A sea day

Our second day on board MV Fram was spent at sea. Most thought that it would be a relaxing day at sea with a long sleep, relaxation in the Panorama Lounge or bathing in the sun. However, wake up call was at 08:30am by Anja. Now even the last passenger realized that we are not on a so-called "love boat" but on board an expedition vessel with a great programme! At 09.00am the first groups started to see the captain on his bridge before our lecture series started. After lunch there was some time to finally sit in the sun before the lectures continued at 02:30pm- there is so much to learn!
After dinner Antonio played the piano  in the Observation Lounge and then we had it- a little feeling of the "love boat" when crew members were singing some songs for us.

One man's meat is another man's poison!

It's our last day. Hamburg welcomes us with grey and deep hanging clouds. We can't believe, that this wonderful trip went so quickly. After an early breakfast we left MV FRAM, our beautiful home during the last days. In the harbour the busses were waiting for us, a last good bye from the expedition team, a last hug to new friends and than everybody started his individual trip home.
One man's meat is another man's poison. In our case it meant, leaving passengers had been very sad, that a beautiful trip came to an end, but the new incoming guests were looking forward to a trip, they have been waiting for since weeks or even months.

After all checking in formalities MV FRAM left Hamburg at 6 pm. The sun came out during we were sailing on the river Elbe into the direction of the North Sea. First the harbour buildings, later on very nice houses and a beautiful landscape were passing by. Our trip couldn't start better!

After the safety drill - a required course - our Captain, Rune Andreasson, welcome us in the Panorama Lounge. Whilst he introduced his officers to us, Anja, our expeditionleader, introduced her expeditionteam.

Full of new impressions we went to bed, looking forward to the next day.

SCOTLAND'S GOLD - SINGLE MALT WHISKY

Our Scottish Whisky Expert Bernard (Bernie) McGee, resident in Berlin, Germany, conducted Whisky Tastings on three evenings in the Observation Lounge of the MS FRAM.
The idea was to present as much a wide range of tastes as possible from different regions of Scotland.
The first evening consisted of the Speyside/ Highland Region of Scotland with whiskies from the AN CNOC, Murray McDavid LINKWOOD and GLENFARCLAS Distillery being presented. On the second evening the ARRAN, SPRINGBANK and LONGROW whiskies from Southwest Scotland were presented and on the final evening, mild and very peaty whiskies, viz. BRUICHLADDICH, Murray McDavid BOWMORE and SMOKEHEAD were tasted.
Our passengers were taken with the amazing range of tastes from very light to peat monsters and learned from Bernie how to appreciate whisky using the eye, nose and palate.
During the course of the cruise, Bernie supported the expedition staff of the FRAM by escorting passengers as a Whisky Expert on visits to the Jameson Distillery near Cork, Ireland and the Glen Garioch Distillery near Aberdeen, Scotland.
To conclude, our guests have now become Malt Whisky connoisseurs and were fascinated with the vast range of tastes found in the world of Malt Whisky.

Aberdeen- the Silver City

Whoever is responsible for the weather- please step forward!! You are going to stay permanently on board Fram! It was our last port of call today- and again it was great weather! No matter where we were on this trip the weatherforecase often said rain. And then we reached the places- and it was beautiful (except a really tiny rain shower on Iona- but that does not count)! Honestly, we can not complain!

Even in Aberdeen we had fascinating weather today. Our Captain had to go into the harbor backwards for quite a while but that meant that we had a berth nearly in the town center. Only a short walk up the road and you were at Union Street, THE shopping street in Aberdeen. All buildings seem to be built out of granit, hence the name "The Silver City". It is quite an impressive place, that is for sure. It seems to be bustling with life, around 10% of the inhabitants are students and you can really feel it. The university is from 1495 and is the third oldest in Scotland and the fifth oldest in the UK. Many just enjoyed the day in town, others went on excursion to a distillery, or to see the highlights of Aberdeen and Crathes Castle or experience the area of River Dee. Crathes Castle is absolutely impressive - it not only has a beautiful garden, but it is one of the nicest tower houses in Scotland.

And as we leave Scotland, here a few Scottish sayings for you...
"A Scot, half human, half God."
"Don`t marry for money, you can borrow it chepaer." (I like this one!)
"There is always life in a living man." (Fancy that!)

The pictures today are from the excursion "Royal Deeside".

