Kalmar – Our last stop before Hamburg

In the early morning we reached Kalmar, one of the oldest cities in Sweden, in the historical Province Smȧland. We lay directly in the center of the city again and so it was easy to explore the city by ourselves. When we walked through the streets of Kalmar we recognized that the city must have been very important during the last centuries. Most of the historical buildings have been nicely restored. Nobody will ever know how many pictures we have done for example from the Cathedral, the city hall, the castle ……. How wonderful, that most of us use a digital camera now. It makes life so much easier.

But of course there have been excursions too and most passengers used the opportunity of the guided tours.

Smȧland is also called the “Kingdom of Crystal” as it is very famous for its glass factories at least since the 18^th century. Many companies - like Kosta-Boda - are well known in the whole world. So it is no wonder that we were offered an excursion that was focused on the art of glass. It was wonderful to see how the glassblowers created new models.

Another group made a longer excursion to Öland. Öland is 140 km long and with a maximum of 15km extent a very small but unbelievable nice island between the mainland and the Baltic Sea. The whole island consists of limestone which gives the area a very special impression. There are many flowers and animals which are specialized on this lime stone. The center of the island, called “Great Alvar”, is very scraggy and can only be used by the farmers for their cows, sheep or horses.

But in former times this Alvar had been a very important area. The so called “Gettlinge burial ground” showed that the island was settled since the Stone Age. 

In the fortress Eketorp, in the center of the Alvar, we learned a lot about the life from the Iron Time up to the Middle Age.

At the southern end of the island you can find the “Long Jan”, with 42 m Sweden´s tallest lighthouse.

Around 19.30h everybody has been back aboard – full of new impressions. 

After a nice Philipino Buffet the crew awaited us in the Panorama Lounge for the very, very well known MV FRAM Crew Show. 

Welcome to Riga

During the night we sailed through a very smooth Gulf of Riga. Early in the morning we reached the city Riga, lying at the mouth of the river Dougava. Riga is the capital of Latvia and with approx. 650.000 inhabitants the largest city of the Baltic States.

Directly after breakfast we started our excursion through Riga´s historical centre, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, famous for its Art Nouveau architecture.

It was a little bit difficult to reach the centre as there was the well-known Riga Marathon with more than 12.000 numbers of participants going on. But the city of Riga was very impressive for everybody, especially with the sunshine we had again.

As we spent the whole day in Riga many passengers went out again in the afternoon. It was a good idea to have a nice cup of coffee in one of the cafés and watching people.

Other passengers went on a bus tour to the seaside resort Jurmala. It lies directly at the Gulf of Riga, 25 km west of Riga. In the Soviet time it was a main resort for important politicians, but today everybody is welcome. The 33 km stretch of the white sandy beach was especially nice to see in the sunshine.

The evening ended with the famous fashion show. All the wonderful models – presented by Corinna – belonged to the officers and the expedition team.   

A DAY AT SEA

Last night we left TALLIN, Estonia, en route for RIGA, Lettonia: a distance of 280 nautical miles, quite a long stretch through the Baltik Sea, and the gods of the seas were nice to us.

Today we began our program with lectures: Claus lectured on amber, a jewel of the Baltik Sea.

Jean-Louis had marine mammals on his programm: it was all about whales and seals in polar waters.

In the afternoon, Anja introduced passengers to other FRAM destinations like Spitsbergen, Greenland, Europe and Antarctica.

A good alternative for our guests was to just relax on the outer decks, where many enjoyed the smooth cruising under a warm sun.

In the evening, we were all confronted with a major dilemma: football championship Bayern/Chelsea live in Framheim hall or ice carving in the observation lounge? We will let you know tomorrow what attracted most of us.

Tallinn- here we come!

After 197 nautical miles our eyes were drawn to the sky line of Tallinn. From the original town wall and the 66 towers still many are standing and it is a city with absolute charme! Just imagine all the dimensions in this small place- just the building of the town wall took around 300 years- and in the end the wall was (after many modifications within the years) 2,35km long, up to 16m tall and 2-3m thick! You could definately feel safe here even in the olden days! But still you have somehow the "small village feeling" when walking around the city center.
From the distance, you already see the Toompea (Cathedral hill) and the tower of St Olai Church. Built in the 12th century, the later was between 1549 and 1625 the tallest building in the world with 159m! Being the highest building proofed not so good as lightening struck it over the years at least 8 times...

