Travel/Scandinavian Cruise Part I: A voyage to remember – Champaign/Urbana News

By LAWSON LAU

Sailing the placid blue Baltic Sea on a cruise ship during the long, lazy, hazy daylight hours of summer is as close to paradise as one could imagine this side of heaven.

With 3,500 passengers and a crew of 1,350, the Regal Princess was a floating village. Retirees and families made up a majority of the passengers. It was a cosmopolitan crowd. Besides English, Asian and European languages were spoken.

It turned out to be a family affair, although I had invited others to join us. My wife (Pam), son (JohnMark), daughter (Andreana) and her husband (Aria) rounded out the fivesome on the 11-day Scandinavia/Russia cruise.

Copenhagen, Denmark, was our embarkation port. Our first destination was Oslo, Norway; next was Warnemunde, Germany; then Tallinn, Estonia. That was followed by St. Petersburg, Russia, for two days. Helsinki, Finland, was next, and we then sailed to Stockholm, Sweden, before returning, with a twinge of the-vacation-is-over feeling, to Copenhagen.

The epic Kon-Tiki journey

Norway, the land of the legendary Vikings, has a son worthy of these Norsemen. He’s Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame.

Humans, as stated in the Bible, are created in the image of God. It’s not that we look like God, because God is invisible. It’s that we are intelligent, creative and adventurous, just like God. And snapshots of these dimensions of humanity were presented in the museums we visited, including the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, our first stop on the cruise.

Regal Princess was afloat with luxury with a 24/7 supply of multiethnic food and wine. Kon-Tiki barely floated on the perilous Pacific Ocean with the most basic of necessities to sustain life.

Our ship took about 5,000 people for an 11-day cruise on a calm Baltic Sea in 2016. Kon-Tiki had six intrepid men who went on an impossible journey from Peru to the Polynesian islands in just over three months in 1947. No one went on the cruise ship to test their endurance. Kon-Tiki was a life-and-death epic experience.

Looking at the original Kon-Tiki balsawood raft and the accompanying displays inspires the imagination. Humans, after all, are magnificent creations of God, regardless of what is going on in the murky mire of today’s politics.

Prominently displayed were Heyerdahl’s famous words: “Borders? I have never seen one. But I have heard they exist in the minds of some people.” Magnanimous viewpoint.

Heyerdahl, a non-swimmer, wanted to prove his theory that South Americans were the original settlers of Polynesia. He succeeded. Academics held the position that Polynesia was originally populated by people from Southeast Asia, the opposite direction.

It is my belief, based on three decades of research and interpretation, that the Chinese are a group of people that left the Tower of Babel, traveled east on an equally epic journey and settled in what is now called China. In ancient times, it was called God’s Country, reminiscent of the Hebrews’ Promised Land. Unlike Heyerdahl, I won’t embark on a physical journey to prove it.

Sights and sounds in Germany

Leaving Oslo, we next disembarked at Warnemunde, Germany.

Life-sized sand sculptures in the town displayed the creativity of their creators. On the street, we met another form of inventiveness. A performer played popular tunes on wine glasses filled with different levels with water.

Among the highlights of our excursion were a short boat cruise on Lake Schwerin and a guided tour of the majestic Schwerin Castle or Palace, built on an island. It was a fort the Germans built in the late 10th century and converted to a castle in the 16th century.

Paintings, including that of the alluring Venus and Cupid with her iconic bow and arrow, adorned the hallways. A marble sculpture of St. Genoveva teaching her son how to pray hark back to a more devout time. Sculptures of horses and burly men with spears guarded the grounds.

Our next destination was Rostock, a medieval town. St. Mary’s Church, constructed in the 13th century, retained a touch of its former glory. Its primary focus was an elaborate astrological clock that still worked, maintained by the mathematics faculty at University of Rostock.

Tourist town of Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia, was next. Thousands of tourists from seven cruise ships packed the tourist sites and the adjacent streets on the day we were there.

Russian-style architecture was evident in the onion-shaped domes of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church built in 1900.

St. Mary’s Cathedral, or the Dome Church, was our next brief stop as we walked the cobblestone streets of a town that retained its medieval charm. Originally built in the early 13th century, it’s the oldest church in Estonia and belongs to the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church.

To cross off this cruise from our bucket list, we spent about $4,000, including airfare, for each person. We chose the less-expensive excursions. I had worked with the ever-pleasant and efficient Princess Cruises agent Donna Hesse (800-901-1172) on this vacation.

Strolling the sunbathed and almost-pristine streets of the Scandinavian cities, feasting at their restaurants, window-shopping their souvenir shops, enjoying the calm environs and marveling at the color and history of the architecture occasionally evoked the emotion that these are present-day expressions of the Garden of Eden.

On next week’s travel page, I’ll share more of our trip.

Lawson Lau was a journalist and magazine editor, an officer in the military, and taught business, English and humanities at three colleges. He’s the pastor at All Nations Baptist Church in Mahomet.