Kelly Trips and Tours

Today (Thursday) we spent the whole day touring Berlin.  Probably not enough time, but we did our best to see it all.  Karen started out with a lovely bath in the elegant bathtub.  After breakfast at Starbucks, we headed for the underground to meet up with our prearranged 4-hr walking tour of Berlin.  Once you learn how to use the underground in one city you pretty much know how it works in all cities, so we bought our metro pass, jumped on the train and found our meeting place quite easily. Barnaby, an English guy who lives in Berlin, was our tour guide.  He turned out to be quite informative and entertaining.  We started out on Museum Island and enjoyed the beautiful buildings and stood in the plaza where Hitler gave some of his speeches to thousands of people. Barnaby gave us a great history lesson of Germany during and after the war and then we moved onto Humbolt University buildings. He told us of the distinguished people like Eienstein who studied and taught there.  We s

We started our day with breakfast with the Greens and then we gathered our stuff and sadly said good-bye to the Eurodam.  We shared a car to the airport and dropped the Geeens off at the Hilton.  Then we set out for Berlin. Arrived in Berlin around noon (Wednesday, August 26). We're staying at the Ritz Carlton near the Brandenburger Gate and close to Checkpoint Charley. So, welcome to the Ritz Carlton Berlin, our entry way, our room and all marble bath with 2 sinks, separate shower room, large tub and heated floors. The Ritz - well, what can we say other than five star accommodations are fantastic, but we digress.  We sure love those Marriott points. Before we set out exploring, we had lunch at Vapiano Italian only a few yards from the Ritz. This was a very unique restaurant. First you get a scan card then you tell the chef what you want and he makes whatever you like in front of you. Everything is fresh, be it salad, pasta, pizza, etc. And the bread, quite good.

This morning (Tuesday) we cruised into our last port - Copenhagen, again!  Since we spent a good amount of time at the beginning of our trip in the downtown area of Copenhagen, we decided to go out into the countryside and visit some castles in the northern areas of Denmark.  So after breakfast we all met our guide Ivan, and set out on our last cruise/tour adventure. Ivan - we call him Ivan TheTalker - drove us along the eastern shore of Denmark to see some harbors and small towns to illustrate the origins of Denmark as a seafaring country. We gave him this name because he was a talker, great sense of humor and full of knowledge.  Then he took us inland to illustrate that years later the Danes moved into farming.  The country side was beautiful and varied between farming fields and forests.  We stopped at an old windmill that was no longer in use but very stately showing the history of Denmark. Our next stop was Frederiksborg Castle.  Ivan let us out of the van with instructions

This morning (Monday) we docked in Kiel, Germany.  Kiel is a nice port close to town but not much exciting to see so we pre-arranged a taxi to take us to a more exciting city - a UNESCO Heritage site - a township called Lubeck.  After a relaxing breakfast with the Greens, we met up with the Colacito's and our taxi driver.  The drive was an hour and 15 minutes.  We arrived just outside the old city gates and met our guide, Elke. And yes, the city gate is sinking inward at the same angle as the leaning tower of Pisa as are a few other buildings. Lubeck is a large town with an old city center located on an island on the Trave river. Elke gave us a brief history of the city and then we walked through the old gates. We enjoyed walking in and around some of the old buildings learning more about the city.  She took us to the town square to see the city hall and the market that was going on at the time. We had to stop at the Niedereggers - the oldest and best maker of marzipan

Our port today (Sunday, August 24th), Warnemunde is known as the German Riveria according to our tour guide, Andreas. Andreas was born and raised here and gave us a wonderful walking tour of Warnemunde and the neighboring town, Rostock in the afternoon. Our first stop along the way was a beachside park where we spent time while he gave us background information and town history. Andreas grew up in East Germany and gave us some interesting info about his life as a child and when the wall came down.  He showed us turn of the century beach chairs the Germans invented which were very comfortable, practical and unique. They had a cover and sides. The cover could be raised or lowered for shade, the seat could be a chair or lounge with a pull out to rest your feet and a small fold down table. Andreas led us to a diorama where he provided insight and town history. We continued walking to a beautiful canal with little shops and cafe's. There were several fish stands along the stran