Baltic Cruise May 19, 2017 Review II New and Improved!

We left home at 10:15am and arrived at the Delta counter at 10:45 and checked in. We had TSA pre-check so getting through security was quick and easy. It is so nice to not have to remove belts and shoes or to remove our bag of liquids or computers from our carryons.

Our flight left on time at 12:05pm and we arrived in Atlanta at 1:30 after an uneventful flight.

We found our gate and headed to TGIFridays in the International terminal to get some lunch.

As DH has a Delta app on his phone, we were alerted at 3:00pm that our luggage had been delivered to the hold of the plane. We thought this was an awesome thing that the apps offers and gave us some relief as to where our bags were. We looked out our gate window, but there was no plane, which gave us some pause. How could our luggage be on the plane, when there wasn’t one there? We then noticed that several people that had been sitting at the gate with us were now gone. We got up and found the departures board, where we found that our gate had changed. We still had plenty of time before we boarded so we headed over to our new gate. When we arrived, we could see our plane sitting on the tarmac.

We boarded about 5:00pm and left promptly at 5:40. We had seats 24 A and B, which were on the side of the plane and had only the two seats to the row. Each seat back had its own TV system which was nice and it gave you something to do during the 8 ½ hour flight.

We were served dinner and we both chose the pasta, which was a poor choice. It was very bitter tasting and I couldn’t eat it, but there were enough other items on the tray, that I was satisfied. Salad, a piece of cheese, a roll, and dessert.

After dinner service, the lights inside the plane were turned off, so people who wanted, could try to get some sleep. Thankfully there were no little children right around us, but there was a small child several rows up that we could occasionally hear.

I watched a couple of movies and about 9:00, I took a melatonin and dozed for a couple of hours. DH seemed to get much more sleep, but he said he kept waking up because his neck hurt. I told him next time we fly internationally, we’ll pay for the comfort seats to get a bit more leg room.

We were served a cold breakfast about 6:30am that was a slice of cheese, a small bagel with some spread, a container of yogurt and some orange juice.

Wednesday, May 17

We arrived in Amsterdam, on time at 8:30 am and once we were off the plane, got into the Customs line. It was a pretty long line, but went relatively fast. It took about 30 minutes to get through. Once finished, we had a LONG walk to pick up our luggage. It was at the furthest terminal from the Customs area. Our luggage was waiting for us when we got to the carousel and we left the airport to find the Shiphol Hotel Shuttle to take us to the hotel.

It was right outside the arrivals doors. We had made a reservation and prepaid for the ride, so we showed them our ticket and hopped aboard. It was about $37 for both of us. It took about 30 minutes to get to our hotel and we were dropped off at the door. They loaded and unloaded our luggage which was great. We gave the driver a 5euro tip. This was well worth the money. We were tired and didn’t have to wrestle with luggage or try to figure out which train to take in to the city center.

We were staying at the Doubletree Centraal Station and used Hilton Honors points to pay for our room. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so they took our luggage to lock it away and off we went into the city.

We walked to Centraal Station through a large bike lot and went inside the beautiful building.

The Doubletree is the building with windows in the background.

Centraal Station

We found a kiosk to purchase 48 hour OV tram passes. This would allow us to ride the trams an unlimited number of times. I put my credit card into the machine to pay for our order and out came a piece of paper. It showed the purchase of 2 passes but we weren’t sure if this was our ticket and began to walk away. We were really confused and were going to go ask someone, but as I turned back toward the machine, I noticed a slot below where the receipt came out and there were our 2 passes. We laughed as we got them, and walked outside to figure out where to catch the tram we needed.

I knew from my prior research, that we need to get on tram #2 or #5. We just needed to figure out where those platforms were. The front of Centraal Station is where all the trams come. There were lots of people everywhere and you had to watch out for coming trains, pedestrians and bicycles. The bicyclists go fast and give no right of way to pedestrians.

We found the platforms for trams 2 and 5, which were right next to each other.

We got on the #2 bus and tapped our pass in for the ride. We got off at the Rijksmuseum stop and tapped our pass out as we left the bus.

We arrived at the museum at about 11:30, and with our tickets already in hand, we didn’t have to wait in a line to purchase entry tickets and walked right inside.

Our tickets were scanned, and we got in a short line to pick up our audio guide. We chose a highlight tour on the audio guide and we spent about an hour and 15 minutes at the museum. We spent all of our time in the Main Gallery, where we saw the Rembrandt’s, Vermeer’s, Hal’s and Steen’s.

We were quite tired by the time we left but had to walk over to the I Amsterdam sculpture, which is right outside the Rijksmuseum. There were so many people around this sculpture. There were people sitting on top of the letters, people in front of it. People were taking pictures and enjoying the area.

We went back to the area where we got off the tram and just had to cross the street to catch the tram going back toward Centraal Station. The tram system was very easy to use and was simple to figure out as long as you knew where you wanted to go.

We got off at the Dam stop, with the intent of walking over to Dam Square to pick up the 2:00pm Sandeman’s walking tour of the downtown Amsterdam area. We decided we were too tired to do a 3 hour walking tour and decided to stop at a small restaurant and get pizza instead. The restaurant was called La Tosca and was a little hole in the wall. That was fine, but I was concerned of the level of cleanliness. After we had placed our order, we noticed the chef was quite dirty and don’t think he used gloves to make our meal. We just hoped that the heat from the oven would kill germs on our pizza. The pizza itself was OK. I ordered a cheese pizza and John ordered a margherita pizza, but they both looked identical. Pizzas were about $10 each.

