Stockholm

Sun 6 June

Today is Sweden’s National Day and when we arrived at the Old Town the crowds were starting to grow as many of the events were in the vicinity of the Palace.

We walked from the Metro station to the Cathedral and listened to the choir rehearsing for the 11:00 service and we were surprised at the interior as it a Lutheran Cathedral and we expected a very plain interior, instead we found a Baroque interior that would rival any Roman Catholic Baroque Church in Europe with a very elaborate pulpit and other canopies and the altar and reredos would not be in keeping with Martin Luther’s idea of simplicity so that a person’s praying was not distracted by the beauty around them. As we planned to attend the service in the Palace Chapel also at 11:00 we left and walked to the Palace.

Inside the palace courtyard were several displays and activities, though when we were there yesterday the courtyard was closed to the public. Climbing the stairs to the Royal Chapel we again found a highly decorated church with both Baroque and Rococo styles and the whole ceiling was painted depicting the Ascension of Christ. When were entered we were told that instead of the normal service, that there was to be an organ recital in honour of National Day.

The organ was built in 1753 and was rebuilt in the 1990s so it sounds today as it did in the 18^th Century. The recital included works by Bach, Purcell, Roman and two works especially composed for the weddings of the current King and also his sister. The recital lasted for half an hour but with the acoustics in the Chapel we could have sat there for hours listening.

Outside the Chapel the crowds had increased and we couldn’t get anywhere near to the outer courtyard where yesterday we witnessed the changing of the guards and today a military band was playing prior to today’s changing so we decided to wait along the route the band and new guard would pass on the way to the courtyard. As luck would have it there was a monument with large steps so by climbing on the top step we were about 3 m. up and able to see over the crowds and unlike London, the police allowed us to sit there. Around 12:15 we heard a band approach and coming up the hill towards us was a mounted band followed by the new guard, also on horseback. On entering the courtyard the guard dismounted and their horses were brought out to where we were standing and another troop from the Regiment mounted to ride them back to their barracks.

Walking down the hill behind the troop we found that the Royal Armoury was open today and we could go in to view weapons and armour, including armour for horses dating back to the 13^th Century, there were also old uniforms, costumes and clothing on display. Including clothing worn by the Royal children during the 20^th Century. Downstairs there was a display of elaborate Royal coaches used for coronations, weddings and day to travel; these were mainly from the 16 and 1700s. The cost to build one of the coaches was the equivalent of 1150 years wages for a coachman. How the other half lived!

On entering the Armoury we found that entry was free for National Day as was every where in the Palace, yesterday we paid nearly $50 for our admission.

Outside again; and there were many people enjoying the festivities and many, mainly the more senior citizens dressed in national costume from various regions of Sweden.

After lunch we travelled to the Historic Museum where they have displays from

pre history some dating back to around 3000 BC, through the stone age, iron age, Viking era and Medieval Times, one room is the

Gold Room and contains gold and silver items found all over Sweden, many from hoards where people had hidden their treasures and never recovered them. The craftsmanship of the items of jewellery some more than a thousand years old

Tomorrow we hope to go to the Vasa Museum.

Stockholm

Sat 5 June

Yesterday we purchased a seven day travel card and although we will only be in Stockholm for four more days it is cheaper than buying tickets and it allows us to travel on buses, trains, underground and trams anywhere in Stockholm without worrying about zones and we only have to “touch on” when boarding. Another example of an efficient pre paid travel card.

We caught the bus to the Old Town and walked along the wharf to find where our canal cruise leaves next week, it’s almost over the road from the hostel we were originally booked into but we will now need a taxi to get there in time for departure.

We then walked to the Royal Palace which is the official residence of the Royal family, even though they live in another palace out of town, however this is where they carry out their official duties and where their offices are situated.

Our first visit was to the Royal Treasury where the crowns, swords, orbs sceptres and other emblems of royal authority are stored, these date back from the 1500s to the regalia used today and the number and size of the diamonds and other precious stones and pearls in the crowns and other regalia would go a long way to clearing Victoria’s debt. Also in the display was the solid silver Royal Font that has been used for royal baptisms for several centuries and a solid silver throne given as a present to one of Sweden’s queens in the

1600s.

Our next visit was to be to the Royal Apartments but as the Changing of the Guard was due in less than an hour and the guards were already putting up the rope barriers to control the crowd we thought a place at the front would be worth the wait. The Royal Guard has been stationed at the Palace since 1523 and on some days it is a Cavalry unit who mount the guard.

