Back Home Again

A bit of a belated post, but we got back to Detroit last evening after a 22 hour travel day. Overall the trip went pretty well. The SAS flight was very good - I'd fly them again. Good service, personal movie screens and nice meals. We did have some tense moments at Dullas (Washington DC) since we had to pass thru Customs and change from SAS to United. We had 2 hours between flights and as we were taxing to the gate the flight attendant announced that there was a 1+ hour wait at Immigration. Fortunately the line moved rather quickly, we flew through Customs, and made it to the gate for our next flight just 15 minutes before they started boarding.

Our flight to Detroit left the gate ahead of schedule, but due to weather congestion over the east coast, we had to power down and sit on the taxiway for 35 minutes before taking off. But with that assist I nearly finished my 3rd book of the trip.

All in all we ended up getting home pretty late after a long day. We had a late pizza supper, left the suitcases for the morning and hit the sack. We both woke up early today so by 8:00 a.m. we had all suitcases unpacked and many other post-vacation tasks competed.

That wraps up this trip. Mary and I agree this was our best cruise since Alaska. In some respects it might have been a bit better, but your first cruise is always special. I hope you enjoyed traveling along with us!

Back to Copenhagen

Today they kicked us off the ship so we caught a cab to the Marriott in Copenhagen. Since we got there by 9:30 am, we had a lot of time before we could get a room so we headed out on a walk. The Amalienborg (Royal) Palace was about 45 minutes by foot so we headed there and got some good pictures. The official changing of the guard is at noon, but at 10:00 they had a small ceremonial changing which was cool to watch. Then official church of the Royals (called the Marble Church) was there as well.

After having lunch to break up the walk back to the hotel, we waited for our room which is very spacious, then headed out to Tivoli Gardens. It is a very neat place to walk around. Has some Disney-like features, but is much older. I was fascinated by a bubble fountain they had in the center court. Very neat! I took a short video of it since it's really hard to explain. We also found a Cold Stone Creamery in Tivoli so we just had to have a shake after our Trellenborg sandwiches. Thankfully the waiter told us that hakket oksekod was ground beef and kyllingbryst was chicken! Oh - a Trellenborg is a loaded bacon cheeseburger.

So tomorrow we pack up and fly back to Detroit. Been a nice trip, had great weather and a very good time.

Oslo

We had a beautiful day in Oslo, Norway today. Sunny, clear and very warm (for a change!). This is the first day of the cruise that we wore shorts as the temperature got into the upper 70's.

We had a planned excursion that visited the Vingate sculpture park and the Olso open air museum which is a Norwegian version of Greenfield Village. The excursion would have been a whole lot better if we did not have a tour guide who insisted on giving waaaaaay too much detail at each stop. We finally abandoned him in the open air museum and walked around ourselves.

As you can tell the Vigeland Sculpture Gardens is a bit riskee. When opened in the 1930's is created quite a scene. The Picassa page has a few pictures that are best not posted on the main blog entry.

The highlight of the Open Air Museum for us was the Stave Church. A very impressive building. A picture of the altar area is in the slideshow.

After we got back to the ship, and Mary did some serious shopping on the dock, we had lunch and departed Oslo. The trip down the fjord was nice, but not as pretty as the Stockholm passage. Not quite sure why, but maybe because it is more open and rocky with not as green. Now we are on our way back to Copenhagen. We have a nice day planned for tomorrow. We will visit Tovoli Gardens, but we just might sneak a visit to the Carlsbad Brewery first, depending on how the morning goes.

It's been a great cruise and a super vacation but now it's time to start thinking about heading home.

Quiet Day at Sea

Not much going on today, just a quiet day spent reading and relaxing. We got up and did a 30 minute walk around the Promenade deck before heading up for breakfast. Later we saw Germany as we passed by and are now in Danish waters, headed for Oslo, Norway. Once we leave Oslo tomorrow at 2:00, we'll spend 4 hours navigating the Oslo Fjord which should be very pretty.

We got our evaluation forms and other papers today which means the cruise is nearing an end, always a time when you realize that it's about time to head back to reality. This has been a very good cruise on a new ship, yet remarkably familiar since we were on its sister ship, the Ruby Princess, just 4 months ago.

That's it for now - on to Oslo!

Visiting Poland

We landed in Gdynia Poland at 9:00 this morning. Due to tight facilities, they had to stop the ship, then rotate it 180 degrees, before snugging it up to the dock. Pretty cool to see that happen with a ship of this size. Our excursion did not leave until 12:20 so we had an open morning. We found that the Skywalker Lounge on deck 18 over the stern is open for quiet reading during the day so we headed up there while the laundry was in the washer. It was cool being up there and we intend to go back tomorrow while we are at sea.

