Singapore

Merlion in downtown Singapore

We were off the ship by about 8:00 AM and did a tour of Singapore in the morning, since our flight didn’t leave till 6:30 PM. Singapore is an island about 50 by 25 km. Seventy-five percent of the population is of Chinese descent. Singapore is an example of how a city should function: clean, little graffiti, great public transportation, effective health care, and lots of parks and green areas. We visited the modern downtown area and the historic European and Chinatown sections of the city. The law requires that all buildings get a fresh coat of paint every six years to keep the well-maintained look of the city. In the Chinese section we visited both a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple. 

A top the Hindu Temple

The highlight of the tour was the Orchid Garden with 60,000 orchids including 1000 species and 2000 hybrids.

Singapore's Orchid Garden

Summary:

This was not one of our better trips. We both got sick during the trip. For some reason, we met fewer people than normal. We asked for first seating, and we were the only couple at a table for eight.  Loved our waiters but missed out on conversation with others. We found the traffic and pollution of Indonesia to be difficult to deal with. We were both surprised that Bali was so crowded. If you stayed at a beach resort, you would have a different impression. The highlights were my visit to Mount Bruno on Java and the VW Safari around Bali. Having a driver and guide dedicated to us was a real treat.  

Krakatoa

 

Krakatoa

We woke up at 5:30 AM to sail past the Krakatoa caldera. This volcano is famous for its 1883 explosion, the equivalent of 13000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs. The explosion was heard as far away as Alice Springs, Australia. At least 36,417 people died, and many more thousands were injured, mostly from the tsunamis that followed the explosion. The eruption destroyed two-thirds of the island of Krakatoa. The caldera today has several islands that are above sea level. The last major eruption was in 2018. We could see steam coming up from one of the low-lying islands in the caldera.

Steam escaping on right

Singapore History

Singapore began as a fishing village named Temasek. Legend has it that a Malay prince was shipwrecked here, saw a lion, and considered it good fortune. Singapore stands for Lion City and was established in 1323. It became a major trading hub, but the city burned down in 1613. Thomas Raffles, an officer of the British East India Company, established a trading post here in 1819. The city had over 10,000 inhabitants in 1822, with a mix of cultures and a chaotic use of the land. That same year the Jackson plan was established creating four towns: European, China town, Indians in Chulia Kampong and an Islamic town in Kampong Glam.  By 1880 there were 80,000 inhabitants, half of whom were Chinese. The city became a British Crown Colony in 1867. In 1939, a British Naval base was established, and guns were placed along the seacoast because of the threat from Japan, fuel tanks were established, but no naval fleet was sent. The Japanese attacked Malayasia on December 8^th, 1941. Rather than attacking Singapore by sea, the Japanese came down the Malay peninsula through the dense jungles  using bicycles. This allowed them to quickly traverse the jungle. The Allied troops withdrew to Singapore on January 31^st. Rather than attacking Singapore by sea, the Japanese used collapsible boats to cross to the island from the peninsula. They quickly gained control of the water supply on the island, forcing the surrender of 35,000 allied troops on February 15^th, 1942. They slaughtered 70,000 Chinese in the next few weeks. The British took back the colony after the war, but the move for independence had begun, since they had failed to protect the citizens from the Japanese. The island became independent in 1959.  It spent 1963 to 1965 as part of Malayasia, but major disputes arose since Malayasia gave few rights to those of Chinese origin. Singapore returned to a nation state in 1965 and built a strong national identity and an economy based on manufacturing, finances, and trade.

Singapore's Marina Bay Hotel

Jakarta, Indonesia

 

Children playing their instruments

Today we did the half-day tour of Jakarta. Jakarta is the melting pot of Indonesia with most of the ethnic groups represented in its 20 million people. We began the tour at the grade school that Barak Obama attended for 2^nd and 3^rd grade. He lived in Jakarta those years after his mother married his stepfather, an Indonesian. The children there played traditional instruments, others danced for us, and of course we were asked questions so they could practice their English. I was asked my name, where I lived, what work I had done, my hobbies, and how old I was. They were surprised that I was 75.