At 12:15 the Naval Band entered the Palace courtyard leading the new guard, the band is rotated so on some days it is an Army Regiment Band and on others the Naval Band, the old guard having already assembled, at the double, awaiting their arrival. We were struck at the casual attitude of the guard as they would walk over to people to ask them to move back over the ropes and when we spoke to one he replied to our question, we also saw an officer walk up to a sentry carrying a bottle of water and give him a drink, we also noticed th

at their were girls in both the old and new guard.

The actual changing ceremony was very formal and different to any of the other changing of the guard ceremonies that we have witnessed in other countries but then every county’s ceremony is unique. While the sentries were being relieved the Naval Band played a bracket of pop and classical music.

After the band and old guard had departed we entered the Royal Apartments and walked through two floors. As with many palaces the ceilings and walls were adorned with painting and many rooms had Rococo decorations, when compared to the palaces in Russia, this one was the poor cousin however the furnishing and other decorations were still very impressive. The palace in the Italian baroque style was built to replace the Tre Konor Palace which was burnt down in 1697, the architect estimated it would take six years to build but like Victorian Government projects the completion date stretched well past the estimated date and it was another 54 years over before it was completed in 1754.

Our next visit was to the Tre Kronor Museum which is actually formed by part of the13th century defensive walls and the plastered brick walls dating from the 16^th century. The museum is under the new palace and contains many artefacts from the old palace and provides an insight into the day-to-day life of the old palace. From there we went to the Gustav III’s Museum of Antiquities which is one of the oldest museums in Europe and was opened to the public in 1794. Most of the marble statues were acquired by Gustav III during his trip to Italy in 1783/84 and comprise many statues and busts from the Roman era.

When we came out from the palace we found that the road in front of it was closed off and

many of the estimated 18,000 marathon runners were plodding past, we don’t know when the race started but we had missed the fast runners as every now a runner went past with a pennant tucked into the back of their shorts, 3:45, 4:00 and 4:15 were ones we saw and this was 45 minutes after the time displayed on the pennant. As the street was closed, the bus we hoped to catch back to the hostel wasn’t able to run, so we walked through some of the old town and caught the Metro back to our hostel.

Tomorrow is Sweden's National Day and the official start to the celebrations for the Crown Princess's wedding on June 19.

Post Script: We have just been speaking to a young man in the hostel who ran in the marathon, the time on the pennants stuck in the shorts of the runners weren't their starting times, the runners were pace makers and the time shown was the time they were expected to take to complete the course so anyone aiming for that time would try to run with them. The race started at 2:00 pm and the runners were passing the palace for the second time when we saw them. Another runner has just "walked" though the lounge and he is having trouble climbing the stairs.

Stockholm

Fri 4 June

A good night’s sleep as our cabin didn’t have a window so it was dark all night, unlike Tallinn where we only had around three hours of darkness.

The ship docked on time and we had around a 400 m. walk from the ship to the exit of the terminal. On board there was a large duty free shop and many had taken advantage to stock up, the shop supplied a luggage carrier with six cartons of cans and I think many people travelling didn’t have cabins but partied in the bars and night club all the way from Tallinn. Only one problem they couldn’t control their cans on the walk to the exit and young men were trying to gather up the cans they dropped along the way, many kind people were giving them plastic bags to replace the split cartons. Outside the terminal was a bus to the city and across the bus parking area they were still dropping cans, several spilling their contents. Boarding the bus we were pleased to discover that it stopped beside the bridge to the island on which our hostel was situated so we didn’t have to walk from Central Station as we expected. We checked into the hostel around 11:00 am but couldn’t access our room till 1:00 so decided we would go for a walk until then.

We hadn’t left the hostel when my phone rang it was the hostel reception, “could we come to the hostel office? We’re very sorry but we’ve had a computer glitch and booked you and another couple in a group in the same room, would you mind moving to the hostel in the city centre.” As the across Sweden cruise we are booked on next week leaves from the wharf about 100 m. from the hostel we weren’t that keen to move but they offered to pay for a taxi both to the other hostel and back to the cruise boat next week and provide breakfast free of charge on five mornings, so we accepted their request.