On the way to Dam, we happened to pass right by the restaurant we were going to this evening so we knew where to go tonight.

After lunch we were fading, so we decided to go back to the hotel to see if our room was ready. The one they had planned to give us wasn’t ready yet, so we chose a room without a view so we could have a nap. We retrieved our luggage and went to our room where we took about an hour and a half nap. In hindsight, we should have waited for the room with a view as it was quite beautiful to see the city lit up at night, but at that minute, we were just too tired to care.

The room is very small, but typical by European standards. The bed was comfortable and the room was quiet. We had plenty of space in the bathroom for our toiletries. There were wash cloths the first day, but they weren’t replaced and when we asked for more, we were told there weren’t any available.

We got up about 4, and went down to Starbucks to get some caffeine to help us wake up. We sat for a while and watched the people walk and ride by outside the window. Starbucks had many tables that stayed full and there was free wifi as well.

About 5:30, we walked back over to Centraal Station and took the #2 tram where we got off at Spui stop and walked a short block to the Dutch restaurant we had chosen called Haesje Claes. This was a small traditional restaurant that I chose based on Tripadvisor reviews.

The restaurant was long and narrow and reminded us of a pub with dark wood and hard wood floors. It was in an old building and on the way to the bathroom, I found doors with stained glass, narrow hallways and steep stairs. I found out later that the restaurant takes up 6 buildings that are attached by corridors. We could see one of the side rooms as we came in the front door, but we ate in the front room, so didn’t get to see other areas.

The waitresses were dressed in traditional clothing. The menu was traditional Dutch and was delicious. DH had pea soup that was rich and thick and he stated it was the best pea soup he’d ever had. It was served with brown bread and butter. He had cod with mashed potatoes and vegetables in a mustard sauce. I had a beef stew in a rich gravy with mashed potatoes and red cabbage. All of it was delicious.

We left the restaurant and rode the tram back to Centraal Station, then walked across the street to meet our Randy Roy Red Light District tour in front of the Victoria Hotel. For the next hour, we were taken through the streets in the Red Light district where the sex trade workers are. We were shown several side streets where the girls stand in glass fronted doorways, to try to entice clients. We were told that there are about 250 window workers and each of them has 8-10 clients per shift. The cost is 50 euros for 15 minutes. Our guide said that she and her friends will often sit at a bar down the street from one of the alley’s and they bet on the amount of time a man will be in the room.

There were many different sex shops and several live sex shows.

We weren't quite sure what a Hospital Bar was!

Our guide Kimberley, treated us to a drink at the end of our tour at a brown bar not too far from our hotel called Het Elfde Gebod. The brown bars are in very old buildings and have been there so long, that the walls have been turned brown from the nicotine from years of smoke. They don't generally serve food and are just old fashion drinking places. I was glad to go to one as I had been reading about them in my research.

We headed back to the hotel about 9:45, had showers and headed to bed.

Thursday, May 18

We got up this morning at 7:00am. It was rainy today and the high was about 55.

We had breakfast in the hotel at the buffet. It was a really nice breakfast with many hot and cold choices. We had a pretty hardy breakfast as we didn’t plan on lunch.

We left the hotel at 8:30 and took the #5 tram to the Rijksmuseum stop and walked to the Van Gogh Museum, which was at the other end of the open grass area.

A very interesting sculpture on our way to the Van Gogh Museum.

We had our tickets already in hand and got into that line. There was a separate long line for people that had not purchased their tickets.

The doors opened promptly at 9:00 and those with tickets went right in. We picked up our audio guides and spent the next 3 hours going from floor to floor, working from the bottom to the top. The art was fascinating and following Van Gogh’s life was very interesting.

This is Van Gogh's pallette. I really truly didn't realize I wasn't supposed to take pictures until someone gave me the stink eye!

We took the tram and got off at Dam and then made our way to the meeting point for our Damn Boat Guys tour. We passed a turn off point and went about ½ mile out of our way, but we did run into the Anne Frank house, so we knew where it was for the next day.

There were 20 of us on the boat, which was quite large, with thickly padded bench seats that went all the way around the perimeter of the back 2/3 of the ship. It was very comfortable. All of us were from the Cruise Critic Roll Call for our cruise. It was nice to meet some more people from the ship.

A couple of pictures of the canal.

A little restaurant sitting on the canal. Our boat sailed right past them.

We enjoyed the boat ride on the canal, but our guide David wasn’t very good. He just wanted to chat and would answer questions if asked directly, but didn’t point out landmarks or buildings as we progressed along the canals. Several questions that we asked were answered with,” I don’t know about that”.

When we got off the boat at 2:30, we decided we needed something to eat. We took the tram back to Centraal Station and walked over to Stubbe’s Herring Stand where I got herring with pickles and onions. It was very good.

Yummy!!

We then walked to Damrak, about 3 blocks over and went to a French Fry place called Mannekin Pis, that we had passed on our Randy Roy tour.

The fries are thick and hot and you have about 30 sauces to choose from. We chose a samurai sauce and something called joppie sauce. Both were very good, spicy and pleasantly filled us up.

We were still pretty jet lagged and were tired, so we decided to go back to the hotel and spend some time in the Starbucks. It was a nice place to hang out and watch people and we spent about 1 ½ hours there.

We left Starbucks around 5:30 and made our way to the Aneka Rasa Restaurant for Rijjstaffel. Our reservation was at 6:00 and we arrived a few minutes early. We were met at the door and gave our name for our reservation, but they didn’t have us written down. I explained that I had made the reservation online and had a confirmation from them. They seated us, but came over and waited while I found the confirmation email on my phone. Once they saw it, all was well, but it kind of started our meal on a down note.