Praying in Istiqlal Mosque

Our next stop was the Catholic Cathedral of Jakarta, built in 1901 on the site of the previous cathedral that burned in a fire and eventually collapsed. For a cathedral, it was a very simple church. We then walked to the Istiqlal Mosque across the street. A friendship tunnel under the street connects the two. The mosque is the largest in Southeast Asia holding 120,000 worshippers.  It was designed by a Catholic who won the architectural competition. It was built between 1961 and 1978. We were able to tour the inside of the mosque.

Altar in Chinese Temple

Then on to a walk of Chinatown and a visit to some Chinese temples. For about 50 cents a bird, you could release the birds for your good fortune. Our guide demonstrated the ritual to ask the gods about an important choice in your life. It involves the selection of a numbered stick and then receiving the interpretation for that stick. Her result was "Her wish would be quite costly".

Port of Batavia

Our final stop was the old port of Batavia, the former name of Jakarta. Here there ere wooden boats loading up for trade among the local islands. The entire dock area had flooded only two days earlier so we saw quite a lot of debris and mud. The dykes were about 4 feet high. Parts of Jakarta are sinking at the rate of 20 to 30 centimeters per year. This is one of the reasons that the country is considering the move of its capital to a different island.

We spent a lot of time in traffic today. While that has been a problem in most large cities here, this was the worst. The average commute time from the suburbs to the city is 2 hours, twice a day.

Semarang, Java, Indonesia

 

Borobudur Temple

We were supposed to do a half day tour of the sights in this city of 1.6 million people. But I’m having intestinal problems today and felt that 5 ½ hours on a bus with no bathroom would not be a good choice. At the port talk, we learned that the most interesting tour we could haven taken is to Borobudur. This is the largest Hindu temple in Southeastern Asia, a UNESCO world heritage site.

Leaving Semarang

Indonesian History Lesson

 

We’re at sea today. Our lecturer gave us a lesson on Indonesian History. The word comes from Greek meaning “Indian Island”. In 1891, a partial skull, tooth, and leg bone were found here  1 to 1.7 million years old, homo erectus which went extinct about 100,000 years ago. About the 8^th century, wet field rice cultivation was discovered, allowing 2 to 3 harvests per year compare to on harvest of dry field rice. The first kingdoms were established in the 1^st century AD. The most important kingdom was the Majahpahit from 1292 to 1527. Trade with India and China became important. Buddhism came with the trade. This was followed by the introduction of Hinduism, Then in the 13^th century, the Moslem faith became predominant.

In the 16^th century, the Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Dutch came searching for spices to flavor their bland food. The heart of the spice islands was the Maluku islands of Indonesia. The Dutch East India company was established in 1610. The Dutch government took over the company in 1800. They found that to stay profitable, they required 20% of the farm land to be used for export crops like coffee, sugar, tea, and peppers. The Dutch treatment of the natives was cruel and led to starvation. In the early 1900’s movements for independence started to form. But in January 1942, the Japanese invaded making things much worse. The population declined for the first time during those war years. The Japanese sent many Indonesians as forced labor on the “Burma Railway” linking Thailand and Burma.  Eventually after the Japanese understood they were going to lose the war. They began training the Indonesians as an army and as government elite who could run the country. The Dutch expected to take back the country but accepted Indonesian independence in 1949. General Sukarno became its first president with an established parliament. In 1957, he introduced guided democracy, reducing the Parliament’s power. He joined the non-aligned nations trying to balance East and West. But foreign aid from the west was reduced and the economy had super inflation. In 1967, General Suharto toppled Sukarno and ruled for 30 years. During the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 and 1998, there were massive riots and democracy returned. Indonesia is now the third largest democracy.