After checking into the new hostel we walked to a supermarket and could hear a lot of yelling and whistling, it was a large truck with high sides and full of dozens of high school students celebrating the end of year. As we walked around the city, dozens of these trucks were driving up and down all the city streets packed with students, a generator and a large sound system, it is obviously a Scandinavian custom as we witnessed a similar event in Oslo 24 years ago. As in Oslo many of the students were very obviously rather worse for wear and standing on a bridge as one of the trucks passed underneath the floor was littered with hundreds of empty beer cans. We were later informed that they would be eighteen years old and at that age they can go into a bar but they are not allowed to buy take away until they are twenty. They must have some kind friends who provided their supplies. Tomorrow should be a quiet day as there may not be a high school graduate to be seen.

Sweden is in the throes of preparing for a royal wedding, Princess Victoria is marrying on June 19 and the celebrations start on the Swedish National Day, Sunday June 6, with many functions in the parks and other venues and the celebrations continue until the wedding, unfortunately we couldn’t accept an invitation to the wedding as we will be in Scotland.

We have just discovered that tomorrow, Saturday, 18,000 marathon runners will be running around Stockholm’s streets which may interfere with our sight-seeing plans.

Tallinn

Thur, 3 June

On our last day in Tallinn, there wern’t many parts of the old town that we hadn’t covered so we started in the square in front of the Town Hall which was built in 1404 and is the only surviving Gothic town hall in Northern Europe. I don’t know the height of the spire above the town hall but considering when it was built it’s an amazing feat of engineering.

A short distance from the square we arrived at St Catherine’s Walk, a narrow lane lined with craftsmen’s workshops, glass blowers, stained glass makers, leather workers and others. One side of the lane is the wall of an old monastery and fixed to the wall are old tombstones dating back to the start of the 1300s.

After leaving the lane we walked towards part of the old wall along which there were around twenty stalls, selling a large range of traditional knitted garments, beanies, jumpers, socks, shawls and other items. With so many stalls selling similar items we wondered how they make a living.

Outside the walls there was a street lined on one side with flower stalls, the range and quality of the flowers was brilliant and again we questioned how they could make a living. At the end of the row of stalls were many elderly people selling bunches of Lily of the Valley at about a quarter of the price being charged by the stalls, though the quality wasn’t as good.

From the flower stalls we walked back through the town gate to visit another Russian Orthodox Church with an amazing collection of icons and artefacts and as less than 6% of Estonians are members of the Russian Church it must be difficult to maintain the buildings and contents.

As we had walked along nearly every street and lane in Tallinn we returned to the hostel for lunch. After lunch we walked outside the Old Town walls and through the gardens where the displays for the annual flower festival were situated, one was still being built and the others were in the early stages of growth with nearly as much soil as plants but in a month or so the plants in the beds will have filled out and it will be a far better display. In one display there was an interesting sculpture, quite a contrast to the old walls.

Returning to the hostel we ordered a taxi and carried our cases down the two flights of narrow winding stairs, thank goodness we won’t have to climb then again but who knows what future hostels have in store for us.

We boarded the ship, Victoria I for our trip to Stockholm around 4:30 for a 6:00 pm departure; we have a comfortable cabin with a small en-suite and thought the price for transport and accommodation of around $185 to be quite reasonable, although I think they make their profit from the prices they charge in the restaurants and bars, there is also a large duty free store and casino on board.

We arrive at Stockholm at 10:00 am (11:00 Tallinn time) and have to find our way across town to our hostel; we presume there will be buses running from the terminal.

Tallinn

Wed 2 June

After breakfast we walked along a small cobble stoned street beside the town wall to the top part of the Old Town. At the top of the street the imposing Alexander Nevsky Russian Cathedral filled the square occupying one of the highest parts of town.

We walked from the Cathedral to some viewing platforms on the walls which provided views over the Lower Old Town and across to the ferry terminals and harbour. Judging from the large number of people walking through the streets accompanied by guides there must have been some cruise ships in port, that’s the problem with these towns, they’re full of tourists, though the crowds are nothing like we experienced in Prague, two years ago, on May Day.

Across from the Russian Cathedral is Toompea Castle a large pink building now occupied by the Estonian Parliament. The original castle was a wooden fortress built in the 10^th or 11^th century and was thought to be the first structure in what is now Tallin. Outside the parliament was a protester wearing a large sign around his neck, he was protesting about the price of electricity, I thought that I should join him as is seems to be a universal problem.

The next building we visited was the Cathedral of St Mary the Virgin also known as the Dome Church, this is the oldest church in Estonia and was originally a Roman Catholic cathedra but now is Lutheran. The walls of the cathedral are covered by the most magnificent heraldic shields of the old Estonian nobility. These shields are covered with three dimensional carvings with all the emblems comprising their coats of arms, some of the shields were over three metres tall by a metre wide and in some cases almost 600 mm deep, we have never seen any thing like it before.

