Well we are back at home. It was an incredible trip. It was fun for me to reread what I wrote and to remember all that we experienced. I hope you have learned something from our experiences. I will now attempt to add all the pictures from the trip to be view as a slide show. Until the next experience, wilson travels will be taking a break.

In case you wonder what we do on port days, this is me and Bjorn the yoga instructor, doing warrior position 3. Imagine doing sun saluatiions to the blue sky and ocean just outside the window. I took 18 classes so far. We also have had lecturers, there is a Psychologist right now talking about our unique selves. We read, I think I have finished 9 books. We play scrabble, or quidler most nights. We sit in the sun by the pool. They have arts and crafts which I have done. They have a great gym and I have used the bike regularly. And of course we eat.

Another day, another town.

Today we are in Copanhagan Denmark. This is jim leaving city hall. Copenhagan was occupied by germany from 1940 -44. Today it is run by a parliament and there is a queen Margaret.

We visited the famous Tivoli gardens. Beautiful as you can see. There are gardens, fountains, ponds, ducks, a theatre that had a ballet presentation while we were there (with live orchestra in the pit), and amusement park rides. Very different than Kennywood. The weather was great, the place was peaceful. We have been very blessed! The sea has been calm all month and the weather good. St P was the only cold weather and it is up there in the Hinderlands. To get my bearings we had to go to the library and look in at atlas a few times. Jim and I both enjoyed Copenhagan and would return here.

This is the original Pagoda from when Tivoli was built in 1843. The gardens were incredible. I enjoyed Copenhagan so much in 4 short hours I took 175 pictures. These are just a sampling.

One of the other things we did in copenhagan was to take a canal trip! Beautiful! It is a midevil city and the part they call the new city dates to 1700. Archirecture was varied and interesting. Lots of people outside walking, sitting, etc. House boats are a new thing in C and just beginning to catch on.

Two things that copenhagan is known for are : the Hans Christian anderson little mermaid statue and its beer. JIm is amazed how big his is--but he finished it regardless.

Today we arrived in Tallin Estonia our next to the last port. In 5 days we will be home. I have missed everyone and love getting emails, but it has also been an incredible experience!

One of the things we visited in Tallin was an old maritime museum. This is me in the oldest flooting sub still in exhistence. Way to claustaphobic for me.

Tallin was originally a medevil city with a walled city and mote. As we pulled into the harbor it lloked like 2 cities--one very old and one modern side by side. We walked inside the walled city and saw the house that was used by the KGB during the russian occupancy of Tallin. The guide told chilling stories, but one I found particularly poignant. When they were looking at a box of her grandmothers old pictures they noticed that some had small pieces cut out--it was where there had been a picture of the Estonian flag. She worried if they came to her house and searched and found the pictures it would have been grounds for imprisonment.

Estonia is half forest and so they bury the dead in the forests. Beautiful and quite peaceful. They call their forests "green gold".

We visited the museum of Soviet Occupancy. Tallin has been occupied by many countries over the years (danish, germans, sweds) including russia. They were occupied by russia from 1710 - 1918 when they got their independence. Then in 1940 russia came to them and ask if they could use their seaport, or they wold again take them over. So they said yes, russia came AND took them over. 10,000 estonians were sent to siberia. The economy was pridominantly farming. So they sent all the independent farmers and their families and then made a communal farm. These suitcases signify those who were sent. We also heard a woman talk who was sent to prison in russia in the 1980s for being a passive resistent. She got out in 1987 when a letter was smuggled out and sent to pres reagan. This was after Detante and prisoners were to be treated humanly. She said they knew he got the letter when they started feeding them regularly.

We are now in russia. Never in my life did I expect to see russia. It has left me with the impression of extremes. Opulence and meager. We really enjoyed the sight seeing but ....

We had a great day in St Petersburg Russia. The museums and churches are incredible. But...they all live in block high rises. Marraiges are civil.

The Heritage museum in st p is undescribable. It is the second largest museum in the world, only the Louve is bigger. There are 3 million pieces. It began as the private collection of Catherine the great.

This is an entertainer playing a russian instrument but I don't remember the name. Lots of fun!

We had a typical russian lunch, were well entertained by musicians and I learned o play a new instrument.