Lembar, Lombok Island

 

We had no plans to tour sights on Lombock Island. Our port is 12 km. from the nearest town and most of the sights were even farther. The fun part of the day was seeing the crew’s families come aboard, this would continue for the next two ports. Most of the staff are Indonesian in their early 30s so the kids and wife come aboard, often with parents. The crew members give them a tour of the ship, take pictures, and talk. When we get to Jakarta our waiter is going to visit his home for a couple of hours. Given that the crew works for eight months on and four months off, having a visit to an Indonesian port is special.

Mary with our cabin steward and his family

Komodo Island

 

Komodo Dragon

We’re moored off the coast of Komodo Island, home of Loh Liang National Park, established in 1980 to preserve the 3700 Komodo Dragons who live here and several surrounding islands. Approximately 2000 people also live on these islands. We walked one of the trails in the park for 90 minutes. We saw seven dragons in the forest near a waterhole which attracts animals. When a baby Komodo breaks out of its egg, it seeks protection from predators (including adult dragons) by climbing a palm tree and finding shelter in a hole in the tree. From here they feed on insects and small animals until 3 to 4 years old. Only five percent of the eggs make it to maturity of 7 to 8 years. The males can live as long as 60 years. They feed on other lizards and even the Timor deer we saw in the forest. They blend in with their surroundings and then can run as fast as 12 mph to bite their prey. The bacteria in their saliva will kill the deer. They can track the deer by their scent from as far as 5 km.

Dragon Nest

The animals are usually solitary except during mating season in June and July. The females will build a nest digging a hole about a meter deep where she will lay 20 to 40 eggs. The nest we saw on the trail was originally made by an orange footed scrubfowl.  The female dragon will guard the nest for a couple months until the rainy season in October. The eggs hatch in April. Sex is determined by the temperature of the egg. Today there are 3 males for every female. We finished our walk on the beach where we saw four Timor deer and another three dragons.

Timor Deer

Benoa, Bali, Indonesia - Temples and monkeys

 

Pura Taman Ayun inner courtyard

We started our day touring a 17^th century temple, Pura Taman Ayun. It follows the traditional design of three courtyards separated by split gates.  It has a large moat surrounding the temple and a smaller one around the inner courtyard.

Making Bali Cake

Then we stopped for a snack at a wonderful restaurant and they fed us a number of local specialties including Bali cake. On to the Sacred Monkey Forest with over a thousand macaque monkeys. Dating back to the 14^th century, the monkeys are considered sacred animals Apparently there are 3 clans, each led by a dominant male. Unfortunately, the “rangers” that guided us through the short walk, end the tour at their shop, where they sell souvenirs.

Sacred Monkey Forest

Our final stop was the Tanah Lot temple built on the rocks above the Java Sea. It is a temple to the sea god of Bali.

Tanah Lot Temple

I must say, Bali isn’t what I expected. I pictured an idealistic tropical island with beautiful beaches. Little did I expect the crowded island with vast traffic jams that we encountered. Still a fascinating place of Hindu culture, but not a place I would want to live.

Family Life and the Caste system in Bali

The first name is based on your birth order: first, second, third, or fourth child. More than four? Start over again. A variation of the name indicates male or female. Your Hindu caste is indicated by your title:  one of four castes. The lowest caste has no title. The women change caste when they marry a man from a different caste. There is no shame in marrying a different cast in Bali, even into a different religion. Yesterday’s guide had a Moslem daughter and a Christian son. When a woman marries, she moves into her husband’s family home. When the father dies, the ownership of the home remains with all his sons. Even if the wife is widowed she remains in her husband’s family home. They all share a kitchen, and family area, but have separate bedrooms.

Benoa Bali - VW Safari

 

Our tour today was labeled as a VW Safari. Mary and I were driven into the interior of Bali by a driver and our private guide, Navayana, in a VW Thing. We had a police escort again to navigate the fierce traffic. Our two-lane road often had 3 vehicles side by side with a scooter trying to pass between vehicles. This is the “Land of a Thousand Temples”, there are probably 100,000, many of the houses have a temple in their front yard. The making of temples, gift offerings to the gods and Hindu ceremonies form a large part of the local economy. Our first stop was a batik shop where they demonstrated how they used wax to create patterns from which they died the cloth.