From the cathedral we walked along the inside of the old town wall, past many defence towers and on to the large Kiek in de Kok or Cannon Tower which we presume in times gone by, housed cannon on its many levels. We then arrived at a small square with a well, the only one we have seen but we suppose there must have been many through the town in early days.

After lunch we continued our walk around the Lower Old Town following the wall and at one corner in the street were houses with many styles of roofs, including iron, quiet a contrast. At the other end of town from the Cannon Tower was another town gate beside Fat Margaret’s Tower, obviously named before the politically correct idiots inhabited the world. This tower although it is not as tall as Cannon Tower was nearly twice the diameter, hence its name. Another tower on the corner of Toompea Castle was the tallest in the wall and was aptly named Tall Hermann’s Tower.

Many of the houses in Tallinn Old Town were built in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and it would appear that the facades must remain the same even if the interiors are modernised. One house dating back to the early 1400s was the House of the Brotherhood of Black Heads, the members were unmarried German Merchants, a similar group of married merchants was the Brotherhood of Swords.

The Black Heads are credited for having the first Christmas tree; in 1441 and again in later years, they erected a tree in the yard of their house in the period leading up to Christmas and on the night before Christmas they burnt the tree in the Town Hall Square. This slowly evolved into the decorated Christmas tree that Prince Albert introduced into England after he married Queen Victoria.

During our walk around town today we noticed a café with very cheap prices, around half the cost of nearby cafes so decided we would eat there tonight. Because of the low prices we thought the serves would be correspondingly small – wrong!!! We ordered mushroom soup, ham and cheese omelette and an apple pancake and custard and were shocked at the size of the serves. The soup was served in a large cereal bowl, very thick with large chunks of mushrooms, the omelette, folded, covered a dinner plate and had half an inch of grated cheese over it and shock, horror, the pancake was folded in four and covered a large dinner plate as well, before folding it could have been used as a bed spread. We were glad we didn’t order ice cream with the pancake as they were served with three huge scoops. All this cost the equivalent of $20, it must be the cheapest café in Europe.

Tallin, Estonia

Tuesday 1 June

In 1990/91 two Rover Scouts from Finland stayed with us for two weeks, they were the same age as our two boys and fitted in like members of the family. In recent years we had lost contact with them, however some months before we left I was able to make contact with one, Spike, the nickname we had given him, only to find he know lives in Luxembourg and he was there two years ago when we visited the city; bother!

Shortly before we left on our trip he contacted us to let us know that he may be able to arrange a business trip to Helsinki and last night he arrived at our hotel at 9:30. Walking to a bar he told us that he had contacted Poppis and he was driving 50 km to join our reunion. We had a lovely night discussing old times and just before we returned to our hotel Poppis presented us with a boxed set of books, one on the North Pole and the other on the South Pole which he had written and also taken the photographs on his unassisted ski trips to both Geographic Poles. He is only the twelfth person in the world to have made the unassisted ski trip to both the poles. It was also his second visit to the North Pole; his first was to the Magnetic North Pole.

This morning we caught the ferry to Tallinn the capital of Estonia and decided that the first thing we would do after checking in to our accommodation would be to mail the 2.85 kg set of books home.

We arrived at the location of our accommodation to find that there was “No Room at the Inn” in fact there was no Inn, the hostel had closed several months ago. There was a TV ad. some years ago that expressed our thoughts – B*****!!!

A five minute walk to the Information Centre where we were directed to the Estonian Booking Service who found us a room in a nearby hostel, the price was similar to the missing one but with the bonus of an en-suite. Now to try to recover our money we previously paid but we’re not very confident.

After posting the book we walked to a supermarket to purchase some food as the hostel has a kitchen we can use, so tonight we had a lamb chop and a large plate of vegetables for dinner. On the cruise meals were served with dainty portions of vegetables that would barely fill a tablespoon so having a generous serve of mixed vegetables was very enjoyable.

Now for the history lesson – Tallinn is the largest city and capital of Estonia and first appeared on a map in 1154 and over the years it appeared to have different names according to who had captured the town.

As an important port for trade between Russia and Scandinavia, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and the Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. Danish rule of Tallinn and Northern Estonia started in 1219.

During the Great Northern War, Tallin along with Swedish Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Imperial Russia in 1710, but the local self-government retained their cultural and economical autonomy within Imperial Russia as the Duchy of Estonia, similar to Finland.

