Gold & Crystal on a
Cruise Tour of the Baltic
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The golden walls, crystal chandeliers and countless mirrors of the Great Hall of the Catherine Palace glowed brilliantly with light from the early evening sun. At one end of the enormous hall, in front of a wall of mirrored panels topped by even more gilded moldings and cherubs, a string quartet played while a couple, wearing 18th Century formal dress, danced a minuet.
The music and the dancers suddenly stopped, and a herald, flanked by soldiers from the Imperial Guard, each dressed stiffly in uniforms of blue with red piping that made them look all too much like a college marching band, entered and made an announcement in Russian. Though we could not understand his words, we recognized the import of the moment. We stood, for it was time to meet our host, "Catherine the Great," Empress of all Russia, .
The Empress, accompanied by her ladies in waiting, swept into the hall, filling it with her presence. Dressed in a magnificent sky-blue formal gown and wearing a dark blue cloak, the Empress crossed in front of the dancers and musicians, turned and sat. Then, after a nod of her head, we took our chairs and the concert resumed.
This, of course, was a piece of living history, a reenactment of the grand and glorious days of the 18th Century when Czars ruled the largest empire in the world. This view of life before the 1917 Revolution was particularly poignant because of the changes now underway in what was the Soviet Union. Our visit to the Catherine Palace, in the town of Pushkin 17 miles outside of St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), was perhaps the most fascinating stop during our 12-day Northern Capitals cruise aboard the Crystal Harmony.
Our cruise began on the first of July in London, where we boarded the ship, and made stops in Amsterdam, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Tallin in Estonia before ending in Copenhagen. In each city, the focus of our shore trips was art- - galleries, sculpture gardens and museums.
The 791-foot Crystal Harmony is a beautiful ship, with spacious public areas, eight passenger decks with 484 attractive and comfortable cabins (more than half had verandas). Life aboard was comfortable. The elevators were fast, the organization of the ship vis a vis the passenger decks and the restaurants, entertainment lounges and upper deck pool area (which could be covered by a solarium-style roof in inclement weather) was done in such a way that it was fairly simple to move around on the ship. That doesn't seem like much, but on getting around on some cruise ships was have taken was a major expedition that involved waiting long times for slow elevators or taking the stairs up as many as six decks.
The entertainment on the Crystal Harmony was also first-rate. The lineup include the ship's troupe, which offered polish Broadway-style reviews, plus special appearances by Irish comedian Hal Roach, who has performed for five U.S. presidents, and saxman Larry Randall, whose frenetic style of playing left us exhausted. Other shipboard activities included daily movies (in the theater or on cable in the cabin TV), bridge lessons, bingo, exercise classes, tea dances., piano bars, a disco, a small casino and a lending library with books, magazines and video tapes.
The main dining room was elegant, and the food was quite good, but the Crystal Harmony also offered two alternative dining rooms- - the Kyoto restaurant, which served Japanese fare, and the Prego restaurant, which offered Italian cuisine.
Finally, because the area we were cruising was filled with history, the ship offered daily talks by the land-tour director and more detailed lectures by two passengers, California television newsman Bill Hecomovich, who talked about the Romanov dynasty in Russia, and Robert Feldman, a retired professor of Russian history The lectures were dynamic, pulling us into Russian life, before the 1917 Revolution and over the past few years when the Soviet system came apart.
We chose this cruise because of the itinerary, and like many of the cruises we have taken, it was a mixed blessing. While we were able to see a lot of different cities and countries we have never visited before, we also faced that curse of cruising: just as it gets really interesting, the ship is ready to leave. However, unlike almost all cruise ship itineraries, the Crystal Harmony did have two overnight stops, in Stockholm and St. Petersburg. These longer visits allowed us to wander the cities on our own as well as go on several organized tours.
Our first stop was Amsterdam, where we ignored the lingering effects of jet lag to visit the Dam Square, the busy center of the city, the fairly new Van Gogh Museum, which displays 20 paintings and 400 drawings by the Dutch artist, and take a boat tour of the city's famous canals. The canals- - try to picture a labyrinth of canals going through Washington- - took us past the magnificent architecture of the Dutch houses and shops lining their banks. At day's end, we returned to the ship and went to the small veranda on our cabin, where we enjoyed the sights of the Dutch countryside as the Crystal Harmony left Amsterdam via a narrow canal that took us past small villages and isolated farmhouses before we came to a lock system and the North Sea.
Our second stop was Oslo, where we docked next to the Akerhaus castle, an imposing medieval fortress that now houses dungeons, banquet halls and the Armed Forces Museum. We took a bus tour of the city as we headed to Vigelandsanlegget (Vigeland Sculpture Park), an 80-acre park with landscaped gardens, magnificent fountains and recreational fields in the western section of the city, The park displays 191 statues of bronze and stone portraying human life from birth to death. The works by Norwegian sculptor Gustav Vigeland are breathtaking, a testimony to the sculptor's obsession and what government support (and a free hand for the artist) can do. Our second art stop was the famous Munch Museet (Munch Museum), which displays many of the works the famous artist Edvard Munch left to the city when he died in 1944. The museum houses more than 5,000 works - - including dozens of variations of his most famous work, "The Scream"- - plus furniture, books and other artifacts once owned by the artist.
