May 19 2017 Silhouette Baltic (+ Berlin) Photo Review Silhouette Photo Review

[Rascal1]

Loving your review with photos and your writing style. Look forward to reading the rest, we are on the same ship to the Baltics next year. Your review is building the excitement.

[afto]

Glad you are enjoying the review, Rascal 1.

 

May 21: Day Five (Oslo sailaway)

 

I will include a couple of pictures of the sailaway from Oslo. The images are poor quality but they will give you an idea of distance, and what you might be able to see on foot if you just wanted to get off the ship and wander around. As we pull away from the dock at Akershus Castle, you can see how close it is to the City Hall waterfront area. (City Hall is the brick building with two towers).

 

I’m also including a shot of the ship from inside Akershus Castle. As you can see, the Silhouette is docked right alongside the building. Very convenient.

 

You could actually see quite a lot just on foot in Oslo, if you restrict yourself to the downtown core and waterfront. Just past City Hall, on the opposite side of the harbour from the castle, is the Aker Brygge area: modern buildings, shops, and a marina. Easy to reach on foot. To give you a sense of distance, this shot was actually taken from Akershus Castle – you can see some Norwegian dandelions in the foreground.

 

At the farthest end of this area is the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art; it’s the building with the curved roof. It’s on my list for my next visit to Oslo, whenever that may be. You can see the passenger ferry right in front of it.

 

A little farther out, we sailed past the Fram Museum.

 

 

And a little island in the harbour.

 

 

It’s a scenic sailaway.

[cgags47]

Great review, and great pictures. Question: Do you have any photos of the view from your balcony? I am going to be in 6223 on Silhouette in December, and am just curious as to how the view from the hump balcony looks. Thanks!

[Destaw71835]

Really enjoying this review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[afto]

Thanks for reading along. A special hello to DH, who is apparently lurking on this thread just to monitor what I say about him. cgags47, here are some pics from the balcony -- looking forward, aft, and straight out.

 

 

 

 

On our last few cruises, I have gone to some trouble to snag one of the angled balconies on the hump. This cruise, I decided against that and booked this category 2B cabin instead. Allow me to slip into hyper-analytical mode for a minute. (OK, I acknowledge that I am never far from hyper-analytical mode.) I liked having the extra space of the angled cabins, but when I got to thinking about what I actually DO on the balcony, the 2B made more sense for us this trip. I have breakfast out there almost every day, even in Alaska. While I am having breakfast, or any other time when I am on the balcony, any unusual motion along the shoreline or on the water causes me to grab my binoculars, leap to my feet, and lean over the rail looking for birds, dolphins, bears, or some other kind of wildlife. Yes, the breakfast gets cold most days, but I would rather eat a cold breakfast than miss a bird. I am more visible to other cruisers at the rail of one of those angled balconies, and if there is anyone else on their balcony I just feel very uncomfortable aiming my binoculars or camera at a bird that might be close to the ship. The other passengers may feel uncomfortable too. So I avoid that, and I feel that this limits the scope of my bird-spotting opportunities. On our last cruise, we had angled cabin 6208. The next two cabins, 6206 and 6204 had the privacy screen folded back as they must have been travelling together. It was impossible not to see most of their deck space if I was standing at the rail of 6208, so I tended to avoid doing so if anyone was on those balconies. This cruise, I was thinking particularly about the long hours of daylight and the opportunities for early-morning birding sailing in the Oslo fjord and the Swedish archipelago, and I knew I would probably want to be up and out on the balcony. If I used the balcony mostly for cocktails with friends, stretching out and reading, sunning, or taking a nap, I would love the angled balconies because of the extra elbow room, but for the way I use the balcony, the 2B is a better choice. I feel that with this cabin, I am less likely to be annoying anyone with the lenses. Because we like deck 6, we choose the starboard side just to avoid any possibility of smoke drifting up from the smoking area on deck 5. I think you will like 6223; the views are unobstructed. Hope you get the weather to make the most of your balcony.

