Two sad sailors

It seems our final post did not make the blog so we'll try again.


Last night was very sad. We had to have our bags packed and ready for collection before we went to dinner, which meant some time spent sitting on them to get them to close! Once we had said goodbye to our table companions we weren't really ready for bed so we went to the show (we can't re-tell it it's too painful) then sat in the Spinnaker Bar and watched as we passed through the Dover Straits.


We arrived at Southampton at about 6.30am, although we didn't wake until 7. We had to be out of the cabin by 8 (although hand luggage could stay), so we headed up to the Belvedere for breakfast. They were exceptionally efficient with the disembarkation, so we were off the ship by 9.30 instead of 10.10. Luggage collection and customs was straightforward and we found the car all clean and ready for us. It was very sad as we left the cruise terminal as the bunting was already on the ship for its next departure today.

We failed in our attempts to negotiate stow away with the waiters.


So what were the best bits:
Favourite port: Andrew's was Gdansk because it was such a surprisingly lovely and interesting place. Victoria's was Copenhagen, with Gdansk a close second. Tallin and Stockholm were really lovely too. Helsinki was a lovely surprise and it was great to catch up with Mark.
Least favourite port: Southampton today and Oslo. Victoria was really disappointed with Oslo but Andrew was more tolerant! Andrew wants to go back. He is alone on that.

Favourite places visited: Yusupov Palace where ra-ra-Rasputin was murdered (both), Suomelinna (Helsinki Port) and the canal cruise in Copenhagen.
Least favourite places visited: Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg because the guide was rubbish, and the Nobel peace Centre which was over priced and lacking in content.

Favourite things on the ship: Spa/thermal suite/hydropool, a cinema, the promenade deck....actually everything! Our dinner companions really made the trip as they were lovely, and their experience of other cruises really helped us a lot.
Least favourite things on the ship: Rude old people who should know better, but think because they are older than it it gives them the right to push us/be rude to us/queue jump in front of us.

Will we go on another cruise? Yes definitely. We spoke to the future cruise people on board and we now can get a small discount on future P&O cruises as we're now part of the Portunus Club.

Will we go on another cruise on this ship? Yes definitely. Considering not long ago, Victoria would not get on a boat of any sort, the ship/facilities/staff made it so relaxing and really good fun. Our dinner companions also said it was the best ship they'd been on so we've started at the top!

Where next?: Fjords + Iceland or a Mediterranean cruise (Lisbon/Cadiz/Monte Carlo etc). We might have to do a year of Sun caravan holidays to save up though!

This has definitely been the best holiday we have ever had, or at least equalling our honeymoon just without the hassle of train travel between cities. We are now two very sad sailors who are already missing the sound of the waves and the bracing Baltic Sea breeze.

On Flanders Field

We're now back on the bus for Zebrugge, having had a day of mixed emotions. From the sombre mood of the Tyne Cot cemetery on the hills outside Ypres, to the poignant & moving Menenpoort, the Flanders Field museum and (last but not least) the beauty of Ypres itself.



Ypres was totally destroyed during the Great War, and the modern town is a faithful reconstruction of it's former self. The Lakenhallen is magnificent, as is the Stadhuis and Market square.



Having given in to temptation we tried a waffle each - Victoria had chocolate & cream while Andrew had Nutella. Both were very tasty!

Despite the promise of scorching sunshine, it is now overcast and threatening rain. That can't dampen our spirits though, we coped with a monsoon in St. Petersburg so a Belgian shower is nothing!


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Waffling on again.....

Today is our final shore day, and we are going on what could be a very moving trip. Rather than head into Bruges or Ghent, we have decided to visit Ypres. Not only will we get to see the Flanders Field museum, but also the town itself. We will certainly try to fit in a Belgian waffle and maybe a beer while we are here (and some mussels).

The trip ashore is our last; we've already started packing (boo!) and tonight will be our last on board. Can't do too much partying though as we need to be up very early (for a holiday)!
Just a quick note on the weather; it's currently clear skies and 28 •C, and it's only just gone 10am.


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Final formal evening

Tonight was our final formal evening so we're in our best outfits. Sadly dinner ended and we had nowhere to go until we discovered the Crows Nest bar is where all the glamorous people go after dinner! An added bonus is there's a quiz!


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Plain sailing

It's now just after lunchtime and we are relaxing in the Crows Nest (bar above the bridge). Witlh the exception of a few gas tankers and container ships, there is nothing but blue sea and blueish, hazy sky. In fact it's hard to believe this is the North Sea; well, you can when the wind blows!

Apart from a very interesting talk on psychometric profiling, we've done little but relax today. Later on we'll see about the galley tour and maybe sample the spa again before dinner.

