Bit of a blog – Legend of the Seas - Ultimate Scandinavia & Russia – June 18th 2014

[campbell51]

Excellent blog as always Linda thoroughly enjoying it

[NorbertsNiece]

Just leaving Rumbula forest. Not doing too good x

[ceejay_San Angelo]

Enjoy your trip ...... I'm enjoying your blog!

[Jason12]

Just WOW...[emoji106]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[NorbertsNiece]

Thanks everyone for hanging in here with me. Jase you are a *. Thanks x

 

Today in Riga was another 'heavy' one but I am now sat in my favourite place..... latte-tudes with a really special coffee and will attempt to finish blogging Berlin before the alcohol kicks in.

 

Checkpoint Charlie from the van

 

 

 

The site of Hitler’s bunker. Below here. Concreted over. His body was apparently dragged to the street and set on fire.

 

 

 

 

My spitting action was spontaneous and incisive.

[NorbertsNiece]

This memorial is one I asked specifically to see.

 

 

It is hollow. A video can be seen running thrugh the ittle window. SOmeone has left a rose.

 

 

I hope you can read this.

 

[NorbertsNiece]

Got disconnected. Tut.

 

This. How do you design a memorial to show the enormity of what has occurred. The stones start out flat then appear to grow out of the ground.

 

 

They too are hollow. As you walk through them the ground undulates under your feet until they tower above you. They don’t move. You do. I come out changed. Cathartic experience.

 

They appear to be one height.

 

 

They're not

 

 

Twice my height

 

 

[NorbertsNiece]

A little school. Each child picks the name of anyone of many whose story they do not know. They write the name on a brick then follow the story of that person as they go through the school which is built on the site of a synagogue, that was never rebuilt having been destroyed.....

 

 

 

On June 4, 1993, the police in the Schoneberg district of Berlin received a number of phone calls from irate individuals claiming that anti-Semitic signs bearing such provocative inscriptions as ‘Ban on Jewish musicians. 31.3.1935’ and ‘Jews may no longer keep pets, 15.2.1942’ were being bolted to lamp posts around the Bayerischer Platz. The Police rushed to investigate; what they found was not a group of neo-****s but the artist Renata Stih and the art historian Frieder Schnock in the process of mounting eighty plaques that together were to form a memorial network to the deported Jews of Berlin. To allay further concern a smaller plaque underneath each sign explains why it is there.

 

 

 

This one states : Jewish communities are responsible for clearing the rubble at Synagogues which have been destroyed. Reconstruction is forbidden.

[NorbertsNiece]

We find my cousin’s address (turns out Einstein lived on the same street) and the plaque, stolperstein, to her mother. I call her back in the UK and tell her where I am. I can hear from her voice how happy she is to hear from me. The stone needs a clean and while I am on the phone Heidi and Henry clean it up with hand wipes. How incredibly kind. We get to go into the lobby.

 

 

 

The stolperstein has been placed next to the pavement as opposed to next to the building itself. Heidi tells me that the owners of the property will have been approached to have the plaque placed next to the building. They will have refused, so the stone has been placed next to the pavement.

 

 

We then go to Grunewald Station from where 55,000 deportations were made. No longer in use it is a permanent memorial to the souls whose lives were lost. On both sides of the old platform they have laid information regarding the date of each transport, its destination and the number of ‘passengers’. I find Gertrude’s transport. She was one of 1,003 that day. The neighbourhood she lived in is a beautiful and relatively affluent one. The realisation and significance that many thousands of people were transported through this neighbourhood, apparently unchallenged, is not lost on me.

 

 

 

[NorbertsNiece]

Trees from Auschwitz-Birkenau have been planted here

 

 

 

We start to head back.

 

A spire, bombed by the British and never repaired.

 

 

These guys made my day.

 

 

[NorbertsNiece]

Portobello Menu in the MDR

 

My GF meal

 

 

 

 

Maybe the skies are an omen..... trying to watch the England V Uruguay match

 

 

Jeremie and Topi recording the breakfast show in the lift....