Here’s the view at 6:09 am on May 23, 2017, our second day in Copenhagen.

After I post these pics, you will have to excuse me for a couple of minutes while I go and whine to DH about not being on a cruise ship right now.

 

 

 

[afto]

May 22: Day Six (Copenhagen, Part 1)

The Silhouette was scheduled to dock in Copenhagen at noon for an overnight stay. We were originally planning to take a train out to Helsingör for the afternoon to see Kronborg Castle but, since we were going to have to spend some time dealing with the camera issue, this no longer seemed possible. I was wondering how close we might get to the castle as we sailed towards Copenhagen, so I kept an eye on the coastline and eventually I could see the towers in the distance. This is the best shot I could get with my antique toy camera as we sailed by, but I did get a better look through binoculars. Unfortunately, that's as close as we would get to Kronborg ... next time, for sure.

Many people were out on deck for the sail in to Copenhagen. It was another beautiful day — blue skies dotted with puffy white clouds. We passed the Regal Princess docked at Oceankaj as we made our way to Langelinie.

We had not purchased Celebrity’s internet package, so as soon as we docked I checked the CC Copenhagen thread on my phone to find out if Danish Viking had seen my message. I was delighted to see that he had replied, and so I had a target destination for our afternoon walk into the city. Great! We had pre-purchased 24-hour Copenhagen cards for this stop because with our original plans we would mostly have been walking around the next afternoon and wouldn’t need the card to be valid much past noon on that second day. We paid a little extra to have the cards mailed to us because Kronborg closes at 4pm and we didn’t want to waste any time getting there on the first day. With the revised plan, we would do most of our sightseeing on the second day day, so we decided to walk into town rather than validate the cards right away and use the bus. Don’t know why I am explaining this, other than to say that even if you have an overnight in Copenhagen, with some careful planning you might not need to purchase a 48-hour card. [info on the Copenhagen card: http://www.copenhagencard.com] It was a pleasant walk. First, we stopped to pay our respects to the Little Mermaid. That was a mob scene, with people lined up to climb out over the rocks for their photo op. *IF* I were willing to admit that I occasionally watch that reality TV show "The Bachelorette," I might say that the scene sort of reminded me of the cocktail parties on that show, except for the lack of any roses.

Under these kinds of circumstances, if you don’t want a picture of yourself with her, there is really no way to reserve a few seconds in line for a photo of the mermaid herself, alone. We noticed this elsewhere at various heavily-instagrammed sites: you either snap a picture in between other people’s selfies or you just move on. And here she is with her legions of admirers, poor girl:

Nearby, the beautiful Gefion fountain embodies an interesting legend about the creation of the island of Zealand.

As explained on a random web site (http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-map/cph-gefion.asp): "The powerful goddess Gefion - who according to the story originated from Norse mythology - was offered as much land in Sweden as she was able to plough during one day and one night by the Swedish King Gylfe.To fulfil this task she turned her four sons into strong oxen. Gefion and the oxen did their job so well that they were able to create Zealand the Island where Copenhagen is situated. This great work left a huge hole in Sweden - where Lake Vänernis placed. On a map you will notice that the outline of Zealand matches the outline of Lake Vänern."

I really wish I had gone back with a real camera to get some decent shots of the fountain and the church, but that didn't happen.

 

St. Alban’s (also known as the English Church) stands next to the fountain. The people that you see in the middle of the picture below are walking on the high earthworks that surround Kastellet; more on that in the Day Seven posts.

Next major point of interest was the Amalienborg palaces; we stopped for a photo of the guards outside.

