Carry on cruisin'

Day 12 - Sea day and final day – to be honest a bit boring, we just seemed to be hanging around waiting for tomorrow. It's been a great experience but we want to go home now!

Carry on cruisin'

Day 11 - Gothenberg! I practised my extensive conversational Swedish as we boarded the complimentary shuttle, “Abba”, “Volvo”, “Smorgasbord” - this last word may actually be Danish, but if I need to order a selection of cold meats and cheeses in a Swedish café, it might still be useful....
Gothenbrg is a nice place actually, wide pedestrian thoroughfares and plenty of athletic young Swedish ladies.... Jan bought some shoes and I admired the trams. There's a big “London Eye” type wheel, and we spent our last Krone on a few circuits, very pleasant. Had a pizza and salad in a cafe, (no “Smorgasbord” unfortunately, but still very pleasant), then back to the ship.
On the ship internet costs approx 60euros for an hour.....
In Gothenberg main station it is 1.5 euros an hour.......
On board entertainment tonight was the “East coast boys”, a show based on the story of Frankie Valli and the four seasons, it was really good! Toes were tapped...
The entertainment in the “Safari Bar” later was a real experience, it was a team game where the compere asked for each team to bring him various items, eg. “4 gent's belts”, or an example of a “ladies' tattoo”. As the night drew on the “items” became more outrageous, the final round required the teams to present a male dressed as a female beauty contest contestant – some blokes appeared in bras, underpants, with handbags, lipstick, the lot! I'm sure in the morning they won't believe they really behaved like that! We didn't join in, we just laughed!

Carry on cruisin'

Day 10 - A sea day, bummed around the ship and attended a laughable Art auction, where prints of mediocre art work was auctioned off to bored Americans who had too much money and not enough taste. In the evening Jan dragged me to a show of “Argentinian” Tango dancing, I managed to stay awake till, the end – Jan enjoyed it …

Carry on cruisin'

Day 9 - Tallinn – Estonia's capital has a quaint little “old” town, and we walked from the ship into the narrow little streets. Soon after we had docked our ship was joined by “Queen Victoria” a huge Cunard Liner, so there was a lot of tourists!
In the centre of Tallinn is a big, cobbled market square surrounded by cafes, we had to stop and patronise one of them, I had some of the local beers – very agreeable!
We decided to go and visit the “museum of the occupation” later, and after a short walk we arrived, to be greeted by a surly youth in a deserted foyer. Admission was 30 Estonian “Crowns” each and we only had 47, (an Estonian Crown has the value of a pebble...), did they accept Euros? “no”, would they accept credit cards? “no”. Did they want to extend a warm and polite greeting to foreign visitors who wanted to learn more about their small country? “err... no”, - we left....

Carry on cruisin'

Day 8 - Petrhov – today we went to the “Summer palace” at Peterhov, this is a community established to the south of St Petersberg where the Russian Imperial families would stay in the summer months. We visited the Palace built as a rival to the French Palace of Versailles – and what a place! We had to wear special plastic “slippers” because the wooden floors are so precious, and every room is magnificently decorated. Actually the buildings were badly damaged in the second world war, so it has been restored – amazing place.
Outside in the grounds we explored the gardens, and there are fountains all over, some were huge, some were “trick” fountains - designed to soak unsuspecting guests.... not very funny.
Our guides were Vladimir and Anastasia, who both spoke excellent English and gave us lots of insights into normal Russian life. Russia has been fascinating, but exhausting, it seems that organised tours are the only way to visit the sights in a short time, but being herded around in big crowds is often a pain, frustrating because you can't stop and do your own thing.....

Carry on cruisin'

Day 7 - St Petersberg! Mother Russia greeted us with very gloomy skies, thunder and lightening in fact – but it was all blue skies by the time we got off – hmmmm I had no plans to “get off” in Russia, it must be the new spirit of East west cooperation!
We are taking “proper” tours today and tomorrow, we figured the culture is so different and err, dangerous, that a tour would be wiser.
We went to the Hermitage and Winter Palace, it is an art gallery/museum, holding over 3 million exhibits! The building was stunning, ornate plaster work, chandeliers etc. well worth the visit.
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, next to the city registry office and I took some pictures of a happy, newly wedded couple, anyway this shady man said he would take pictures for me and was very insistent that I let him help....... Yes really, I was going to let a complete stranger have my camera.... He had trouble understanding “no” and “Niet”, and I almost had to teach him some Anglo saxon phrases before we walked away!
Did a coach tour of the city with “photo” opportunities, nice city to look at, but the traffic was bad and the heat was hot – Jan began feeling “iffy”, so it was a relief to finally get back to the ship.
Tonight's film? “From Russia with love”, (honest!)