Gangsa and Bonsa instruments

We continued through districts (former villages) specialized in statues, furniture, baskets, silver. etc. We passed many former royal residences and numerous temples. Our next stop was a shop that makes gangsa,  bonsa,  and gongs used to play gamelan music in Hindu ceremonies. The artisans were carving the wood, creating metal pieces and gongs, all carefully tuned.

Mount Batur

The road began climbing higher eventually to about 1000 meters where we had lunch with a gorgeous view of Mt. Batur, a volcano, and Lake Batur in the caldera of the volcano.

Village of Penglipuran

We visited a preserved 17^th century village, a UNESCO world heritage site, Penglipuran. The traditional homes usually had a family temple for the ancestors in front with a kitchen and the bedroom for the family parents. As children are married, they may construct other bedrooms behind the main building. Sharing the kitchen, courtyards, temples, and kitchen. Each home had an area for selling goods.

Pura Kehen Temple

Our last stop was a 13^th century temple, Pura Kehen Temple. This was the main temple for the Bangli Regency, one of nine kingdoms in Bali. The split gates represent a mountain. Lions often guard the entryway. Temples usually have three levels or courtyards. The outer courtyard features a 400-year-old Banyan tree. The last of which is only used for meditation or ceremonies and has a 11-tiered tower. I was surprised to see Chinese porcelain plates and cups built into the wall separating the first two levels.

Mount Bromo

 

Taking the ponies to Mount Bromo

Our excursion today was to climb 2329 meter Mount Bromo, one of seven active volcanos on Java. It last erupted in 2011. We started with a one-hour bus ride through the city. Soon we were climbing the mountain and even had to resort to first gear occasionally. We stopped for a snack at a hotel and transferred to 4 wheel jeeps to proceed. Four of us singles formed a group for the jeep: Linda from Las Vegas, Jeff from Ohio and Geoff from Melbourne. The road was narrow but paved as we climbed through the bamboo forest. As we proceeded, farms began to appear with vegetables growing on the steep hillside. Finally, we reached the caldera of the volcano. Here we mounted a pony who took us across the sand flats and started a climb up the crater. 

The final ascent

The final ascent was a steep staircase of 250 steps. The rim of the crater was 3 to 10 feet wide, so one had to watch your step. I could hear the gurgling of the steam, smell the sulfur dioxide, and see the steam rising. Occasionally the wind would blow the steam so we could see partially into the crater. I walked back to our jeep. We stopped at a viewpoint on the way back, but the clouds obscured most of the view. We had a good lunch. As we started back to the ship we had our afternoon rain.

Surabaya, Java, Indonesia

Mary and John at Bajang Ratu Gate

We spent all day on our tour to the Archeological sites of the Majapahit Hindhu kingdom. We left the 3 million people in Surabaya to drive into a countryside of rice, sugar cane, and assorted other fruits and vegetables. We had a police escort because even the freeways are bogged down by slow moving trucks and numerous scooters. We started at the Trowulan Architectural Museum. We were entertained by local dancers who shared a welcome dance followed by a dance to fight evil spirits.

Then we saw Buddhist and Hindu statues as well as reliefs from the temple. The museum was filled with kids on school trips, they were excited to say ‘hi’, high five, and wave with foreigners.

Lord Vishu mounting Garuda 

We went on to the Tikus temple, a ritual bathing pool, which contained the holy water from the mountains.

Tikus Temple

Sea day on the way to Indonesia

 

We went to several talks to learn more about Indonesia. The cultural talk today focused on Bali. Over 40% of tourists’ visits are to Bali. In contrast to the rest of Indonesia, Hinduism is the primary (87%) religion here. Islam came to Indonesia in the 15^th century, many Hindus fled to Bali. Bali’s style of Hinduism includes elements of Animism, making it more attractive to the people. Bali is known as the Island of the Gods with over 20,000 temples. There are some cultural taboos: the left hand is considered unclean, and one never touches someone on the head. The head is considered the seat of your soul. Nyepi the day of silence, is the day to convince the evil spirits that the island is deserted. Every business, school, and even the airport is closed. Throughout Bali, you will see Bantan, offerings to the gods. Caning Saui is a daily small offering. Banten Tegala is a stacked offering of fruit. The most interesting cultural fact is the Metatah ceremony where the canine teeth of the teenager are filed when they reach puberty, the ceremony to become an adult. Filing the canine teeth makes them human, different than other animals.