On 24 February 1918, the Independence Manifesto was proclaimed in Tallinn, followed by Imperial German occupation and a war of independence with Russia. On 2 February 1920, the peace treaty was signed with Soviet Russia, wherein Russia acknowledged the independence of the Estonian Republic. Tallinn became the capital of an independent Estonia. After WWII started, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1940, and later occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941–44. After the Nazi retreat in 1944, it was occupied by the USSR again, after annexation into the Soviet Union, Tallinn became the capital of the Estonian SSR.

In August 1991 an independent democratic Estonian state was re-established and a period of quick development to a modern European capital ensued. Tallinn became the capital of an independent country once again on August 20, 1991.

Here endeth the lesson.

Helsinki

To Helsinki
Sat 29 May

We woke up at 4:45 am to catch the train to Helsinki and went to the dining room for an early breakfast as promised, to find it locked and a tray with a few points of very dry sandwiches and some dry croissants at the coffee station. This was breakfast for twenty people. “Not happy Jan!”

On boarding the train we had to hand our passports to the conductor so they could check the validity of our visas and to make sure we hadn’t overstayed, at the border, guards came through with a list and checked us against our photo in our passports before handing them back. At the next station Finnish Customs and also Immigrations Officers again checked our passports and we were questioned as to the contents of our cases and bags, the most thorough questioning that we have experienced in years, though as they didn’t have the advantage of X-ray machines they had to be sure that no prohibited goods were being carried.

A slow six and a half hour journey brought us to Helsinki Station were we had to turn our clocks back and hour from Russian Time, we are now seven hours behind Melbourne. We had a short walk to our hotel, arriving there ten and a half hours after getting up this morning. As we were very tired we went for a short walk and bought some rolls to eat in our room for tea and had an early night.

Helsinki and Suomenlinna Fortress
Sun 30 May

Helsinki was founded by the Swedish King in 1550 at the mouth of the Vantaa River and around a hundred years later was moved to its current location by the sea. In the early 1700s Sweden lost all its fortifications along its eastern border to Russia, allowing the Russian Fleet almost unimpeded access to the Baltic Sea.

In 1748 Sweden began construction of a major maritime fortress off the coast of Helsinki and in 1808 the fortress surrendered to Russia and for the next 110 years it was a Russian garrison. In 1809 Finland became an autonomous grand duchy under the Russian Tsar with Helsinki as its capital and following the Russian Revolution in 1917, Finland asked the Bolsheviks for independence and Helsinki became the capital of the Republic of Finland.

In the early stages of WW2 Russia attacked Finland with the view of obtaining greater maritime access, Finland fought back and eventually sided with Germany against Russia.

Helsinki is not a large city with a population of around half a million people but with a public transport system which must be the envy of cities many times its size. There are nine tram routes all of which go past Central Station, with trams types ranging from the most modern to the old “Toast Rack trams”. There are 25 to 30 bus routes which also go through the Central Station bus terminal and a Metro.

Tickets can be purchased from machines or the drivers and they have a card system which doesn’t have to be removed from their wallet when placed against the reader. On the tram the reader had four sections, I’m not sure if they were for ticket type but people swiped different sections of the readers and as a 2.50 euro ticket (2 euros if purchased from a machine) provides one hours transport over all modes, I can only presume it may have been for various types of concession. Tickets can also be purchased for from one to seven days unlimited travel. Metcard developers please note!!!

This morning we had a conducted walking tour around Helsinki which is an easy city to explore as most sites are situated within convenient walking distance of the city centre. Our walk took us past Central Station, many old buildings, parks and down to Market Square at the edge of the harbour. The square is full of many canvas shelters containing outdoor eating venues, farmer’s stalls and handcraft and souvenir stalls. It is from here that several ferries depart including the overnight Stockholm ferries.

In the afternoon we purchased a 24 hour ticket for 6.80 euros and went by ferry to Suomenlinna one of the largest historic Maritime Fortresses in the world. The construction of the fortress was commenced in 1748 on six islands off Helsinki as part of Sweden’s maritime defences. It was given the name Sveaborg, but the Finns preferred to pronounce it as Viapori.

After the fortress was surrendered to the Russians in 1808 for the next 110 years it was a Russian garrison and during the Crimea War in 1855 a large fleet of English and French warships bombarded the fortress for two days and nights causing considerable damage.

