Dave Celebrates 25 Years at Brother

Dave joined Brother on August 1st 1983 and during the first week of August 2008 celebrated his 25th Anniversary in great style. Tadashi (President of Brother) Ishiguro awarded Dave gifts and a company pin with blue sapphire stones to commemorate 25 years of service. All employees were invited to enjoy cake and coffee to help celebrate the occasion.

Stockholm, Sweden

To enjoy these photo's of our Baltic Cruise vacation. Start with the Amsterdam entry and work your way up to this Stockholm entry.

Stockholm was the end of or 7 day Baltic cruise and we enjoyed two additional nights "on our own" in this beautiful city. In Stockholm we did pretty much what we did in all of our cities, shopped, toured and took a sightseeing boat ride but there was something special we really enjoyed about this city.

A good Hotel in Europe is expensive with a Euro costing $1.60 so we saved about $800 a night by using some of Dave's Hilton points and staying at the centrally located Hilton Slussen Hotel where we were treated wonderfully. We wondered around the cobble stone streets of Stockholm and crossed dozens of bridges and even enjoyed some local night life on Saturday & Sunday evenings. Frank seemed to especially enjoy our Baltic adventure as tall, blue eyed, blonde's seem to be prevalent throughout all of Scandinavia... who knew!

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki was our last port call and we were stating to tire from our busy week of Baltic Capital sightseeing. In Helsinki we toured the city first by coach and then by boat. The white with green dome is a Lutheran cathedral in Senate Square. We enjoyed shopping a local market where we bought cuff links and a Christmas ornament from local Finnish artisans which are two things we collect from our travels around the world.

Our harbor boat cruise through the magnificent archipelago was a great experience and a relaxing way to see more of the capital of Finland.

Moscow, Russia

Our ship docked in St. Petersburg for two days with an overnight stay. This allowed us a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Moscow. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg at 7 a.m. a group of about 136 of us immediately transferred to the airport for our 1 hour light to began our 1 day adventure to Moscow.
The flight itself was truly an experience as we boarded the huge Russian Airliner initially through the cargo hull and then up a second set of stairs to the flight deck. A "meal" was served but don't ask what it was as no one seemed to eat it.

The highlight of the entire vacation was standing in the middle of Red Square and in front of the world famous St. Basil Cathedral with it's multi-coloured onion shaped domes. One of the more unknown attractions of Moscow is the Metro, or underground transit system which we rode to see how richly the stations are decorated with mosaics, crystal chandeliers and marble columns, walls and floors.

We enjoyed a walking tour of the Kremlin grounds and museums which houses a unique collection of Russian treasures including royal crowns, jewelry and some priceless Faberge eggs. At the end of the day we had a delicious dinner in Moscow and a few shots of Vodka before returning to the airport for our return flight to St. Petersburg and back to the ship. We had left the ship at 7 a.m. and did not return till 2 a.m. after an exhausting but accelerating 19 hour journey.

A Nude Woman in St. Petersburg

"A Nude Woman" is the title of this painting. Does she look familiar??? She should!!! Leonardo de Vinci painted this portrait in the mid 16th Century (1542) This model was also the "Mona Lisa".

In St. Petersburg there is much to see in the way of Palaces and museums but we spent most of our second day touring the Hermitage museum where one could spend weeks and never see all there is to see. Part of our tour included time in the "Gold Room" and the many grand ornate rooms with golden ceilings were spectacular to see. I'm happy our master bath has a silver leaf ceiling... had I only known!

Berlin, Germany

Warnemunde Germany is the port city for our trip to Berlin. The ship docks early in the morning and along side the pier is a private train to take passengers directly into East Berlin which is about a 2 hour non-stop train ride (unless on that particular day, there is an engine problem and the trip takes 3.5 hours) One in Berlin our first stop was a photo stop in front of a part of the Wall that remains and that is now covered in "Local Art". We saw many famous points of interest including "Check Point Charlie" where Dave is pictured with a couple guards, Brandenburg Gate, The Templehof Airlift Memorial, The Holocaust Memorial, the East Side Gallery and much, much more. We had a delicious lunch with sausage, pork, sauerkraut and apple strudel. How Tourist (and delicious) can you get. We returned to the ship by 8 p.m. in just about 2 hours with our new train engine and just in time for dinner on the ship and to see one of our special guest entertainers, Comedian Bruce Villanche. On another night, Chita Rivera was also a special guest entertainer.

Tallinn, Estonia

I never heard of Tallinn Estonia little did i think I would ever go there. We visited the spectacular Russian Orthodox Church of St. Alexander Nevski. The day our ship toured Tallinn and the church, with 2,000 gay tourists there was a wedding taking place at the same time. What will the charming Estonian couple think when they get their pictures developed? I also liked this photo of two elderly Estonian women begging for money.

Tallinn is a city best seen by walking from the upper Town to the lower Towns and along the way we had a nice lunch at a local restaurant. The photo at the top was taken outside our lunch restaurant in the town square.

Copenhagen, Denmark & Tivoli Gardens

Our cruise departed from Copenhagen Denmark and we arrived one day early to take in some of the sites. Like most European cities we sat in Squares and watched fountains and people pass bye. Like most Scandinavian capitals, we took a great tour of the city by canal boat. Tivoli Gardens is set right in the center of own town Copenhagen and is a combination of amusement park, botanical gardens, restaurant and entertainment complex. We enjoyed a nice Danish dinner and then watch the Chaka Kahn concert at 10 p.m. when it was still light out. In most of Scandinavia, the sun sets just before midnight and rises just after midnight. Dave is seen pictured in front of the "Little Mermaid" statue along the harbor.

Baltic Vacation begins in Amsterdam

We started our Baltic vacation on Tuesday evening July 8th. We flew up to Newark to catch our overs seas flight to Amsterdam. We spent two full days in Amsterdam where it was a bit cool and rainy. We visited the Van Gough museum and of course went on a canal boat tour. We enjoyed time drinking Amstel and Heinken beer in Cafe's and went to a few Coffee shops where Frank had a cup of coffee and Dave didn't have a cup of coffee. wink, wink.