7-country, 12-night Russia & Scandinavia cruise on Aug 24-Sept 5, 2012:

In 15 days, I will take a 7-country, 12-night Russia & Scandinavia cruise. Of note, I took this same cruise on NCL two years ago. I will use the same great tour companies for visits to St Petersburg, Tallinn, and Berlin.

12 nights departing August 24, 2012 on Celebrity's Constellation
ITINERARY
DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART Fri Aug 24 Amsterdam, Holland 4:30pm Sat Aug 25 At Sea Sun Aug 26 Berlin (Warnemunde), Germany 9:30am Midnight Mon Aug 27 At Sea Tue Aug 28 Tallinn, Estonia 10:00am 5:00pm Wed Aug 29 St. Petersburg, Russia 7:00am Thu Aug 30 St. Petersburg, Russia 6:00pm Fri Aug 31 Helsinki, Finland 8:00am 5:00pm Sat Sep 1 Stockholm, Sweden 9:00am 4:00pm Sun Sep 2 At Sea Mon Sep 3 Copenhagen, Denmark 10:00am 6:00pm Tue Sep 4 At Sea Wed Sep 5 Amsterdam, Holland 5:00am

McDonald's Around the World

China

McDonald's has come a long way since it opened its first store in Des Plaines, Ill. With restaurants now in 119 countries, McDonald’s is omnipresent and, well, unavoidable. As a traveler, you can sniff at the spread of Americanized fast food, or you can embrace it. How many of us have wandered into a McDonald’s overseas just to find a taste of home? What we find is sometimes surprising: Stop by a restaurant in Germany and order a beer. In Canada you may find a lobster roll. In Hawaii, order a deluxe breakfast that has rice with a side of spam. Burgers, fries and shakes are almost always on the menu, but if you look, you’ll see differences in the menu, the architecture and even good ol' Ronald the clown.

 In China, it’s Ronald McDonald versus Colonel Sanders as McDonald’s and KFC fight it out for fast-food dominance. (KFC is so ubiquitous here you’ll see it on the corner of Tiananmen Square.) McDonald’s reportedly plans to expand to 2,000 restaurants in the country by 2013. There’s definitely an appetite for Western-style food in Beijing, Shanghai and beyond, as the menu features many of the most familiar items, such as Big Macs and fries. There’s a strong focus on chicken and fish as well, and you can order a McFlurry at the Express window.

Americans are used to seeing a waving Ronald McDonald, but in Thailand the clown mascot offers a more traditional greeting. Stop in for breakfast and you can order Bubur Ayam, hearty breakfast porridge with chicken, chilies and onions. Lunch could be a samurai pork burger, a double Big Mac (think four patties, super tall) or a McSalad Shaker — put all the ingredients in a cup with a lid, add dressing and shake. Voila! If you’re in Bangkok and don’t feel like fighting the traffic from your hotel, you’re in luck: Thailand is one of the handful of countries where McDonald’s delivers.

Namaste in Thailand

Why order a regular McChicken when you can get a towering Chicken Maharaja-Mac? Or perhaps a McVeggie, a fried patty of peas, carrots, potatoes and savory Indian spices? Or the potato-based McAloo Tikka? All are standard menu items at McDonald’s in India, where the entire menu is beef-free. In the next few years, the company hopes to have as many as 250 restaurants throughout India, where there are 700 million hungry potential customers under 30 — many of whom take advantage of the online ordering and delivery service.

McDonald’s has been a longtime supporter of the Olympic Games since 1968, when the company first flew food to American athletes homesick for burgers in Grenoble, France. These days, as a sponsor of the London Olympics, McDonald’s is celebrating by rolling out Happy Meal toys of the Olympic and Paralympic mascots, and is opening what will be the biggest and busiest McDonald's restaurant in the world — a two-story building that seats 1,500 customers, ten times the average McDonald's. If you're lucky enough to visit there during the Games (this temporary restaurant is for the Olympics only), try a Cadbury Crème Egg McFlurry or that most classic of English breakfasts: porridge.

Pull into any of the prevalent McDonald’s in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and try the localized version of a burger: The McArabia sandwich, grilled chicken on pita bread with black seeds, covered in traditional mayonnaise garlic sauce. The Chicken Big Mac is also popular. Dubai McDonald's also deliver, with a "green" twist: The vegetable oil from area's restaurants are converted into biodiesel that fuels their delivery vehicles.

When Russia’s first McDonald’s opened in 1990 on Pushkin Square in Moscow, it made international headlines. It served 30,000 customers that day — a record — and it remains one of the 10 busiest McDonald’s in the world. (The Pushkin McDonald’s is also huge, with 28 registers and seating for 700.) McDonald's has since expanded to other cities in Russia, and customers flock for hamburgers, shakes, the McTasty and of course, cabbage pies.

