this resort, Sigulda, is in a hilly, forested area instead of a coastal beach.  Sigulda has a new castle and an old castle right behind it.  There’s also a national park nearby and a historic reserve with another castle right across the river.

There were pretty views from the old Livonian order castle!  It was abandoned five hundred years ago but has had some restoration work done.  I liked the model that showed where all the original walls had been! Grandma took me up in the corner tower, so I could see the design better.

On our way back to our tour bus, I made some new friends in a sculpture garden.  Then we went to Gauja National Park and visited Gutman’s Cave.  The water from the spring in the cave is supposed to restore health, so it has been a popular place to visit for centuries.  Some of the graffiti carved on the walls dates back to the 1700s!

Our final stop was at Turaida Historical Reserve — the castle across the river from the Livonian Order castle.  Both castles were built about the same time by Roman Catholics, but they were competing for power in the area.  The Livonian Order was made up of warrior monks engaged in converting the population to their religion by force.

Our first stop in Turaida reserve was at a newer, wooden church on a hill.  This “new” church is 270 years old!

Then we walked around the castle built by the archbishops of the region.  That has been partially restored, too!  The big tower in the center was the final place people could try to stay safe during an attack.  In more peaceful times, the other buildings were the offices of the church officials.

Before we left the Turaida Historic Reserve, I made some flower friends in the garden.  Walking sticks are the special souvenir from Sigulda, so I made sure to make friends with them, too!

On our way back to MS Marina, we stopped to walk through the old part of Riga, the capitol of Latvia.  All the buildings here were destroyed during World War II and have been rebuilt.  I really liked the Black Head building, which was a merchant and traders guild.  Our guide showed us that the town hall building was rebuilt with a very plain front during the years of Soviet occupation.  Now the front has been restored to decorations like the original building.   The Christmas tree survived all the war damage!

When we got back to MS Marina, I went up on the top deck to get another look at the National Library building.  When I had tea with my new friends, it was raining!  They told me it had been raining earlier in the day when they visited Riga old city.  I was glad we had sun in Sigulda, instead!

The next day, MS Marina was in Tallinn Estonia!  I liked the cruise ship moored next to us, and I was really happy about the tour bus we rode!

In Tallinn, the old city is divided between the noble part — the upper city — and the common part — the lower city.  We took a walking tour of the upper city.  The first thing we saw was the wall between the two sections!  There are competing cathedrals, too!  The Russian Orthodox cathedral is named for Alexander Nevsky, a thirteenth century Russian prince and warrior.  St. Mary’s Cathedral (Dome church) was originally Roman Catholic, but became a Lutheran church after the Reformation.  It was the only building in the upper city that survived a major fire in 1684 but it needed repairs afterwards.

We took a walk in the Danish King’s garden.  It is a quiet terrace now, but there was a battle here that inspired the Danish flag design!

The upper city is built on Toompea hill, a limestone plateau.  That’s where the Parliament building is, along with the two cathedrals, the governor’s garden, and some shops and overlooks.  We got to go inside Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, but Dome church was holding a service.  September 1 is the first day of school in Estonia, when everybody from elementary school to college starts classes.  Schools associated with churches start the Day of Wisdom with a church service that students, teachers and parents attend. When the service was over, they had a parade back to school!

Before we left the Upper City, I made friends at a souvenir shop and enjoyed the view from the edge of Toompea Hill!

Before we went back to MS Marina, we stopped in the Kadriorg section of Tallinn.  Tallinn in Estonia and Helsinki in Finland are the two cities closest to St. Petersburg Russia.  We couldn’t go to St. Petersburg because Russia is invading another country.  Kadriorg has a summer palace built by the same Russian rulers who built the attractions in St. Petersburg.  That was our next best substitute!  The lower gardens of the summer palace built by Tsar Peter for Catherine I are now a public park.  They are very pretty!  So is the palace!

Inside, some of the rooms are decorated just as they were when Peter and Catherine (Ekaterina in Russian) spent time there.  The rooms don’t have any furniture because all the furniture went wherever the royals happened to be staying!

I climbed the stairs to the upper gardens behind the palace.  They were pretty, too!  There’s also a promenade in front of the palace that has a view all the way to the shore!

We got back to MS Marina too late for tea, but the butler brought me chocolate-dipped strawberries, instead.  Then, when I went to bed, he left chocolates!

Love,

Lion-san