This afternoon we boarded our bus for the trip to Gdansk. The bus ride was a non-event and Gdansk was OK, but nothing spectacular. The town was destroyed in WWII. Afterwards the town decided to rebuild itself to look as it did in the 16th century. They saved key parts of old houses and included them when the rebuild that house. Overall they did a pretty good job. Maybe it was the grey skies, but it was not as nice as Tannin. The main building we visited was St Mary's church. (I put some extra photos of the church on my Picassa slide show and picture page.) This is a very impressive church with 90' high ceiling and a huge crucifix overhead. The story goes that the artist got such a realistic expression on the face by nailing his son-in-law to a cross as a model.

So we had a nice day. After 6 straight days of visiting ports we are looking forward to a day at sea tomorrow.

Tallin, Estonia

We were very surprised to share a pier with the active British warship HMS Illustrious! When we exited the ship we walked right past the gangways for the warship.
We had only a half day in Tannin since we sail for Gdansk at 1:00, but we enjoyed every minute of it. This is a very lovely town. Quaint, colorful, and very old, with many buildings dating back to the 14th century. Everywhere we walked we came across another picturesque scene. I did not think I took too many pictures, but I ended up with 35 today! We had a bright blue sky and a gorgeous day.
The weather was a bit cool. Which is fitting for a place known for its woolen goods. Mary and I both purchased sweaters along with a few other items. I liked mine so much I wore it to lunch and then to see Slum Dog Millionaire in the Princess Theater. This has been a great voyage for seeing movies. First was Mamma Mia under the stars, then Doubt, Australia, Swing Vote and Last Chance Harvey in our room, and now Slum Dog Millionaire in the theater.
Guess that's it for now. We're having a great cruise, and might even do this one again sometime, if the price is right...

Day 2 in St Petersburg

This was our Castle Day - Catherine's Palace and Peterhof.
The day started out well, very clear and sunny. The weather held all through our visit to Catherine' palace. This was a very impressive palace with many very well reconstructed rooms. The palace was destroyed in WWII when it was bombed and blew up - only the walls remained. But over the past 65 years, they have reconstructed about half of the rooms. The cost and workmanship is amazing.
During the drive to Peterhof, the clouds came in and it started raining. We also hit some major traffic jams that put us even further behind schedule. The rain started and stopped a few times as we approached. We had a few minutes to walk the Upper Gardens while our guide waited in line.
Once we got inside I heard that it would take 40 minutes to tour the palace and not leave much time for the fountains so I opted out of the palace tour and spent the time walking the grounds. Mary stayed inside and reported the palace was much better that Catherine's. You got to see the throne room and many other rooms, but no pictures were permitted. While they were inside it stopped raining for a while so I got some good pictures of the Grand Cascade and other fountains.
Remember how I commented on some busses getting back late? Well, all passengers were due back by 5:30 so the ship could leave at 6:00 p.m. We supposed to be back at 5:00 p.m. but at 5:30 we were stuck in traffic and did not get back to the ship until 6:10! Sure glad we were on a Princess sponsored excursion so the ship waited on us! As we got back on the ship they were starting to dismantle the gangplank and close down the customs office. Now that is cutting things a bit too close!

St Petersburg - Day 1

Our first day started out very slow, thanks to the Russian Immigration staff. According to Princess, all passengers are off the ship and en route to their shore excursions within 1 hour. Well, our ship took over 2 hours and since our excursion was scheduled to be one of the last to leave, we waited and waited, then waited some more. We finally left over 1 hour behind schedule - and we had a fairly short 1 1/2 hour turn around between shore excursions today. But all are with the same tour company so they slid the afternoon schedules a bit.

The Hermitage was very worth while. We spent 2 hours going through it, with chances to view the Old Masters and French Impressionist areas at our own pace. The buildings themselves were very impressive. It's hard to believe just a few people lived in that entire Winter Palace, now part of the Hermitage. The paintings themselves were very impressive, but were overshadowed by the buildings that contained them. Pictures cannot capture the beauty - nor can words.

As I mentioned earlier we got back very late from our morning excursion and our hour and one half interlude was down to 15 minutes so Mary and I did no re-board the ship and waited for the next excursion. This one was nice, but had a multitude of logistical issues. I won't go into them here, except to say that a 30 minute walk through St Petersburg was not on the itinerary. The canal ride was very nice, but we got shortchanged on time outside of the Church of Spilled Blood. Mary and I paid to go into the church and used most of our 20 minutes there so we only had 5 minutes to do some shopping with the street vendors. The church was amazing - the entire interior is covered with religious mosaics.

