Best of the Baltic
July 2, 2013 - July 15, 2013Priced from: $10,980
Especially chosen for this voyage, our team of expert leaders and lecturers serves to bring a comprehensive educational component to your adventure through lectures, guided excursions, and daily recaps.
Nadia Eckhardt (Expedition Leader)
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Nadia now calls Seattle her home. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and is well versed in many adventure destinations, including Central and South America, Indonesia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, the South Pacific, and more. She spent much of her youth exploring southern Africa and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Nadia has been working with Zegrahm since 1989 and is an experienced cruise director and Zodiac driver.
Jannie Cloete
Jannie has been working on cruise ships as cruise director and expedition leader for over 28 years. This vocation has taken him around the globe from the Antarctic to the tropics and many of the remote hidden gems in between. Jannie has now settled into full-time work on smaller vessels, visiting lesser-known spots, where he has become a specialist of the unbeaten path.
Colleen Batey
Dr. Colleen Batey’s childhood passion for archaeology led her to Durham University from where she received her doctorate. Her research interests focus on the settlement and burial of Scandinavian settlers and she has excavated extensively on Viking and Late Norse sites in Northern Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Islands, and more recently in Iceland. She was a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Leeds, Durham, and University College in London before joining the staff as curator of archaeology for Glasgow Museums.
Olga Eggert
Olga was born in Crimea, Ukraine. She graduated from the Odessa Conservatoire with distinction in piano, piano accompaniment, and the teaching of music. After leaving the Conservatoire she embarked on a career as a professional pianist and accompanist and performed in Moscow, Minsk, Kiev and other cities of the former Soviet Union. She has made many appearances on Ukrainian, Russian, and Belorussian television. She moved to the Isle of Man in 1998 and in 2001, was elected a Fellow of Trinity College of Music in London (F.T.C.L.).
Elena Myasoedova
Elena was born in the ancient city of Novgorod, Russia. From an early age she frequently traveled with her parents to nearby St. Petersburg and all over the Baltic region. She majored in literature, as well as English and German in Moscow and studied piano and classical singing for seven years. For many years Elena lived in Sochi, Russia where she worked as a shore excursion director and guide. She has traveled extensively throughout the Mediterranean and Black seas, working as a tour manager on cruise ships.
Ann Wilson
Born and raised in Ireland, Ann lectures in visual culture and design history at the Cork College of Art and Design/Cork Institute of Technology. Her main areas of expertise include the history of European art, design, and architecture; visual cultural studies; and 19th- and 20th-century Irish history. She has published numerous papers and co-authored the book The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork: William Burges in Ireland (2006) with Dr. David Lawrence.
Jim Wilson
From the town of Cobh, County Cork, Ireland where he lives with his wife Ann and two sons Peter and Barry. Before devoting his working life to birds and wildlife he had a career as a biomedical scientist in Cork University Hospital and then as Pathology IT Administrator for the Cork/Kerry Region. He is a highly respected ornithologist and ecologist with more than 35 years of birding experience in Ireland, Europe, USA, Africa, and the Antarctic. He is a full-time freelance wildlife filmmaker, author, tour guide and broadcaster.
Ron Wixman
Professor Ron Wixman, a specialist in world cultural geography, is well versed in both the ancient and modern societies of the Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Ron is conversant in several languages, including Croatian and Bulgarian. For 20 years, he spent the summers living in shepherds' villages in the Balkans. His extensive knowledge of the region has led to his work as a consultant to the State Department and CIA on ethno-cultural conflict.