Danish Viking had suggested Elgiganten, an electronics store on Østergarde which is one of the streets collectively known as Strøget, Copenhagen’s famous shopping street. The staff were really friendly, patient, and helpful, even referring me to a nearby camera shop when I was asking questions that they didn’t have answers for. We visited the other shop, just to see if they might have a used or new D5000 for sale, but they happened to be taking inventory so weren’t able to help us out. We trotted back to Elgiganten and bought a new Nikon D3300; I would miss some of the features of my old camera, but my options were limited at this point. I considered getting one of the new super-compact Sony models, but this one was compatible with all my lenses and I was happy to be back in business. Without Danish Viking’s help, finding a new camera would probably have taken me a full day; because of his suggestion, we really didn’t lose much more than a couple of hours. A google search casts too wide a net, so I was happy to have his recommendation. So once again, thanks very much to Danish Viking and all those CC-ers who help others out with timely answers to questions.

[twiceshy2017]

Thank you. Looking forward to the rest of your travelogue. Please don't change a bit of your style. Chatty, detailed and interesting. We will be in the opposite direction in July so hoping you are able to finish before we leave home on July 3rd. Also add me to your sacrilege group.

Edited June 25, 2017 by twiceshy2017

[afto]

May22: Day Six (Copenhagen, Part 2)

 

A couple of Strøget pictures with the iphone.

 

 

Herons!

 

 

Pink pom-pom shoes! Somewhere, someone really needs these shoes, but that person is not me.

 

Looking up.

 

 

I was eager to try out the new camera so we only made it about 20 feet from the door of the store before I snapped my first shot.

 

We walked down to the waterfront and sat for a few minutes while I played around with the camera settings. Took this shot of some kayakers passing by; in the background you can see the new pedestrian bridge that goes from Nyhavn over to the street food palace of Papirøen.

 

 

Where we were sitting, there were trampolines set into the ground and some local kids were having a blast with those. Even though this was another really terrific opportunity to try for that twisted ankle, DH restrained me from joining them.

 

It took me a few minutes to figure out the basics of the camera, since there was no English-language manual available; I would download the online version later. The camera battery was not fully charged, so I knew I wouldn’t last for the whole afternoon. Thinking about where I could put the remaining battery life to best use, we walked over to Nyhavn.

[afto]

Thank you. Looking forward to the rest of your travelogue. Please don't change a bit of your style. Chatty, detailed and interesting. We will be in the opposite direction in July so hoping you are able to finish before we leave home on July 3rd. Also add me to your sacrilege group.

 

I knew there had to be at least ONE kindred spirit out there! ha ha

[afto]

May 22: Day Six (Copenhagen, Part Three)

 

Nyhavn (“new port”) was constructed in the 17th century by forward-thinking Danes who wanted to provide 21st century tourists with great photo ops. Obviously, they nailed it. Well done, Denmark! Tip for photographers: call ahead to reserve some sunshine; the blue skies will enhance your results.

 

[i hate to post a link to Wikipedia, but I am not having much success posting a link to the Visit Copenhagen web site. [/font]More on Nyhavn here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyhavn]

 

Nyhavn photo overload follows:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[afto]

May 22: Day Six (Copenhagen, Part Four)

 

After walking around Nyhavn for a bit, we saw that one of the Netto canal cruise boats was half-loaded already so chances were good that it would be leaving soon. It was time to activate the Copenhagen Cards. Commentary on the boat was provided by an actual human being rather than a recording, and she did a great job. It can’t be easy to provide people with the same information over and over again without sounding like you are bored out of your mind. This was easily the most enjoyable of the, let me see, three (?), no, four river/canal cruises that we took on this trip. The Nikon battery died before I could take any pictures on the boat, so I’m sorry to say we are back to the Fuji for this post. It will just give you a bit of an idea of what you can see on a canal cruise in Copenhagen.

 

The Opera House with its remarkable cantilevered roof.

[info: http://www.ramboll.com/projects/group/copenhagen-opera-house ]

 

 

In the “random things you can find out on the internet” department, a quick google search just informed me that last year the Copenhagen police found 75 kilos of cannabis on the roof of the opera house; this information was not provided by the tour guide.

