Our first port of call after boarding the Star Princess was Stockholm, Sweden. Its history extends back seven centuries when it was inhabited by the Vikings. Sweden has not been at war since 1814. It remained neutral during both world wars, although helped many refuges during World War II including Jewish people fleeing Hitler’s regime. Sweden was also neutral throughout the cold war and did not join NATO. Sweden is a member of the United Nations. Stockholm is the capital…
After exploring Copenhagen and Bornholm, it was time to board our cruise ship, Star Princess, and begin our Baltic Cruise. But first I am going to tell you about something we did on board the ship that we found very interesting. So this will be a bit of a different blog entry, because I will not be sharing information about a particular place, but rather our “behind the scenes” tour of our cruise ship that would give us insight into…
Bornholm is an island in the Baltic Sea and is part of Denmark, but geographically, it is closer to Sweden. We wanted to go to Bornholm because my paternal grandmother’s ancestors hailed from there. We flew from Copenhagen to Bornholm where we met a private guide who would show us the sites of Bornholm. We were very lucky because we had e-mailed back and forth several times before the trip and she was able to include places where my ancestors…
In 2010, we took a Baltic and Scandinavian cruise through Princess Cruises. We arrived in Copenhagen three days before our cruise. We had time to explore Copenhagen and also visited the island of Bornholm. In this post, I will focus on Copenhagen. The first pictures below are of the City Hall, located in City Hall Square in the central part of Copenhagen. It serves as the headquarters for the Municipal Council and also houses the offices of the Lord Mayor…
After our Tauck tour had ended, we spent an extra day in Malta and arranged for a private tour through Amy at guidedtoursmalta.com. Although Amy was unavailable on the extra day we had in Malta, she arranged for us to tour with one of her colleagues. We chose a full day tour of Gozo, but we were able to customize it since it was a private tour. Our guide picked us up at our hotel with a driver and we…
When I booked our Rome, Amalfi Coast, Sicily and Malta tour, I thought of Malta as a nice add-on, but wasn’t expecting anything much. Malta ended up to be a nice surprise. For such a small country, it has quite a history, some of which I will share here. Farmers initially settled Malta, as early as 5000 BC. Over the years, Malta has been controlled by many different leaders, some (but not all) of which, include Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs,…
Our last port of call in Sicily was Siracusa or Syracuse. It has a 2,700 year history and was once a powerful city-state, one of the largest cities in the ancient world. It was founded by Greeks but was also ruled by the Romans. Because my husband is a retired physics teacher, I must mention that Syracuse was the birthplace of Archimedes. He is famous for Archimedes’ Principle, which says that the buoyant force of an object placed in water…
Our next port of call was Taormina, Sicily. Taormina was founded by the Greeks in 358 BC but 300 years later it was under Roman rule. It is on the eastern coast of Sicily on the Ionian Sea and close to Mt. Etna. Part of our trip to Taormina took us through the Strait of Messina, lying between Sicily and mainland Italy. This was the first night where we experienced some “rocking and rolling” aboard the ship – but it…
Our next port of call was Palermo, Sicily. We drove to Monreale to see the Cathedral of Monreale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As we looked at the exterior as seen in the first two pictures below, we would not have guessed the cathedral made the UNESCO list. There are two bell towers on either side of the porch which seems plain with the exception of the inlaid marble. The porch was added in the 18th Century. When you enter…
After leaving Stromboni, we made our way to Sicily where our first port of call was Trapani. From there we drove to Segesta where we saw the remains of a Greek Temple. Segesta was located on Mt. Barbaro which provided it with a defensible position and was also near the coast which was ideal for trading. Segesta was founded by the Elymain people who inhabited western Sicily. They were influenced by the Greeks, probably because Segesta was an important trading…