We ordered the Rasa Rice table which included a starter, 13 different Indonesian items and a dessert. The food was all delicious and we couldn’t eat everything they brought. Some of the reviews I read about this restaurant complained that the food wasn’t spicy enough, but we thought it was great. It cost about $60 and we did get a 10% discount for making an online reservation, which might be why the host wanted to see our online confirmation.

DH and our rijjstaffel dinner.

We left the restaurant about 7:30 and made our way back to our hotel. We stopped by the room to get the name tags I had made and went up to the Sky Lounge on the top floor of the hotel. This was a lovely large bar that offered beautiful views of the city. The Sky Lounge was very accommodating to us and allowed us to use a side area that was somewhat enclosed for our gathering. There was a Meet and Greet up here for our Cruise Critic Roll Call and about 75 people showed up. It was nice to get to meet people before boarding the ship and everyone had a great time. We stayed until about 9:30 and there were still many people there. We understood the last people left about 10:45.

Friday, May 19

We got up this morning at 7:00 and were down to breakfast at 7:45. We took our luggage down with us and asked them to store it for us this morning, which was no problem. The buffet was excellent again this morning.

We left for the Anne Frank House about 8:15, leaving plenty of time to get there for our 9:00 timed tickets. We boarded the tram, but I got distracted and we missed our stop by quite a lot. We got off the tram and turned on maps on the phone and found that the walk would be 20-25 minutes so we got back on the tram and got off at the proper stop. We then had about a 15 minute walk to the Anne Frank House. I was really worried that we would miss our entry time and not get to go in and this was the one place I was looking so forward to seeing. Our tickets were for 9:00, with a 15 minute window. We arrived just in time to go in and we were the last in the 9:00 group. Whew!!

Tickets to the Anne Frank House can be purchased 60 days before your visit and be sure to do it as soon as you can because the tickets do sell out.

The ticket included an audio guide which was great. The house has been turned into a museum and most of the rooms are empty with the exhibits along the walls. The area up to the annex had very steep wood stairs with very narrow halls.

I'm not sure if photos were allowed in the house, but I did see a no photo sign by the diary.

The whole house was very moving and the original diary was in the center of one of the rooms under glass. The exhibits offered information about the Frank and van Pels families as well as about the people that helped them in hiding. The Germans emptied the house during the war and it was decided to leave it that way. The pictures of movie stars are still on the walls of Anne’s bedroom and have been covered with glass to keep them unharmed.

We left the museum and made our way back to the hotel to check out. We decided to spend some time at Starbucks and DH decided to walk over to the Cruise Terminal to see how far it was and how difficult it would be to drag all of our luggage. He came back and said the pavement was uneven and it was a good 20 minute walk, so we decided to take a taxi. It was also cool today and very windy, so would have made it even harder.

We called for a taxi about 12:00 and got to the terminal at 12:30. Once getting out of the taxi and getting our luggage, there was a luggage drop outside of the terminal which made it very easy to get rid of our bags. We got in line inside the terminal and it took about 35 minutes in line. This is a smaller terminal and there was nowhere for people to sit and wait. When you went inside, you got into line. This is why everyone was given a check in time. Ours was at 2:00, but we wanted to have lunch onboard. It was no problem coming a bit early.

After our welcome champagne, we found out the rooms were ready, so we stopped to drop off our carryon bags and then headed up to the buffet for lunch. Salad and soup for me and paella, cheese, pizza and dessert for DH.

We went back to the room for a while,unpacked the carry on bags and rested for a bit.

At 4:00, we went to the Muster drill. Our muster station was in a section of the Dining Room and they checked us in at the door to be sure everyone attended. There was a very entertaining safety video to watch. We were then shown how to put on a life jacket and that was it. Several people were not happy with the way the muster was handled and thought it should have been taken more seriously. Since we've been on so many cruises, and began cruising when we had to actually put on our life jackets and stand outside at our muster station, no matter if it was raining or burning hot, we were fine with the process.

We went up to the Sunset Bar looking for a sail away gathering that several of us were going to meet up at but couldn’t find it. We walked through several other bars but didn’t find anyone we were looking for, so we went back to the cabin, where we found out bags waiting and watched the ship head out into the channel from the balcony and finished unpacking.

We went to dinner about 6:00 and sat next to a couple that was on the Roll Call. We really enjoyed our conversations with them and sat until after 9:00.

Dinner was OK, but the service was quite slow.

We got back to the room about 9:30 and were in for the night.

Saturday, May 20

Today was our first day at sea. The water on the Baltic is smooth as glass and there is almost no sway of the ship. I still take my Dramamine to be on the safe side but DH is unaffected.

We got up at 8:00 this morning and made our lazy way to breakfast. It was nice to not be in a hurry to get anywhere. The Oceanview Cafe is OK for breakfast and there are a lot of choices.

We had our Cruise Critic Meet and Greet at 10:15.

The Captain and the Heads of the various divisions on the ship were at the Meet and Greet as we had about 150 signed up. There were drinks and some pastries set up for us. The Captain spoke and introduced the rest of the Officer’s.

After the event, we went back to our cabin and sat on the balcony. We had been offered 20% off at Sushi on 5 for lunch, at dinner the night before and we took them up on it. We went to lunch at 12:30 and it was wonderful. This is the one restaurant on the ship that everything that you order is ala carte.

We shared the scallop and shrimp dynamite, a salmon roll, some edamame and John had a couple of pieces of shashimi tuna. It was all delicious.

We left there and went across the hall to Café la Baccio and DH had a liquored coffee, using our free drinks card, and we both had dessert. It was all very good and the area was very crowded.