[info: http://cphpost.dk/news/cannabis-found-on-roof-of-copenhagen-opera-house.html ]

 

Residential area:

 

 

Alternative residential area (Christiania):

 

 

Spire of the Church of our Saviour visible in the distance.

 

 

People were having a good time at Papirøen.

[info: http://copenhagenstreetfood.dk/en/ ]

 

 

Dannebrog, the Danish royal yacht.

[info:http://kongehuset.dk/en/palaces/the-royal-yacht ]

 

 

We also cruised past the little mermaid; she was still beseiged by admirers.

 

DH and I ran out of energy not long after the camera battery did; we were totally exhausted after an hour or so of non-stop waving at other tourist boats and friendly local residents. So we took the #26 bus back to Langelinie.

 

Back on the ship, as we waited for the elevator, we were offered a 50% discount at Qsine. “We” were happy to accept that offer, since most of our cruises have been on ships that don’t have this restaurant, and “we” had been planning to try it at some point on the cruise. Good discounts are often available at the specialty restaurants, especially if you like early dining, which we do. We were seated a nice table at a window with views out over the harbour and we had a fun evening with Eva as our server. She was a hoot and she helped us make our choices from the menu. We enjoyed the disco shrimp, spring rolls, and painter’s filet; we would not order the lava crab again, but I know that many people really enjoy that dish. We are glad that we tried it, but would not be in a hurry to eat there again. The only complaint I had is that after a couple of glasses of wine, 50% of the people at our table for two had some difficulty in figuring out the Rubik’s cube dessert menu. Despite that, dessert arrived and was enjoyed.

[Bimmer09]

May22: Day Six (Copenhagen, Part 2)

 

A couple of Strøget pictures with the iphone.

 

 

Herons!

 

 

Pink pom-pom shoes! Somewhere, someone really needs these shoes, but that person is not me.

 

Looking up.

 

 

I was eager to try out the new camera so we only made it about 20 feet from the door of the store before I snapped my first shot.

 

We walked down to the waterfront and sat for a few minutes while I played around with the camera settings. Took this shot of some kayakers passing by; in the background you can see the new pedestrian bridge that goes from Nyhavn over to the street food palace of Papirøen.

 

 

Where we were sitting, there were trampolines set into the ground and some local kids were having a blast with those. Even though this was another really terrific opportunity to try for that twisted ankle, DH restrained me from joining them.

 

It took me a few minutes to figure out the basics of the camera, since there was no English-language manual available; I would download the online version later. The camera battery was not fully charged, so I knew I wouldn’t last for the whole afternoon. Thinking about where I could put the remaining battery life to best use, we walked over to Nyhavn.

 

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the Nikon D500. Has it gone in for repair?

Thanks for the photo of the Stroget "walking street". I spent a month playing drums in a nightclub there back in March 1978. Brutal winter weather and we lived 20 miles south on the coast in a house provided and commuted each day/night. The club Jomfroburet was above a restaurant they owned and we ate great free meals before starting work. Fun memories!

Enjoying the review.

Norris

[jgsatgka]

A big thanks for the memories. We were on the same cruise but took different tours so we are happy to have you fill in the gaps for us.

[afto]

Ouch! Sorry to hear about the Nikon D500. Has it gone in for repair?

Thanks for the photo of the Stroget "walking street". I spent a month playing drums in a nightclub there back in March 1978. Brutal winter weather and we lived 20 miles south on the coast in a house provided and commuted each day/night. The club Jomfroburet was above a restaurant they owned and we ate great free meals before starting work. Fun memories!

Enjoying the review.

Norris

 

How nice for you to have been able to spend that much time in Denmark, Norris. We just loved it in Copenhagen; people were so friendly and it's a beautiful city. Haven't investigated the possible outcomes for the broken camera yet. I miss it.

[afto]

jgsatgka, thanks for your comment and for following along.