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Sit down you're rocking the boat

We've avoided the in house theatre group since the last musicals show last week, but thought we'd give them another try for their 50 years-50 musicals show. It was OK, but 5 songs from Guys and Dolls, and none by Andrew Lloyd Webber defeats the title of the show.

Last sea day tomorrow with lots to fit in including packing since we've managed to get on a trip to Ypres instead of going into Bruges on Thursday-another full day out!

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Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen

Another day, another wonderful city. Copenhagen is truly a beautiful city, busy but still retaining charm.
We decided to walk from our berth toward the centre, passing Copenhagens most famous resident on our way. Apparently she's off to China next year (much to the disgust of 85% of Danes) so we have been lucky to see her.



We then wandered past the Royal Palace (4 buildings around a octagonal court) and eventually reached Nyhavn, the old red light district, now occupied by restaurants & cafes. From here we took a trip along the canals, passing under some very low bridges (even Victoria had to duck!) This took us past more of Copenhagen than we expected, and before we knew it the 60min trip was over.



Continuing our efforts to try traditional food, we had a fantastic hotdog followed by a Danish pastry (it seemed rude not to).

Despite the best efforts of the map (another terrible copy) we walked a loop round the city centre and headed back towards 'home' along the canal. Victoria took some great photos along the way and we even managed to get close to the Little Mermaid for more pictures.
We are now sat onboard with drink in hand waiting to depart, not that we really want to leave. By bedtime tonight we'll have left the Baltic behind and we'll be heading home via Bruges.

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I've been expecting you...

We're currently sitting in the on board pub having just missed the start of the James Bond quiz. So far we have an 'unofficial' score of 10 out of 10. Unoffical as we were too late out of dinner to get the start.

Today has been a relaxing sea day after the hectic last few days dashing around Russia and Finland. A very choppy sea last night resulted in a long lie in this morning to catch up on sleep. We then dashed to the onboard Russian bazaar, only to find Andrew hadn't put his watch back, meaning we had more time to shop than we originally thought.

Today has mostly been spent sat on deck reading or watching the Swedish islands pass by (Gotland is huge!). We did bump into Roy Walker in the lift, but held back from asking him to "say what he saw". He was a man of very few words; all he said was "yes" and "Zebrugge".
It was the "Black & White" ball this evening so we've had our formal photo taken, we'll see how they look before getting a copy.

It's now time for bed and a good nights sleep before we get to Copenhagen tomorrow morning. We are desperately trying not to think about going home - this has been fantastic!

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Choppy

It's very choppy tonight. Headwind of force 8, but outside on deck the temperature is very warm.

It's good exercise because a flat corridor suddenly feels lke an uphill walk! It feels worse when lay down and in the cabin we can hear the crash of the waves on the bow. We've been told the ship managed to cope with force 12 in the Bay of Biscay, so thats good to know!

The bars are pretty empty so we actually managed to get a seat for an after dinner drink!

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Helsinki

Today we docked on Helsinki, but after the previous few days we didn't rush to get up and out. We took the shuttle bus into the centre in time to meet our friend Mark who lives there. It was raining again so we quickly jumped on a tram.

We headed to the ferry port and hopped on a boat over to the island of Suomenlinna which was an old sea fortress for Helsinki. This was really lovely-a bit like a Finnush Portmeirion.

We went to the museum which taught us all about Finland's history, which was really interesting. To be fair, Mark himself knew a lot about the history and was able to give us more info. We saw a Finnish U-boat and took a walk around the battlements, which was very windy. We even had a pizza in a restaurant built into the ramparts.

We headed back to the main city and had a wander to Senate Square and the famous Stockmans department store-a big Fenwicks! Helsinki is really clean and very vibrant and us now on our list of places to return to.

We said goodbye to Mark and headed back to the ship. Victoria missed the departure though as she was catching up on some sleep!

Good job she did because the wind is currently force 8 and we're rolling around a lot. May not get much sleep later! Dinner may be interesting!

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Dosvidanya St Petersburg

We are currently sailing away from beautiful St Petersburg watching the sun set over the Russian coastline.

Today started with more rain but then delivered bright sunshine. We had a stupidly early morning to head to Catherine's Palace on the Pushkin Island for a guided tour. While it was very beautiful, we can't tell you much about it because the guide didn't know how to use the headset properly so we didn't hear anything.

Pushkin island was beseiged by the Germans during WWII (although they didn't take St Petersburg) and they shelled the palace so it was almost destroyed. Restoration began only a couple if years later so nothing inside was original, just very good copies reproduced from memory.


We returned to the ship with 35 mins to spare to get through customs, have some lunch and collect our instructions for the afternoon tour. This was not relaxing!

Our first stop was a cruise along the River Neve and it's tributaries (hooray for sunshine). We saw Roman Abramovich's house (apparently) plus a multitude of former royal palaces.

