Spring Is Coming

Baltic Adventure

April 18 to May 27, 2017

Ghent, Belgium

In medieval times Ghent was one of the largest cities in Europe, second only to Paris. Today, Ghent’s major attraction is its well-preserved medieval city center. Many of its most beautiful medieval buildings are in the historic areas around the old Graslei harbor.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Oldest of the windmills at Zaanse Schans, 'The Cat', (below left) was constructed between 1646 and 1696.

Copenhagen, Denmark

The Little Mermaid

Kiel, Germany

U-Boat 995

St. Petersburg, Russia

Catherine Palace

A Rococo palace located in the town of Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), 30 km south of St. Petersburg. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars.

The residence originated in 1717, when Catherine I of Russia hired German architect Johann-Friedrich Braunstein to construct a summer palace for her pleasure. In 1733, Empress Elizabeth expanded the palace. In May Elizabeth 1752 asked her court architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli to demolish the old structure and replace it with a much grander edifice. Construction lasted for four years.

More than 100 kilograms of gold were used to gild the sophisticated stucco façade and numerous statues erected on the roof.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was fatally wounded in March 1881.The church was built between 1883 and 1907.

The Winter Palace

The Winter Palace was built between 1754 and 1762 for Empress Elizabeth and was the main residence of the Russian Tsars. The green-and-white three-storey palace is a marvel of Baroque architecture and boasts 1,057 elegantly and lavishly decorated halls and rooms.

Today the Winter Palace, together with four more buildings arranged side by side along the river embankment, houses the extensive collections of the Hermitage. The Hermitage Museum is the largest art gallery in Russia and is among the largest and most respected art museums in the world.