Geo: 52.5235, 13.4115Our last day in Berlin, our last day of the trip. Tomorrow we will be homeward bound.We enjoyed our last time to sleep late and then spent most of the day on Museum Island visiting museums. Before going, we went shopping at the Ampelmann shop. The ampelmannchen are the graphics used on the streetlights for Walk and Don't Walk in what used to be East Berlin. After unification, they were removed. However, the people had such a strong response and preference for the old style that the city put them back up. The ampelmann style is much cuter than the newer style. We visited the Altes Museum, the Neues Museum, and the Pergamon Museum. All had amazing collections of ancient works, but my favorite by far was the Pergamon. The collections there were huge ... read more

Geo: 52.5235, 13.4115For our first full day in Berlin we decided to see the sights related to WWII. Many of them are within walking distance of the hotel so I planned a loop to walk around. We started going south from the hotel to start the morning at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. It is entirely outdoors with displays about the history on a wall surrounding a courtyard with more displays. Inside the courtyard are two authentic pieces of the wall and more photographs on display. After reading all about what happened at Checkpoint Charlie and the people who attempted, successfully or unsuccessfully, to cross from East to West, we walked west toward the Topographie des Terrors and the Berlin Wall Monument. There were more displays about the Cold War and lots of stories about what the ... read more

Geo: 53.8689, 10.6873We had a full day to explore all of Luebeck. Most of the medieval sights are withing walking distance of the hotel so we made a nice day seeing lots of them. We first went to St. Jacobs Church, but it was closed for a "divine service" so we only saw the outside. Looked like they were having a Saturday morning wedding from the way the people going inside were dressed. Walking farther north then west, we came across the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, Das Heiligen-Geist-Hospital. Construction on it started in the 1260s and is has been used as a hospital, church and old folks home during the last seven centuries. It is still used as a retirement home. Going farther northwest we found the Castle Gate, Burgtor. The gate continues to be ... read more

Geo: 52.3738, 4.89095Arriving in our last port by 8 a.m. will give us just enough time for the two, or three, activities planned. The Rijksmuseum opens at 9, and we took a cab there first. We arrived just as it opened. The building has been under renovation for a while and much of the façade is encased in scaffolding and plastic wrap. The cabbie is able to drive up pretty close, and he points out where the current entrance is. Only a small portion of the exhibit space is open during renovation, but we spent about an hour and a half in the Philips Wing viewing great old masters, many of them Dutch, but not all of them. During our last visit to the Rijksmuseum, it was also being renovated, but then we were able to ... read more

Geo: 61.9389, -12.041This was a lazy day--no place we had to go; nothing we had to do. The only items on our itinerary today were eating lunch and eating dinner. We slept through breakfast, but got a croissant and a Danish with hot chocolate and coffee at the coffee bar. It was so nice just to read and nap all day. Well, that and eating. The hot chocolate is unbelievably good. It has the taste of a high content cocoa, yet still sweet, and the inside of the mug has been glazed with a thick coating of hot fudge. Delicious!The sea has been pretty rough again today, but the captain says that it will be much better tomorrow. Even as the evening approaches, the sea seems to be a little bit smoother. We have seen all ... read more