Lands End and Cornish Cream Tea

It's like a dream. On the starboard side we can see the coast of Cornwall in beautiful sunlight. Ahead of us the the city of Penzance. The captain anchored the ship on 10 meters water. With the tender boats we sail our guests safely from the ship to shore. Busses are waiting for the excursions.
We are in the romantic world of Rosamunde Pilcher. The populaer
author was born here. Her stories take place in this beautiful area.
Many of her novels have been filmed by the German TV. The series are so successful that the
author got the German award "Golden Camera" in 1998. And now there is even a new variety
of roses, called "Rosemarie Pilcher".
We strongly feel the fascination of this unique landscape and are overwhelmed of the sharp
contrast of the green meadows, yellow rapefields, spectacular granite cliffs.
Subtropical vegetation with palm trees and the Common Gorse in magnificent gardens and hedges. At this time of the year it is there are not many tourists in the streets. But in summertime it used to be very busy. There is a direct connection with the railway from London to Penzance.
Time for a break with Cornish Cream Tea and delicious cones. A traditional speciality of Cornwall.
From the old town we have a nice overview to the pitourescque St.Ives Bay.

One of the highlights is a tender trip to St.Michael's Mount which is a small island with a castle on the top.

A lot of history is known about this island which is now owend by the National Trust and
opened for all visitores.
All passengers got dry and happy back to the ship in the late afternoon. What a wonderful day in the southwest tip of England.

Passenger exchange in Hamburg

We always talk about passenger exchange days. One trip is coming to an end, the next one is starting immediately. And how often do we, that work here on board hear "oh, so you are going on holiday again?" when going onboard for work.

So today it is time for a little clarification. And this is a rather typical work day...
06:00 hours- wake up, check mails, any last minute changes? (after going to bed at 2am- I am a night "owl")
07:30 hours- announcement for guests, information about wind speed/ temperature/ arrival time
08:00 hours- arrival at Hamburg harbor. Ship is cleared but... luggage is still on board as it is taken from deck 7 out to the pier and from there to the terminal building.
08:45 hours- luggage is out, guests are leaving the vessel and the shuttle busses are leaving...
09:30 hours- nobody is in the terminal building anymore... Good bye to you! And hope to see you again soon!
10:00hours- meetings, meetings, meetings... Everyone wants something at the same time... Port guests are arriving, there is a press conference going on etc etc etc
The stewards are busy preparing the cabins for the afternoon, everyone settles accounts from the last trip, getting ready for the new arrivals. Daily programmes are printed for tomorrow and suddenly there are a 100 things in ones head.

14:00 hours- Just came in from a quick walk around Hamburg. The terminal is already full of new passengers. Oh, it will be a great trip! Everyone looks excited- and something flashes up my head- I mixed up the lecture halls in the daily programme for tomorrow! So- back on board, printing again, team meetings...

15:00 hours- The new guests can not wait to get on board! The luggage is brought in by crane again. Klaus, Benno and the crew are checking luggage tags, bags and suitcases are handled all around the ship...

And then: announcements, announcements, announcements "Welcome on board MV Fram and to the voyage to England, Ireland and Scotland...." I promise you- I can say it in my dreams...

16:30 hours- everyone is settled in... and then finally at 17:00hours we are leaving the pier.  Other people are waving to the ship, Benno gives narrations to Hamburg from the bridge... and it is time for dinner... and more meetings... and the passenger drill.... and the Welcome by our Captain Rune Andreassen... and more paper work... and ...  Good thing that today the clocks are set one hour back!

We love our jobs here on board! It gives us the chance to see the world, meet interesting people, built quite a few friendships- and have a home far away from home here on board MV Fram! So it is work- but you bet: we do not want to trade to any other job! When I look out of my expedition leader`s office, one day I can see the bridges of St Petersburg opening in the middle of the night. Soon there will be the glaciars of Svalbard, the icebergs in Greenland, the maple trees of Nova Scotia and the penguins in Antarctica. One thing is for sure- it is a dream job!

Last seaday and the Kiel Channel

We ended our "Baltic Sea" cruise with nice weather. After two days with stronger winds and waves everybody enjoyed the calm sea on our way to the Kiel Channel. Most of the passengers were sleeping a little bit longer because last evening Klaus told in the Panorama lounge stories out of his own life as a lecturer on the "Seven Seas". It was already very late when most passengers left the lounge to go to bed.
But after breakfast we had again a full program for the whole day. Those passengers, they haven't been on the bridge before had now the chance to visit our Captain Rune Andreassen and to enjoy the nice view from his working place. At 10.30 a new lecture series started. Klaus gave us the last informations about the Kiel Channel and Friederike gave us an informative lecture about seabirds. During lunchtime we had the possibility to see the slideshow from our onboard photographer Cyndie. The slideshow was so well done and it was nice to remember all our stops we had on our cruise. After lunch Katja abducted us into the world of the vikings. And than it was "waffle time" again. After all this good food we need a diet when we are at home again. At 16.30 Friederike told us about Greenland, Antarctica and Spitzbergen. After we had seen all these wonderful pictures we are thinking already about a new cruise onbord MV FRAM.

