Lithuania and Latvia

Monday, August 25, 2014, Klaipeda, Lithuania

This city on the Baltic Sea is the third largest city in Lithuania. We were so, so, lucky to have decent weather while in Berlin a couple of days ago, we are now experiencing the typical weather. It’s grey, raining, and 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. This is not a pretty down, but the ship needs somewhere to dock for the day.

Dianne was able to find a store that sells amber that’s been made into jewelry and purchased a lovely bracelet and earrings. I was able to sit on a couch for an hour, visit with some others from the ship, and read a book I had on my iPhone.

Today is Tuesday, August 26, 2014 and we are in Riga, which is the capital and largest city in Latvia. It’s the third largest city in the Baltic region, behind St. Petersburg and Stockholm. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site based on its extensive German Art Nouveau architecture.

At this point it feels like the movie, “If it’s Tuesday we must be in Belgium.” Dianne wanted to say thank you so someone in a shop and said, “Achoo,” which is Lithuanian, but we’re in Latvia now, and it’s not the same language.

Along Alberta iela there are the most wonder Art Nouveau buildings. I took some photos, see attached and purchased some postcards. The postcards look better than my photos because they can take them at better positions than I can from the street. Dianne did comment on how beautiful the city was, the parks, the flowers, and how clean the streets were. As will all European cities they have beautiful churches, which we saw on our walk back to the ship. Unfortunately, after a while it’s like, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

By around 2 PM I’ve had enough touring and I’m ready to head back to the ship. Lunch sounds like a great idea and sitting down and reading a book is what I look forward to, not another museum or church.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; my wife likes to tour and I like to vacation. I define a vacation by the number of books I can read. So far, I’m almost finished with my first one.

Berlin, Germany

We left Copenhagen, Denmark, on Friday afternoon August 22, 2014, on the Oceania cruise ship, Nautica. Our first port Saturday morning was Warnemunde, Germany. But that was just the port. We took a 3 hour tour bus ride to Berlin from the port. Our group of 4 couples had a wonderful guide, Preston Meyer, from some town in Oregon. He had back-packed around Europe the end of the 1990s, and wanted to improve his German language skills. While in Berlin he fell in love with the place and decided to stay and became a tour guide.

He was very informative about the history of the country, the city, and was very witty. It appears while the city of Berlin shows off its charm and architecture it is about 95 billion Euros in debt. An example would be the airport which was scheduled to open in 2006, which was changed to 2008, 2010, and now they won’t even give a date for the opening.

During the reign of Friedrich Wilhelm I (1735ish), the city of Berlin was very welcoming to people who were being chased out of other countries, like the Jews. The city needed a labor force and this was a way of attracting them. An amazing Baroque synagogue sits on a main street in the city showing that the Jews did not need to hide in that era.

We were able to see a portion of the Berlin Wall that was left standing as a reminder of the Soviet era occupation of East Berlin, and a beautiful museum with an open air gallery. We also visited Check Point Charlie, which was the gate where American servicemen could enter and exit East Berlin. It appears to be controlled by some Russian mafia folks who are in costumes resembling US soldiers and charge for photographs.

After a day at sea, Sunday, August 24, 2014, our next stop was Klaipeda, Lithuania

Copenhagen, Denmark

Hi Folks,
Dianne and I arrived in Copenhagen on Wednesday, August 20. We left Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, August 19. We had to fly to Newark, change planes and then fly to Copenhagen. We arrived at the Marriott at 8:30 AM, and were told our room would be ready by 4 PM. Being the sophisticated travelers that we are, Dianne and I slept in the lobby of the hotel.

This made the general manager very happy to see how comfortable his guests were, so he made sure our room was ready by noon. We were so exhausted that Dianne slept for 16 hours and I slept for 14 hours. Travel is so exciting.

The time was such a blur, all I can tell you is that when we awoke at 6 PM on Thursday, we rented bikes and went to Tivoli Gardens. It's like a funky Disneyland with restaurants and rides set in the middle of Copenhagen.

That's a photo of me and in the background is a stage where a ballet performance was taking place. Dianne refused to be in the photo because she didn't put on her makeup.

From our hotel I could see two of the rides at Tivoli. The one on the left takes people up and spins them around at the end of a long chain. The one on the right takes people up like an elevator, and then drops them like a cable broke. Some of the other rides turned my stomach just watching.

Friday we board our ship, the Oceania Nautica, for our Baltic cruise. First stop, Germany; the homeland of the Jews. Oh wait, that's Israel.
Rennie

Lou Ville, Kentucky

Since my wife's nephew is going to medical school in Louisville, Kentucky, and met his future wife there, (also a medical student) they decided to have their wedding there. Not exactly the vacation destination, unless you want to see how bats are made. (Baseball bats, not flying rodents.)

First thing to know is the town is NOT pronounced Louisville. It could be looeyville, looavull, louville or anything like the photo I've attached. Just not Louis Ville.

I found this draft in 2014, but it was written in 2012.

Family Camp 2014

Hi Folks,
From August 2 to August 9 I get to have a real vacation. Each summer I take my children, their spouses, and my four grandchildren to a family camp on the University of California  campus in Santa Barbara.

The children have their activities, carnival, games, adventures, all supervised by college age counselors. The parents have their activities; hiking, swimming, surfing, biking, golf, tennis, wine tasting, softball and more.

I got to read two books, write for an Internet project I'm launching and still spend time with my kids and grandkids.

A week after I get home, Dianne will drag me off to Europe again. This time it's a Baltic cruise. I will go into the horrible details in another post.

As the motto for the Family Vacation Center in Santa Barbara says, "It's the best vacation since having children." And it's true. If you want more information, visit
http://www.familyvacationcenter.com/

Rennie