The long trip home

August 8

Our shipped docked about 4:30 in the morning and that was probably what woke me up.  Got up, showered and ate my last Danish pastries.  Roger had removed my fruit bowl including the bananas I had saved for breakfast.  Probably because you are not allowed to take any fruit ashore.  I should have hid them.  Oh well, still had the pastries (the important stuff!).   I wrote up some "host nomination" cards for all our favorite staff on the ship and filled some tip envelopes.  

We headed out about 6:15.  We didn't let Princess take our luggage the night before, so we pulled, carried, lugged all our own stuff with us.  We were supposed to go to Explorers Lounge to wait for our debarkation time, but when we got there they told us to go right on down to Deck 4 to get off.  One last cruise card scan and we were in the terminal.  Our drivers were there and waiting for us.  I don't know what the name of the company was that our travel agent arranged for us, but they were always there early, loaded all our luggage for us, and took us efficiently to our locations.  They answered our questions along the way and were very good Danish hosts.  

Got to the airport in good time.  We found the self-service boarding pass machines and got those figured out for everybody.  All our luggage was weighed in and nobody was over.  (We could have bought more souvenirs!)  We found a restaurant where we could sit and everybody pulled out their tablets and took advantage of the free wifi.  I found the place where I could get a refund on my VAT (value added tax) on my porcelain purchase.  Got me enough euros to buy Bob a coffee and me a water.  We had forgotton how Danes serve their coffee in glasses (no handles) and hard to handle when they are hot.  One last quirk of Denmark to remember. 

Found our gate and boarded without problems.  We had a short hop to Amsterdam first.  We took off and landed on time.  Had a very long walk from one end of the Amsterdam airport to the other for our next flight. Thank goodness for the people movers. We were almost there and I had to stop for the bathroom.  It's a good thing I did because once we got to the gate there were no bathrooms and we were herded through their security and into the gate waiting area. Had the most invasive pat-down I've ever had at that place. Yuk! About a 2 minute wait and we boarded the plane. Our timings on the whole trip were just about perfect. 

The flight home was about the same as the flight over. First they offered us warm towels to "freshen up". Those did feel good, but could have used it more at the end of the flight instead of the beginning. Once we were in the air, we could have complementary wine, beer, liquor, pop and water.  They served a meal a little later and towards the end of the flight we had another little snack meal.  It was some sort of flatbread, pizza sauce, & cheese made into a flat sandwich. Weird! We watched three movies - they had a good selection. Made the time pass almost quickly, but still a long flight.   

At the end of the flight-happy to be almost home.

We landed in Minneapolis on time about 3:00 in the afternoon local time (10:00pm body time).  We had shared a "Park and Go" spot with our friends, so we found the shuttle back to that lot.  Their vehicle was in running order when we got there - no flat tires or anything.  We thought about driving home yet that night, but once we got to our friends' house, decided we were too tired to drive 4 hours home.  We stayed overnight there.  Went to bed about 7:00pm and woke up about 3:00am.  Read my book and checked some of many millions of emails waiting for me until about 6:00am. Then we got up and headed home.  Uneventful drive home and our house was still standing when we got here. We had a marvelous trip, wonderful memories, but "there's no place like home!"

Sunset over the Baltic.

Last Day at Sea

August 7

We had a full day of sailing at sea to get back to Copenhagen.  We slept in a little but my body clock woke me up early anyway. I had my last little room service breakfast. I went and got Bob a caramel mocha latte to help use up his coffee card and checked on our bill. They had charged us full price for the wine that we were supposed to have gotten as a gift from our travel agent. They did fix it later, so all was well.  And the bill wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. (A few too many dollars in the casino, but it was vacation!)

When Bob got up, we went for breakfast. I took some extra rolls and some bananas for tomorrows breakfast since we had to be up and out of there by 6:15. Today we wore our DSH t-shirts. It was finally almost cool enough to wear them. We had so many comments all day on the nice shirts. Some people wanted to know where we bought them so they could get them. It had all our "tour dates" on the back, which is what people noticed. We could have made some money selling extras.

