The first of MANY photos Joan and Archie will take in their Hat Ladies t-shirts

 

 

One last meal in Nyhaven before we board the ship.  The gentleman at the table in the jacket holding a red cap on his knee is John

We finally set sail...obviously not on THAT ship...

 

First stop:  OSLO, NORWAY.  The Opera House, as seen from our Ship.  The roof is designed so you can walk on it.

The ski jump, made famous when Oslo hosted the 1952 Winter Olympics. They have bid for 2022!

 

That's a person training

It's actually too cold to put it on!  Remember this photo if Oslo actually DOES get the 2022 Olympics!

That's as close to the ski jump as we will get. John was tempted...but fortunately our bus was leaving or he might have done it.

Now my t-shirt appears in front of the Alfred Nobel Peace Museum

We literally hitch a ride on a commuter ferry, see some charming neighborhoods, and watch a storm roll in (which we'll have to walk through all the way to our Ship)

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN NOW what???? ask Jeff, John, and Archie (while Joan photographs us). We're on our own, for this place.

When in doubt, strike a pose with a hatitude like the statue, and take a t-shirt picture.  They're under our jackets.  It's STILL cold out (which DOES make for comfortable travel)

Would you believe Archie was attracted to this little shop from across the street BEFORE she knew its name???

 I

If you want to see the necklace (and the "Pickles" bag in which it came), you don't have to travel all the way to Gothenburg.  Come to our house!

Read the name on the car, to know where we went next.  Hint: BERLIN, (GERMANY)

This time we take a train (wearing our t-shirts, of course)

 

"Work Shall Make You Free" (the typical facetious sign above all Concentration Camps)

This one is Sauschenhausen Forced Labor Camp, initially for political opponents. We are given an overview of the facility

The only pictures we took were of the memorials to those who perished

 

 

Photos of Berlin taken from our bus.

Most of Berlin is very modern since most of Berlin was destroyed in WWII.

Everyone gets snapped at the Brandenburg Gate

 

 

Archie and Joan at Check Point Charlie...set up just for photos...paid photos...

Angela Merkel's "White House"

John next to a remnant of The Berlin Wall

The Holocaust Memorial

 

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin to the Murdered Jews of Europe is near The Brandenburg Gate, The Reichstag (Parliament), and the bunker where Hitler took his life. There are 2711 concrete pillars in an area 18 000 square meters. Paths along and between pillars are uneven, providing unexpected spaces. From a distance, it looks like a sea of waves.

The architect's aim was to transmit a sensation of isolation and alienation, the same felt by the Jews in the death camps. At the same time, it was created to help Germans face up to their guilt and begin anew. "It is the first and only time in the history of the world... that a nation has stood up to its own greatest crime and wanted to erect a memorial."

  Grand Tour pg. 5