Brilliance Cruise to Scandinavia and Russia, planning, cruising and LOT of photos

[kftw]

So great to see you are back to the review. I'm here to the finish!!;)

[Kevin's girl]

 

Here it is. It was just a bit outside of the old city walls. There were also modern clothing and electronics stores in this area.

 

Just so all of you know, Tallinn and St Petersburg still had the better Quarter Pounder with cheese (the Royal).

 

Back to serious exploring

 

[Kevin's girl]

So great to see you are back to the review. I'm here to the finish!!;)

I'm so glad you are hanging in here. I will get this thing finished. I promise.

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

A fine place to sample the local brew and to cool off a bit.

 

Our view from the little outside dining area.

[Kevin's girl]

Feeling refreshed, we continued on.

 

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

 

And that, my friends was our day in Visby and our very last port of call for this cruise. We grabbed our tender – one of the last of the day) and got back on board ship. We took this time to play a game of mini golf and watch as we sailed out of port.

 

[Kevin's girl]

It was a towel monkey night. We found him hanging around the cabin when we called it a night that night.

Good night.

[jellybean12]

You are going to love this cruise. As I have said' date=' it was a bucket list trip for us too. As for Visby, it was truly an unexpected gem in this cruise. We had a great day there. I will do my best to show you why you might want to get off the ship and not miss out on this port. I'll try to get to it today.[/quote']

 

Terri

Thank you for a fantastic review - would you believe it - Visby has been cancelled!!! Pippa Longstocking was a massive part of my childhood reading.

Your photos and commentary have been brilliant - now got a full list of places we will also be seeing - all based on your photos and review - thank you so much.:):D

Jellybean 12

[Kevin's girl]

Terri

Thank you for a fantastic review - would you believe it - Visby has been cancelled!!! Pippa Longstocking was a massive part of my childhood reading.

Your photos and commentary have been brilliant - now got a full list of places we will also be seeing - all based on your photos and review - thank you so much.:):D

Jellybean 12

Oh no, I can't believe they cancelled Visby. It looks like they substituted Skagen, Denmark for your Visby stop. You will have to report back and let us all know what you thought of it. I know you will have a great cruise.

[bess128]

Hi hope you had a lovely Christmas, I joined the review at the beginning and look forward to every instalment.Thank you for not giving up even if life gets in the way:)

[Kevin's girl]

Hi hope you had a lovely Christmas, I joined the review at the beginning and look forward to every instalment.Thank you for not giving up even if life gets in the way:)

Bess, my Christmas really was wonderful and thank you for your patients. I have enjoyed writing this review. It helps to pass the time before our next getaway.

[Kevin's girl]

Days eleven and twelve: At Sea

 

The final two days of our cruise were spent sailing back to Harwich. This crossing was a good deal colder, rainier and rougher. Kevin kept saying that this was more of what he expected from a North Sea crossing. Our first day at sea made many of our fellow cruisers a bit ill. There were the barf bags taped to the hallways and stairs all around the ship. This was only the second cruise in sixteen that we had seen this. Luckily we don’t mind it rough. I did have to learn a bit of a dance while packing in the cabin. I do believe I got a few new bruises during those last two days.

 

We did laugh at the brand new poolside Theater at Sea. They kept playing all of the Caribbean beachie type videos. It just seemed so out of place considering all of the beautiful historic places we had just visited.

Here are a few sea day pics:

Day eleven

 

Catching up the laundry. Next cruise I will not be doing laundry.

 

Day twelve. The rain had stopped, the seas calmed down and it was wonderful, just like the cruise portion of this vacation.

Next up, The English Countryside and a day trip in Paris.

[Kevin's girl]

Post Cruise:

As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, this was a bucket list trip and I couldn’t have it just end after the cruise. That would be just too abrupt. I had planned a private tour for the day we arrived back in Harwich. This was to be an eight hour tour of Stratford upon Avon, the Cotswolds and Oxford. We were also to go to Warwick Castle if time allowed. I booked through a website I found while visiting another site which “Advises” travelers on all sorts of travel information. If you would like to find the tour and all of the other private tours offered by David Stubbs, you could search London Country Tours. I believe there would probably be a dot com at the end of that (wink, wink) I don’t want to ruffle any feathers by posting things I shouldn’t.

 

Following our tour we checked into our hotel the No Ten Manchester Hotel. This is a small boutique hotel in the Marylebone neighborhood of London. It was a beautiful little hotel and our jumping off point for the next three nights.

 

Our day trip to Paris was a dream for Kevin as we took the Eurostar train through the chunnel and spent a very romantic day wandering a small part of Paris.

 

Next we enjoyed a very lazy day in Marylebone. This is where you find Madam Tussauds, Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes museum along with some rather upscale shops.

 

Harwich:

We took our time getting off the ship. We had a nice breakfast in the Diamond lounge and made our way down to the terminal where David was to meet us and our tour was to begin.

The cruise terminal

 

The terminal coffee shop.

 

The train station in the background.

 

Outside the cruise terminal while we waited.

