Baltic Ports

It has been hard to find the time or a decent internet connection in order to update our blog. Today in Warnemunde, while more than 1000 passengers are in Berlin, I will take a stab at updating all that we’ve been seeing and doing. After a relaxing day at sea on Monday, we spent Tuesday in Oslo. Utilizing the Hop on Hop off Bus, we visited a most unusual sculpture park. Gustav Vigeland was famous for his designs of the human body. His sculptures are of babies, children, teens and adults posed in many different contortions. Vigeland shows the male and female body in exact detail.

  Wednesday we visited three different castles in the North Zeeland section of Denmark. Our inside visit was at the Frederiksborg Castle, otherwise known as the “castle of Frederick II”. The second castle was called Fredenborg Castle or the “castle of peace”. The Danish Royal Family uses it still today as their summer residence. The last castle, called Kronberg was right on the waterway that separates Denmark and Sweden. Because of its distance from Copenhagen and northern latitude, the Royals of old never wanted to visit or stay there. It was used by the military for over 200 years, until 1924. It s now a UNESCO site and a public museum.

Frederiksborg Cathredral

Frederiksborg Castle

Today we chose to stay around Warnemunde and do a Disney excursion that visited the Bad Doberan Monastery and took us on a 100+ year old steam train. The “Molli” Steam train was so named because a lady was trying to catch her dog (named Molli) who was chasing the train. The conductor thought she was calling the train, and ever since the train has been called “Molli”. We had apple cake and coffee in the resort town of Kuhlungsborn and afterwards walked around the quaint seaside shops before returning to Warnemunde. The rest of the sunny afternoon was spent browsing the shops in Warnemunde and watching all the ferry and boat traffic go in and across the canal. As the Disney Magic left Warnemunde tonight we had a flotilla of boats with passengers following us to waive goodbye. This is the last time this season the Magic will sail out of the port of Warnemunde and they wanted to wish us well.

Friday is a day at sea to rest up for our two very busy days in St. Petersburg, Russia. Till next time.

Chanted Tallinn and beyond

Livonia, Estonia

Our hike to Toompea

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral-Tallin

Monday, July 26th dawned bright and sunny. Temps went up to the mid 80’s so our self-guided walking tour turned out to be a great day of exercise. Our tour took us up to Toompea, but because we took a wrong turn we climbed up 6 flights of stone steps to reach the top as opposed to walking into town via the front gate. Toompea is where the first stone fort was built in Tallinn and is the highest land point in the historic part of the city. We looked around the area, visiting the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Dome Church and the fort before gradually making our way downhill to the Old Town with its many shops and restaurants. I had researched where we wanted to eat prior to our arrival in Estonia and we found the restaurant Balthasar which specializes in garlic dishes. The restaurant was named after a notorious writer, Balthasar Russow who wrote his masterpiece “Chronicle of Livonia” while residing in the very rooms that now house the restaurant. Balthasar overlooked the town square so it was pleasant watching all the tourists while we enjoyed a delicious garlic laced meal. We walked around the quaint town square and soaked up the history of what used to be called Livonia before making our way back to the ship. Estonia is steeped in history and was one of the main reasons we chose this itinerary for our cruise, so we were very glad to visit here.

Our next and last port of call on Tuesday was Stockholm. We did a Disney excursion here that showed us the Gamla Stan (old town) section of the city and other city highlights of this town spread over 14 islands. After a short bus ride out of town we came to Sigtuna. Sigtuna is an idyllic little town with wooden houses, narrow streets and the smallest Town Hall in Scandinavia, dating back to 1744. We enjoyed some free time here where we were able to pick up the rest of our souvenirs for folks back home. We enjoyed a Swedish lunch of meatballs and boiled potatoes with the rest of our bus group before heading back to Stockholm. From the quick visit we had of Stockholm, it is definitely a city worth more exploration.

Historic Stockholm-Gamla Stan

Sigtuna Town Hall

Main Street in Sigtuna

Our last two days of the cruise are spent at sea as we make our way back through the Baltic Sea and into the North Sea. An interesting tidbit we learned about why our time in Stockholm was cut short has to do with the amount of ship traffic expected in the English Channel and the docking times in Dover. The dock times are 5:30am and 11:00am and the Magic has to be in port by 5:30am so passengers flying out on Friday can catch their flights. We are spending an extra night in London so we plan on hopping on the tube and exploring some more of the city.