Carry on cruisin'

Day 6 - Helsinki... Cue the “Finland” song from Monty Python! We arrived early morning and disembarked about 9:30, we took a service bus to the tram stop and then caught the “Number 3” tram, which does a circuit of the city, we thought it would be like a City tour on the cheap! Tamara and Charles from New York were doing the same, and boy could that dame talk?! I thought that Charles seemed a bit quiet, but after a while I realised that the poor bloke couldn't get a word in! Tamara had over 8 pages of notes about Helsinki from her Internet research, and she had a tram map which she had written for prior to the trip!!! - we managed to give them the slip just after the Sibelius memorial...
We walked to the Olympic stadium, (1952), and took a lift to the top of the nobservation tower, great view, and a great sense of history, we saw the statues of the famous Finish middle distance runners, Pavo Nummi and Lasse Viren – not sure of the spelling, will edit if necessary later!
Helsinki is not a pretty city, it seemed a bit “Eastern European”, but the harbour area and Market square were bustling and interesting.... looked at lots of stuff, but didn't buy anything.
On board tonight we saw the “West end to Broadway” show.... the cast were “enthusiastic” and the band was loud, if you didn't take it too seriously it was quiet good!

Carry on cruisin' ...

Day 5
Sweden! Because of “mechanical” problems the ship isn't going to Stockholm, it's going to Visby instead. This is a small town on the Swedish Island of Goatland – think of Douglas on the Isle of Man, with IKEA and Volvos. We went ashore on the ship's “Tenders”, (launches/lifeboats) – I wanted to sit at the back because it meant I could make jokes about “Tender behinds”....
Visby was quaint, reminded me of Whitby, we wandered around, had a coffee and a sticky bun in the market Square and then came away. Saw a film in the ship's cinema this afternoon, “Up in the Air” with George Clooney – (Jan says she'd like to be “Up in the air” with George Clooney - did you know he's gay allegedly? )

Carry on cruisin' ...

Day 4
A full day at sea, so we have really “thrown” ourselves into the on-board activities.... think “Hi De Hi afloat” , listened to a guitarist in the “Schooner Bar” at lunchtime, joined in the “Movie Themes” quiz in the afternoon, and then whilst I went to the gym and sauna, Jan went to a lecture about St Petersburg given by a semi-conscious plonker who had the presenting skills of a short plank of wood – apparently.

In the evening we went to the theatre to see a show, the comic was Kelly Monteith, (remember him?), he was really good, and a magician who wasn't too bad, his tricks were a bit hard to watch, they needed a smaller venue, but still good. OMG we're so middle aged!

Carry on cruisin' ...

Day 3
Wonderful Copenhagen – We arrived at Copenhagen at 9:00 am – right on schedule, and disembarked dutifully, (as opposed to “duty freely”). We had decided to walk into town rather than get the shuttle bus, and it was a nice walk along the water front in really good weather. Copenhagen is a lovely city We walked along “Hans Christian Andersen” Boulevard, past the Carlsberg museum, and ended up at the Tivoli Gardens – a famous park. Whilst at a coffee bar here we had a …... Danish pastry... well we couldn't not could we?!
After an explore of the shops we walked back to the ship... a good day!

Carry on cruisin'...

Day 2
All at Sea... - spent the day getting used to the ship really, found a lounger to .. er.. lounge on in the Solarium, very relaxing, and then we all had to go and have an “evacuation” practice, (I had had an “evacuation” earlier, but apparently that doesn't count..), we lined up next to the lifeboats and made lots of jokes about icebergs and the Titanic.
Jan went to the “Welcome chat” in the theatre, and really it was just one long sales pitch, “buy this”, “buy that” etc. - Jan bought nothing....
After dinner we went to the “Cigar lounge”, to listen to “Duncan the Pub Guitarist”, he was a dry witted Scotsman, and he was really good, played all sorts of acoustic favourites.

Carry on cruisin' ...

Day 1
Leaving Harwich – Got to the cruise terminal and booked in, it's so easy! I may never fly again! Sorted our luggage and explored the “Jewel of the seas” - which incidently is massive! We're in floor, (sorry “Deck”), 9, and there are 14 decks altogether.
Went for lunch, this”all food free” malarky will take a bit of getting used to.... Found some nice bars, café's etc. and we will be back to them all over the next 12 days I'm sure. Went out on deck to see us leave sunny Essex, the sea seemed a bit choppy, but Jan's sea legs have been fine so far!