This is the church of the spilled blood. It was built on the sight of where Car alexander was murdered. It does not function as a church today. St P is described as"museum under the open sky". Aldo there are 65 rivers and canals.

This is athe church of spilt blook where I think Czar alexander was killed. It does not functiion as a church today. St petersburg is described as a"museum under the open sky". There are 65 rivers and canals in the city as well.

This is just a sample of the grandeur we saw in St Petersburg. This is the ceiling at the St Isaacs, once a church now a museum. St Petersburg was a planned city built in 1703. 5 million ppl live here. There is public ed and a great public transit system. It has served as the capital. St P consists of 41 islands, there are 350 bridges, twenty are draw bridges. Mid may to mid july they call the period of "white nights". It is similar to alaska that way.

We spent the night in St Petersburg and went to the summer palace on the second day. It is a Russian ccustom still to go to the country on the weekends. Most people have a "cottage" this is what royalty gets. This is Peterhoff, suburbs if you will. During WW II they camaflouged all the important buildings, some where destroyed anyway.

The pictures do not show the grandeur and brilliant golden figures adequately.

The pictures do not show the grandeur and brilliant golden figures a

This is the summer palace of the russian czars and one of the 350 fountains. They do not use a pumpp, it comes from a resovoir to the fountains to the Finland Bay thru gravity. It was so incredible, hard to beleive people ever starved in russia. I have so many beautiful pictures from the trip, I may try to ad them to the blog as a slide show at the end if anyone is interested. You have to see it to beleive it!

Look at the ears on this squirrel! This was taken right before he jumped up on the bench beside me. Boy did I move fast. These are the musicans that I was listening to. Jim could tell you the names. It was very nice. We had a beautiful sunny day to walk the grounds of the summer palace. The guide said one of the only 60 days of sun they get a year.

The Wilsons are now in Helsinki Finland. Finland was the first europeon country to give women the right to vote. (New zealand was the first in the world). It was also the place where the Datante conference that established a comitmant from the participating countries to concern for human rights in 1975 was held. In 1952 the olympics were held here.

We began our day walking thru a beautiful park designed after one in Paris. There are lots of public sculptures in Helsinki, jim is admiring one. Then we visited the outdoor market, always fun. When we returned to the boat we went to the library to look Finland up in an atlas. It is actually connected to mainland Russia. Russia invaded them in the early 1940s. They resisted and promised russia to stay neutral thru the war. They had once helped Lennin and so when they requested independence from russia he gave it to them. During the cold war it was as close as you could get to the ussr. Therefore there are large us, britain, etc embassies there. We also past a hotel that was used by the "james bond" spies.

This is the monument for the Finnish composer Sibelius. It is contraversal because he was a classical composer and it is a modernistic monument. SOme say he would hate it. In one of the many parks in Helsinki, the capital of Finland. They speak 2 languages, everything including street signs, are written in both--Finnish and Swedish. Finland use to belong to sweden. 10 % of the population is still swedish.

This is one of the incredible sites of Finland, the rock church. It is in the center of the town. The people did not want a church built there becauswe the kids played on the rock. So after 15 yrs. discussion 2 young architectual students came up with the idea of building the church in the rock. I am standing next to the wall of the inside of the church. The ceiling is a copper disk. Jim is standing at the entrance. Very unique.!

I wasn't happy with the picture of entering the stockholm harbor I choose and truthfully this one doesn't do it justice either. But there are alot of these islands, archepelicos, there. The early ones were covered with evergreen trees. Beautiful!

The view coming into stockholm was beautiful. Initially there was evergreen forest and it looked like canada. Stockholm is a city that consists of 14 islands. There is alot of water-the baltic sea, marlin lake, and a canal. There are some granite cliffs. And then there is a beautiful city with many old bldgs. A major commerce is ship building. They have no oil of their own, norway does.

And here are the wilsons in Stockholm sweden. This is a downtown city market. Stockholm has an elaborate system of underground trains. Some other facts--it has an ice bar kept at 4 degrees centigrade. You sit on ice, you drink from a glass made of ice etc. Also in addition to celebrating christmas and easter, they celebrate midsummer with a festival. They are also proud of abba the swedish singing group.