We went back to the room and lounged on the balcony, watching the water go by. It was a bit cool, but the sun was shining, so it was really nice.

We dressed and left the room a few minutes before 5 and met a group at the Martini Bar where we had pre dinner cocktails. Several of us went to dinner in the dining room. Service was really slow. It took us over 3 hours for the entire meal, causing us to miss the show. Some of our dinner companions were so put out, they changed their dining time to set late seating, so we didn’t get to eat with them in the dining room again.

We got back to the room about 9:30 and were in for the night. I guess you're seeing a pattern here! We aren't terribly old, but we just stayed really tired on this trip.

Sunday, May 21 Oslo

We awakened to a gloomy, rainy morning but about 11:00 the day turned sunny and it was about 65 degrees. We got into Oslo about 7:00am and the ship was cleared soon after.

We got up at 7:00, were at breakfast at the buffet before 8:00 and were behind the port gates by 8:45 to meet our tour.

Akershus Castle- This was the view from our balcony.

We chose to do a 4 hour tour with SPB called Oslo Highlights with the Viking Museum and Vigeland Park. We were met behind the gates with someone with an SPB sign who pointed us to the correct group. We were checked in and followed our guide, Bjorn, to our bus. There were 22 of us in the group. We sat and waited for another couple for a few minutes but were told they went with another group, so we left a few minutes after 9:00. Bjorn gave us audio packs with earbuds, which we used throughout our day with him.

We went first to Vigeland Park, where we spent about an hour. Bjorn was very passionate about the park and was very knowledgeable about both the park and Mr. Vigeland. He told us that he spends a lot of time there on his own. The park was quite amazing with the various types of sculptures and the detail to them was remarkable. They were meant to represent people from birth to death. I ran my hand over a granite sculptures fingers and could feel the individual nail beds and nails. We were told that Vigeland made all of the sculptures nudes, so they would be timeless. Clothing would put them in a certain time period.

A Grandfather and Grandson

A fountain held up by men with a lone bird bathing.

We left there and headed to the Viking Ship Museum. On the way there, Bjorn pointed out various landmarks as we passed them.

The Viking Ship Museum was so crowded when we arrived that the public areas were shoulder to shoulder. Thankfully a lot of the groups cleared out, so the crowds became more manageable. We first saw a silent animated film about the Viking ships that were found. Two of them were thought to have been burial ships. There were two women’s bodies found on one ship that had been burned. The largest ship, the Oseberg ship, was built in 820 of oak. About 90% of the ship is original. It had room for 30 oarsmen and could be rowed or sailed. There were sleighs, carts and animal heads found on the ship that are also on display.

The Gokstad was built around 890 and was used as a burial ship. The man was buried in a chamber at the back of the boat.

The Tune is the smallest ship and was built around 910. They think it was used to transport light goods or to move people quickly.

Bjorn gave us commentary throughout our visit through our earbuds which was great, since there were such large crowds there and then gave us about 15 minutes to wander around the exhibits. We got to spend about 45 minutes there.

We left there and went to the Oslo Opera House. We walked onto the roof top to overlook the city and the harbor.

She Lies Sculpture that sits next to the Opera House at the head of Oslofjord. It floats in response to the tides.

We arrived about 15 minutes before the building opened and we waited to be able to see inside. The inside was vertical woods slats and was very contemporary in design.

The ladies room was also beautiful with walls of mosaic, that looked like dark mother of pearl. The walls shimmered.

We left there and walked over to City Hall which sat in a beautiful square, with shops on either side of it. The area was really more round than square and the roads around City Hall were curved.

Bjorn gave us information about the building and the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize and he intended to take us into the building, but found it was closed for a Civil Confirmation Ceremony. We were very interested to know what this was, and were told it is a commitment to Humanism. There were many people dressed in traditional Dutch costumes for the ceremony and we found this quite beautiful.

There is a woman that plays a carillon inside City Hall and people could send requests to be played on Wednesday’s. The carillon is a set of bells played using a keyboard.

A beautiful area in between 2 streets by City Hall.

Many people left the tour at this point, but several decided to go back to the ship. We had wanted to stay along the plaza area, but had to go back to the port, because we had not yet paid for our tour. We found out that no one there could take a credit card payment and we had not brought cash with us. They contacted their office and we were sent an invoice by email which I paid when we returned home.

We decided to go back onboard the ship since we were there and had lunch up at the buffet.

After lunch we wanted to find some free wifi, so we got back off the ship and retraced our steps and ended up at a pub along the plaza just down the street from City Hall. It was only about a 15 minute walk from the ship. We each had something to drink, which gave us access to the wifi code. We checked our emails and I called home on Viber.

As we got ready to leave, I went to use the bathroom. On the way back to the table, I turned a corner that I thought would take me back outside. I was facing the windows and the sun was coming in so it was kind of dark where I was. As I turned I hit a step that I didn’t know was there, and fell flat. I landed on my right knee and hip and scraped my left elbow as I went down. I wasn’t sure how badly I was hurt and rolled over to sit up. Two waitresses saw me fall and came running. They wanted to try to help me up or get DH, but I just wanted to sit for a minute. After a couple of minutes the initial pain started to wane and I was able to get up and walk back outside to our table. I was pretty sore when we got up to leave and was quite worried about how sore I would be. I put some ice on my knee when we got back to the cabin and put my leg up. Our cabin steward was so great. He brought an extra bucket of ice and checked back a couple of hours later to see if I needed more. I took some Advil before bed and only had a little soreness the next morning. I think I was very lucky.