In May 1918 after Finland gained their independence it was renamed Suomenlinna, the Fortress of Finland.

Some of the highlights on our walk around the islands were the church, originally built as a Russian Orthodox garrison church but later the exterior was altered and it was converted to a Lutheran church, on the top of the steeple a lighthouse was built and still operates for both air and sea traffic.

The dry dock on the island is one of the oldest dry docks still in use and was used in 1760 to build ships of the Swedish Coastal Fleet. Today it is used to restore old wooden ships.

In the courtyard of one of the many garrison building is the tomb and memorial of Augustin Ehrensvard who was the first commander and supervised the fortresses construction. Further round the fortress near a jetty is the monumental King’s gate built as an entrance to the fortress, on the site where the King of Sweden landed in 1752 to inspect the construction.

As well as the many garrison buildings on the island there is a veritable rabbit’s warren of underground rooms and chambers around the islands perimeters, most of these have cannon and musket gun ports opening to the island’s approaches and on the western end of the largest island are the large powder magazines and large breech loading guns left by the Russians.

While walking around the island we saw a sign pointing to the “Beach”, I suppose that’s what it was but we have seen sand pits at some child care centres as large and I think you would need to wear a wet suit to swim in the water.

After many hours walking we returned to the mainland and took the 3T/3B tram which travels in a Figure 8 in both directions around Helsinki. The complete circuit takes about an hour and passes many of the places we wanted to visit tomorrow and our 24 hour ticket allows us to use it as “hop on, hop off” transport. After completing the circuit we had dinner at a Nepalese restaurant and had another early night.

Helsinki

Mon 31 May

A reasonable night’s sleep but when Ann stood up first thing in the morning she had a violent back spasm which continued all day causing her considerable pain and distress. In spite of her discomfort Ann, wanted to continue our sight seeing so after breakfast we set out to catch a 3T/3B tram.

Our first stop left us with a short walk to a nearby park where the sculpture entitled Passio Musicae is situated. This consists of what depicts a cluster of organ pipes and a bust of Jean Sibelius and is a memorial to the great composer.

Back on the tram to the Temppeliaukio (Temple square) Church, fondly known as Church in the Rock which we consider along with the blue glass church next to the ruins of the King Wilhelm church in Berlin as two of the most memorable churches that we have visited.

The site was selected as a location for a church in the 1930s, but the plan was interrupted in its early stages when WWII began in 1939. After the war, there was another architectural competition but for economic reasons, the suggested plan was scaled back and the interior space of the church reduced by about one-quarter from the original plan. Construction finally began in February 1968, and the rock-temple was completed for consecration in September 1969.

The interior was excavated and built into the rock, but is bathed in natural light entering through the glazed dome. The church is used frequently as a concert venue due to its excellent acoustics. The acoustic quality is ensured by the rough, virtually un-worked, rock surfaces. Leaving the interior surfaces of the church exposed was not something that was in the original plans for the church, but the orchestra conductor Paavo Berglund and the acoustician, Mauri Parjo, contributed to the plans. The back wall of the altar is a majestic rock wall, originally created by a withdrawing glacier.

The church furnishings were designed by the architects and organ builder Veikko Virtanen manufactured the church organ, which has 43 stops. There are no bells at the church, and a recording of bells is played via loudspeakers on the exterior wall.

On entering the church we were amazed at the fact that it was circular and excavated from solid rock and the roof above our head appeared to be a woven dome shaped basket and the organ pipes made of copper. A pianist was playing classical music on a grand piano and the sound appeared to be coming from all around the church, however it was a most annoying that some tourist weren’t treating it as a church and their laughing and shouting showed a lack of respect for the place and the musician.

We sat in the church for over three quarters enjoying its grandeur and the music before walking to catch the tram to our next chosen spot, the University Botanic Gardens.

On the way we stopped at the Central Station to take a photo and as the gardens were in the opposite direction we crossed the road to catch a tram from the other side. Wrong!!! The tram travels in a Figure 8 and the cross over point is at the station, we should have continued in the same direction. After almost completing a circle we left the tram, crossed the road and continued back the way we had come, to the gardens.

The gardens appear to be part of the teaching facility of the university as every plant in the gardens, even grasses were labelled and many young people were employed weeding the formal beds in front of the glass houses, which were not open to the public and some appeared to contain grasses and cereals which were growing under lights.

Leaving the gardens we caught the tram back towards the large Lutheran Cathedral and Ann’s back was still troubling her we made this our last visit before returning to the hotel.