Day 2 - Potsdam and Magdeburg

After breakfast in the hotel, we boarded buses to take us to the ship which is docked at Magdeburg.  On the way we stopped in Potsdam, the city on the outskirts of Berlin, in which Stalin, Churchill and Truman met to determine the fate of defeated Nazi Germany.  After arriving, we toured the Sanssouci Palace, built by Frederick the Great -- a magnificent rococo edifice surrounded by beautiful gardens.  "Sans souci" means "without worry" and Frederick wanted a beautiful place to relax with his circle of friends, away from the stress of governing.

After lunch at a bakery/deli in Potsdam, we visited the Cecilienhof Palace, the site of the meetings between the Allied victors to determine how the defeated Germany was to be divided.  Our guide was able to give a thoroughly concise overview of the perspectives that the three powers -- Russia, England and the United States -- brought to the table.  We heard some details which I had not heard of before, including the effect of the just-developed atomic bomb on the US attitude toward its allies.

We then moved on to Magdeburg to board our ship, the Viking Schumann. While the rain had held off for our Potsdam visit, it returned as we approached Magdeburg.  But the Viking team met us with umbrellas, welcomed us aboard and brought in our luggage.  Now we are settled in our cabin, well fed, and ready for tomorrow's adventure.  Stay tuned...

Day 1 - Berlin

We arrived in Berlin in the afternoon, after an overnight flight from Newark to London, followed by a layover, and on to Berlin.  The weather is rainy and cold, just about what we left in New Jersey.

Representatives of Viking met us at the airport and arranged the transfer to the Hilton hotel which is right in the heart of the city of Berlin, in what used to be East Germany.  We took a brief walking tour, even in the rain, to see some of the magnificant buildings nearby.

White asparagus is currently in season, so we dined tonight on a great plateful, complete with Hollandaise  sauce.  It was a real treat

We will spend the night here, so we've had just a small chance to see some of this major German city.  Tomorrow begins a full day of sight-seeing, starting with Potsdam.  A fuller account will come on Day 2.

Minnesota Pilgrimage 2012 - Day 13

Austintown, OH - August 13, 2012  Our journey through the State of Michigan came to a successful end.  There is much more to be seen and we may find reasons to return. There's the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, a ferry ride across Lake Michigan, and more than 115 lighthouses among other things.

Today's next-to-the-last-leg trip was shorter than most, so on a whim we decided to visit the Cleveland Zoo.  We like zoos and are always interested to see how creatively the animals are housed.  The Cleveland Zoo might be characterized as one of the smaller zoos we have visited, but on a Monday in August, there were more people per acre in the park than I've ever seen.  The place was crowded! 

As for the curating of the animals, I'd give the Cleveland Zoo a B minus.  Most had comfortable surroundings, but some were placed in locations so far from the visitors that it was impossible to see.  And the number of animals in the collection was fairly small in comparison to, say, the Minnesota Zoo.

The free afternoon ended with a milestone.  Jan was able to touch the last of the Great Lakes waters with a visit to Lake Erie.  On a previous visit she had touched Lake Ontario; on this trip she touched Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Lake Erie completed her quest.

This vacation confirmed what I had said in previous blog entries:  our United States of America is a wonderful, diverse, fascinating and beautiful place to visit, especially by automobile.  Not surprisingly, we'll be taking more trips and blogging about it in the future.

Minnesota Pilgrimage 2012 - Day 12

Birch Run, MI - August 12, 2012  One of the reasons we chose our return route  through Michigan was the attractiveness of the "Pure Michigan" television spots.  For the most part, the State has lived up to its hype.  We have found the people to be friendly, the waters clean, and the highways easy to navigate.  We've even had strangers give a friendly wave as we passed.

Today is Sunday, so we decided to attend church.  Google provided us with a list of Episcopal churches within the Birch Run area, and a look at the parish web sites helped us decide to attend St. John's Church in Saginaw, MI.  It was a good choice -- the service was straight out of the Book of Common Prayer, Rite II, the music accompanied by a pipe organ and a good "summer pick-up" choir.  We felt very much at home.

After lunch we returned to Frankenmuth, MI, a German/Bavarian themed town which is also the home of the world's largest Christmas decorations store.  It is huge, with more ornaments and lawn decorations and Christmas lights and creche sets than the eye can see.  The grounds around the store are permanently decorated for Christmas, and there is a "Silent Night" meditation garden featuring a large outdoor creche.

Following the Christmas store, we wandered through a wooden covered bridge back to the downtown main street accompanied by a polka band. We made our way to the Kaffee Haus for a cappuccino, wandered some more and sat by the bandstand this time to listen to a band dressed in Sergeant Pepper uniforms playing the Beatles favorites. Then it was off to the Kandy Haus for some chocolate.  We stopped at Rapunzel's for some yarn and a pair of earrings.  Having well supported the local economy we made our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we begin the trip home.