We went up to the Sky Lounge up on the top most deck to watch the ship leave and go through the fjords. We watched the boat cruise for a while, but it was really sunny where we were sitting and got really hot, so we went back to the room and got ready for dinner.

Leaving Oslo

We had dinner at 6:15 in the dining room and asked our waiter to please serve our courses more quickly. We were finished tonight about 7:30.

We went to a show called Minute to Win it at 8:00. This was a passenger VS Officer contest that reminded me of beat the clock. There were several contests all lasting a minute. There were silly prizes for the winners. It was quite funny and we laughed a lot and really enjoyed it.

Standing in the bathroom line, several of us noticed an enclosed handicapped stall that was across the bathroom away from the other stalls. It had a square button that had to be pushed to open the door which was automatic. There was also a button inside the stall that needed to be pushed to close and lock the door. As the line was long, and there wasn’t anyone in line that needed to use that stall, someone decided to go in there. She pushed the button to make the door open and went inside. A few seconds later, someone inadvertently pushed the button and as the door opened, there sat the lady on the toilet. A woman behind me started trying to shield the opening until the door could be closed again, but it took several seconds to begin to shut again. Everyone was trying hard not to laugh and we all felt terrible for the lady but we weren't entirely successful.

We met up with some friends and sat and talked for a while. We got back to the room about 10:00 and got ready for bed.

Monday, May 22 Copenhagen

The weather was sunny today with a high of 65.

We got up at 8:00 and went on up to the buffet. We came back to the room and got cleaned up for the day and then sat out on the balcony, watching the ship come into Copenhagen’s harbor. The ship didn’t dock until noon and the ship was cleared soon after.

Coming in to Copenhagen on the Oresund Straight

We went to lunch at the buffet at 12 and were at the Celebrity Theatre at 12:45 to check in for our Castles of North Zealand tour that was to last 5 hours. This tour was more expensive than a private tour, but it fit what I wanted to see better than what the private tours were offering. Our group was called right about 1:00 and we made our way to the pier. There were 45 of us on a large tour bus and we were met and guided by Lone. We were on our way and got off at an exit. I could see a sign that said Fredericksborg to the right and our driver turned left. What?!?! Our guide told us a few minutes later that our guide had made a wrong turn and we were going to go several miles out of our way. It took about an additional 30 minutes to get to Fredericksborg. Lone did give us lots of good information along the way. Once we reached Fredericksborg Castle in Fredericksborg, we took a pretty thorough tour led by Lone. She was very knowledgeable and did a good job in giving information and answering questions. This castle was the summer home of the King. The rooms were very large beautiful, ornate rooms. There was also a beautiful garden in the back. The entire castle and gardens were based on the French Court, as the King thought Denmark was better than France and they needed to show them that. We were here about an hour. Here are a few pictures of the beautiful rooms and grounds.

A photo of Hans Christian Anderson as a young man.

We left there and drove to Fredensborg Castle, which is the summer home of the Royal family. We were able to get pretty close to the entrance of the Castle and there was a guard at a gate right by us. He walked back and forth across the front of the gate. 13 steps, click his heels, turn, 13 steps, click his heels, turn….

He carried a very large automatic machine gun. There were several other guards back by the entrance of the building and we were told the Royal family was likely there, to have as many guards present.

We spent about 15 minutes walking up to the castle gate, watching for a bit and then walking back to the bus.

We were then taken to an area about a mile away from Kronborg Castle. This is the Castle that Shakespeare took inspiration from when writing Hamlet. We were not going to visit this castle and were told where we were, was the best place to view from a distance. It was easy to see it even though it was so far away, as it was a huge castle.

We were then driven back to the ship. The tour was fine and we were happy, but I think I should have tried harder to find a private tour in hindsight. There were about 45 on our tour and we were on a large tour bus. It takes time to board and get off the bus and it takes a while to gather everyone from place to place. It was also not always easy to hear what the guide was saying, and with that many people, you couldn't always be the one at the front, standing by the guide.

We arrived back at the ship about 6:00, stopped in the room and then left the ship again. We had to walk down the Langelinie pier from the ship about ¼ mile to reach the bus stop that would take us to Tivoli Gardens. We were picked up, but the driver wasn’t going in the direction we wanted. He told us to get on, because it would be him that would come back and pick us up in about 15 minutes. We didn’t realize our stop was almost at the end of the line. Our driver went to one more stop and then got out of the bus to take a break for a few minutes. When he got back on and started the route again, the second stop was at the place he picked us up. We asked him to let us know when we needed to get off for Tivoli Gardens and he happily agreed, but there was another couple that got on the tram that were getting off there as well and they knew where it was. We got off the tram, crossed the street and we were at the Tivoli entrance.

It cost about $32 for both of us as entry into the park. That was quite pricey, but I really wanted to have a chance to see the grounds.

We ate dinner at a Danish restaurant in the park call Groften. We were able to get a table that evening without a reservation with no problem. I ordered a herring platter as a starter. It was wonderful with 3 different types of herring and a couple of sauces and a bit of salad in the middle. It was so large that some soup or a small salad would have been enough for dinner, but… I didn’t know!

If you like herring... this was fantastic!!

DH ordered lobscouse for dinner which is a traditional Danish dish that is made with mashed potatoes with vegetables and meat mixed in. It was a very hearty dish and although it was all you can eat, one serving was enough. I ordered weinerschnitzel that came with mashed potatoes. It was way too much food to eat and I had to leave about ½ on my plate. DH had a large and then a small beer which he deemed excellent! The meal was quite expensive at about $135.