We began what would become a nightly ritual. We had first seating at a table of eight. Last night, we had one other couple Indonesia at the table, but we soon learned they preferred the Lido for dinner. Tonight, it was just us at our table of eight. After dinner, we would go to the Billboard lounge and listen to Megan and Gabe, who played hits on two pianos. 

At Sea on the Noordam

 

We arrived in Singapore at 7:15 on Sunday morning after leaving Denver at 5:30 PM on Friday. We boarded the ship, Holland America’s Noordam, at about 1 PM. We’re learning about our ports of call and the culture of Indonesia during our two days at sea. Indonesia consists of 17,508 islands and 277 million people. It also has over 700 languages and more than 600 ethnic groups with unique cultures and ethics.

Torajan Houses

Our speaker explored the Torajan people who live in the mountains of Sulawesi island. The houses are unique in the shape of a saddle back, believed to have originated from turning their boats upside down. This culture is known for their death rituals, which last several days and involves the whole village and possibly nearby villages. It may cost up to $100,000. This requires the family to save up over years for the rite. Meanwhile, the body us mummified, dressed in clothes, and stays with the family. It is fed, clothes are changed and even given cigarettes if they smoked. The funeral itself can last as long as 12 days with meals of Buffalo and pig. The body is buried in the caves of the mountains with a wooden statue of the deceased in a balcony in front. Once a year, the body is brought out, dried and clothed with new garments, and paraded around the village.

Wooden statues in front of grave site

Copenhagen

 

Our final day began with a bus tour of Copenhagen. Denmark is the oldest kingdom in the world. The 83-year-old Queen abdicated this year in favor of her son. He is well loved with four children being educated in public schools. He has become “Denmark’s best marketing department”. We stopped first at Churchill Park with the Gefion Fountain, Gefion was a Norse Goddess who turned her 4 sons into bulls. She was promised whatever land that she could plow in a day as belonging to Denmark.

Little Mermaid

We went on to see the Little Mermaid in the harbor and the Rosenborg Castle Gardens. We took in one of the markets, where we saw the Danish special: open-face sandwiches.

Rosenburg Castle Gardens

Then we were given free time in the town center. Many went souvenir shopping, it was our last day. After lunch at an Irish Pub, I took in the 17^th century King’s New Square and New Harbor, the 18^th Century Marble Church, and Amalienborg Palace, the residence of the Royal family.

New Harbor

This was a great trip:  seven interesting countries, great lectures on local topics, unbelievable weather for September (60s and 70s. only one day of rain), friendly and helpful crew members (many of us needed help to our cabins on the one stormy night heavy waves). The highlights were the Vasa Museum in Stockholm and the documentary film about the “Singing Revolution” followed by touring the sites in Tallin, Estonia. Our guide, Julia, was a great representative of Finland, the happiest country in the world. And we bonded with quite a few of our fellow travelers.

Mary with our guide Julia

 

Day in the life on Bornholm

 

Citizen Committees

We started our day in one of the nearby towns. Jurgen, our speaker, has a background in public transportation systems. He was quite proud of working with both the public bus and school bus systems on the island. By changing school starting times, he managed coordinate these two systems, so that he increased the ridership by 70% and the bus system became profitable.

Historically. Bornholm’s economy was primarily fishing. But fishing has declined with overfishing combined with more pollution from fertilizer. Meanwhile world trade has flourished with large container ships reducing the cost of transporting goods. Thus producers need to efficiently produce large quantities of high quality goods, usually requiring the producer to be in a large city. But large cities also have a high cost of living. What do you do in a rural area like Bornholm?