After another day at sea, we rose early to the sun to find ourselves in the maze of islands known as the Stockholm Archipelago. The first islands were barren, rocky and only occasionally occupied by small houses tucked next to each other (to help protect them from storms, we were told). Slowly, as we traveled eastward toward Stockholm, the islands changed in character: more trees, some farmland, frequent smaller communities. There are 24,000 islands in the archipelago, but only about 6,000 people lived on them year-round. The summer population soars to several hundred thousand when city-dwellers fleeing to summer homes on the isolated islands.
The islands were an ever-enchanting delight. We passed by small islands that were home to only to a tiny cabin, by others that had compounds of houses holding an extended family, and other islands large enough to hold Victorian homes so massive that they could be palaces. The water, the dark blue-black of a deep sea, was busy with fishing boats and ferries that criss-cross between small seaside communities.
This passing parade was just the buildup to our two-day stop in Stockholm, one of the more beautiful cities we have ever visited. Stockholm is spread over 14 islands, the most historic of which is Gamla Stan (the Old Town), a wedge-shaped island that is home to the Royal Palace and a jumble of small medieval buildings, market squares and narrow cobblestone lanes.
At the north end of the island is the Royal Palace, a massive, 600-room structure that combined baroque and rococo styles. Much of the palace is open to visitors during the summer, when the Royal family is living at its island palace outside the city. The palace is a showplace of decorative arts, with collections of tapestry, china, gifts to the royal family and public rooms and apartments whose interiors were created by French artists in the 1690s. After touring the royal residence, we visited other sections of the palace that held museums on royal carriages and armor, the Royal Treasury and the crown jewels, and the Gustav III Museum of Antiquities.
We left Gamla Stan, crossing through the wall archway and over an impressive bridge to enter the city's center. The bridge was part of a system of dams and locks the kept the fresh waters of the huge Lake Mñlaren from the Baltic Sea. We toured the downtown area, whose focus is the Kungstrñdgürden, Stockholm's equivalent of Central Park. There, while relaxing with a refreshing drink, we watched a carnival, a soccer game played on a mini-field and some free-lance musicians trying to earn coins from passersby.
After a lunch at a waterfront restaurant, we walked over to the Stadshuset (City Hall), a 71-year-old red brick masterpiece that is home to the Golden Hall, a museum with 18 million gilded mosaics telling the story of Swedish history. Next to the City Hall is a small marina, where we took a sightseeing boat tour up the lake, passing by a residential district with attractive high-rise apartments, around a former prison island that now is home to marinas and light industry, and through the locks before returning to the waterfront.
It was still very light, but it was time for dinner, so we returned to crooked, cobbled streets of Gamla Stan and had an excellent seafood dinner in a restaurant off one of the market squares. By then, the old streets of this island were filled with strollers, out for the evening sun. While we walked back to our ship, the skies began to fill with a dozen colorful hot air balloons, a popular activity, we were told, in this city in the summer.
The next morning, another beautiful, clear day in Stockholm, we took a guided tour from the ship to Millesgürden, where sculptures of animals and people by artist Carl Milles are displayed in the garden of his former house on hillside overlooking the Baltic.
In late afternoon, we returned again to the aft open deck and watched the islands and sights of the Stockholm archipelago fall away behind us.
Our next stop was Helsinki, a quiet city whose main attractions were the Sibelius Monument, a serene park with a sculpture to honor the famous Finnish composer, and a colorful and busy waterfront market. The city was very low-key, which was fine with us because our next stop was St. Petersburg, and we wanted to save our energy for it.
The next morning, we rose, threw back our window curtains and looked out at St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, our anchorage was not in the city center, but rather at a quiet, commercial harbor about 10 miles west of the city.
Our visit didn't start until after a shipboard lunch, when we boarded a bus for a 17-mile drive through the city and beyond it to the village of Pushkin. It was a Saturday in St. Petersburg, and the lack of people and vehicles on the streets raised questions in our minds. "Many, many people leave the city on summer weekends," the guide accompanying us explained. "They go to dachas- - summer houses- - or campgrounds."
The bus passed through the older center of the city, passed by the Hermitage and then headed out a broad boulevard that led to the airport. Along the way we passed by several enormous monuments that were attracting couples dressed in what appeared to be wedding dress. They were placing flowers on the memorials and then posing for pictures. "These are monuments to the dead of World War II, the soldiers and citizens who fought then," our guide told us. "It is a custom for people who are newlyweds to place flowers here as a sign that they have not forgotten about the sacrifices made here during the war."
World War II impact here was as severe as on any front. The German armies besieged the city for 900 days; millions- - not one knows exactly how many- - died, from the war, from starvation and diseases. That sacrifice is still remembered.
The bus passed the airport and began to climb into a ring of hills, where we encounter more markers. "These mark the limit of the German advance," we are told. We look back from the hill road: behind us, the flat plain and the city are spread out below. It seems remarkable that the German army did not just sweep down from the hills and conquer the city.
