Baltic , Norway , Iceland and the U.K. on the Zuiderdam 2019 with photos

[erewhon]

Super photos, thanks for the update.

 

[scubacruiserx2]

10 hours ago, erewhon said:

Super photos, thanks for the update.

 

 

You are welcome and we're glad that you are enjoying the photos .  🙂😀

[scubacruiserx2]

 

It was nice to have a day at sea with the emphasis on eating and sleeping before our big day in Berlin . Breakfast at the Pinnacle was nice and would be missed on the next morning . For lunch we had room service and planned a nap afterwards until the fog rolled in and foghorn cleared it's throat . It got thicker than the Dutch Pea soup served on board .

 

 

 

 

The windows did a good job of noise abatement and we dozed a little until tea time which was excellent

 

 

It was a Gala Night but we preferred  a quite dinner in Cafe 7151

 

 

 

The Where and When for Berlin

 

 

 

It was interesting to note that HAL was celebrating World's Ocean Day when we were in Germany

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Growing up in the 50's and 60's we remember the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall being erected and never thought that we would visit Russia or Germany . My wife's parents met in Germany and her mother's twin brother died there during the war and is buried in Arlington . On our last visit there we were with a group tour with an American guide .

 

Video

 

 

On this trip we had a German driver and met our German guide in Berlin . We will share the best from both trips .

 

 

View on the ship from 2016

 

 

View from the ship 2019

 

 

Instead of the 3 hour bus ride , Frank our driver , got us there in 2-1/2 hours in a comfortable mini van where we met Markus , our guide .

 

Our first stop was a new subway  with some history on the wall

 

 

 

A stop at the Brandenburg Gate 

 

 

A bear in the US Embassy

 

 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Murdered_Jews_of_Europe

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Moving toward the American Embassy

 

 

And the Reichstag Building

 

 

 

An unscheduled stop at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof ( the freedom of a private guide to honor our requests for photos )

 

 

 

 

 

It reminded us of our visit to Munich where we took day trips on the train to Saltzburg

 

 

and Neuschwanstein Castle

 

[scubacruiserx2]

A couple of photo stops

 

 

Charlottenburg Palace

 

 

 

Kaiser Wilheim Memorial Church

 

There are 2 churches here , the old one which was bombed in 1943 , and left intact and a new one .

 

 

 

 

First , the old .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside

 

 

In the old church , there we a number of beautiful mosaics .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The old and the new

 

 

 

The new church

 

 

 

 

 

Including a Tombak alloy Jesus .

 

 

 

We were told by Markus to be on the lookout for Spargel  and the Ampelmännchen

 

 

The East Berlin little traffic men

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Photobucket will not allow any uploads of new material or allow access to copy my stored material .

Edited July 10, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[cat shepard]

1 hour ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

Photobucket will not allow any uploads of new material or allow access to copy my stored material .

No. Say it ain’t so.....🤭

[erewhon]

Thanks for the update.

Cute little men on the traffic lights.

[scubacruiserx2]

10 hours ago, cat shepard said:

No. Say it ain’t so.....🤭

 

It ain't so now

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

10 hours ago, erewhon said:

Thanks for the update.

Cute little men on the traffic lights.

 

They are iconic figures there . We wish that we would have bought some .

[scubacruiserx2]

 

 

I didn't know why they built the Berlin Wall as a kid but I do remember the guy jumping the fence to escape

 

 

The East German government claimed that the Wall was an "anti-fascist protective rampart" (German: "antifaschistischer Schutzwall") intended to dissuade aggression from the West.^[58]   Wikipedia

 

If the wall was to protect and detain people for their own good , why were so many people willing to die to escape ? Should't people be dying to get in instead of dying to get out ? 

 

Checkpoint Charlie seemed ominous when we first visited there in 2006

 

 

But now it's more a place to get a burger or party

 

 

 

We had requested a visit to the wall gallery

 

 

 

 

 

 

It seems to be more of a place to have your photo taken

 

 

 

Then to read the writing on the wall

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

There were a couple of places that we visited in 2016 that had hope to get a better look at 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altes_Museum

 

 

and the Berliner Dom ( Berlin Cathedral ) .

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Cathedral

 

 

They were both more busy on the outside

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped inside the cathedral for a few photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 The last stop in Berlin was at the double dome area

 

 

 

 

The first dome was the French Church built by the Huguenot community between 1701 and 1705 .