When we left the restaurant we wanted to walk around the grounds. There were not a lot of people around in many of the areas but there were some people around the rides and they were still running. As it began to become twilight, the lights on the buildings began to show up. It was quite beautiful! All of the buildings are lined with different colored lights.

Notice how light the sky still is at 10:00pm!

We walked around Tivoli until about 10:00pm and decided to take a taxi back to the pier. I made a mistake and had him drop us off by the bus stop instead of taking down to the ship gangway, so we had to walk the ¼ back to the ship.

Tuesday, May 23 Copenhagen

Today is was sunny with a high of 65.

We were up at 7:00, cleaned up and went up to breakfast. We left the ship at 8:45 and we walked the 1/4 mile down to the bus stop. We rode the city bus to Kronen Nyhavn, then walked several blocks to the meeting place for our walking tour with Fairy Tale Tours. The meeting place was a co-op coffee shop that was manned by students. It was actually right next door to Rundetaarn and we didn't realize this was a well known site until we got back home! We took a 3 hour walking tour with Burak that began at 10:00. He was from Turkey, grew up in Germany and was living in Copenhagen. He was very friendly and knowledgeable about the area and was able to answer our questions. He took us all around the downtown area of Copenhagen. We noticed that at one point we were very near the ship, yet we had taken a bus to get to our starting point. Burak asked us at the beginning of the tour, if there was anything we really wanted to see and we mentioned the Little Mermaid and Nyhavn, so we worked our way to both. We were given quite a bit of history of the city and shown a lot of the older areas. We walked through Rosenborg Gardens, but didn’t have time to go inside.

Little Mermaid--she's surprisingly small!

Nyhavn

Gefion Fountain and St. Albans Church

The tour was over at 1:00 and we asked Burak to show us where to go to get Smorrebrod for lunch. He gave us directions to Torvehallerne Street Market that was glass enclosed. There were two separate buildings. One was mostly for drinks and gift items and the other was more for food. There were separate booths set up inside each and you could shop the aisles. We found a smorrebrod counter and got in line. We had plaice with potato salad, Danish meatball and a shrimp one.

In the other building, I had come across a gourmet chocolate booth and went back to buy some chocolates to take home.

We got back to the ship about 4:15, just in time for our 5:00 departure.

We had reservations for dinner at 6:45 and we sat with 8 people. Dinner was very slow and we didn’t get up until 9:20, making it too late to do anything else this evening. I complained to the maître’d about the service and he said to let the waiter know we wanted to have our courses served more closely together.

Two couples had signed up for our private tour tomorrow with Jeremy, The Berlin Expert. They had heard some talk that there was a large celebration occurring in Berlin tomorrow and some people had cancelled their trip to Berlin because of it. They wanted to know if we had heard anything about it and if we were worried. After we talked for a bit, we all decided to trust our guide and decided to go.

We got back to the room, showered, got ready for bed and put out our room service order on our outer door knob.

We were asleep tonight at 10:00.

Wednesday, May 24 Berlin

Chance of rain and high of 62.

We got up at 6:00 this morning and had room service for breakfast. We requested a 6:00-6:30 delivery time and breakfast arrived about 6:15. They called to let us know they were on their way and someone knocked on the door about 30 seconds later. Breakfast wasn’t bad. We both had omelets, bacon, yogurt, toast and coffee and tea.

We met the other two couples in our group at the Martini Bar at 7:00am. The ship was early getting into port and was already cleared by the time we all met up.

We left the ship together and our driver Bernie, was waiting for us with a sign as soon as we went through the port gates. We quickly boarded the van and off we went. Bernie talked to us in his halting English all the way to Berlin. He had interesting stories to tell as he grew up in Eastern Berlin and was in the Russian military. He became a water border patrol guard and when the wall came down his life changed for the worse. He lost his job and couldn’t find another because he was deemed a Communist. He proudly admitted this, and he doesn’t have much good to say about a Capitalistic Society. He told us the two things he was taught not to talk about behind the wall was politics and the wall. We found him very interesting.

The drive was white knuckle for me, as I sat in the front with him and he averaged 110 miles an hour. There wasn’t much traffic and we arrived in Berlin in 2 hours 10 minutes. Our guide Jeremy, was waiting for us at the spot arranged with Bernie. We got out and stretched our legs for a minute and then our tour began.

We spent the next 6 ½ hours walking and driving. Jeremy talked for the entire time. He was wonderful! He gave us history mixed with interesting stories to tell and humanized our experience there.

He explained the culture during WWII and the culture of Berlin now. The people there are still trying to make up to the world for what happened. He told us there is no national pride except when it comes to sporting events.

We started our tour at Olympic Stadium, where we got out of the van and went up into the Bell Tower.

Notice the clock on the left tower. The right tower had a swastika, but it has been removed. They are not allowed anywhere in Berlin.

We saw the area where Hitler held ceremonies of allegiance in the building beside the Bell Tower. We also saw the military parade grounds that the Bell Tower overlooks.

We then got back in the van and drove toward the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Jeremy pointed out buildings and areas of interest along the way. We visited this church which is undergoing some restoration inside.

We then stepped outside and into the beautiful Church of Reunification. The beautiful blue stained glass had been taken from other churches that had been destroyed in the war and placed all together on the walls of this church. There has been intentionally no pattern used with the glass.

As we came out of this church, Jeremy pointed to the area where the terrorist attack occurred in December 2016. There were many flowers and candles on this spot and there were people there paying their respects.

We got back in the van and were dropped off in a bit for a walking tour. Jeremy showed us the Parliament buildings that are two buildings with a bridge between. One building in the old West Berlin, the other building in the old East Berlin.

