Fair Isle/Lerwick

On our wat from Orkney to Shetland it was our plan to make a polar-circle-boat landing on Fair Isle for to look at some puffin-colonies and the islanders knitwear. Unfortunatly we had strong easterly winds up to Beaufort 9, so that it was impossible to use our tenders. So we just surrounded the island and continued towards our next destination.

Now we had the possibility to explore the Shetlands capital city during the afternoon, for our arrival was original planned for the evening. Visitors were not always welcome!

Kirkwall/Orkney

The visit to this remote island is for sure one of the highlights of this trip. The clouds from early morning passed over the hours, so we got an nice view of the islands. There were several excursions to join, whisky-friends visited the Highland-Park destillery while most people went to the world-famous stone-age village of Skara Brae which was really a sight to see. It is absolute unique to have this authentic view into kitchen, living- and bedroom of the orkney-people 5000 years ago.

In the afternoon we tried a landing on the opposite side of the fjord, but the wind was to strong to use the polar-circle-boats, and so we returned to Kirkwall and everybody had a good chance to walk through the town and visit the St.-Magnus-Cathedral or some other nice buildings, as the Earls palace from 1600.

Aberdeen

Once again a sunny day in Scotland, and that is something nobody really had expected so early in the year. The most went on a whole-day-excursion along the valley of the river Dee, which led us away from the shore deep into the legendary Highlands. On our way we visited Balmoral, the summer-residence of the royal family and also had a very interesting stop at one of the many scotish whisky-destilleries. Of course we could try one and also buy shiploads of bottles of this very tasty souvenir! Better keep it ...

Edinburgh

A whole day for the capital of Scotland. We are greeted by a lovely bagpiper in front of the vessel, bright sunshine and some strong wind. All set out to explore the very interesting town, and in fact, one day or a half is just not long enough. A guided bustrip shows you some of the highlights by driving through the town, but there is no time on the schedule to walk through the streets, enter a cafe or visit some of the museums or art-gallerys. But anyway, a stop was made for a visit of the world-famous castle on top of a hill in the very heart of town.

In the evening we had a special champagne-evening onboard the now permanently moored former royal yacht "Britannia". Even the captain and some officers joined us and were curious to look at this ship, wich was longer than our FRAM, but just built to serve one family ...

Northsea

We are directly heading for Edinburgh, and that means one full seaday between Germany and Scotland. Of course we use our time to inform the guests with our lectures about our destination. And besides Klaus Kiesewetter as naturalist we have some experts with us: Jürgen Worlitz for the royals and Bernie McGee for special whisky-tastings.

And the Expeditionleader is busy as usual and always in his office!

Hamburg

In the night we returned from Kiel and are now ready to take our new guests on a longer voyage: We have justs germans onboard, who are participating in Hurtigruten-Germanys 7. customers-event. We will travel to Scotland and the North-atlantic islands and end our trip in Reykjavik.

Kiel-channel

We have guests for one of the shortest FRAM-cruises ever: We depart in Hamburg at 23:30 during the harbour-birthday-celebrations and enter once again the channel to the Baltic sea in the morning to disembark our passengers at 15.00 the next day in Kiel. It is a quiet voyage through the Schleswig-Holstein countryside, with bright yellow fields of rape and fresh green trees on the hillsides along our route.

Seaday

Today we are heading back to germany, it is the plan to enter the Kiel-channel around midnight. So we had a lot of lectures during the day, the bar served waffles in the afternoon and the fabulous crewshow puts an funny end to this cruise.

Visby

The last port on our great baltic cruise. And a town, very much known for its great history in hanseatic times, known for its countless church-ruins, known for its well preserved city-wall, and known for its many roses in summer - but we are to early for that. But anyway, it was a very nice town, small enough to explore it by foot. It was still good weather, but a cold wind was blowing. The streets offered hundreds of great motives, as we explored on our photo-expedition with the ships photographer and some guests. Also this - as yesterday - a place to return to.

Streets of Visby

Sheeps crossing the streets

Tallinn

This town was an stunning experience! Really beautyful! And it reminded us much more to scandinavian towns than to russian ones, as we had expected. It is all well preserved in the old town, they have nice shops and restaurants, it is all referring very much to the middle ages and the hanseatic history. We got an good overview of the town, but most guests had the feeling, that they could easily spend some more days here.

St. Petersburg

As this town is for sure one of the highlights of this cruise, we stayed two full days here. Today most people went on excursions through the city, looking at the battleship aurora, famous cathedrals or visiting the large gallery of the ermitage with great collections of european art. It was very warm today, just sunshine and T-shirt-weather. This days gave us some good insight in russian live of today. It is surprising to see, how fast things can change. After they had been forgotten for 70 years, the czars are now back in the minds and you can buy colourful books about them at every corner. And I still wonder what deeds they have done ...

St. Petersburg

In the early morning we passed the old fortress of Kronstadt, once protecting the naval base of St. Petersburg. At 8:30 we reached the mouth of the Newa-river and went to our mouring in the heart of town. Great to have such a small ship! So it were just 100 meters to the famous winterpalace. But anyway, no one could leave without a very expensive visa, just for excursions it was allowed. So everybody went with the busses, most to Catherines palace, which showed the wealth of one of the richest families in the world. Compared to the average living conditions it seems no wonder that the octoberrevolution put an end to that!

Helsinki

One capital follows the other: today its Helsinki. A lot of people went on excursion, but it was also great just to stroll through town, visit the Uspenski cathedral, look at the great old buildings, or visit the Ateneum art museum with a very interesting exhibition about the Kalevala, the finish national poem.

Empty streets on sunday ...

Stockholm

After a quiet night in the harbour we rise this morning in the heart of Stockholm, which we were already able to explore a bit yesterday afternoon. This morning offered more possibilities to get known with this city: in addition to the two excursions there are quite a lot museums and other sights awaiting visitors. Vasa Museum, Skansen, Art gallerys or just a walk through Gamla Stan. After lunch we left Stockholm and cruised once again through the archipelago.