Baltics Cruise - The Boat

On this cruise we had two days at sea - one on the way out and one on the way home. I love these days.... it's so nice to have nothing you are supposed to be doing and it really helps with the jet lag. It took me a few days before I finally lost the overwhelming urge to fall asleep in the middle of the day.

Since we were sailing through Northern Europe, it was often too cold to spend much time out on deck. We played mini golf a few times, but mostly stayed inside to play games, eat, and attend some of the ship activities. We also went to a few of the evening shows which included a stunt bike rider, a juggler, a quartet, and a production singing and dancing company.

We saw a movie in the theater and went to napkin folding, general trivia, logo trivia (below), Who in the World Am I, Where in the World Am I, name that tune, classic rock trivia, flags of the world trivia, the Sudoku challenge, crossword challenge, and a darts competition.

Our two victories were surprisingly the crossword challenge...

And darts! I placed 2nd out of about 20 people and was pretty proud of myself. Always fun to discover a hidden talent!

Our room attendant was fabulous. I know cruise ship employees work insanely long hours with hardly any breaks, but she always had a smile, greeted us by name every time we passed her in the hall, and took good care of our room for the week. At the beginning of the trip she left us the usual towel creations, but on the final day we came back from dinner and found we had a new roommate. Notice Dave's glasses on his head and my slippers for his feet :)

The food, as expected, was great. Dinners are always the best, and I don't think Dave ever had a meal with fewer than six courses. His largest was nine - 4 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 2 desserts. Get it while the gettin's good!

For our final lunch they brought in an enormous apple pie with vanilla ice cream - yum!

Picture of a picture - dressed up for the first formal night

Second formal night - do we look any fatter?

My good looking, single brother. We picked out a wife for him on the ship and my mom was having fun imagining hosting a "Love Boat" reception. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be. 

My amazing parents. We had so much fun on this trip with you - thanks for letting us come along!

Baltics Cruise - Helsinki

Our final port stop was Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Although Helsinki was founded in the 1500s, Finland has only been a country for just under 100 years. The area spent centuries under Danish, Swedish, and Russian control before gaining independence. And maybe because it is more modern, or maybe because there were people out playing lawn games, walking dogs and pushing strollers, but this is where I think I would be most happy to live of all the places we visited on our trip. 

Our day in Helsinki was good, but short. The boat was only in port for half a day, and our guide books were accidentally left behind so our sightseeing didn't have much direction. There may have been some really cool things to see in this city, but we only came across a couple of them. 

First stop was the Uspenski Cathedral, an orthodox church. We got here a bit too early, however, and had to go kill some time in the market square while we waited for it to open . The market is located right on the harbor and sells traditional foods, handicrafts, and souvenirs. We enjoyed looking, but everything was pretty pricey (especially after visiting Estonia and Russia) so we didn't buy anything. 

Looking out at the harbor. If we had more time in Helsinki, I think it would have been neat to take a boat out to see some of the islands around the city - there are thousands of them!

Back to the Uspenski Cathedral - decorated down to the last inch

At the Helsinki Cathedral, a Lutheran church. It was built in 1830 and is still used for regular religious services, but is also open to tourists. It's location up on the hill makes it so you can see it from all over the city. 

Although Lutheran churches have simple interiors, they often have beautiful organs and this church was no exception. 

After seeing the churches we stopped at a McDonalds to borrow their WiFi and check in on things at home. My brother found out his car had been broken into, which put a bit of a damper on our day. We would also find out a few days later that our car had been involved in a parking lot accident while we were traveling - bummer. 

There is nothing special about this train station, but I will forever remember it as the location where a seagull swooped down from above and swiped a rice crispy treat that my mom was just about to put into her mouth. Crazy!

Getting back on the boat for the last time. We had one more day aboard while the ship cruised back to Copenhagen. 

Baltics Cruise - St. Petersburg

I am still trying to decide what I thought of St. Petersburg. It's an incredible city, full of cathedrals, grand palaces, gardens, museums, and theaters situated right on the river Neva. It also has a brutal history, however, that can overshadow the splendor. It was built by peasants who died by the thousands, has been through several revolutions, survived German occupation for three years in WWII during which 1 million people died, and there are rows and rows of Soviet era apartment blocks that just look depressing.  I just couldn't imagine living there, but maybe with time it would grow on a person.

Normally we self-tour, but for our day Russia we went on two shore excursions through the ship. Americans entering Russia are required to have a visa, although this rule is waived if you are on a ship tour. Even with the tour, we still had to go through a strict passport control process where we were issued a temporary visa to use for the day. St. Petersburg is also an enormous city and it would have been very difficult to see much on your own. I was glad we had a dedicated bus to take us around.

Tour #1: Bus trip around the city center with stops at the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and a souvenir store.

Peter the Great, the man the city is name for. This statue was created using Peter's death mask so he either had a really tiny head or the sculptor was way off on his body proportions. 

This cathedral in the Peter and Paul fortress was the first building in St. Petersburg. We could not go in because it was a holiday and it was closed to the public. Almost all the Russian tsars, including Peter the Great are buried here. 

The St. Petersburg Mint was built in 1800 and is one of two mints in Russia. It is still producing coins and medals. 