We saw several other sites in the area. Jeremy took us to the train station and we went upstairs to see the ceiling and the tracks. We bought sandwiches at the train station for lunch and then we walked a bit to a memorial park for those that died trying to cross the Berlin Wall. As you walked into the memorial, you began to go downhill a bit and there was a wall on either side of you that got higher and higher. It was built so that the top of the walls were always out of reach. It was very quiet at the bottom of the memorial and was quite moving. There were benches at the bottom and it was out of the wind, so we sat and ate our lunch while Jeremy gave us more information.

Memorial Park to those that died trying to get across the wall.

Memorial to the first 6 who died trying to go over the wall.

Soon after lunch we walked to the area where Hitler’s Bunker was and is now a parking lot. The bunker had been filled in with concrete, but there was a map of the bunker on the edge of the parking lot. We also were shown where his body had been burned.

The lightened stone was the entry to Hitler's Bunker

We were taken to the Holocaust Memorial and given some time to walk through it. We then met back up and discussed how we felt about it and why it was designed in the way it was. I had thought I would be much more moved, walking through the memorial, but didn’t have that reaction. There were many other people there, some not being respectful.

We walked through a very pretty park and over to the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate. There was going to a large gathering throughout Berlin the next day to celebrate the 500th birthday of Martin Luther, and President Obama was going to be speaking by the Brandenburg Gate so Security had already roped off the area and we couldn't get up close to it.

Reichstag

We got back in the van and were taken to the area where the largest piece of the Berlin Wall still exists.

We got out of the van and got to walk up to the wall and go into the Topography of Terror Museum which went through Hitler’s rise to power and the atrocities of WWII.

I wanted to add a couple of other interesting pictures. At least I thought so!

A plaque at the spot Reagan gave his, "tear down the wall" speech.

The bear is Berlin's mascot. All of the Embassies were given a bear to design as they wished. This is the US Embassy's bear.

We got back into the van and were driven through areas of the old East Berlin. We rode by what was left of Checkpoint Charlie and into some of the smaller streets. Checkpoint Charlie was razed and this building was a rebuild.

Bernie then dropped Jeremy off and then we began our drive back to the ship. We left Berlin at 3:50 and as the next several days were going to be a holiday, traffic to get out of the city was really bad. It took quite a while to make our way to the autoban and when we got about 30 miles away from the port, we were stopped by bridgework going on and the road went down to one lane. It took us almost an hour to make our way to the bridgework and we arrived back to the ship at 7:15, which was in plenty of time, but the ride back was 3 ½ hours. We didn’t know it until later, but there was other work going on and over 1000 people were still not back to the ship at 8:30, many of them were people on Celebrity tours. The ship did wait and we left port about 30 minutes late, at 9:30.

We boarded the ship and went to our room where we cleaned up and headed to dinner at Murano. We had been offered dinner there for $30 per person, so we took up the offer. The food was delicious and the service was wonderful. DH had the goat cheese soufflé and a spinach salad and I had a salmon, crab parfait and a mozzarella and tomato salad. We shared chateaubriand for dinner and DH had cocoa cake and I had grand marnier soufflé for dessert.

We have decided that to have the kind of cruise experience that we had 25 years ago when we began cruising, we will have to pay extra for it. Sometimes it’s worth it and sometimes it’s not.

After dinner we sat outside of the restaurant in one of the lounges and listened to a violin duo that were very good.

Off to bed around 10:30 and set the clocks ahead 1 hour before we went to sleep.

Thursday, May 25 At Sea

We slept until 9:00 this morning. It was very nice not to have to be up and be somewhere. When we got up we went to the buffet for breakfast. It was quite crowded, so many other people had the same idea today.

We went back to our cabin and enjoyed our balcony until about 1:00. I left for a watercolor class at 1:00 where I painted a sunset. I went back to the room about 2:20 and DH and I went up to the buffet for a light lunch.

After lunch, we went to the Hideaway which was outside our door and sat and read until 4:00.

If you've not been on the Silhouette before, deck 7 has an area midship called the Hideaway. This is a nice quiet area with lots of seating and nooks for reading, but the really nice thing about it is that they have a 24 hour coffee and tea service there. It makes it very easy to get a cup and not have to go all the way up to the Oceanview Cafe or down to Cafe Bacio. Since we were on deck 7, we used it a lot!

We went back to the cabin and showered and got dressed for dinner. Tonight was the second dressy night. We met our group for drinks at 5:00 at the Martini Bar.

We went to dinner in the dining room and met up with some new friends and had a lovely dinner.

We commented to the waiter that we’d like our meal to go more quickly and we were finished with dinner before 8:00.

We went to the show at 9:00. It was a comedy/juggler named Pete Matthews. He was very funny and DH thinks we saw him on another cruise.

We came back to the room after the show and got ready for bed. it was a nice day where we really did nothing, and we needed it. Our next 5 days were going to be very busy indeed!

Friday, May 26 Helsinki

It was sunny today and a high of 65.

We set our alarm for 7:00, but hadn’t considered the time change didn’t occur on the ipad since it hasn’t been anywhere to sync the time and we woke up 45 minutes late and were rushing around like mad to leave on time. We actually were only about 5 minutes late in going to breakfast and were on time to meet our group at 8:40 at the Martini Bar and we all walked off the ship together. We met our Alla guide promptly at 9:00. We took the 3 ½ hour Helsinki Highlights tour that included Sibelius Monument and Rock Church.

We went first to the Sibelius Monument and were given a bit of background and then were given about 20 minutes to walk around and take pictures. It was a very interesting metal monument made up of different sizes of tubes.