Some of us ladies went to hear the chef's talk about cooking on the ship. His accent was hard to understand and the head waiter that we didn't like was on stage trying to be funny. We walked out before it was done and went and played trivia in Club Fusion instead. We didn't win but teamed with a guy from Duluth and a couple from Sydney, Australia.

Then we all met up again for a pizza/hamburger/ice cream lunch at the grill by the pool. We were missing all the desserts in the Horizon Court so one of our group went and got a whole platter full of goodies. We stopped complaining and managed to clean them all up without too much trouble.

After lunch we played Bingo. We played 4 games and lost 4 games. Then we did more trivia in the Explorers lounge. Didn't win that either.  Meanwhile Bob and his buddies were playing poker in our cabin. I was going to pack, but decided to wait until they were done. It take as long to pack it all back up as it did to pack at home. Either we were taking it or throwing it away. I put all the heavy stuff in our small carry on suitcase or the new tote I bought to replace the broken backpack I used on the trip over.  Roger, our steward, brought us a luggage scale and ours were both well under the limit. Hopefully his scale was accurate.

BINGO - so serious!

Poker - looks like Bob is doing better than in the casino!

We all wore our shirts to our last dinner with Pim and Viviana. Made them smile, too. They had a good old fashioned turkey dinner as one of the choices tonight. I think most of our group picked that one. For dessert they had baked Alaska, so the waiters did the flaming parade. Our group had to help them out with singing.

Last meal in the Michelangelo Dining Room

Then it was informal group picture time. We took some on the stairs in the Piazza. We took some across the balcony on the piazza but those were too far away. Then we went out on the deck and took some outdoor ones and some individual ones by the Emerald Princess lifebuoy.

Just the ladies

A little windy, but none of us fell overboard.

A happy couple!

I went to the final show of the trip - a violinist. He was very good, but very showy, too. Listened to Chris play in Crooners after that. Back to the cabin and Bob was already in bed. Up early tomorrow for the long trip home.

Tallinn, Estonia

August 6

Tallinn, Estonia, is another town that none of us had heard of before this cruise. Turns out it was one of our favorite towns of the trip.  Maybe because it was such a small town that we could easily see all the sites in a day or it could have been the refreshing spirit and attitude of our guide which seemed to reflect the spirit of the whole country of Estonia. Anyway, we enjoyed this day a lot even though it was our last touring day.

We had agreed to meet at 9:00 at the cruise terminal to go into town together but decided to go down early to use the free wifi. We all got connected, checked our email, sent Spongebob pictures, etc.  Turns out we wouldn't have had to use the wifi in only the cruise terminal.  Tallinn is the birthplace of Skype and the whole town has free wifi (or at least most of it.)

We had a guided walking tour arranged to start at 10:00 in the center of the town.  We started walking at 9:00.  Of course we had to stop at a bathroom along the way (never pass up a bathroom).  We walked past a big shopping center building that had a nude statue out in front.  Some of us ladies tried to strike the same pose.  I think we were close????   After about 5 minutes taking pictures then we kept on.  Found the entrance to the old town area by a tower called Fat Margaret. Then we walked about 6 blocks of very quaint streets and buildings.  We found the information booth where our tour would start about 9:45. Somebody who hadn't used the last bathroom we passed had to go now, so we waited for him to find one (in the Norwegian embassy).

Models for a sculpter?

Fat Margaret and the gate into town.