Just after dinner we reached the Kiel Channel. Nearly everybody stood at the open decks or sit in the Panorama lounge with a nice drink. Green trees (they haven't been green in Russia or in Scandinavia) and yellow rapefields were passing by. And of course the locks have been very interesting for all of us. We nearly had no time for packing. The last evening onbord is not the nicest evening at all. You want to do everything at the same time, packing, relaxing in the bar, a last talk with the expedition team etc. But perhaps it is not the last day onboard. There is always a chance to come back. There are so many different destinations waiting for us. The knowledge about this will make it a littele bit easier to say good bye.

Roses. Ruins and History

St. Mary's Cathedral was greeting from a distance at the entrance to the old
Hanseatic-Town of Visby-also known as the "City of Roses and Ruins".
During the summer time the smell of roses wipes through the streets. Today, we can only sense the

Middle Ages,with the gates, towers,churches, warehouses and narrow streets.

It provides an excellent example of a typical North-Hanseatic town.

But the rich merchants in the hanseatic period also had many enemies.

There were the pirates who raided ships and robbed and terrorized Visby.

But the days are gone- now tourists come to spent their summer holidays

and experience the "Pearl of Baltic Sea".

On our trip around the island, we were accompanied by a grey sky and a cold east wind that swept over the trees und our heads. The beauty of the scenery is unique.We passed the picturesque old fishing village, Gnisvärd, dating back to the 1700's. And from the massive cliffs of Högklint, we admired  the stunning view over the coastline of Gotland and Visby. Unfortunately, we are not able to spent a very long on the island as the ship is waiting for us to continue our voyage. 

In the afternoon we enjoyed interesting lectures and especially the famous waffles in our observation lounge.

But last not least, our Captain invites for the great Farewell Dinner and the crew says farewell. Even though it is not our last night on board, we had our farewell dinner tonight as tomorrow in the evening we go through the Kiel Channel! Read about that later!

Stockholm - the Capital of Sweden

Unbelievably nice, exciting... the skerries, the entrance to Stockholm. Six o clock in the morning, too early for many passengers we were passing the outer lighthouse. A fresh breeze from northeast brought the ship a little bit out of balance. Small islands with needle trees and colored wooden houses on starboard and portside. What a wonderful site. Breakfast started 7.30 am. Each and everyone was on his feet and joined the passage through the narrows. 10 o`clock arrival in the centre of Old Stockholm, Gamle Stan how it is called. Only a few minutes walk to the small shopping streets with lots of cute restaurants and coffee bars. An area which looked liked a middle age city. The Kings Palace not very far and the famous island of Djurgarden on the opposite side of our ship. The whole day excursion went after a walking tour in the old city to the Vasa museum on Djurholm. It is impressing to see the proud war ship from the17th century which was lying under sea level for 333 years. The old picturesque Viking trading town "Sigtuna" was the next destination on the trip. The Swedish guide explained how Christianity started at this place and identified rune inscriptions on big stones. A wonderful trip! A half day excursion brought passengers on a ship around the Swedish capital. In the afternoon some of the guests went to the fabulous ice bar and enjoyed a vodka drink in an ice glass.

Everyone loved the stay in "the Beauty on Water" of the north. Stockholm is built upon 14 different islands and the mainland all linked together by over 50 bridges.

An excellent Philippino buffet was served in the evening as the ship found his way out of the lovely skerries.

The buffet was followed in the observation lounge by a superb entertaining by the Philippino crew with songs, dance and acrobatic performances.

St. Petersburg

Oh what a day, we are in St. Petersburg, this wonderful russian city, also well known as the "Venedig of the North". Everybody was looking forward to this day and we have been very happy, when we could see the first golden roofs very early in the morning. But, and there is always a but, we were a little bit disappointed, that the sunny sky we have had for the last days was gone. Instead of the sun we had grey clouds and rain, but even when it was raining cats and dogs we staid optimistic and that was good because the weather became better during the day.