[Coolcruise02]

What a great review and wonderful pics! Brought back the memories! :)

[Kevin's girl]

What a great review and wonderful pics! Brought back the memories! :)

Thanks, I'm glad you are enjoying it.

[Kevin's girl]

It was just a few minutes past 9:00 when I met up with Peter, our tour guide for the day. He explained that David had an emergency come up and he would be standing in for him. He was a very pleasant guy from Scotland and had grown up in a Monastery. He loaded our luggage into the van and we were off. Our first stop would be Stratford upon Avon and it would be a bit of a drive. We had met a couple from Stratford on board the ship who recommended that we go to the Black Swan/The Dirty Duck for lunch, so we asked to find it and have lunch there. It has kind of a funny sign, you see, it says The Black Swan on one side and The Dirty Duck on the other. This is the Fodor’s description:

Fodor's Review

The only pub in Britain to be licensed under two names (the more informal one came courtesy of American GIs who were stationed here during World War II), this is one of Stratford's most celebrated pubs—it's attracted actors since the 18th-century thespian David Garrick's days. A little veranda overlooks the theaters and the river here. Along with your pint of bitter, you can choose from the extensive menu of daily specials, wraps, ciabattas, steaks, burgers, and grills.

Few people come here for the food, though you will need to book ahead for dinner: the real attraction is the ambience and your fellow customers.

 

Peter dropped us off as close as he could (it was drizzling) and we thought he was going to park and join us. This private tour was different from the Russia tour as the expectations on both his and our parts started out a little fuzzy. I asked questions regarding time frame and details and received answers like “it’s totally up to you, it’s your tour”, and “we have all the time in the world”. It took me quite a while to figure out exactly what this meant. Peter never did join us for lunch, but waited a ways away giving us what he judged to be long enough to eat and explore the area. You see, The Dirty Duck sits on the Avon just across from a pretty little park where in good weather you can take your drink along the water front and enjoy the park. I wasn’t about to let a little rain keep me from enjoying Stratford upon Avon. I have wanted to visit here for a very long time.

Arriving in Stratford

 

The Black Swan

 

Kevin and a local pint

 

My wonderful husband being a sport as I went off to explore the park in the rain.

 

The park across from the Black Swan where this geeky girl could have spent the entire day.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Kevin's girl

[Kevin's girl]

Yep, swans. I was in heaven.

 

Kevin coming to get me because Peter says it’s time to go.

 

Leaving the pretty little park.

[CruisingGramsof2]

Your review has been wonderful !! Our completely fantabulous kids have arranged for us to go in July for our 40'th Anniversary and we are so excited !! Nice getting a preview of things to come.Thank you for all your work posting :)

[Kevin's girl]

Your review has been wonderful !! Our completely fantabulous kids have arranged for us to go in July for our 40'th Anniversary and we are so excited !! Nice getting a preview of things to come.Thank you for all your work posting :)

What a womderful way for you to spend your 40th anniversary. You will really enjoy this itinerary. Congratulations on 40 years!

[Kevin's girl]

On with the post Cruise Tour:

We did buy the tickets for all of the Shakespeare attractions. These included his birthplace, daughters home, church where he is buried, the museum and gardens and Anne Hathaway’s house.

 

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

Onward from burial to birthplace, museum and gardens

 

 

 

 

The visit to Anne Hathaway’s family home completed our Shakespeare tour and we were off to see “a bit of the countryside”.

[Kevin's girl]

After leaving Stratford, we drove for quite some time through the countryside. We never toke a highway, only very small country roads. Kevin and I had both thinking there must be a faster way to get to the next place on the list. I was feeling that we would never get in the stops before our tour was to end. We would be late for our check in. True American worries (always in a hurry and thinking of the schedule).

This is the farm where I finally realized we were on a very personalized tour and not the generic private tour I booked. This is where Peter said “Are you enjoying you bit of the countryside”, I also noticed he referred to a piece of paper as he asked. OMG!! He was reading from my email I had sent to David when I booked the tour. He was quoting ME. I finally understood why there were no highways and we were making stops at all of the little small villages and churches along the way. It was because of my email. Kevin was a little frustrated as there had been more church stops and no beer stops which broke the church: beer stop rule, but I was in heaven.

 

 

[Kevin's girl]

 

 

 

 

This is Broadway Tower, sometimes referred to as The Tower in the Middle of Nowhere.

Here is a small bit of history from broadwaytower.co.uk/history:

 

History of Broadway Tower in the Cotswolds

Broadway Tower was the brainchild of the great 18th Century landscape designer, Capability Brown. His vision was carried out for George William 6th Earl of Coventry with the help of renowned architect James Wyatt and completed in 1798.

The location for the Tower was wisely chosen, a dramatic outlook on a pre-medieval trading route and beacon hill.

Wyatt designed his “Saxon Tower” as an eccentric amalgamation of architectural components ranging from turrets, battlements and gargoyles to balconies.

[Kevin's girl]

The Cotswolds and places we saw along the way:

 

 

 

 

Edited January 3, 2015 by Kevin's girl