At the edge of the fortress overlooking the river Neva. The fortress was never used to defend the city, but instead housed a garrison and a high security prison.  

The church of the Spilled Blood was built in traditional Russian style as a memorial to Alexander II, who was murdered by terrorists on this spot in 1881. It fell into disrepair after WWI and was used as a warehouse and garbage dump and was almost torn down, until a restoration project began in 1970. 

St. Isaac's Cathedral, built in 1858, is the largest orthodox cathedral in the world. The dome is plated with pure gold and is the 4th largest cathedral dome in the world behind the Pantheon in Rome, St. Paul's in London, and the Duomo in Florence. 

We saw lots and lots of apartments like this on our bus tour

Tour #2: Bus trip through the city to Peterhof Palace and gardens. We toured the gardens and the returned to the city by hydrofoil boat.

The Peterhof Grand Palace and Grand Cascade Fountain. The Peterhof was built by Peter the Great as his summer residence in the 1700s and grew and expanded under successive emperors. It is often referred to as the "Russian Versailles" and is one of the most visited places in Russia.

The Grand Cascade is made up of 64 fountains and 200 statues. The fountains are unique in that they are fed by gravity and no pumps are used. Gravity is able to sustain the fountains for up to 10 hours of use each day. 

In addition to the Grand Cascade there are acres of gardens with over 150 fountains

You can see our lovely earpieces in this picture. Everyone in our group had one, and our guide used it to communicate with us while we wandered the gardens so we didn't have to stand right next to him. It was nice to be able to have some freedom, and if you started to hear static you knew you had wandered too far and needed to head back. 

Our guide warned us to be careful of pickpockets at least 10 times. They also had warning signs posted around the gardens. I guess it's a big problem in the area, but luckily we didn't have any trouble. 

One last look at the Peterhof before we headed to our boat to take us back. The canal from the palace flows all the way out to the Gulf of Finland.

Baltics Cruise - Tallinn

Our second stop was Estonia, a small country with just over a million people. Estonia has a long history of occupation by other nations, most recently Russia, but has been independent for the last 20 years and seems to be doing well. We visited the capital city of Tallinn, whose Old Town is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.

A wall and series of towers was built around the city of Tallinn starting in the 1200s. Over the next few centuries these fortifications were enlarged and strengthened and many of the towers, gates and sections of the wall are still intact today. This "Old Town" is now a very charming place to visit.

We entered Old Town through the Great Costal Gate, which is connected to the Fat Margaret tower on the left. Sadly I didn't take a picture of Fat Margaret, a tower that is as wide as it is tall. 

Our first stop was St. Olav's church, which was at one point the tallest building in the world. It was originally built in the 12 century, but it has been rebuilt several times due to damage from lightning strikes and war.

St. Olav's is a Lutheran church, and so the interior is mostly white and plainly decorated. 

We climbed up the tower to a viewpoint. The stairs to the tower are very narrow and steep and must be shared by those going up and down. I was glad we were one of the first groups to go up, because it was pretty difficult to pass people going the other direction when we were on our way back down. 

We had a great view of Tallinn from the top

Some of the towers and wall that surround Tallin

Like Stockholm, Tallinn's Old Town had lots of colorful buildings, cobblestone streets, little shops and restaurants. 

The town hall and town square. In the square is also the Raeapteek, a pharmacy that has been in operation since the  15th century. We paid a visit and were glad to see that they now carry modern remedies instead of sun bleached dog feces and burnt hedgehog powder. 

We then left the merchant buildings of "Lower Town", and climbed up Toompea hill to "Upper Town." You can see Upper Town in the first picture, sitting higher than the rest of the buildings on a stone wall. The Upper Town has historically been the seat of power for the city. 

The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is a very grand building and popular tourist destination, although it is disliked by Estonians. The cathedral was built during the Russian Occupation and directly faces the Parliament building, and thus is a symbol of Russian oppression. 

As an orthodox cathedral, every inch of the interior is ornately decorated. Quite the contrast from the Lutheran churches. There were several tour groups in there with us and they all seemed very eager to participate in the custom of lighting a candle. It was a little unsettling to be in a big crowd of distracted tourists, walking around with fire. I was glad to leave without having my hair or clothes burned. 

Our "Onion Dome" pose

We found this guy near the cathedral

After the cathedral we went across the street to Parliament (the pink building) which is connected to Toompea Castle. Three of the four towers of Toompea Castle are still standing, and the biggest one, Tall Hermann, is behind us. The flag on top shows the government currently in charge of the country, which is Estonia!

Our final stop was Kiek in de Kök. Kiek in de Kök was an artillery tower built in the 1400s, and now it houses a museum about Tallinn's military from medieval to modern times.  There are cannonballs from 1577 still embedded in the tower walls, which are 13 feet thick. 

Trying out some restraining devices. Although I'm smiling, I actually felt a little panicked because the collar was locked on, but I had to hold myself up with my hands or I would choke because I was too short. 

Military hats from different eras that my mom was very hesitant to put on, but luckily no one got lice. 

An enormous cannon that was probably close to 15 feet long

Modelling a surprisingly heavy flak jacket

Farewell Tallinn - we enjoyed our visit!