St Petersburg

St Petersburg is beyond description....but I'll try! We met our guide, Alexander,at the pier at 7am and rushed around like mad to see everything. All of this was complicated by the G20 world leaders meeting that ensured delays and closures. We were scheduled to take a hydrofoil on the river but Putin cancelled it. Oh well, we did see some nice countryside on our way to the summer palace of Catherine and Elizabeth the first. It was pretty stunning and very over the top....gold leaf everywhere and a whole room made out of 11 tonnes of amber. Just nuts! When the peasants were starving....no wonder they revolted. We had a fun trip on the subway, full of mosaics depicting sports and scenes of ancient times. Very ornate and very clean...no graffiti. In no particular we saw the Winter palace, visited the Hermitage museum, (which was amazing) took and boat cruise on the Neva River, visited the awesome Peterhof Gardens, and the Yusupov Palace,where they killed the mad monk Rasputin. It was an incredible experience and we learned a lot of history but very little about the present day. I guess our guide was making sure we got our money's worth. One of the highlights for me was a night at the ballet...Swan Lake. It was so beautiful and the dancers were very talented. The theatre could have used a little cosmetic help but it was still very nice. I was pretty tired for days after. Mike stayed on the ship to rest up as he used crutches for the trip through the Hermitage and it was a big day. We also visited the iconic Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood. It is almost a symbol of Russia...all colourful domes and ornate spires. It has another name but Tsar Nicholas the First was murdered on the very spot! We had a very good guide who disliked cruise ship passengers so I had a little chat with him about his role in teaching...it is not so much about facts and figures but about the relevance to people today. He need to understand where the mostly old people are coming from, that they are just trying to see the world as best they can, in the face of not having a hot clue about any place other than the USA, just as Russians view the Americas with movie glasses!

Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia A very pretty medieval walled city that is very well preserved. We went to shore and wandered to see the architecture and the unique shops and galleries. The sun shone and we had a great day people watching and trying the local beer, Saku. Apparently there are a lot of sheep so a major craft item for sale is anything made of wool....we passed!

Stockholm and Helsinki

We are racing from port to port so I wanted to get it all recorded for posterity. Our tour of Stockholm with SPB Tours included visits to the Vasa Museum and the City Hall. I thought it would be a big snooze feast but both were amazing. The Vasa was a wooden warship built in 1628 that sank 7 minutes after launch. It is huge and very well done. They built the museum around the ship, very impressive. We spent a very interesting hour there. Since President Obama was visiting Stockholm, we had some issues getting around but did get to see the city. It is so clean and very beautiful. The City Hall is an amazing building where the banquet for the Nobel awards is held. The room is very impressive, huge with massive brass chandeliers and a marble staircase. Another massive room is covered in mosaic tiles, floor to ceiling (about 40ft high by 100ft long). The old town of the City was very interesting, we didn't see much because it was hard to push the wheelchair around on the cobbles! Helsinki is another very clean and neat Scandinavian city. Our guide was very informative. We visited the big White Church, shopped in the market, and visited the church in the rock....I know, another church, but this one was wonderful. Very simple, built in the granite with a copper dome roof. The acoustics are so clear with a pipe organ. We drove through the Olympic plaza and stopped at the stadium built for the 1952 summer games. They are very proud of hosting a summer games north of 60 degrees latitude. Back to the ship for lunch and maybe a swim since it is back to summer temps!