Our guide for the tour was Marii (sort of like Mary but with a highly rolled R). Marii was very good.  She was a college student and knew a lot of history, too.  But she made it a lot more fun than Anna in Russia had. She told some funny (and sometimes off color) stories to go along with the history. She sat us down (in the shade which we appreciated) and told us a little of the history of Estonia to begin with.  Basically Estonia has been trying to get its independence for a long time but has been taken over (usually without bloodshed) by many different countries.  In 1989 they finally achieved independence with a "Singing Revolution".  Under Russian rule it was illegal to sing their national anthem. Somebody decided to sing it anyway and thousands joined in. The Russians couldn't arrest thousands of people for singing without looking ridiculous. That, along with other economic and political factors at the time, gained them their independence. Like I said before, the refreshing fun spirit that Marii had seemed to be the way the whole country was.

Our guide, Marii

We walked by many sites in the upper part of the town (for the noblemen) and the lower part of town (the common folk.) We saw St. Nicholas church which was about the only Russian looking building in the town. The Kiek en den Kok (peek in the kitchen) tower got its name because the noblemen could supposedly look down into the lower part of the town and see into people's kitchens. Tall Herman tower and the Palace which is now the Parliament were at the very top of the hill.  We stopped at a good viewing point to look over the whole town. Then we walked down a bunch of steps and back into the lower town.  By then we needed a potty break again.  Marii took us to a square and said go into any of the cafes around and they should have bathrooms.  I asked about the "Sweet Tooth" candy shop that I had read about that sells marzipan (one of my all time favorites - almond & sugar). We were standing right in front of it, so I went in there to use their bathroom. Of course, I had to buy some marzipan while I was in there, too.

St. Nicholas church

Tall Herman

View of Tallinn

A motley crew.

Sweet Tooth Candy Shop

Our tour ended back in the town square so we had lunch at one of the cafes there.  I had a ciabatta sandwich, Bob had salmon pasta and a beer.  They were very tall beer glasses. Another couple in our group wanted a couple of those glasses and instead of stealing them, offered to pay for them. The waitress was a little surprised by that and took 5 euros. We think she probably just pocketed it herself.

My lunch - served on a cutting board.

The girls and guys split up on the way back so we could do some shopping. We needed to be back at the ship by 3:30 this time and the captain made a couple announcements that he would NOT be waiting for anyone this time. We had a long haul back to Copenhagen and people had early planes to catch (we were some of them). I got a little nervous again, especially after the guys had drunk a couple of those tall beers that they would get lost getting back to the ship. Turns out they headed right back, made one wrong turn, but got themselves righted and stopped at a bar. They were going to do wolf whistles at us when we passed, but they missed us somehow. John Lawrence had told us this was the best town to buy souvenirs. Things would not be so expensive here. I had some euros left to spend, so I looked for something memorable to get. I found some woolen hats-one for Oliver and one for me. Had a few more euros left, so I bought some Estonian chocolate to go with my Russian chocolate.

We were all back on the ship in time and relaxed on our decks before dinner. It was formal night again so we all dressed up.  Before starting this trip, I had booked myself a massage in the spa for this evening. I had booked the latest time I could but we were usually never done eating by that time. I had told Pim the night before that I would need to eat faster tonight. We also came down a little earlier, and with Pim's help (she is such a sweetie) I got all my meal eaten before I had to leave for my massage.  Bob had lobster and Pim gave him two right off the bat.

I had a young Asian girl do my Swedish massage - it was so relaxing and just what I needed after the last three days of walking,walking, walking. Went back to our cabin and Bob was already changed out of his suit. None of his buddies were around to play poker with him, so we watched The Hobbit on TV and went to sleep early.

St. Petersburg-Day 2

August 5

We started out early again, but didn't need to get a ticket to get off the second day.  We could just go whenever we were ready. We allowed some time for shopping at the souvenir shops in the cruise terminal. They had a big selection of Russian matryoshka dolls and other things. We found many gifts to bring back home. Also found a smaller Beatles doll set that Bob wanted to get. We passed on the big SpongeBob set because it cost too much, but we did take a picture of it!

Where's SpongeBob?