 

 

The second dome is the German Church built in 1708 by the Lutheran community .

 

 

 

Between them is a third building , the Konzerthaus Berlin , built in 1820 .

 

 

 

The Gendarmenmarkt is arguably Berlin's most magnificent square. It is best known for the architectural trio composed of the German and French cathedrals (Deutscher und Französischer Dom) and Schinkel's Konzerthaus (concert hall) which together form one of the most stunning ensembles in Berlin. The "domes" refer to the domed tower structures erected in 1785 by architect Carl von Gontard. They were mainly intended to add stature and grandeur to the two buildings.

 

From Berlin.de

 

 

 

More sun and people this visit

 

The German church

 

 

The French Church

 

 

The concert  hall had a wedding party

 

 

We did get to see The Victory Column before saying goodbye to Markus and Berlin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And we did see a number of what appeared to be crop circles on the return trip .

 

 

 

 

We would like to thank Markus and Frank for a job well done .

 

[cat shepard]

Thank you for persevering. Spectacular pictures.

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, cat shepard said:

Thank you for persevering. Spectacular pictures.

 

Thanks Cat we're glad that you like the photos and we're glad that PB was running this morning . Berlin with a 6 hour commute is always a long , but interesting day , kinda like going to Moscow from St. Petersburg .

[scubacruiserx2]

It was nice to be back to the ship and we could see a train in the distance that we thought could be returning from Berlin , so we hustled to get on board .

 

 

We saw some food that appealed to us on the Lido buffet . It was our only dinner there . Sauerbraten , Spaetzle ,  a sausage and Sauerkraut with a draft beer .

 

 

We did take the beer with us to see the band by the pool 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our only previous experience with Kiel was in 2006 on our 1st Baltic Cruise on the NCL Dream . We sailed through the Kiel Canal that connects the Baltic to the North Sea .

 

The lengthening was eventually carried out in March—May 1998 at Lloyd Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany, where the ship was cut in half and a new 40-metre (131 ft 3 in) midsection was inserted.^[12] In addition to the lengthening, the ship's funnel and radar mast were adapted so that they could be folded down, allowing her to pass under the bridges of the Kiel Canal.^[1][5][13] Coinciding with the lengthening the Dreamward was renamed Norwegian Dream.^[1] She re-emerged at 50,764 GT^[8] and with maximum passenger capacity of 2,156.^[5] A documentary film about the lengthening has been broadcast by ARTE Television on 19 January 1999^[14]

^Wikipedia

 

^{We had picked up a band that would play as we went under low bridges . The ship's funnel was flipped on it's side to clear the bridges .}

 

 

^{The shore excursions from Kiel were to Hamburg and Luneburg which we had seen before on a previous cruise} 

 

 

 

 

^{Kiel was our last port before returning to Copenhagen and we hoped for a nice , quite Sunday with no monkey business .}

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Balcony cleaning day in Kiel

 

 

We went for a walk

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all it was Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We had a nice , quite lunch here

 

 

Great Goulash

 

 

 

 

Strudel for 2

 

 

In the afternoon it seemed like a band of buskers showed up around the ship

 

 

 

 

 

It was amazing how well their makeup stayed on 

 

 

The show went on a long time but they received some well deserved applause

 

 

 

 

Well done Polizei , thank you and thank you HAL !

[erewhon]

Thanks for your interesting photos and videos.

Was the protest about cruise ship visits?

[scubacruiserx2]

16 minutes ago, erewhon said:

Thanks for your interesting photos and videos.

Was the protest about cruise ship visits?

 

Yes it was , they wish to eliminate cruise ships 

[ski ww]

Great pictures as always. We were in Berlin just after the wall came down & got some pieces of it, our little remainder of the history, past and present.

[scubacruiserx2]

14 minutes ago, ski ww said:

Great pictures as always. We were in Berlin just after the wall came down & got some pieces of it, our little remainder of the history, past and present.

 

That was a very exciting time with the wall and the breakup of The Soviet Union . Thar's gold in them there rocks .

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Rudi's French Onion Soup

 

 

Stuffed pepper

 

 

 

 

Don't they serve crab at the Pinnacle ?

 

 

The Captain's speech

 

 

Overcast Copenhagen 9 AM

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by scubacruiserx2