 

 

Still can't watch match from Viking Crown..... Izumi is in the way....

 

Edited June 21, 2014 by NorbertsNiece

[Missus Makkem]

You have done a wonderful job telling us about your German trip which I feel must have been so difficult for you to write about.

Thank you.

I know my Father was in Holland and Germany during the liberation and would never talk about it, now like so many others he is not with us to even answer the easiest of questions.

[NorbertsNiece]

You have done a wonderful job telling us about your German trip which I feel must have been so difficult for you to write about.

Thank you.

I know my Father was in Holland and Germany during the liberation and would never talk about it, now like so many others he is not with us to even answer the easiest of questions.

 

Thank you. My father similarly never spoke about the loss of his mother, brothers, sister and baby nephew.... they too perished. Just uploading pics from yesterday, our sole sea day...... writing up today, Riga, is going to take some effort....

[NorbertsNiece]

Breakfast.....

 

The Replenish package is utterly brilliant.

 

Freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast which is my first in the MDR.

 

 

They bring me my specialty coffee in a cup!! There's more to be had in a paper cup!!

 

 

 

 

 

[NorbertsNiece]

 

 

 

There are also self serve cereals

 

I have asked for GF French toast

 

 

We go for a ports of call talk where horror stories about being attacked in St Petersburg I believe are designed to persuade us to stick with the RCCL tours......

 

 

More food..... look it's a sea day ok?

 

This is GF chocolate cake..... as fresh as you like.... from Cafe Latte Tudes...

 

[NorbertsNiece]

There is to be an aerial display

 

 

We lunch with an aerialist, he is also the dance captain

 

 

Have a lunch menu

 

 

My Tutti salad

 

 

M&M.... you can see how squashed we were

 

 

There were raffle prizes but insufficient gifts from RCL for everyone.

 

[NorbertsNiece]

Next time someone asks about Specialty Teas please link them to this :

 

 

These are in my room on my return..... Diamond Chef's amenity

 

 

The view from my porthole

 

[NorbertsNiece]

CHEF'S TABLE

 

 

We meet and are served champagne in the Schooner Bar.

 

 

 

We have assigned seats and printed menus

 

 

 

The Sous Chef explains each course and then the wine pairing and how to drink the wine is explained.

 

[NorbertsNiece]

The light shade.....

 

 

The array of wine glasses

 

 

They get :

 

 

I get :

 

 

Am seriously unimpressed..... breakfast MDR bread..... Patty if you're following what does this remind you of?

 

First glass of wine is poured

 

 

[NorbertsNiece]

2nd glass of wine

 

 

They get :

 

 

I get..... ooooh look it's MDR bread!!

 

 

 

3rd glass of wine

 

 

[NorbertsNiece]

4th glass of wine

 

 

 

5th glass of wine

 

 

They get :

 

 

I get :

 

Strawberry mousse.....

 

[joand452]

My post disappeared. If it comes back, I apologize for the duplicate.

 

Anyhoo...

 

Your report on Berlin is very moving. I'm very thankful that my entire family had emigrated to the US by 1900.

 

Looking forward to Riga...

[Costafox]

Thank you for yet another wonderful blog Linda - this is a trip on our bucket list so have found your expèriences fascinating and you have given us some great ideas for excursions - it has been very moving to read your story xx

[NorbertsNiece]

Got kicked off again last night. We have arrived in Visby..... Tendered.

 

View from window is open seas.... Choppy.... Not in a rush to disembark. Will see where my feet take me when I do.

[Nami]

Thank You for this wonderful review. I love it!

 

Welcome to Helsinki tomorrow. Unfortunately, it's unusual cold weather here. Coldest midsummer in 30 years :eek:

 

So put on warm clothes, take an umbrella with You and enjoy Your Helsinki Day :)