Anna & Igor picked us up on time.  Today we did a lot of driving around the actual city of St. Petersburg in the morning. We drove by many sites that she told us about with her wealth of historical knowledge.  Some we stopped at briefly for pictures. I had to start writing them all down in my notebook or I would have forgotten what we saw. The first place we stopped was St. Nicholas's Cathedral.  It was a beautiful light blue color (my favorite) and had lots of gold on it.  Those of us who didn't have shorts on could go inside (I wore capris this day, yeah!).  Lots more gold inside and fancy carvings.

St. Nicholas Cathedral

Back in our microvan and we went next to St. Isaac's Cathedral.  It has the world's heaviest gold cupola. We took a group shot in front of this cathedral but didn't go in.  Across from it was a statue of Nicholas I on his horse. Behind that statue was a palace built for some duchess.  However, the statue was facing away from the palace towards the cathedral.  She didn't like looking at the back end of the horse from her windows so she chose not to live there. It now holds their legislative assembly.

Our group by St. Isaac's Cathedral

Statue of Nicholas I with palace behind it.

Our next stop was a pretty little park across from the Stock Exchange building.  There were two lighthouses, red flowers and a good view of the Peter and Paul Fort (almost our next stop).  We needed a potty break, so Igor took us to a small souvenir shop where we could use the bathroom.  I bought some Russian chocolates there and Bob found more magnets for his co-workers.

Stock Exchange building and pretty red flowers.

Interesting light house.

Then we got to the Peter and Paul Fortress.  This was the first structure built in St. Petersburg to protect it from Sweden.  Sweden was defeated before it was finished, though.  So it became a garrison and a high security prison.  We first went on a tour of the prison.  Prisoners held here were either executed or sent on to Siberia.  It was just sort of a "holding" cell.  The prison walls were very thick with lots of sound proofing because they didn't want prisoners communicating with each other. However, the prisoners came up with an elaborate tapping alphabet which they used to "talk" to each other. They also got only 1/2  hour of exercise in the yard a week and it was all by themselves, again so they couldn't communicate.

Peter and Paul Fortress.

Bob in a Russian prison cell.  I think it was the shirt that got him arrested!

Then we stood in a long line to get into the cathedral where some of the czars were entombed.  Again very fancy, lots of gold and intricate carvings.  I took a pictures of Maria's tomb because she was Danish and went back to Denmark after ruling, but then asked to be entombed in St. Petersburg.  I also took a picture of Elizabeth I's tomb, but mostly the name so Lizzy could see her name in Russian. We then had to make a trip back to the ship for one of our group members which put us a little behind schedule.

Elizabeth I's tomb.

Peter the Great and Catherine's tombs

The afternoon was spent on a visit to Catherine's Palace - again quite a drive out into the countryside.  Igor took the short, fast route instead of the scenic route, so we made up our lost time. Catherine's Palace was another huge place.  It started out small as just a two story palace but over the years was built on to many times.  Again we had to put the cute little booties on to protect the floors.  Lots of fancy stuff, gold, and paintings again.  The most famous thing there is the "Amber Room".  Amber is a famous Baltic gem made from fossilized resin and worth more than gold. The whole room is covered in amber floor to ceiling. I'm not a real fan of amber so it didn't impress me that much.  Now if it had all been covered in aquamarine gem stones, I would have really liked it. We weren't allowed to take pictures in that room.  We had to rush through the palace gardens and be on our way, so we didn't get to enjoy those.

Catherine's Summer Palace

I know those feet! (an inside joke in our group)

A ladies waiting room outside the grand hall (below). 

Three painted murals made up the ceiling of the "Grand Hall" to give it the illusion of being domed.