Looking for the nearest McDonald’s in Tokyo? Ask for directions to Ma-ku-do. They’re easy to find: After the United States, Japan has the most Ma-ku-dos of any country in the world. (America still dominates with 14,000-plus.) Along with your green tea, you can order an Ebi Burger (a panko-crumb encrusted shrimp deep fried into a burger patty), or the Mega Tamago, a promotional burger that has a fried egg on it. The McHotDog Chili is — you guessed it — a chili dog. One blogger in Japan reported on a new item that (hint, hint!) would also be a hit in the U.S.: a bacon and mashed potato pie.

 

Japan

Passers-by have to look closely to see the golden arches on this unassuming white building on a street near Fish Square in Bergen, Norway. Many of the menu items inside are familiar, but one popular item some years ago was the Lakse fish wrap with your choice of wasabi or honey sauce. While the food is modern, the building dates to the 1800s, and the company made sure the exterior was preserved to blend in with the surrounding historic buildings.

Norway

Italy, famous for its Slow Food movement that promotes home cooking with organic, regional ingredients, opened its first McDonald’s in Rome in 1986 near the legendary Spanish Steps. It was the opening of that restaurant, in fact, that launched the whole movement — but it didn’t stop hungry tourists and locals from visiting McDonald’s restaurants as they grew across the country. Some, like this one in Sicily, sport the chain’s familiar red and yellow colors, but others are decidedly sleeker — appropriate, say, for fashionable Milan. Also appropriate? The Parmigiano Reggiano burger made with ciabatta bread and a slide of the famous Italian cheese.

The arrival of McDonald's at Berlin's famous Checkpoint Charlie in 2010 caused some to nickname it Snackpoint Charlie. (There's also a Starbucks, pizzeria, sushi bar and more in the area.) Regardless, it seems the perfect bookend to a story of a divided city, where American and Russian tanks once squared off, and where a large stone wall was a dark daily reminder of the Cold War.

by Heidi Schuessler

Checkpoint Charlie

Baltic Capitals Berlin Day 3 of cruise

What a thought provoking visit to East and West Berlin today. I am blown away by the complexity of this city’s history. It is probably the most schizophrenic major city because for 42 years, it held two distinctly different cultures and served at least two masters. One with a thriving, modern economy, and citizens who were free to move around; the other, oppressed, repressed, and a wing of the Soviet Union. Yet, neither had full civil rights as part of Germany.

Everywhere there are markers of its dark Nazi past, its occupation by Russia, the devastation of war, and the massive abuses of power. At the same time, hope shines today, in this city of renovation, creation, and construction cranes. Guilt-ridden by the shame of Nazi Germany’s horrors, Berlin has attempted to shed its past by demolishing most sites associated with that era, and rebuilding using the latest advances in technology and the most contemporary architectural styles.

What struck me is how pivotal a role Berlin played as a pawn between the US and Russia during the cold War. One perceived misstep by one side and one overreaction by the other could have easily led to WWIII. The Checkpoint Charlie incident in 1961, is one such example of American and Russian tanks coming head to head in a stand-off that had the world’s attention. There was posturing on both sides, but the Potsdam agreement intervened to prevent an irrevocable and fatal move.

Our Agenda

After breakfast at 7, I met my small, private tour group for our 3 hour coach ride into the city. The ship docked at (Warnemunde).

Our first stops were visits to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Potsdamer Platz, Tiergarten, and Ku Damn. Then we went to the Brandenburg Gate and WALKED THRU IT, the Reichstag, Sections of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (more people visited this than Rome in 2009), The Book Burning Memorial, The site of Hitler’s Bunker (and where he committed suicide as Russian tanks pulled into Berlin), and the moving Memorial to The Murdered Jews.

1/3 of the city is covered by natural attractions---gardens, lakes, woodlands, and parks.

Our tour guide, Dereck from Toronto was knowledgeable and passion about his subject.

We heard lots of stories of the building of the wall, gripping tales of ingenious escape attempts, and scenes of ecstatic Berliners poring thru the gates and tearing down the wall in 1989.

We even saw the buildings were the Valkerie Plot was conceived and where Hitler drafted his first plans for world domination, (long before the start of WWII).

We were thoroughly satisfied with our tour. The weather was pleasant—warm, and sunny.

We had traditional Bavarian fare for lunch. (my pretzel was good, my veal sausage was edible).

Some things I learned

Angela Merkel grew up in East Germany under Soviet rule. (first German ruler to grow up in under communism)

Hitler likely used the fire at the Reichstag as an excuse to launch his assault on Jews and communists and to broaden the Aryan empire. Shortly after that incident, he transformed Germany from a democracy to a dictatorship where all civil rights were expunged.

The US airlifted supplies into Germany for more than a year when Stalin attempted a blockade of West Berlin. West Berlin was such a potent symbol—the Allies fought to hold onto it. Stalin eventually reopened the roadways giving access.

There were two walls: an inner wall that separated East and West Berlin and an outer wall that surrounded the entire city to control the flow in and out of Soviet East Berlin.

We made it back to the ship before 9, for a 10PM departure.

I love standing out on deck watching this ship pull away. The townspeople of Warnemunde waved us goodbye.

It is still light outside!

Tomorrow: a day at sea

Have not watched the news since ship left London

Will upload photos when I get faser connection