Helsinki

We had a very nice day in Helsinki. Our tour did not leave until 3 hours after we arrived in port so we had a nice quiet and relaxing morning. I was on desk to watch them back the 950' long cruise ship into our berth - quite the parallel parking job!

We visited the Kalavala jewelry factory, which produces very unique jewelry with Finnish touch, followed by the famous Rock Church (a true underground church, carved 40' into bedrock), and the Senate Square with the Lutheran Cathedral.

Overall our tour went quite well and Mary picked out a nice Kalavala necklace. We got back on time which is more than can be said for the dozen busses that pulled in between 5:20 and 5:30, our scheduled departure time. Busses are supposed to have everyone back on board 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time so we'll sail for St. Petersburg a little late tonight.

Tonight was German night in the buffet so I had a nice helping of bratwurst, kielbasa, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes with Beck's beer. Delicious! They also had apple dumpling with vanilla sauce and amoretto pudding for dessert.

So it was a very good day.

Baltic Observations

Over the past few days I've had a few observations I thought I'd post.

1. The Baltic sure is a busy sea. I can't remember a time when I looked out and did not see a ship on the horizon - and often 3 or 4 ships. This is very different from the Caribbean where seeing a freighter is a rarity. The large number of passenger ferries is also surprising. Apparently several passenger ferries a day make their way between Helsinki and Stockholm. And ferries go out to other cities as well. When we were leaving Stockholm yesterday we had a mini-traffic jam. Two outbound ferries passed us as we left and a cruise ship entering Stockholm had to slow down to let the traffic clear in the narrow passageway.
2. It sure is cold! This is the first time I can remember actually planning a route to the Horizon buffet via an interior route so I would not have to walk out in the open air. I have gone to the buffet a time or two wearing jeans and a t-shirt, but it has been a chilly walk across the open desk.
3. When we were walking this morning we could actually see major buildings in cities on both sides of the Baltic, Estonia and Finland. I had no idea that this part of the Baltic was that narrow.
4. The smoothness of the Baltic is amazing. We've been on board the ship for 3 days and I have yet to really feel it sway or move. Not once have I felt slightly off balance as I walked down a hallway as I have been on every other cruise. At first I attributed this to being close shore for the first 2 days at sea. But after heading across the open Baltic sea last night and feeling no rocking at all, I'm wondering if this is just very quiet and smooth sea. Maybe we are in a fortunate weather pattern, but the lack waves and the long swells you experience in the Caribbean or in open ocean is amazing. Maybe that's it - the lack of the long rolling swells which, when combined with waves keep a ship in constant motion.
   

Day in Stockholm

We had a very pleasant and enjoyable day in Stockholm. Our shore excursion consisted of a bus ride around the city, followed by a boat ride to see many of the same sites from the water. Overall, very enjoyable.
Stockholm hasn't impressed us as much as Copenhagen. We've actually been more fascinated with the trip up the Stockholm Arpeggio and back than the long list of buildings. One very exciting event is the Volvo Ocean racers arrived in town today so the crowds were all over the place waiting for these large sailboats to sail into the harbor. We only saw one up close and it was rather impressive.
Amazingly, we did not get to do much souvenir shopping. There is a small store at the dock where Mary picked up a few postcards but that was it. And that shop operated in US$ so we did not get any Swedish Krona. Oh well.
On to Helsinki tomorrow!

Entering Stockholm

Yesterday they announced that we'd be transiting the Stockholm fjord for 5 hours. So when we woke up by 8:00 am we looked out and this is what we saw!

Beautiful!

We will be passing this way again this evening as we leave Stockholm so I can get more pictures then. And I know my new camera takes nice pictures!