We had to be back on the ship by 5:00 at the latest.  When we left Catherine's palace it was almost 4:00 and I knew we had a long drive back to St. Petersburg.  We hadn't yet seen what most of us wanted to see - the typical Russian styled Church on Spilled Blood. It is the only building in St. Petersburg with the onion domes that are so sterotypically Russian architecture. It was built honoring the spot where Alexander II was killed. I thought we weren't going to see it, but on our way back Igor got us to within 2 blocks of it (it was now 4:30).  We took some quick photos and a quick potty break for one of us. I wish we had had more time to get closer and enjoy this church more because it really was spectacular. We left there at 4:45 and I was getting extremely nervous that we weren't going to make it back to the ship on time. I did NOT want to get left behind in Russia, of all places. We drove up to the cruise terminal at exactly 5:00.  A quick good-bye to Anna & Igor, a rush through the immigration gates (glad we did our souvenir shopping in the morning because we wouldn't have had any time at all for that), and we were walking on the ship at 5:05.  Whew!

Us in front of Church on Spilled Blood

We made it to supper at 5:30 although we all wished we had time for a shower.  At least it hadn't been quite as much walking as yesterday.  More drive, get out and look, drive some more, get out and look again.  All with Anna's almost constant commentary.  We got better at understanding her accent by the end of today. After a dinner of chicken for me and orange ruffy for Bob (with chocolate lover's dream for dessert), I went to the ship's photography shop and ordered our group photo.  I also bought a ship-shaped flash drive with a free digital download of the photo so we could share it with our group.  Played a game of knock rummy with the girls (and Bob G.). Bob was in the casino when I passed through on my way to bed.  I don't think the casino was good to him the whole trip.  And it wasn't even an Indian tribe that he was making a donation to, just the Princess Cruise Line.

St. Petersburg- Day 1

August 4

Because it was Russia, they were very strict about how and when we could get off the ship. Russian immigration would only allow 50 people off at a time.  We also had to be part of an organized tour, either through Princess or one of the local companies.  No exploring on our own for these two days.  We had to have our whole party together and then could get a ticket to get off the ship.  After an early breakfast at Horizon Court, we all gathered together to get our "ticket" to get off the ship. We didn't have to wait at all to get off the ship, but we did have to wait a little to get through Russian immigration. And they don't smile at all. We were supposed to meet our tour guide at 9:00 and since we had left plenty early, we had some time to look around the souvenir shops in the cruise terminal.  I found my souvenir spoon and also got some Russian rubles at the money exchange machine.  We were told that most everywhere took credit cards, but I had misjudged at so many of the other cities, that I wanted to have some local cash. Turns out it was a good thing I did that this time. We all had time to use the bathroom, too. Good thing because we started off with a long drive and no bathroom for quite awhile at our first stop.

Norma and our guide, Anna. 

Our driver, Igor, helps us out of our micro-van.

We finally found our tour guide, Anna, a cute little petite thing.  She was a Russian art/history major and worked as a guide 7 days a week for as much of the tourist season as she could.  She said she would be our "mom" for the two days and she was always counting to make sure we were all there.  (We didn't always make it easy for her, either.) She was very knowledgeable about everything in St. Petersburg.  The first few hours we were all struggling to understand her through her accent.  If you didn't actively listen, it just went over your head.  No day dreaming here if we wanted to learn anything.

Our first stop was Peter the Great's Summer Palace called Peterhof.  It was about a 45 minute drive away and we appreciated the air-conditioned "micro-van".  From the ship we drove through some pretty ugly apartment building areas.  Very utilitarian buildings, and so many of them all in one area.  Eventually we got onto the highway with a very interesting lighting system.  It seemed to be a toll road, we had to stop and get a ticket to get on, and there wasn't much traffic on it.

Our first view of Peterhof was this beautiful gold cupolad church.  Anna told us that most churches in St. Petersburg are not churches anymore.  Most of them have been turned into museums. We walked around the upper gardens for awhile. This part was free for everyone to enjoy, but if you stepped on the grass a guard would blow his whistle at you. (None of our group got whistled at, luckily).