May 23: Day Seven (Copenhagen, Part Five)

 

We woke up to another sunny day and I watched the elegant Viking Sea glide gracefully towards her prime berth as I was finishing breakfast on the balcony.

Our plans for Day Two had been substantially revised, but we were looking forward to another great day in Copenhagen. We were on the go quite early and had time for a stroll through Kastellet. This star-shaped fortress is now open to the public, although some of its buildings are still used by the military. It’s a lovely green space frequented by runners and dog-walkers.

[More info: http://www.copenhagenet.dk/cph-map/CPH-Citadel.asp ]

 

I was delighted by the picturesque windmill.

DH was more interested in a groundskeeper’s clever contraption: a lawn mower on a steel cable that could be winched up and down the steep banks, mowing as it went. Watching this machine in action may have been the highlight of the entire trip for DH.

If you go, note that Kastellet has only two entry points, at the north and south, where there are bridges over the moat and then a tunnel through to the interior. It’s actually a bit tricky to find the entrances, and google maps will try to tell you that you can enter from the west, which is incorrect, so I am posting a screen shot that shows the entrances in relation to the Little Mermaid and the Gefion fountain.

 

We walked to Rosenborg Castle through Kongens Have gardens, where the bluebells were in full bloom in every shady spot.

According to the Visit Copenhagen web site, the castle was due to open at 10:00am and I wanted to avoid a long queue by arriving a bit early. We waited patiently until 10am, only to be told at that time that the castle would be opening at noon that day; we could walk around the grounds until then if we liked. My feathers were severely ruffled by this news; I flapped about for several seconds, squawking and shrieking “Polly wants a cracker!” DH dragged — I mean “gently guided” — me away from the area. As we walked away, busses were arriving; a guide for one of the groups informed us that the first two castle-visiting hours of the day were reserved for passengers on cruise ship excursions; I’m not sure if they were from the Viking Sea or from the Kongingsdam, which was also in port, or both. Maybe even from the Silhouette? It occurred to me that private groups could be accommodated outside normal visiting hours. But, you know, it’s not my castle, so who am I to tell them when to open the gates? The revised itinerary for our second day in Copenhagen was revised again, and we walked to the Rundetaarn.

 

[afto]

May 23: Day Seven (Copenhagen, Part Six)

 

En route to the Rundetaarn, we passed some colourful fruit and flower stalls as we crossed Kultorvet.

 

 

The Rundetaarn was the one site I wanted to be sure to visit in Copenhagen. It dates from 1637 and I have never seen anything else like it anywhere.

 

 

You reach the top of the tower by a spiral ramp that once allowed horses to pull equipment up to the observatory at the top and books to the library which is accessed from the middle of the tower. There was a school group there, and the kids had so much fun running up and down and hiding from each other in the niches in the walls.

 

 

There is a church at the bottom and great views over Copenhagen’s rooftops from the windows along the way and from the observation deck at the top.

 

 

 

Despite my fear of heights, I will occasionally seek out great views as long as I can stand on something that I have assessed as sturdy, and as long as the railings appear to be firmly attached to the structure. Since this building has been around for a few years, it felt safe enough, but I did not try standing on the glass floor that allows views down into the hollow core of the tower.

 

 

After I saw the above sign, I had an almost uncontrollable urge to stick my head through the railings. Never thought of doing that until I saw the sign advising against it.

[More on the tower’s history and architecture here. Note that if you click on this link you will have to just ignore the "page not found" message and look for the menu buttons which should be visible at the top of the page. It's very interesting, I think: "]http://www.rundetaarn.dk/en/the-tower/ ]

[afto]

May 23: Day Seven (Copenhagen, Part Seven)

 

After the Rundetaarn, it was time for Tivoli.

 

 

Using public transportation to get there would save us a few steps, so we backtracked to Norreport and took the S-tog (train) to the main station (marked Kobenhavn H on the train maps). Note that there is both a Metro and a train station at Norreport and that they are not connected.

