Hoy travel curse

Havent been prepared to call it in but now with Aretha Franklin dying I think the curse has struck again - Nicholas Betts (Kenyan Hurdler), Jarrod Lyle and the Queens physician.

Photos

Stockholm

Wow what a dinner we had last night. There were 8 of us, two Americans joined us and fortunately they understood our sense of humour. We had a great night. Each meal had a specially selected drink to accompany it and enhance the experience. The waiter would give an explanation of the dish and the wine to go with it. To start with we had a champagne cocktail that included apple vodka and other ingredients which went with our tuna tartare and golden caviar etc. Hope this gives you an idea of the standard because I can’t recall the details as we finished off with a few limencelos. Afterwards we had the balloon drop and listened to the music, ended up being a late night.

Today we head into Stockholm. Because the winds are light they are able to use the floating dock, which concertinas out to meet the ship. It is a 45 minute drive into Stockholm where we pick up our guide Cristina. It is a bit disorganised because there was a mix up with the starting time, normally the tour commences at 10, but all on the tour have 9 start. Hence the guide is late. We start off with city hall where the Nobel banquet takes place. Then we drive to another area and walk around. It seems a bit haphazard. We do get to see the start of the changing of the guard at the palace. After lunch we move on to the Vasa Museum and this is a highlight. In 1628 the Vasa sank on its launching and was salad aged in 1961. It is an awesome sight.
Stockholm is built on islands in the lake and around its river. As such it has many bridges, narrow laneways and a lot of work being done in the roads. Everywhere in Europe and Scandinavia we visit there seems to be road works going on.

We get back to the ship just before 4 pm. Tomorrow we have a sea day.

Helsinki

Today is Tuesday we think. We arrive in Helsinki around 7 am and it is a beautiful sunny morning, although quite cool around 9 degrees. We get up late after a big night last night. After dinner the girls went to look at the shops while John, Ross and I found a nice place to have a drink and listen to some music. Around 10.15 the Beatlemanics start up. They are playing below us on deck 5 in the atrium and we are on deck 7. They are fantastic playing Beatles songs and hair styles to suit. The girls come back and we have a great night with a couple of ports.
We decide to take the hoho bus as it has a stop right outside the ship. We have to wait around 20 mins for the bus to come but we board and are away. We plan to ride it from our stop of 10 to stop 19 (there are a total of 22 stops) so we can see some of the sights before we get off. It is quite cool so we stay downstairs. The traffic is heavy and there are a lot of roadworks being undertaken. After three more stops the bus is full and I mean really full! We debate whether to get off at stop 14 but there are so many people we would have to push through we decide to stay. More people get on, the aisles and stairways are full. We eventually get to our stop after about an hour and force our way off!
We walk to the rock church have a look around and then walk back to the main city area. It is a beautiful area and spend some time there walking around. Luggy has a donut and then Ann and I have a salted licorice ice cream which tempts Luggy and he grabs one also. They are very yummy.

After about an hour and half we head back to the hoho bus stop to head back to the ship. We arrive back at the ship at 2.30 to have lunch. Tonight is a formal night and we have purchased a Wine Cellar event where we have a special meal with matched wines, should be a good night.

St Petersburg Day 2

Meet up with Kate at 8. Smooth going through immigration, still no smiles. Today we start off with a canal boat ride and we get great views of the buildings from the water. The ride lasts about an hour and we end up at the Faberge Museum. An incredible array of faberge eggs, and other jewellery and gold and silver items. In the afternoon we go to Peterhof gardens. Incredible array of fountains amongst expansive gardens. We get back to the ship at 5pm and say farewell to Kate and St Petersburg, now for Helsinki.

St Petersburg

Wow, been a busy few days. Saturday we were in Tallinn, then Sunday and Monday in Russia, and both days have been hectic. The weather has turned a bit with the temperature barely getting into the 20s plus some rain during Monday.

We start early on Sunday, as we have been warned it may take some time to progress through the Russian immigration. We have to meet our tour guide at 8 am so we head off to the ship meet ing point at 7.10. The ship is coordinating the immigration process, our number is 138. The first group of 50 are called and barely 15 mins later we  are called. There are plenty of gates open and the lines have between 3 to 5 people lined up and we proceed through pretty quickly. The immigration officers are not very friendly. We find our tour and there are 15 of us with our guide Kate and driver Serg.

Kate gives us the rundown on what we will do and see today and warns us it will be a long day, she was not wrong. She is full of information and does not let up the whole day in telling us about the history of St Petersburg. Apart from the few Communist built buildings which are very bland, St Petersburg is a beautiful city with very large buildings and structures. It is very European in its outlook, and Kate informs us that Peter the great and the Romanoffs were inspired by the French style  and wanted St Petersburg to follow suit. We drive to the city and our first stop is to view a cathedral/church. The churches/cathedrals are Russian orthodox. They are magnificent inside and outside. There are no pews inside as everyone stands during the service. There is so much to see and we really only have time to get an understanding of what is here.

The winter palace is incredible in size, architecture, interior and its contents. We are warned not to get lost and we are very obedient in keeping Up with Kate. We visit the Church of our Saviour of the spilled blood, another magnificent building. After lunch we go to the Yusupov Palace, which is a huge mansion that was owned by the Yusupovs. This is also the place where a plot to kill Rasputin was planned and carried out. We eventually get back to the ship at 6pm. I could go on and on about what we saw and heard, but I need to do other things.

Tallinn

Today we have a walking tour of Tallinn, it is about a 20 minute walk from our ship to the town. Just after we berth two other ships arrive a Celebrity silhouette  and the Disney Magic. The town will be flooded with at least 10000 tourists. Tallinn is a lovely city with cobble stone roads and narrow streets. It is crowded. We start our tour at noon, and our guide is Miriam, she is chirpy and full of information. She takes us to all the key places and gives us a history of Estonia’s road to independence. She tells us that Estonians are very private people and as an example, a shy person when talking to someone would look at their own feet, they would not look directly at the person. Whereas an outgoing Estonian would look at the other persons feet.