Then Anna turned in her voucher for tickets to get us into the lower gardens.  We thought the upper gardens were beautiful, but the lower gardens put them to shame.  There were gold-leafed statues and fountains everywhere.  We walked for a long time past many different garden areas.  Peter the Great had a sense of humor and had some "trick" fountains in places that would turn on at unexpected times, drenching his guests. All the fountains worked by the power of gravity, no pumps needed anywhere.  It was quite a genius design. They don't have the fountains going all the time. When we first got there the "grand cascade" was not on, but we did see it later on with all the water flowing.  Gorgeous.

Gold leafed statue depicting victory over Sweden.

Grand Cascade with no water flowing.

Peter the Great

The "sun" fountain"

We went on a tour of a smaller building which was right on the Bay of Finland.  It was Peter's favorite spot so the building was called "My Pleasure House". We had to put on special booties to protect the parquet floors. We walked even further and got a good view of the Grand Cascade with water flowing.

Grand Cascade at Peterhof

We walked even more; we had probably walked about 3 miles by now. We walked down a long pier to get on a hydrofoil which would take us back across the Bay of Finland to St. Petersburg.  Interesting water craft. It lifts up out of the water once it gets going and goes lots faster than a boat through the water.

Hydrofoils (we got on the blue one). 

Igor, our driver, met us at the end of our ride and took us to a Russian "pie shop" for lunch. We got a kick out of the "no" signs outside - the usual no pets, no smoking, but then they had one that we interpreted as no drunks.  This place sold meat pies, fish pies, as well as fruit pies.  Unfortunately, they did not take credit cards.  Since I was the only one who had any rubles, we had to get back in the micro-van and find an ATM machine.  Igor (pronounced Eager), started earning our nickname for him, "U-turn" because he had to make a couple quick u-turns to get us to the bank and back to the restaurant.  We had beef pie and I had a cowberry pie. I think it was sort of a cranberry/blueberry type flavor, but I liked it.  Bob had a beer of course and I had a bottled water.  I kept the bottle for a souvenir because the label was mostly Russian.

"Pie Shop" restaurant we lunched at.

Fancy pies (all were rectangular shaped - not round)

After lunch (and bathroom), our next stop was the Hermitage Museum.  This was started in what is called the Winter Palace but has expanded into 4 other buildings.  One of the buildings is a theater and we didn't go into that one, but we went through a lot of the other 4 buildings.  We wore headphones connected to a microphone that Anna wore so that we could hear her explanations (and so we wouldn't get lost). There were a lot of people there, but Anna said it was actually not too busy compared to what it usually is.We saw lots and lots of fancy rooms, paintings by Michelangelo, Rembrandt, statues, porcelain, and more.

Winter Palace portion of the Hermitage Museum. 

Throne room in the Winter Palace.

Peacock clock that was a gift to Peter.  

My camera battery died in the throne room and the back-up battery wasn't working for some reason so I didn't get many pictures from that afternoon.  I took a few with Bob's Nexus tablet, but without a back facing camera, it's kind of hard to take pictures with it.  After a three hours, we were overloaded with art and had to ask Anna to cut it short.  We had walked so much that day that we were all exhausted.  Being the art lover that she was, I think she was a little disgusted with us for wanting to cut short our visit to the Hermitage, but we were so hot and tired we weren't enjoying it.

When we got back to the ship, we didn't feel like dressing for dinner (no shorts allowed in the dining rooms) so we just ate at the Horizon Court.  We sat outside by the pool, though.  Had ice cream for dessert.  Some of us went to the Russian folk dance show after supper.  Very beautiful costumes and many different costume changes.  There were authentic Russian musicians and instruments.  Several balalaikas, mandolins, and accordions.  We had trouble staying awake during the show, even with the one singer who kept screaming (probably the Russian equivalent of our woo-hoo!) Back to bed for me. Poker for Bob and the boys. Pedometer reading for the day: 12,000+ steps (over 6 miles).