Sunday 27 July

The last 2 days were spent travelling by trains, bus & planes & now we are settled in our hotel in Abu Dhabi. Today the temperature is going to hit 40 with high humidity so what to do that's is mostly indoors - shopping in a mall, a movie, ah no Bob says, Ferrari World!! So off we go. We are there when the gates open at 11am with maybe 30 other people & the numbers don't swell hugely during the afternoon. It is Ramadam for Muslims so they don't eat during daylight. Consequently any cafe's & restaurants in Ferrari World are closed or surrounded by cladding to block the view inside with a small entry for people who want food. Praise God that the yoke He puts on us is light! 

For the next 4 hours we tried 6 rides, watched a short movie & Bob had a go at a Ferrari simulator. So we have been shaken, twisted, taken up into the air, travelled with 3 D glasses on, driven around miniature Italy and flown over Italy, all in air conditioned comfort. We gave the massive roller coaster & water ride a miss! It was a lot of fun & we came away knowing much more about the history of Ferrari.

Had a really nice evening with Scott Hillman. The dining room was so busy our dinner was delayed until 8.30 but we had lots of catching up to do about his work & life here. He most of all wants to get his family over as quickly as possible and this depends on him acquiring his visa which is in the last phase of approval but no doubt being held up by present government holidays. Had a chance to pray with him about this and other things. Great to see Scott and we feel encouraged that he is adjusting well to the change of work & culture & gradually adjusting to the climate!

Thursday 24 July

Last full day in Berlin & for the first time in 3 weeks we woke to light rain. However most of our planned sight seeing has been done but for 2 places, Check Point Charlie & Ka De We (what is that you may well ask!).  Firstly we walked 15 minutes to Check Point Charlie giving our well travelled umbrella an outing. The museum at CPC covers the years of the Berlin Wall - 1961 to 1989 - showing the political events, inventive & dangerous methods of escape & attempted escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. It also included information about efforts to get many Jews out of Germany during the war (ie well before the Wall was started in 1961). Over 5,000 people managed to escape East Berlin after 1961, whether over ground, underground, by water, underwater or even through the air. CPC is the spot where America controlled a gate to & from West Berlin. The museum was a lot to absorb but well worth seeing. 

Our next stop was Ka De We which are the initials of a very large, somewhat luxurious department store. We strolled around looking at products from all over the world; bought a couple! Then had lunch before taking our shopping back to the hotel. We are finding the rail system wonderfully efficient in Berlin. After a short refresh we went out again catching the train to Brandenberg Gate. We had only seen this are in a rush & decided to have a closer look at it. Then back to the hotel but first we checked out some ruins across the road & discovered they were from a former railway station which was used during the war to send 96,000 Jews to concentration camps in Poland. This was 1 of a few main departure points in Berlin. So this was the former site of the station we had been using in the last few days! Very sobering.

Wednesday 23 July

Happy birthday Luke & Jenn! Hope you both had a great day.

Today we began using our rail pass & took a 40 minute train trip to Potsdam, a very significant area in the last 2 centuries of German history. Once there we joined a tour & were driven around the area with some stops. The most interesting one for us was Schloss Cecilienhof which was the place where Winston Churchill, President Truman & Joseph Stallin met in July 1945 to plan the organisation of Europe following the end of the war with Germany. Also, Truman announced that America now had an atom bomb & planned to use it on Japan to bring about the end of the war in the Pacific. Churchill had to leave the conference half way through as he had just lost the British elections & was no longer Prime Minister! It was a fascinating place set in the most peaceful grounds by a river. We also visited several castles belonging to the German Royal family who were deposed in 1918.

The village of Potsdam is very pretty & we enjoyed our lunch there. Next we caught the train back to Berlin & (on the recommendation of our Potsdam tour guide) we travelled to an area where some of the Berlin Wall from the Cold War era is still standing. It was very interesting & graphically showed the effect  of the wall dividing the city. Lots of history lessons today & giving the other side of some of the stories we heard in Russia.