Baltic Adventure

Baltic Adventure: Our Amazing Race After much deliberation and questioning our sanity we decided to travel to Europe for our Baltic and Transatlantic cruise even though poor Mike has a broken leg and can't weight bear. It is going to be difficult but eased by travelling with a wheel chair and crutches. His Doctor gave the OK and told him to be careful! (After volunteering to go in his place!) The Doc gave him a walking boot and the go ahead to start weight bearing in two weeks. So....off we went with Linda to go out for lunch then to the airport. On the way Westjet called and told us our flight was delayed for TWO hours. Causing us to miss our connection to London. We raced to the airport and managed to bully them into getting on to the earlier flight to TO via Thunder Bay. Big Mistake. All was well until landing in Thunder Bay....some little gizmo malfunctioned and caused them to cancel the flight entirely. Westjet kindly gave everyone hotel vouchers and sent us on our merry way telling us to contact the head office and sort it out, stressing us to the max. So we did! An amazing, helpful woman got us sorted out after searching many options, with flights from T Bay to Toronto, then Montreal, on to Air France to Paris, and on to Copenhagen to catch our cruise by the skin of our teeth. After this miracle of organization we got to our assigned hotel and found no rooms left! A kind man found us a room and the folks at the next hotel were wonderful, very helpful and we had a good dinner and even a decent nights sleep. We arrived in Copenhagen at 9am after a harrowing delay in Charles de Gaulle Airport at the mercy of the "helpers" who did their best to make us miss our plane. It was very scary as they did not get us to the gate for our connection until it was mostly boarded and only 15 minutes until takeoff. I had to communicate very firmly and in a loud voice to the young man who was sitting calmly saying that help was on the way and again to the batch of rude incompetents making us late at the next terminal. I feel for anyone who has mobility issues and has to travel through that terrible airport. It must be hell. After a relax at Starbucks, where 2 regular coffees and a cookie cost $17.00 we jumped on a shuttle and were whisked through embarkation (the wheelchair has some pluses) and were in our lovely big balcony cabin by noon. All this meant we didn't see anything of Copenhagen but we are back in 10 days so hope to do some sightseeing then. The Emerald Princess is as beautiful as ever and the crew are beyond helpful, getting Mike up and down the gangway easily. Our cabin is great, very large, with a huge bathroom so Mike can shower safely. The balcony is such a treat, and we have used it a lot already. Dinner in the Michaelangelo dining room was prime rib and happiness. Slept for many hours and woke up in......... Oslo, Norway Rain, rain and more rain..... So the grey day in Oslo looked like no fun. We were met on the dock by the Hop on Off Bus so we hopped on. Mike is pretty good at hopping, in fact he has mastered the skill. Oslo is a beautiful city with so much history. Since we are coming back on the next cruise we decided to get an overview on the bus and plan our visit. We got off the bus at the Vigeland sculpture park, where the artist donated hundreds of sculptures to the city and arranged for free admission. There is a famous large one called ??? Which is a depiction of life. Sadly, we don't remember the name but I did get a picture. We enjoyed all of these in the pouring rain, which made Mike a bit cranky, so we just got back on the bus. Next time we are going to see the Viking museum and the Thor Hyerdal museum. Just as we got back on the bus the sun came out and saved the day. Everyone got a lot more cheerful! Aarhus, Denmark This second largest city in Denmark has many museums and good shopping! Mike stayed on the ship and I went walking to the Aros Art Museum. Just an amazing place with a 360 degree circular glass walkway of coloured glass called the Rainbow Walk on the tenth floor. It had no visible supports so the view was amazing. Aarhus is situated on a canal that runs through the middle of the city so all the cafes and bars have outdoor patios facing the water. Very trendy! Expensive shops and stores everywhere, so I got a sweater, for our visit to Greenland. Berlin, Germany Up at the crack of 5:45am for our early bus tour to Berlin. The journey took about three hours but was well worth it to see the sights of this historical city. Some of the beautiful things we saw included the Charlottenburg Palace, the Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Cathedral. We visited Checkpoint Charlie, and saw several segments of the remaining Berlin Wall. Another very special place we saw was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is near the Reichstag and Bundestag so that the politicians don't forget and have a constant reminder of mistakes of the past. It is extremely moving. We also drove through Kurfurstendamm and Potsdamer Platz, saw the beautiful new train station, the Neue Synagogue, and learned a lot about the history from our excellent guide, Nikolai. Back on the bus for our three hour trip back to the ship. What a day....dinner in the Michaelangelo Dining room was all we could manage before falling into a comatose sleep!

Machu Picchu, Cusco, and Quito

Our three day trip to these amazing places was a blur of ancient civilizations and various very short hotel stays. The highlight was the well preserved Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. Pictures do not do this place justice, it is huge and stunning. The terraces up the mountain are so perfect after 500 years, the temples and houses still standing in perfect condition. The ancient cities of Cusco and Quito are both well preserved and beautiful. It is impossible to describe the experience, we are still recovering from the lack of sleep. We were fortunate to have several guides who gave the local perspective about each area.

Valparaiso and Coquimbo, Chile

Two ports in Chile that seem to be gateways to other, better places. Valparaiso is the gateway to Santiago, the capital, and Coquimbo is the gateway to La Serena. La Serena is a little gem, with a nice seafront and a big, bustling market. We enjoyed our day there, just wandering and seeing the sights. We took a tour in Valparaiso that was really bad but we did see some beautiful buildings and a nice museum. Our tour guide was so disorganized that the frustration factor took over and enjoyment fled! We leave tomorrow for Macchu Pichu, and our tour takes us to Cusco, and Quito, Ecuador. We are pretty excited about this trip and hope for an amazing adventure. Michael is having a great birthday, he had a mention on the morning TV show, got asked to be in a fashion show, and drinks with our new friends from Regina.

Puerto Montt, Chile

Chile is a very llloooooonnnnggggg country. We have been sailing along the coast for many days. It was cool down by Cape Horn but the sea was calm and it has been sunny. The weather in Puerto Montt was grey and rainy, and our trip to the rain forest was a little wet. The hike through thousand year old trees was beautiful and pretty easy. Our guide, Patricio, told us a lot about Chile, the education system, and life in general. We toured an amazing private museum started by a local German farmer, built to save the antiques brought to Chile by the settlers in the 1800s. It was an extensive collection of household and farming items. Really well done. We visited a lakeside resort for shopping and I bought a beautiful Alpaca wool shawl, lime green, of course!