Thought this was a cool picture looking up!

We left the monument and re-boarded our bus. The next place we were taken to was Rock Church. It was a very beautiful church made totally of rock. It was basically a round church and people walked in on one side, walked across the front and left on the opposite side. Once back out in the lobby, you could go upstairs to see the church from another perspective.

It doesn't look like much from the outside....

but pretty inside!

These directions were in the Ladies Restroom.

We left the church and reboarded the bus. We were then taken to Senate Square and shown the Helsinki Cathedral from the outside. It's quite an imposing building at the top of many stairs. Entry is over on the side.

Senate Square

Helsinki Cathedral

We were then taken to City Hall and stopped to use the bathroom there. They are free and open to the public. We were given a time to meet back or if you wanted, you could make your own way back to the ship.

We left the tour and walked over to the Open Air Market, where we found a booth and got some lunch. DH and I shared a 3 meat plate that had moose meatballs, salmon and fried smelts. It also had some potato balls and mixed veggies with lignonberry jam on the side.

We went to another booth and ordered piggies, which were fried oblong donuts with apple filling and a rhubarb, whipped cream, dough and meringue layer cake. Watch out for the gulls! We watched them take food off an unsuspecting person's plate!!

We walked through the Marketplace and did some shopping and made our way over to the Uspenskin Greek Orthodox Church. It is up on a hill, so we climbed up and went inside. It is a small church but very pretty.

We climbed back down the hill and crossed over the Marketplace and back through City Hall. City Hall has free wifi and chairs and tables to sit for a while so we stopped for a bit and used the wifi and called home.

We walked back to Senate Square and up the stairs to the Lutheran Church. We were unable to go in as the University of Helsinki was having their Graduation Ceremony for one of their schools. We did get to watch the graduates in their caps and gown. Some of them were in top hats which were those receiving Doctorates. Some had on laurel crowns representing those receiving Masters Degrees. Most were in white gowns, but a few of the men were in bright blue clothing.

We went back down to City Hall and turned right onto the Esplanade. It is meant to represent the Champ Elysees in Paris. It was a beautiful wide street with a large grassy strip in the center of the road that had a gorgeous fence and some benches and tables. There were higher end stores all the way down the street on both sides.

When we finished we took a taxi back to the ship. We shopped a bit along the pier and then reboarded the ship.

We cleaned up for dinner and met everyone at Qsine at 6:30. There were 8 of us and we ordered 9 different items. We were unable to eat the last two and had to cancel them. We did all try dessert and we were all so full we could pop.

The food was all very good and interestingly displayed. There was one surprise after another. You have to go to this restaurant with a lot of people so you can try many different things so having this large of a group was a lot of fun.

Dinner took up most of our evening and we left the restaurant after 9:00. Back to the cabin and then to bed.

Here are some pictures of the food at Qsine.

Saturday, May 27 St. Petersburg

Now for what I considered the "Crown Jewel"of our trip!

We got up at 5:50 this morning and were at the Martini Bar at 6:30. We had bought some cherries and blueberries yesterday in Helsinki and we had gotten some yogurt and granola from the buffet the day before. We went out to the Hideaway and got some coffee and tea so we were all set for breakfast.

As soon as all 16 of us were together, we went down to deck 4 and got in line. We were about the 8th people in line. The ship was supposed to arrive in Russia at 7:00 but we weren’t cleared to leave the ship until about 7:45. We quickly got off the ship and got into the Immigration line. There were 100’s of people already lined up when we got in line. They were people taking the ship’s tours and they were allowed off the ship first.

Somehow our group was asked to go upstairs where there were additional Immigration lines and someone else pointed us into a line that was moving pretty quickly. Immigration moved about one person a minute. There were many lines but they still moved very slowly. We were all through Immigration by 8:45, and all went together to find our Alla tour.

We found out later that there were so many people in line, that Celebrity stopped allowing people to leave the ship from 8:15-8:45 to let the crowd die down some. Several other people in other groups, told their groups to meet later than ours and they were much more delayed.

We found the Alla tour sign and since we were all there and together, our guide took us to our van and off we went. We were on our way by 9:00am.

Our guide in St. Petersburg was Irina. She was excellent! She explained how much the guides there have to learn in order to be guides. They must be certified for each place that they enter to conduct tours and they have to study for a year and take a test.

Irina pointed out buildings and landmarks as we made our way to Yusapov Palace.

Here are some pictures of some of the sights.

Church of the Assumption

Senate Building

Egyptian Sphinx

Rostral Column

Buildings along the Neva River

St. Nicholas Monument

We were able to get off the bus to get up close to this beautiful monument and walk around for a bit. We had to be really careful as there were buses and people everywhere.

Irina led us on a tour of Yusapov Palace and we eventually made our way down to the basement and saw where Rasputin was killed. We spent about an hour on our tour there.

The Palace was absolutely gorgeous, but then this was our first stop and we didn't know any different!

In the basement is a re-creation of the room where Rasputin was poisoned, then shot. It was a bit creepy. Rasputin on the right.

When we left Yusapov Palace we boarded our bus and headed to St. Isaacs Church. This was a beautiful church.

We spent about 30 minutes here and then we headed to our next stop.

We were dropped off at the subway station and got to ride to two stops to see the gorgeous subway sculptures, chandeliers and wall art.

I've never seen subways like this anywhere!

We then walked to a place called the Summer Palace for lunch. This was an event hall used for various large events. There were many tables set up here and they served lunch continuously. We had brown bread and butter, borcht with sour cream, chicken with veggies and some kind of cake for dessert.