 

This was the first time that we noticed these guide tracks for cyclists to wheel their bikes up and down stairs at the station. After this, we would notice them in other cities too.

 

 

We didn’t stay long at Tivoli; I just wanted to have a peek inside to see what it looked like. The grounds were beautiful, with lots of flowers. As we traveled around the Baltic, it was interesting to see what stage of development the tulips were at in the various ports. They were past their best in Amsterdam, just beginning to bloom in Helsinki and Oslo, and in their full glory here in Copenhagen.

 

 

We didn’t go on any rides because most of them looked very dangerous. They did have a limited number of low-risk rides —the kind that stay at ground level and don’t move much —and you can see a few wise folk enjoying those in the photo below:

 

 

I thought I should include a portrait of DH and myself at some point, so here’s a double selfie in the funhouse mirrors at Tivoli. It’s an extremely flattering shot of me, if I do say so myself. And it also reminds me that I should probably thank DH for all the effort he put in just to keep up with me that day, what with dragging that extra leg around and all.

 

 

After Tivoli, we popped into Andersen Bakery, just across from the main entrance to the train station, for a snack. Pastry or hot dog?

 

We settled on a shared giant hot dog; it was called the Grand Danois, or Great Dane. And when we left, there was a fellow outside walking TWO gorgeous and very dignified Great Dane dogs! Yes, seriously! WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?! I love Denmark!

[afto]

May 23: Day Seven (Copenhagen, Part Eight)

 

By this time, I had recovered from my apoplectic fit and was no longer in a huff with the keepers of the castle, so DH declared that it was safe to return to Rosenborg. We took the train back to Norreport. At this time of the day, we had to stand in a long and very slow-moving line to get into Rosenborg.

 

This was the only time in Copenhagen that we needed to have any local currency. Our admission was covered by the Copenhagen Card, but the fee for a locker was 20 DKK. They charged this on our credit card (so technically we didn’t need any local currency after all) and gave us the necessary coin for the lockers. The coin was refunded to us when we went back to the locker for our belongings, and we used it to buy some postcards at our next stop. I might have bought some at Rosenborg, but I was not convinced that the staff could be trusted to complete the process in less than 45 minutes. In the end, it was well worth the time and hassle to visit Rosenborg: we dutifully worked our way through all the floors and all the rooms, admiring crowns and clocks and cabinets and even the throne room’s over-the-top lions.

[Rosenborg web site: http://www.kongernessamling.dk/en/rosenborg/visit-rosenborg/ ]

 

 

 

But we thought that the visit to the Rundetaarn was a more memorable experience overall. We would remember Rosenborg as one of several castles and palaces that we would see on this trip, but the Rundetaarn was unique.

 

Last stop for the day was the Design Museum Danmark, a late addition to the itinerary. I had seen posters about an exhibition entitled “the danish chair.” Turns out that DH was more interested in the comfortable chairs in the lobby of the museum than in seeing the exhibition, so I enjoyed the displays while I presume that DH enjoyed a nap.

[Museum web site: https://designmuseum.dk/en/ ]

 

 

I wished I had more time for this museum, but we had wasted a lot of time due to the hassle at Rosenborg, so by this time I was walking around with one eye on my watch, thinking about all aboard time of 4:30pm. Overall conclusion from this visit, though, was that Danish designers have come up with some uber-cool ideas.

 

 

We walked back to the ship through Kastellet, but this time at a quicker pace than this morning’s more leisurely stroll. Still, there's always time for one more shot.

 

 

We sailed north from Copenhagen and around the island of Zealand on our way to our next port, Rostock, Germany. We could see the Øresund bridge as we left the harbour, and long lines of wind turbines. The weather was as beautiful for our sailaway as it had been for our arrival.