Till then……

From Russia with Love

Greetings from St. Petersburg. As we sailed into St. Pete it was raining and gray, kind of befitting as we sailed past their naval island where we saw some old dilapidated battleships but also many of their newer members of the naval fleet. However, by the time we docked in Petersburg, the rain had ceased and the sun was starting to appear. Everybody was very anxious to get off the ship and begin their tours. We made it through Customs without any problem and emerged on the other side to look for our private guide. There were about 25 different guides waiting, all holding name boards of different passengers who had booked private excursions. We found our guide and proceeded outside to meet our driver. Nadia was our tour guide and Vladimir was our driver. We set off for our tour of the city. How amazing it was to see what is called one of the “most beautiful cities in the world”. On Saturday we saw 2 Egyptian Sphinx that were a gift to Petersburg in 1830. We toured the Peter and Paul Fortress where the walls are 12 meters thick and where prisoners were kept inside those walls. We saw the Baroque style Peter & Paul Cathedral built between 1712-1719, the battleship Aurora, which fired the first shot of the 1917 Revolution, the beautiful Church of the Spilt Blood, the green Triumphant Arch built to recognize Russia’s victory over Sweden in 1721 and St. Nicholas Cathedral built by Elizabeth in a Russian Orthodox design. Around 5PM we went to a traditional Russian restaurant where we enjoyed a very typical Russian meal in a beautiful setting. After dinner we went to a traditional folkloric show before heading back to the ship.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny with temperatures eventually getting into the low 90’s for the day. Nadia and Vladimir were waiting for us at 9AM and we headed off to see Catherine’s Palace. The crowds were many as we walked up to the entrance but being on an independent tour with a knowledgeable guide has its benefits. Nadia took us right to the front of the line and said “stick with me lie glue” and she meant it as we pushed (with permission) through the lines and into the palace grounds. Utterly amazing and breathtaking is even not enough to describe the grandeur and gaudiness inside the palace. The palace grounds were beautiful as well, Our tour included a 5 course Russian lunch at a popular country restaurant.
After lunch we enjoyed the scenic drive to the Peterhoff Palace and Fountain Gardens. On our visit to the gardens we saw a majority of the 180 fountains that are on the grounds. Amazing to see the technology that was used when these fountains were built hundreds of years ago. The designs themes are something to behold. After our walk thru the gardens we took a hydrofoil back to the city center of Petersburg where Nadia gave us some free time on our own to walk around and have a bite to eat before our evening canal cruise. We successfully chose little café and ordered something to eat off the Russian menu which turned out to be quite good. The canal cruise was interesting and we were grateful that Nadia was along because the narration was all in Russian. Nadia and Vladimir delivered us back to the Disney Magic where we bid them farewell and thanked them for a delightful visit to their city.
Two very long, sunny days in Petersburg, but it has been the highlight of our shore excursions thus far. I will try and update on our next two ports before we get back to Dover on Friday.

To Dover and The Magic

After spending a sunny, breezy day on Saturday with 9 of our English cousins, we are off to Dover where we will board the Disney Magic.  The 5 hours we spent with famly at Kew Gardens were precious and have created some beautiful memories.

Gary and I also took time to ride the London Eye, do a Thames River cruise and enjoy dinner at an English Pub. I will post more as I'm able.

Traveling Day

Well we're off today to jolly old London.  Hope the thunderstorms and hail that are predicted don't delay our flight. Can't wait to taste that yummy airline food ya know'.  Tomorrow we are doing a Thames River Cruise followed by a flight on the London Eye and dinner at Porter's Pub. We will be meeting others that I have been chatting with on the Dis-boards at the London Eye and Porter's so we are looking forward to it.

Saturday, our English relatives, probably about 10-12 of them are coming into London to meet up with us at Kew Gardens. We are really looking forward to seeing them all again.

Till next time....
Sandy

Getting Ready

Can you say BUSY???  That's how our lives have been this past week as we make final preparations for our departure to London later this week.  We are looking forward to doing some sightseeing in London, visiting with our English cousins at Kew Gardens this weekend and meeting some of our fellow travelers on the BallyHoo Bus to Dover.  We will be sailing on the Disney Magic to the Northern Baltic Capitals. Ports of call include Oslo, Copenhagen, Warnemunde, St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Stockholm.  I will try and post as often as I can while we are gone.

Sandy

Abu Dhabi Day

Our time in UAE is almost over. Monday we arose bright and early for an all day excursion to Abu Dhabi. Located 100 kilometers away from Dubai, it took about 2 hours to get there by bus. We traveled on a well maintained multi-lane highway all the way, often times with some construction. Our guide, Tony kept us well informed along the way with interesting facts about Abu Dhabi and the UAE as well as history about the Sheik Zayed Mosque we would be visiting.



The building of the mosque began in 1996 and even though construction is completed, they are still working on the landscaping. Some statistics about the mosque that I learned were: there are 80 domes, 1097 pillars in total, wit 97 of those pillars directly inside the main prayer room. These 97 pillars were made of marble and inlaid with mother of pearl. All of the marble used in the mosque was imported from Macedonia. The main dome of the mosque measures 35 meters in diameter on the outside. The turrets around the mosque are each 107 meters tall. The walls of the outer room are marble with beautiful inlaid mosaic floral design. Inside the main prayer room a handwoven Persian rug spreads from one end of the room to the other and is the largest handwoven Persian rug in the world. The large Swarovski crystal chandelier hanging in the center of the prayer room is reportedly the largest of its kind. There are two other smaller Swarovski chandeliers in the side rooms as well. The 99 names for Allah are calligraphed on a Kibbah wall inside the mosque. The Kibbah wall points in the direction of Mecca. In our hotel room there is an arrow on the ceiling which also points in the direction of Mecca. Sheik Zayed Mosque is the largest machine made mosque built is comparison to the Taj Mahal which was man-made. The mosque was built at a cost of 3.6 billion US dollars.

Quite a sight to see! The rest of the day we spent driving past Presidential palaces, and the Emirates Palace Hotel. The Emirates Palace is a 7 star hotel and a lot of the rich and famous put in frequent visits to this hotel. Abu Dhabi was a fascinating city, even larger than Dubai, and with even more construction cranes than Dubai. We made a quick stop at a date market as well where we made some purchases.

Later that evening was our OSSN farewell dinner, which we followed up with a walk to the Old Souk. This was a very authentic feeling souk and we got some unbelievable deals. The little pathways we took back to the hotel were crowded with people, adults and children even at the late hour of 10PM. The shops were still open and the area seemed more alive than during the day. One thing for sure... we have felt TOTALLY safe walking around Dubai. With a 1.5% crime rate who wouldn't feel safe. This has been a wonderful experience and we are so glad that we had the opportunity to make this trip. Tomorrow we pack up and head home, but not before going to visit the Palm Jumeirah island and take a tour through the Atlantis Hotel.

Stayed tuned for our next adventure....