Minnesota Pilgrimage 2012 - Day 11

Birch Run, MI - August 11, 2012  Our quest for lighthouses began as we left Sault Ste Marie and drove to the Mackinac Bridge crossing which links the Upper Penninsula of Michigan with the rest of the state. Just across the bridge is the Mackinac Point Lighthouse, the second such structure to be built by the Mackinac Strait which joins Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

The lighthouse, now retired from service, has been carefully restored.  A guide, dressed in a period costume led us through the house and up the cast iron stairs to the lantern area itself.  From that vantage point we could see about 20 miles in all directions.  The guide explained how the color of the light (red) and the duration of the blink (10 seconds) would identify that lighthouse from the rest in the area.  The light was retired after the construction of the Mackinac Bridge which had its own lights.

The second lighthouse we visited was about two miles away on the other side of the spit of land at a place called McGulpin's Point.  This one was built first, but could not be seen from all sides, which prompted the building of the light at Mackinac Point.  This one has been reactivated to service and the building was in the process of being restored by volunteers.  We were able to climb to the lantern area where a modern light fixture was in place.

The third lighthouse was about an hour away, down the shore of Lake Huron at 40 Mile Point.  This lighthouse is also still active, but only the light with a 19th century Fresnel lens is owned by the Coast Guard.  The rest of the property has been bought by the county and turned into a park.  The building was carefully restored and staffed by friendly volunteers who happily provided a history and the lore of the light.  It seems this area was particularly dangerous and the locale of several shipwrecks due to storms with high winds.

Our day has ended with a visit to Frankenmuth, MI, a small town originally settled by fifteen German immigrants from Bavaria in 1845.  The town has retained and embraced its cultural heritage with a fervor, its downtown area looking like a cross between an Epcot Center village and Cape May, NJ.  One of its many commercial enterprises is the world's largest Christmas store.  That is on the agenda for Day 12.

Minnesota Pilgrimage 2012 - Day 10

Sault Ste Marie, MI - August 10, 2012  The importance of Sault Ste Marie to the economy and security of America became clear as we explored several of the many options available to the visitor to this town.

Lake Superior flows into Lake Huron with a descent of about 28 feet which occurs in the flow of the St. Mary River in the form of a series of rapids.  When the transport of goods between the lakes became increasingly important, to overcome the impediment of the rapids, the first lock was built in the late 19th century.  Additional locks were added both on the American side and the Canadian side, and now huge freighters filled with grain, coal and taconite make their way daily through these locks.

We took a tour by boat around the Sault Ste Marie area including a trip through both the American locks on the way out and the Canadian lock on the way back.  As we traveled, the guide explained the above-mentioned history and the important role played by the locks during the World Wars.

Later we visited a museum devoted to the history of the St. Mary River which included tales of the building of the locks and the hydroelectric generating station also located there because of the 28 foot difference between the upper river and the lower river.  The museum also covered the history of the French and Indian war and the War of 1812  over the territory surrounding the Great Lakes -- a conflict between the French (first settlers) and the British, and later the Americans, finally resolved by the Treaty of Ghent.  This is one of the classes in American history that I must have slept through, so it was good to be reminded.

The final stop in the day was to visit the Valley Camp -- a retired freighter converted into a museum.  The scale of the ship's equipment was huge, with a steam engine originally stoked by hand-shoveled coal.  The wheel house at the bow of the ship was connected to the rudder in the stern by a drive shaft which traversed at least the length of a city block, connecting to a steam-powered "power steering" device which executed the pilot's instructions.

The museum was a repository of the lore of the life on lake vessels, including the dangers of shipwrecks.  One corner of the hold contained a memorial to the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, heralded by the ballad by Gordon Lightfoot. Coincidentally, as we passed through the Soo Locks, just leaving the second lock, was the Arthur M. Anderson -- the freighter that was following the Edmund Fitzgerald and which both radioed the information about the loss of radar contact and stood by in the storm to look for survivors.  None were found -- 29 seamen perished.

Tomorrow we're heading southward through the State of Michigan with the intent to see some lighthouses.

Minnesota Pilgrimage 2012 - Days 8 and 9

Sault Ste Marie, MI - August 9, 2012  Day 8 took us from Hammel Lake near Aitkin, MN to Duluth, MN, where my great-niece Ashley Rollins is a student at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.  In a wonderful turn of events, she had the day off and was able to give us a mini-tour of what is really an interesting city on the shore of Lake Superior.  Originally it made the map with the arrival of the railroads bringing grain from western Minnesota and the deepening of the Soo Locks so that freighters could enter the lake.  The Duluth harbor has a unique "aerial lift" bridge to allow the freighters to enter the harbor area.  Ashley took our picture in front of that structure.

Later we drove north to Gooseberry Falls, which is a series of cascades over the volcanic rock that forms the rim of Lake Superior.  The weather, which had been rainy, turned beautifully sunny as we arrived. The total drop from the upper falls to the lowest falls is about 300 feet, but the going was made easier by the steps and paths of a great observation center created way back in the 30's by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Day 9 was a journey from Superior, WI, to Sault Ste Marie, MI -- a good eight hour drive through northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The weather was off and on rainy, but during the respites, we saw deer, wild turkeys and a sandhill crane along the highway.  The terrain is much like northern Minnesota -- somewhat flat and swampy with major forests surrounding Lake Superior.  Many of the trucks we passed were hauling logs.

Arriving in Sault Ste Marie, we ate and then found our way to the Soo Locks for which Sault Ste Marie is famous.  Tomorrow, we hope to do much more exploring in this charming town.