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!