[scubacruiserx2]

May 21: Day Five (Oslo, Part Four)

 

 

I took some pictures of the band, and those would be the last pictures I would take with my Nikon D5000. I dropped the camera at that point and broke the shutter; we tried poking at it with the closest thing that we had to a DSLR camera repair kit — a plastic pen cap — but I think we "may" have done more harm than good. When I put this in the perspective of all the horrific events that have taken place in Europe this summer, in Manchester, London, Paris, and elsewhere, this really was a non-event and we were lucky to have had such a great holiday.

 

Just in case it was raining hard in some of the ports, I had packed another small and ancient waterproof Fuji point-and-shoot that I use mainly when I am snorkeling; the sensor is probably about a quarter of a mega-pixel, or maybe a third, and I am not exaggerating all that much when I say that. I also had my older model iphone with me. So I was not without a camera for the rest of the day, but you will notice a difference in the quality of the pictures. At least I hope you will, or else it really hasn't been worth lugging the Nikon around for all these years.

 

 

Are you sure that this is the first time that you have written a photo / review ?

Bravo , you are doing an amazing job !

Your photos are great , and you are very informative and your style of writing is both honest and entertaining . In fact , I read it all in one sitting after I stumbled upon it . :)

 

As a fellow DLSR shooter , I gasped out loud "Oh no", as I read your account of dropping the camera , which I have also done .

 

We really like the shiny scuba diver and the shiny water beyond . So please keep the great review and thank you for sharing it with us ! :) :D

[Slugsta]

The last time we visited Copenhagen was in January 2015 and the temperatures were a good way below 0C. It is nice to be reminded of how lovely she looks in the sunshine! :)

[afto]

The last time we visited Copenhagen was in January 2015 and the temperatures were a good way below 0C. It is nice to be reminded of how lovely she looks in the sunshine! :)

 

Speculation over weather forecasts was a source of great interest on our roll call. Overall, we were extremely fortunate with weather; we often had cloudy skies, but we really didn't encounter much rain. And certainly, the weather was better than I would expect in January! Brr. I understand that the weather is unpredictable and very changeable, but I would not hesitate to travel to this part of the world again in May or early June.

[Slugsta]

Our Baltic cruise was in September/October and we were very lucky with the weather. So much so that I got sunburned in Copenhagen. According to the cruise log, the roughest weather we got in the entire trip was 'slight swell'!

[cgags47]

Thanks for reading along. A special hello to DH, who is apparently lurking on this thread just to monitor what I say about him. cgags47, here are some pics from the balcony -- looking forward, aft, and straight out.

 

On our last few cruises, I have gone to some trouble to snag one of the angled balconies on the hump. This cruise, I decided against that and booked this category 2B cabin instead. Allow me to slip into hyper-analytical mode for a minute. (OK, I acknowledge that I am never far from hyper-analytical mode.) I liked having the extra space of the angled cabins, but when I got to thinking about what I actually DO on the balcony, the 2B made more sense for us this trip. I have breakfast out there almost every day, even in Alaska. While I am having breakfast, or any other time when I am on the balcony, any unusual motion along the shoreline or on the water causes me to grab my binoculars, leap to my feet, and lean over the rail looking for birds, dolphins, bears, or some other kind of wildlife. Yes, the breakfast gets cold most days, but I would rather eat a cold breakfast than miss a bird. I am more visible to other cruisers at the rail of one of those angled balconies, and if there is anyone else on their balcony I just feel very uncomfortable aiming my binoculars or camera at a bird that might be close to the ship. The other passengers may feel uncomfortable too. So I avoid that, and I feel that this limits the scope of my bird-spotting opportunities. On our last cruise, we had angled cabin 6208. The next two cabins, 6206 and 6204 had the privacy screen folded back as they must have been travelling together. It was impossible not to see most of their deck space if I was standing at the rail of 6208, so I tended to avoid doing so if anyone was on those balconies. This cruise, I was thinking particularly about the long hours of daylight and the opportunities for early-morning birding sailing in the Oslo fjord and the Swedish archipelago, and I knew I would probably want to be up and out on the balcony. If I used the balcony mostly for cocktails with friends, stretching out and reading, sunning, or taking a nap, I would love the angled balconies because of the extra elbow room, but for the way I use the balcony, the 2B is a better choice. I feel that with this cabin, I am less likely to be annoying anyone with the lenses. Because we like deck 6, we choose the starboard side just to avoid any possibility of smoke drifting up from the smoking area on deck 5. I think you will like 6223; the views are unobstructed. Hope you get the weather to make the most of your balcony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the photos! I think the view from that balcony looks great. I was concerned if we would have an obstruction when looking down, but it doesn't appear that way. Hopefully the smoking section doesn't present a problem.