Today, it only takes about 100 farmers to produce the same crops that use to take 5000 farmers on this island.  Our citizen committee decided to concentrate on local food and handicrafts to support tourism with the initial funding coming from the EU. We are seeing success. The island has recently won a Michelin star restaurant and a world prize in crafts.

Nelson, Miya, and Fred at the organic farm

Organic Farm

We then went to Hammersley organic farm. Our hosts, Nelson, Miya, and Fred all had advanced degrees in agronomy. This is their third season running the farm. They rent the land from a firm whose purpose is to encourage organic farming. Many of the 150 shareholders also volunteer at the farm. The farm operates as a CSA, community supported agriculture, with 65 customers who pay up front for a share of the crop. Currently, the farm produces about 50 varieties of vegetables (including 7 types of tomatoes) on their 20 acres. They are growing new unfamiliar vegetables, so they give their customers recipes for them. They are also selling to 10 local restaurants.  In addition, they are renting part of the land for wine grapes and an orchard. Next year, they will be growing mushrooms. 

Vegetable rows 

We had lunch of salad and an open face sandwich of breaded fish. We spent the afternoon in the village of Gudhjem.

The Village of Gudhjem

Bornholm, Denmark

 

Smokehouse

The Denmark flag is the oldest national flag in the world. The legend is that the Archbishop of Denmark prayed in 1222 for God’s blessing against the Swedes and a red flag with a white cross floated down from heaven. Bornholm is a 30 x 40 km. island only 30 km off the Swedish coast. It has 14K people living here. Fishing was the primary industry, but now agriculture and tourism predominant.

Hammershus Castle

We visited a former smoke house. Here the women smoked the fish and then hung them on racks to dry. The island is primarily made of granite in the north and we saw several quarries. Our most interesting stop was Hammershus Castle. Built in 1250, this was once the largest castle in Scandinavia. It was deserted in 1525 when the Germans took the island. We explored St Olaf’s Church, a Nordic Round Church built in 1115.

St. Olaf's Church

In the afternoon, we took a hike from Gudhjem along the coast from the seashore to the cliffs and through the forest. We made good time, so the bus driver suggested another short walk to his favorite spot on the island.

Hike along the coast

That evening, Krishna, our restaurant manager, MCed the Crew Show.

Gdańsk, Poland

 Gdańsk is a heavy industry port of 450,000 people. It became part of Poland in 970 AD. Poland was one of the first countries to elect their king and allow for religious freedom. It was absorbed Prussia in 1793, and was a free city under the protection of the League of Nations after the First World War. Germany and Russia invaded Poland in September 1939 to start World War II. Six million Poles died during the war, half of them were Jews. Ninety percent of the Old Town was destroyed. At the end of the war, the Russian army ‘saved’ Poland. Three million tons of debris had to be removed before the rebuilding the Old Town.

Neptune Fountain and Artus Court

We started our tour at the Green Gate, named for the green windows. Designed as a Royal Palace, it was never used by royalty. What look like separate buildings along Long Street are long flats that are decorated to match their former look during the Hanseatic times. Near the Neptune fountain is the Artus Court, the name derived from King Arthur’s Court. The town hall was home to the Teutonic Order, we listened to the carillon play the hour. Saint Mary is a Gothic church built with bricks between 1343 and 1502. Inside is an astronomical clock from 1467 and Last Judgement from 1472. The 1517 altar depicts the crowning of Mary.

Clock and Last Judgement

After a local lunch of pierogi, a polish dumpling, we went to the Solidarity Museum. During Soviet times in Poland, people would wait in lines for hours to buy groceries. Our guide remembered his mother waiting 3 days to buy furniture, you took whatever chair that came next off the truck. In 1970, the government raised the prices by 30% while wages were stagnant. In December 1970 shipyard workers went on strike in protest and people died in the streets.