Shortly, we come to the turnoff for Pushkin, a quiet village once known as Czarskoye Selo (Czar's Village). The village is attractive, its streets and lots shaded by numerous trees that almost hide the luxury dachas once used by Czarist and Communist VIPs. Finally we come to our destination, the Catherine Palace, an opulent palace used as a summer residence by the Czars.
As we walk through the park toward the entrance, a band, dressed in the blue with red trim uniforms of the old Imperial Guard, serenades us. We are the only visitors at the palace; our tour was a special event arranged by the cruise line, not one usually offered to visitors at the palace.
The palace is enormous: a 1,000-foot-long face of blue and white, with occasional gilt trim, is anchored on one end by a cathedral. The palace was almost totally destroyed during World War II and its most famous treasure, the Amber Room, was removed by the Nazis and has never been rediscovered.
The palace only recently reopened to tours, and while the restoration work is still underway, its grandeur is enough to reduce our tour group to silence as we wander the rooms adorned with marble, sculpted plaster, gilded cherubs and tiled furnaces.
After an hour we come to the Great Hall, a golden vision that is almost blinding in the reflected light of the early evening sun. After our court session with Catherine the Great, we leave by the back staircase, posing for pictures before we stop for another short concert and ballet performance and a noisy fireworks display.
We reboard our bus and ride a few minutes to the Carriage Museum, where we can view the ornate carriages that once were used by the Czars, and then on to a restaurant for a dinner of chicken cordon bleu, boiled potatoes and vodka. Despite our hosts' entreaties, most of the guests decided to pass on the opportunity to chug down a glass of vodka.
Our final stop in Czarskoye Selo was at a former Catholic church that is now the town's concert hall where we heard a choral concert that transcended the language barrier.
Our second day in St. Petersburg was filled with tours of the Hermitage, a grandiose Baroque palace that was built in the 18th Century during the reigns of Elizabeth and Catherine the Great. The palace and four adjacent buildings now house the finest art collection in the world, including a roomful of Rembrandts, two madonna's by Leonardo da Vinci, works by Renoir and other French Impressionists and many thousands of works more. As wonderful as the art is, the palace is no less grand. Molded or painted ceilings, ornate parquet floors, decorative touches that use gold, malachite, lapis lazuli and jasper, and grand views of the Neva River and the promenades along it made our visit one that few words can describe.
After the Hermitage, we toured the city. St. Petersburg was created by Peter the Great, who wanted to show the world that Russia could have a city as grand as any European capital. The palaces, fortress and cathedrals he created are indeed a much for Europe's finest. St. Petersburg is attractive, a city with broad boulevards, canals and parks along the Neva River, yet it's a bit shabby with pothole-studded roads and a layer of grime covering most buildings, even the Hermitage.
The Crystal Harmony sailed just before dinner. That evening we decided to dine in the Kyoto dining room, one of the ship's two alternatives to the main dining room (the other is Prego, an Italian restaurant). There, while dining on sushi, we passed by a submarine base, which only a few years ago would have been impossible in the security-conscious Soviet Union.The subs are small compared to the ones we have seen in Norfolk, and the base is quiet, with no sign of activity. We take a few pictures, probably a crime under the Soviets, and then return to dinner.
Our next stop was Estonia and the medieval city of Tallinn. The walled, cobble-stone city and its churches are wonderful attractions, but what was more interesting was the flurry of building, reconstruction and other commercial activity on the square in the old city. New shops, selling amber, very fashionable and expensive clothing, and even gourmet delicacies, were cropping up in the newly renovated buildings.
"Is this all new?" we asked one shopkeeper, indicating the new boutiques. "Yes," she replied, "we are changing very fast now. But it is still too expensive for Estonians. Someday, perhaps that will change, too."
Our final stop on this Northern Capitals cruise was Copenhagen, where we left the Crystal Harmony for a two-day stay at the Hotel Kong Frederick. Like most of the cities we visited while on the cruise, Copenhagen was a city whose life was linked to the water.
And as we did in many of those same cities, we took a canal boat tour, visited the royal residence, here called Rosenborg Slot (Rosenborg Castle). This Renaissance castle was built in the early 1600s and now houses the crown jewels and art treasures of the Danish royal family, which lives in Amalienborg Slot, a late 18th Century rococo complex with four nearly identical palaces set on the harbor.
After the palaces, we strolled Nyhaven, the recently renovated old harbor, and ate dinner an outdoor cafe as scores of young people sat on the seawall, drinking beer and singing songs from the ¹60s.
For a final memory of the Northern Capitals, we went to the fairytale land known as Tivoli Gardens, whose grace, style and imagination puts the mega-amusements parks in America to shame. And just before midnight, only an hour or so after the sun had set, the skies over us and Tivoli filled with fireworks. An appropriate ending, on a cruise filled with beauty and art.
The Crystal Harmony or its sister ship, the Crystal Symphony, sail to the Baltic each year.
For more information, call Crystal Cruises at 800/446-6620 or see your travel agent.