[afto]

scubacruisers, thanks for diving into this review and for your encouraging comments.

 

May 24: Day Eight (Rostock, Part One)

 

We would be visiting Berlin after the cruise, so for our day in northern Germany we did not plan to stray too far from the Silhouette. I planned a very detailed minute-by-minute itinerary involving trains, trams, and busses, which I had put together largely thanks to information provided by CC members Simon (sddsddean) and Travelanni. Then Celebrity informed us that we would be docking at Rostock instead of Warnemunde. The original plan could have been modified and would still have worked, but then Alla Tours, who we were using for Russia, e-mailed us with news of a new tour that they were offering for this port. DH and I talked it over, and decided it might be more relaxing for both of us if I were to take a “day off” from being the tour guide. So we signed up for Alla’s Hanseatic Rostock and Molli steam train tour; it was a 9-hour tour and it would go to most of the places that we had planned to visit anyway.

Tour guide Tobias met us at the port gates and we boarded a very comfortable mini-bus. There were only 8 of us on the tour, if I remember rightly, all fellow Silhouette passengers.

 

 

It was a short drive into the town of Rostock, where we enjoyed a walking tour through the older parts of town. We admired the colourful brickwork on buildings old and new.

 

 

 

We made a brief stop at the Rostock Town Hall which contains some exhibits and a model of the old town.

 

 

Next, Tobias took us to St. Mary’s Church (Marienkirche) where he explained the intricate workings of its fascinating astronomical clock, parts of which date from 1472. It’s amazing that time-keeping technology has changed so little since then: I remember that we had something similar in our kitchen when I was growing up in the mid-20th century, and I have heard that even today they stuff a miniaturized version inside every iphone.

[More about the clock: http://www.astronomischeuhr.de/en/files/geschichte.htm ]

 

 

[afto]

May 24: Day Eight (Rostock, Part Two)

 

Continuing our tour of Rostock, we gathered in front of the main building of the University of Rostock. This is not our group, but I like the idea of including photos of random strangers.

 

 

If the strangers were facing in the other direction, they would have been able to admire a 1980 fountain that provides different perspectives on the joy of life. Here is a boar’s perspective, for example.

 

 

Had to crop this shot rather awkwardly to exclude the joys of the McDonald’s across the street.

 

 

We took a look at the “arrow stork” in the university’s zoological collection. This doubly unfortunate bird was shot in Germany in 1822 and was found to have an African spear through its neck. This helped scientists to solve the mystery of why birds disappear every winter only to reappear the following spring. If you are interested, there is a very short video by Dylan Thuras that explains the scientific importance of the arrow stork (and an even shorter synopsis of the video) here:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/76208/how-stork-solved-scientific-mystery

 

 

Before leaving Rostock, we had lunch at a brewery restaurant (Braugasthaus Zum alten Fritz) on the harbour front. We had a wide choice of German dishes; I had the venison goulash, which was tasty but very heavy for lunch. I suppose that if I really wanted a light meal, I probably shouldn't have ordered venison goulash. As I post this photo, it has occurred to me that I have a special fondness for spherical food, in this case some kind of potato croquette.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2017 by afto