Tuesday 22 July

First full day in Berlin was spent largely on the Hop-on Hop-off bus twice around as we picked out places to go to. We went into the Old National Gallery & saw some sculpture by Rembrandt Bugatti who was the brother of the Bugatti car manufacturer. We also like the Impressionist artists so this is where we spent most time in the gallery. 

70% of Berlin was destroyed by bombing in WW11, so much of it is new buildings & many since early 1990s when the wall dividing the city came down. There is still a lot of construction & renovation happening. It is a very busy place with a lot of tourists. 

There is a large sombre memorial to Jews murdered in Europe which consists of over 2,000 grey blocks of stone shaped like graves without any markings. We have noticed that many of the famous contributors to science, music, architecture & art in Germany were Jewish eg. Albert Einstein. 

Monday 21 July

Not much to report today - was a travel day from Vilnius in Lithuania to Berlin in Germany. The exciting part was the 2 propeller planes we had with Baltic Airways flying Vilnius to Riga in Latvia then from Riga to Berlin. We are now adjusting to Berlin (8 hours behind Melbourne) & planning our next 3 days here. This is the first time we will be doing our own thing. The weather continues to be warm - Berlin was 30 today. 

Sunday 20 July

Our last sightseeing day of our Baltic tour. The temperatures in the Baltics seem to have been hotter than Russia so we have enjoyed our second summer for the year! The day started with a drive around the city of Vilnius followed by a couple of hours walking in the old city finishing the morning outside the President's residence where we saw the changing of the flags ceremony. There were some poor fellows looking like knights of old wearing quite heavy armour standing on guard - must have been hot! 

We then had a couple of hours free time so had a light lunch with some good coffee & checked out some shops. At 2pm we set off in the bus for a 20min drive to Trakai to visit the 15 century Trakai castle which is set on an island in a lake. There were hundreds of people at this lovely spot swimming, boating, sitting in cafés and also in the castle. However it was a very interesting look into medieval times. Finally, tonight we all went to a local Lithuanian Restaurant for dinner & enjoyed some fun entertainment which we had to join in with - called singing for your supper.!  Said farewell to our great Baltic guide Rasa (a lady) & our bus driver, Sergei & to some of the group who are leaving at 6am. 

Sometimes our photo labels don't seem to come out in the right order.

Saturday 19 July

Goodbye Latvia & hello Lithuania. Today was long with over 450 kms covered & several sights visited. We left our hotel at 8.30 & drove 1 1/2 hours to the Latvian countryside to visit Rundale Palace which in many ways was a smaller version of the Catherine Palace in St Petersburg. We had a guided tour through the palace which was built by a German Grand Duke who also had 6 other similar palaces.

The palace is still being painstakingly restored after suffering considerable damage during the war & during the Soviet era. The Russian communists never had any appreciation for beautiful interior or exterior design. We continually see grey plain buildings especially blocks of flats throughout these formerly Soviet countries.

Another 1 1/2 hours driving & into Lithuania. Next stop was the Hill of Crosses which was started as a memorial with 3 crosses over 200 years ago & over the intervening years thousands of crosses have been added by people visiting the area. Pope John Paul visited this spot in 1993 & held a mass there.

We had lunch & then drove a couple more hours to an old town of Kaunas & had a walk around. By 7.15 we arrived at our hotel which is set in a lovely spot in the middle of the old city. After a lovely dinner all together, we (Jan & Bob) did a short walk from the hotel enjoying the warm light summer evening.

Friday 18 July

Riga is the capital of Latvia & is a bigger city than Tallinn. We started the day with a drive around the city followed by 21/2 hours walking through the old city led by a local guide. We have learnt a lot about the Soviet times & it is amazing how much development has happened in the last 23 years since freedom came to the Baltic States. Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage city because of it's many Art Nouveau buildings - from late 19 to early 20th century. We saw many of these buildings as well as some dating back centuries before. 

