Twelve-day cruise seeks out t

THERE ARE cruises for just about everybody these days,
from wine iasters to golfers, and shoppers to line dancers.
Now there is also The Intelligent Cruiser’s Guide to the
Baltic (but don’t drink the diesel).

This summarizes the remarkable
journeys of the Kristina Regina, a
Finnish vessel quite at home in the
Baltic, where a lot has been hap-
pening in the last few years, such
as Solidarity and the fall of com-
munism, freedom for the Baltic
states, and the reunification of
Germany.

All this was on the minds of 111
souls aboard the Kristina Regina
as it sailed from Copenhagen on a
12-day cruise, first stop Lubeck in
Germany. .

This is the prosperous West,
lots of shopping malls and $25 silk

. shirts, plus the charm of medieval
Hanseatic buildings such as had
‘been spared by the war. Author
Thomas Mann lived here.

Next day was Germany again,
but Rostock had been in the East
Bloc, which specialized in grim
architecture and rewriting history.

-For example, a local guide
pointed out a statue of Blucher,
whom she described as the ‘‘con-
queror of Napoleon and victor of

_ Waterloo.’’ Wellington was not
mentioned.

Then to Gdansk, once Danzig,
and now the part of Poland where
Solidarity started.

200 N. Corfield St.
"Parksville, BC Canada V9P 2H5
. Te! (604) 248-2239 Fax (604) 248-9798

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TRAVEL TIPS

This is a fine walking city with
an artists’ quarter and where gal-
leries sell silver and amber jewelry.

The nearby beach resort of
Sopot is dominated by the Grand
Hotel, a casino when Hitler stayed
there. The retreating German navy
petulantly destroyed it with a
broadside.

Few cities suffered more in the
war than Kaliningrad, formerly

Konigsberg. What the Russians
rebuilt is drab, dirty and pot-
holed. The river stinks like a
sewer,

In a park across from the old
stock exchange building, now a
seamen’s club, women offer used
clothing for sale.

Money is short because of ram-
pant inflation; a U.S. dollar,
which used to buy two roubles,
now sells for 1,200.

Lenin Avenue has acquired a
sex shop.

Kristina Regina sailed out past
the Russian navy. The once-secret
base is decrepit and some ships
have actually sunk at their moor-
ings.

As our ship was smart and
small (3,878 tons), we were able to
steam right into the centre of
every city and simply go fora
stroll. Travel was never so easy.

And so to the emerging states of
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

In every city the statues of
Lenin had been dumped, capi-
talism was struggling to get going,
but inflation is crippling.

In Klaipeda our guide was a
teacher who makes $70 a month.
She said she used to dream about
a future with bananas in the
shops.

The bananas have now arrived,
but she can’t afford to buy one.

In Riga it is the mid-summer

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DOWNTOWN PARKSVILLE

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Sunday, July 25, 1993 - North Shore News ~ 29

festival, and passengers have a
tearful reunion with relatives, who
sing to them and offer headdresses
of oak leaves.

It isa city of splendid churches.
Across from the 13th century
Dome Church the stock exchange,
first in the Baltic in 1836 and

he best of the

closed in 1940, is now back in
business.

‘Welcome to free Estonia,”’
says our guide at Tailinn, and we
see a medieval town that is a
jewel.

There used to be six newspapers

See Tours page 30

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ON A 22 DAY
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“Tours designed with seniors in mind

P.O. Box 12041, Suire 1560, 555 W. Hastings Street
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 4N4

687-5690

Qut-of-town customers call toll-free

1-800-663-1478

Office Hours: Monday - Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.