All of us had a more or less busy daily schedule. The excursions started already very early and we really needed the time to get a good first impression of St. Petersburg. Very soon we recognized, that we would need weeks or months to learn all about the town, but our guides did their best to provide a good overview. A big group started the bus tour in the direction of  Pushkin to visit the Catherine Palace and of course the reconstruction of the Amber Room. We nearly got a "gold and amber rush" and too soon it was time to drive back to St. Peterburg where a typical russian lunch was waiting for us. Champagne and balalaica music set us in a good mood. After the visit of the magnificent St. Isaac Cathedral we had a little bus ride through the city and than we went back to the ship.

Another group conquered the town on foot and had the possibility for shopping in the famous Nevskiy Prospekt. Those, who could't walk very well had of course the chance to explore St. Petersburg by bus. After a long day full of new impressions we were all happy to sit down in our ships restaurant to enjoy the Norwegian Buffet.
Dinner gave us new power for a classic concert given by a russian orchestra on board MV Fram. In front of the panorame of St. Petersburg it was an unforgettable event.
After the concert everybody went to bed early because another day is waiting for us in St. Petersburg. At 7.15 the first excursions will start, but this city is really worth to get up early!

The old Hanse city of Tallinn

A beautiful morning has broken over Tallinn.  After a wonderful Norwegian breakfast with lovely Gejte Ost and fresh smooked salmon we started to conquer the historical city of Tallinn.On the pier bicycles were waiting for a ride with the group of our sporty guests. Everyone enjoyed the 12 km cycling outside and inside the mysterial city walls. The other guests went by foot through the narrow streets, passed hundreds of restaurants and coffee shops and some of them bought souvenirs from the people dressed in mideveal clothes. Excursions brought the rest of us to the churches and the ruins of the Brigitta monestry, passing the beach entered the upper city. At the market place a lot of people were gathered. It looked like a campus in the Mediterian area.
We set sail early in the afternoon in the direction of St. Petersburg. Lectures about the Hanse trade organisation,  the fish of the Baltic Sea and the preparing of immigration for the next day were offered in the lecture halls.

We are all just watching the last 20 minutes of the glorious sunset on the Baltic- either from the dining room, the outside areas or from the Observation Lounge. Cydnie, our photographer, is just preparing a picture presentation upstairs that will run continuously later on tonight.

It has been an interesting day- bridge visits with Captain Rune Andreassen in the morning, lectures about architecture, amber and the Baltic Sea and our next destination Tallinn. Even though it is a sea day, something always goes on! And if it is only eating freshly baked waffles in the afternoon! And as we have very busy days coming up, everyone is happy about the calm seas and the sunshine we experienced today. And while finishing writing this blog, the sun is nearly gone and I bet you wish you would be here with us when you read this!

Zaproszamy do Gdynia!

Welcome to Gdynia, Poland! It is not only the countries richest city (due to the fact that most buildings, shops etc are privately owned) but also the youngest city of Poland. The city rights were only granted in 1926!  Before that it has been a rather small place that turned out to grow quickly with the construction of the seaport in the 1920s. Today Gdynia is home to approximately 250.00 inhabiants.

All in all five excursion busses left in direction Gdansk. This 1000 year old city on the Baltic coast is an amazing place- especially on a public holiday like May 1st! Everyone seemed to be relaxing in the sun, strolling along the main streets and enjoying the rich Renaissance facades of the houses around the Long Market with the famous Neptun Fountain. Wherever you look, there are fine buildings from the time of the Hanseatic League. In 1945, the city was destroyed by 90%. Now many buildings  are restored- but only the outside while the inside is used in a modern way. And that is also the reason why Gdansk is not in the Unesco list.

The pictures today show impressions of Malbork Castle and Gdansk.

Gudhjem/ Bornholm

Travelling in our days is amazing: yesterday Kiel, today we spent in Denmark, tomorrow Poland, later on in Russia, Finland, Sweden and then back to Germany. Imagine how long it took travellers 100 years ago what we are going to experience within the next 12 days?? At the moment we have 229 German speaking passengers on board and the morning was spent with port and excursion presentations. Around noon we reached Bornholm in typical spring weather... A mixture of rain, lots of sunshine- and some wind. The picturesque fishing village with approximately 750 inhabitants did not offer a harbor but we are very  independend with our Polar Cirkle Boats. Once ashore, many went on excursions to see either the exciting Southern part of Bornholm or for a roundtrip. Others explored the town, enjoyed the fantastic views or chatted with the locals that came down to the harbor to greet. And what would be a day in Gudhjem without some typical smoked hering or a icecream?! Too soon it was time to say "good bye" again and off we went- tomorrow it is time for Poland!