After this we were driven 30 minutes to the seaside resort town of Jurmala where we had lunch in a very nice restaurant - a standard meal of beef a few veggies & lots of boiled potatoes, followed by ice cream. There were about 5 tables with young Russian men at them, then during the course of our meal they started singing - still sitting - and in fact sang about 4 songs. I hope they got to eat their lunch. Apparently this happens quite a bit during the Choir festival. We have seen lots of young people from all over the world here, mostly in choir groups. 

We walked along Jurmala beach which was full of people swimming & sunbathing & not an umbrella or shade in sight! This resort area is very popular with wealthy people including those from Russia & we passed some lovely homes.

Back to Riga, we had a free evening so we had a light dinner in a outdoor restaurant then went to an organ recital in a cathedral in the old city & walked back to our hotel in the warm sun at 8.30.

Thursday 17 July

Another day & another country! Latvia. But first we drove through the Estonian countryside for a couple of hours then reached the seaside resort town of Paernu which I had been looking forward to seeing. It was in Paernu County that my grandfather grew up & where his parents were peasant farmers. We stopped there for awhile & walked down to the beach. It was quite popular with beach volleyball games going on & people swimming & sunbathing. There was also children's play equipment on the beach as well. It had nice wide sand but a cool breeze but the locals didn't mind. It was nice to be in grandad's town about 100 years after he left! 

Next we travelled on to Latvia with a no hassle border crossing &went to a restaurant situated in a national park for lunch. This was in the most pleasant setting & the 7 of us had an interesting discussion comparing the different electoral & legal systems of Brazil, USA & Australia. Our Brazillian friend (a legal prosecutor & his wife a lawyer) made it clear their elections were rigged which he didn't like at all. He had & his family - 5 people- had voted for a particular candidate & after the elections, this candidate was said to have had zero votes! 

After lunch we visited 2 medieval castles either side of a river & also walked through an interesting sculpture garden. This was a quite hilly setting which is unusual in the flat Baltics. 

Sometime after 6pm we arrived at our hotel in Riga. Riga is currently the location of the Choir Olympics held every 4 years bringing choirs from all over the world. The city is abuzz with singing in all kinds of open air arenas. Our hotel is full of visiting choirs. For dinner the 2 of us walked through the old city & found a lovely place to eat in the main city square.

Wednesday 16 July

Today was spent getting to know the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Our local guide was a young man called Eero & he was very informative. He has no love for Russia as Estonia was under Russian rule for 200 years then free from 1918 to 1940 when the Germans invaded Estonia then they were returned to Russia & were part of the Soviet Union until 1991. They are now rejoicing in their freedom & Estonian nationalism. We did a tour of various parts of Tallinn in our mini bus then went to the old city where we saw buildings & churches dating back to the 12th century. The churches had originally been Orthodox & so very ornate but following Martin Luther there was a full scale change to Lutheran. Ornate decorations & icons were removed & churches whitewashed & made simpler. My grandad's family were Lutheran but changed to Orthodox. Our guide said this was very common among Estonian peasants in the 19th century as they were told that if they became Orthodox they would be given land by the Russian occupiers, but the land they were given was in Siberia! 

During some free time in Tallinn we found a glass blower (Eero had mentioned one & my ears pricked up) & so bought our momento piece of Estonian glass. It is great to buy from a local. Now we were ready for lunch but where to go revolves around who might make the best coffee & we found just the place - a bit hipster (Eero's word) but great coffee & lovely salads. 

Back with our tour group we travelled out of Tallinn to the Ethnolographical Parkmuseum where a peasant village from 19th century had been set up using original buildings which had been transported to this site. This actually gave us a great example of the type of life grandad & his parents would have had as they were peasant farmers - have included some pictures.

In the evening we all went back into the old town for dinner & learnt more about our fellow travellers.