 

We spent the day walking around the city, exploring the narrow alleys, spent too much money in the small stalls selling among other things beautiful linnen, glass wear and local treats. Some of us were extremely active and biked with a local guide throughout the city while others discovered it by foot- and some had the pleasure of exploring the great nature of the Laheema National Park.

A sunny start, what can be nicer?

Stockholm welcomed us with blue sky and sunshine. After the check in procedure most guests went directly out to the open decks to enjoy the wonderful scenery of Stockholm. Some passengers used the last possibility to walk along the pier into the town before MV FRAM closed the gangway. Everybody was dressed already in the blue jackets we get on board. So during the next cruise days we will walk sometimes like a “long blue snake” through the streets of the Baltic Nations.

But before we could leave the harbor, all passengers had to join the mandatory rescue drill. It is good to know how to behave in an emergency situation before the cruise starts.

During dinnertime MV FRAM sailed slowly through the small islands in front of the Swedish coastline. It was the first test for our cameras to make nice pictures.

At nine o´clock our Captain Rune Andreassen invited us to a welcome cocktail in the observation lounge. Here he introduced his officers and the Expedition leader Anja Erdmann. Anja used than the opportunity to give us a first overview over the expedition team that will inform and teach us during the trip. 

A wonderful sunset let us hope for good weather conditions tomorrow. But on this evening most of us went to bed early. The arrival day is always a hard and long day and we want to be fit for our first day in Finland.  

Ilulissat - the place with icebergs

… and now we know why it is called like that. When we looked out in morning, we were surrounded by icebergs, countless and of more than thousands of different shapes. The Disko Bay is a terrific ice world, full of magic and myth. And today was a special day with sunshine and a beautiful blue sky.

The first boat trips to the icefjord started at 9.30 am and lasted 2 ½ hours. All our guests were happy and returned with a special smile on their faces. And so it was the next four boats, all the people were very glad and this trip was really one of the highlights, or maybe the highlight of our cruising.

Most of us made the hike to the icefjord. It was hypnotizing to sit on the rocks and simply stare at the ice.

Ilulissat is the tourist capitol of Greenland. If you had not already found a souvenir, you would certainly find it here. Ilulissat has gotten several nice boutiques with beautiful Greenlandic handicraft.

The day ended with the fabulous and very entertaining cruise-show, which was big success!

A lot of white dots

Neptune, the master of the sea, welcomed us when we passed the Arctic Circle and were baptized. After this special event it was time for visiting Sisimiut, the second largest town in Greenland. The beautiful mountain landscape was doted by snow fields. Even in town there was still snow and private boats were still on shore.

Sisimiut is a very busy fishing town, so because a huge trawler was unloading its catch of prawns the same day as we arrived, we had to use our Polar Circle Boats to get to land, as there was no place on the pier for us at the same time. It was actually for many of the passengers quite a thrilling experience to sail in these fairly small and fast boats which can only take 8 passengers at a time.

Shortly after arriving we started with our excursions, one went to the abandoned settlement Assaqutaq. Assaqutaq is situated close to Sisimiut and was closed in the 70ties. It is now partly used as a place for summer education. A very beautiful place and strange at the same time with the empty and warn down houses among colorful buildings still in use.

Others took the walk back in history to the Tele Island, a place right on the outskirt of Sisimiut. There you can find the foundations of both old Inuit dwellings dating back to the 15th century and buildings made by some of the first Danish settlers in the area.

Before we left Sisimiut two men in kayaks came to the ship and gave us an impressing show of their skills in a kayak. They showed us a variety of ways to do the kayak roll, which still to this day is essential if you go out kayaking in the ice cold Greenlandic waters.

Nuuk York...

Compared to the rest of the towns and settlements in Greenland, Nuuk is very different. The young people in Nuuk like to refer to the town as Nuuk York!

And it was surprising that a town of some 16.000 inhabitants could bring such an atmosphere of being a big little city.

This must be due to the fact that Nuuk is the capitol of Greenland and thereby have most of the facilities one expects to find in a capitol.

We arrived quite early and the first buses started the trips to town. The city sightseeing tour was exciting especially the stops at swimming hall, which looks like a wave and that is the meaning of its name, Malik. Nuuk is a big city and keeps on growing. Down town some of the old residential blocks from the 1960s will disappear the next years. The final stop was at the National museum which most of us visited. But one of the nicest things to do was shopping, because in Nuuk are a lot of fine shops and cafes.

Others went on a boat trip into the Nuuk fiord, where some were lucky seeing some whales.

It was real interesting day and final ending was the amazing ice and fruit carving by members of the kitchen in the Observation Lounge.