Marital Law declared during protests

In August 1980, Anna, a crane operator, was fired for participating in a labor union, five months before her retirement. She and others turned this into a strike on bread-and-butter issues in sympathy with strikes elsewhere in Poland and issued a list of 21 demands. The shipyard workers rather than taking to the streets, stayed in the shipyard, making it harder to break up. On August 31^st the Communists recognized the union. A month later other factory organizations joined together to form Solidarity. But in December, martial law was declared. Talks between Solidarity and the government led to semi-free elections in 1989, which resulted in a Solidarity led government and in December 1990, Lech Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. Unfortunately, Poland experienced a time of anarchy and unemployment of 27%. The Communists went from ruling to owning most of the now privatized companies.

Lech Walsea addressing the crowds

Our day ended with very rough seas, only about half of us made it to dinner. I was about to order when seasickness hit me. With help from the crew, I made it to our room, but I was unable to even sit up without getting dizzy. Mary continued on at dinner, but a big wave hit and she fell to the floor, but protected her head. Meanwhile the waiters tried to save the plates from crashing in the kitchen. We went to bed early and slept soundly. The waves calmed down about 10:30.

 

Topic: The effects of the Ukrainian War in the region

Economic effects: The West thought that trade with Russia would prevent war. Russia is rich in energy resources, especially oil and gas. In Finland during the first winter of the war, people were asked to not use their saunas until alternative energy sources could be found. Many of the coal plants and nuclear plants were re-opened and the move to green sources was accelerated. Many companies ceased operation in Russia, but they sold their facilities at deep discount. Europe shut their borders to Russian tourists, though Hungary and Slovakia want to reopen the borders. European Union cities are pairing with Ukrainian cities to helping with reconstruction after the war.

Security concerns: Russia is jamming GPS signals, and hacking computer systems in many countries. NATO exercises have been intensified, recently Baltic Sea exercises and Winter exercises above the Artic Circle have been held. Many have volunteered to get military training including Darias, one our guides who is studying at the Lithuanian military academy. Many countries are worried about the loyalty of Russian minorities, especially if they only speak Russian and get their news from Russia.

People: Many countries have absorbed a lot of Ukrainian refugees. This has strained local resources, especially school resources. Most have jobs and are receiving health, and welfare benefits. Some of the refugees have returned to Ukraine even with the war, some are avoiding military service, even though other men have been on the front lines for two years.

Klaipėda, Lithuania

 Kaipėda is the major port for Lithuania, 60,000 of the 160,000 residents are supported by the port. This was a heavily fortified Nazi port during WW II. After a 100-day siege by the Russians in January 1945, the Germans retreated. Only 28 Lithuanians were found still living in the city.  

Gate of Hell on Hill of Witches

Rather than visit this industrial city, our tour focused on the national park that is a 10-minute ferry ride away on the Curonian Spit across the lagoon. It gets over 500,000 visitors each year. In the 17^th and 18th centuries, this long peninsula was stripped of its trees, sand took over and made this a desert island, 14 villages disappeared among the sand dunes. During the 19^th century a 100-year process of reforestation was begun including a 9 km long protective dune. They discovered amber in the lagoon, and the village of Juodkrante was created to house of the workers. Today, it is a resort town. Just outside the town, we walked the Hill of Witches. This sculpture trail built between 1979 and 1982 has eighty oak sculptures that depict various fairytale and legends. Witches used to gather here on the summer solstice. The trail takes on the journey of that night guided by Neringa through the land of witches and demons until dawn arrives, when you can dance for joy with your companions.

Carol and Lorna celebrate after our walk

Later we saw a strip of forest where over 2000 pairs of cormorants gather; their feces poison the forest trees.

Border with Russia along tree line

After lunch, we climbed Avinas hill, the tallest dune on the island to see the border with the Kaliningrad enclave of Russia. We were advised to keep our phones in airplane mode, since the cell towers in Kaliningrad would be happy to steal our information. Then on to Nida, a village where we saw a sailing competition in the lagoon. Here we saw Curonian pennants, ornate carved flags, unique to the family on the Spit.

Pennant for Nida