On board the ship

We had a nice dinner (prime rib and pina colada soup!) last evening
and Princess treated us to a special dessert in honor of our
anniversary. We purchased a bottle of wine and had a very enjoyable
meal, even if the waiters who sang "Happy Anniversary" were a bit out
of tune. Then we bundled up and went to see Mamma Mia! It was great seeing it again and having two blankets sure helped fight off the chill. After popcorn, the waiters came around with pizza, then again with warm cookies and milk!
The sun came up by 4 am this morning so I got up and closed the shades. Amazingly, we ended up sleeping in to 9 am so we had to rush to get ready for the 10:00 talk on Stockholm. Guess we need to set an alarm clock on board the ship. The soft rolling of the ship just lulls you to sleep.
We have a full schedule today. After the talk about Stockholm this morning, we have one on St Petersberg this afternoon and various other events like playing "The Amazing Race Game"; Unfortunately we got eliminated in the first round because we weren't one of the first 10 teams to find the martini bar.
I did finally get a camera today - a Nikon S550. It has 5X zoom and used SD cards. It has an internal rechargeable battery and got pretty good reviews on the sites I checked out. From all my reviews I liked the Nikon P80, but they were sold out of that model on the ship. Once I get back to the States I'll have to have my Canon evaluated and decide if I want to get it repaired or what I do. But for now, I have a camera!
It's always nice to have a day at sea early in the cruise to get into the routine of the ship. After this it's 6 straight days of port visits. Tonight is the first Formal Night and I think we're going to head to the Horizon Cafe instead of the dining room. We checked out the menu and it wasn't too exciting. But now it's time for either Afternoon Tea or the ice cream bar. Tough decisions... 8-)

Arriving at the Emerald

After a morning of exploring Copenhagen (and striking out with camera shops) we checked out of The Square and caught a taxi to the ship. We left the hotel just after noon and were checked in and in our cabin by 12:35! Very smooth checkin. And our luggage arrived by 1:00.

Our cabin is nice and has a very large balcony - large enough for 4 chairs, two of which can lay back. It is near the middle of the ship, just 3 cabins from the elevator.

But the best news is that tonight's Movies Under the Stars is ..... MAMMA MIA! So right after the ship sails at 8:00, we'll be claiming our chairs for the movie.

So now it's time to tour the ship and visit the Cafe Caribe for lunch.

Back from lunch and the ship walk about. The layout is identical to the Ruby Princess; I have yet to find something in a different location. So it will be very easy for us to find our way around. The dinner menu has pina colada soup and prime rib plus we have a card to give to the headwaiter for a special anniversary gift so we'll be squeezing that in between the muster call (emergency drill) and Mamma Mia showing.

Copenhagen

Mary and I have had a great time wandering around Copenhagen. The street system is very crazy and the addresses make no sense, but we haven't been lost yet. Most corners have no street signs and those you do find are often on the sides of buildings. The city is criss-crossed by canals and the scenery is amazing.

Our hotel is in an excellent location, right near The Stroeget, the main shopping street. Just walking around these ancient buildings and across cobblestone streets that have been there for centuries is fascinating.

So now we head for the Emerald Princess to begin the next leg of our trip. I have declared my camera "DOA". I found some tricks to revive it at an online site, but they only partially worked. The problem is the iris that covers the shutter is stuck so no light gets into the camera when the shutter clicks. I was able to get it briefly unstuck last evening, but it failed again next time turned it on. Cameras over here are very expensive, about twice what I'd pay in the States so I may pick up a one time digital camera and will end up sharing Mary's camera with her so I may be taking a few less pictures on this trip.

I have started a Picassa photo page to post a few pictures each day.

Time to pack up and head to the ship.

Arrived In Copenhagen

Now that was a looong day! The "air leg" of our journey went very well. All planes arrived early and we had no travel issues, which is always a very good thing. The SAS flight was very nice. The seats were a bit cramped (understandable for economy class) and it was hard to sleep due to the time of day, but the food was great - a nice hot meal at the start and a breakfast before we landed. Customs was a non-issue (they looked at my passport and stamped Mary's), our baggage was there when we got to the conveyer belt, and we caught a cab to our hotel right away. The cab driver understood some English which helped.

As expected the hotel was full when we arrived at 8:00 am (local time) and check in is at 2:00 p.m. so we put luggage into storage and walked around the town. We decided to take a canal

tour which was very nice, but by the end of it, we both were feeling the effects of being up for 26 hours. We did some souvenir shopping, grabbed a small lunch and decided to head back to the hotel to wait for our room. Thankfully, one was available so we were able to check in and immediately crashed for a 3 hour nap.

So now we are waking up, getting unpacked and settling in.

Unfortunately, my camera decided to "die" today. I discovered this as we were about to leave the house when I tried to take a picture of our luggage. It turns on and displays settings and prior pictures just fine, but when you go to take a picture, all you see is "black". After considerable testing and some online internet research over the phone with Katie while waiting at the airport, I've concluded the the "image capture" chip has failed. Thankfully Mary's camera works so we shared it today. So I'll be doing some camera shopping while on the trip. Hopefully I can find a good deal here in Copenhagen!

All Packed and Ready

The suitcases are all packed and closed (and well under 50 lb each!) so now we need to have lunch and wait for any to pick us up.

Getting excited to be on our way!