We then headed to the Yusuov Palace. The Yusupovs were a very very rich Russian noble family that on occassion were richer than the Romanovs. This showed in this palace. From the outside it just looked like a normal building, but it was like a tardis and a luxurious one at that.

Yusupov was married to Tsar Nicholas II's neice, but that didn't stop him for being the man behind the murder of ra-ra-Rasputin. We were taken to the room where the plot was hatched and then to the cellar where the murder took place. The guide gave us lots of the juicy details and put this into political perspective (Bolshevik propoganda etc).

By now, it was obvious that this guide, Natasha, really knew her stuff. Plus, two days of being polite but getting pushed out of the way by old biddies that should know better meant that we parked ourselves at the side of the guide and wouldn't budge.

The apartment rooms of the palace were just what you'd imagine Russian royals to own. Gold, stucco, crystal, fine art.....and even a theatre with royal box and plush red velvet curtains. After the revolution, it fell into the hands of the Swedish embassy so was spared ransacking by the Bolsheviks. However, later the Soviets moved all of the original artwork and anything else of value to their new repository in Moscow and replaced it with excellent copies. The furniature and infrastructure remains intact though and has been maintained as a museum since a teachers college took it over.

We were very sad that this tour had to end and we wish Natasha had been our guide for the whole two days. We were gutted to gave to get back on the ship, but we set sail just after 6pm bound for Helsinki. We were going to see Roy Walker on stage tonight but we're too tired after the last two days!

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Swan Lake

Tonight we went to see the St Petersburg Conservatoire perform Swan Lake. This was excellent. They were all young dancers, so it was not perfect but it was such a fantastic experience to see Swan Lake in St Petersburg!!


We also learned something new: the traditional ballet with the dying swan was the original ending, but Stalin didn't like this ending as he felt the Russian people needed to leave the theatre feeling upbeat, so he demanded it be changed. Since then, a Soviet version of Swan Lake has been performed, where the swan doesn't die and they live happily ever after. And that's the version we got! So we've now seen both endings. We also discovered that when Gorbachov was ousted, the Russian TV channels played nothing but Swan Lake for 3 days to try and boost the public mood. Weirdos.

The lighting and costumes were everything you'd expect from a Russian ballet. What was disappointing was the rude Spanish tourists also in the theatre using flash photography during the performance and one was even stood videoing it!! The dancers must have been dazzled.

Across the road from our theatre, in the same square, was the Kirov (Marinsky) but they are currently touring.


We have another early one tomorrow so now we've had our supper we're calling it a day.

Dosvidanya for now (we think that's how you spell it!)

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Russian around in St Petersburg

We're here in (now) sunny St Petersburg!!

Last night was tiring-during dinner on the Orchid, with a lovely sea view, Victoria noticed we were reversing not moving forward. There were 3 attempts to travel between a very narrow strait. Now in a worried state, we returned to our cabin to find a banging noise reverberating through the port side of the ship. Although this was eventually fixed, it did lead to only 3 hours sleep.

We had to meet for our "Grand St Petersburg" trip at 8am, so we didn't manage breakfast and headed out bleary eyed.

The minute we stepped off the ship the heavens opened, although it was fine when we stopped at the onion-domed Curch of the Spilled Blood. Of course, this was covered in scaffolding.



The architecture in St Petersburg was fabulous. It was so grand and ornate and everything was huge. The exception was the understated and functional KGB office block!!

We lunched on Russian salad and beef stroganoff and were entertained by traditional singers.

We were then taken to the Hermitage musem, the city's museum which was once a tsarist palace. This was massive and had the best (based on our experience) collection of art outside the Uffizi in Florence - da Vinci, Titian, Rembrandt, rooms full of Monet, Matisse, Renoir, van Gogh, Picasso etc.

But disappointingly we weren't taken to see any of the Russian historical items.

Annoyongly (because it was now sunny) we then had to endure a choral concert before heading back to the bus.

We've had time to write this, grab some fruit and get changed before we head off to the ballet in an hour. Tomorrow we go to the palace of Catherine the Great and the Yusupov palace where ra-ra-Rasputin was murdered.

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Tere (hello) from Tallinn

Very very pretty. Very very historic. Very very friendly. Very very delicious food. Very very nice weather!

We arrived in Tallinn after another choppy night over the Baltic. We didn't rush to leave the ship but we were still in the town by 9am.

We wandered through to the Upper Town where we wandered past the Toompa (castle & palace) and the Russian Orthodox and Catholic churches. We then dropped down the hill to the Lower Town and wandered through the quiet cobbled streets before visiting the Tallinn city museum. This was great, covering the history of Tallinn from Danish invaders to independence from Soviet Russia. We were amazed how advanced Estonia was on the middle ages compared with the UK and it's no surprise that they have constantly been fought over.

The buildings are all painted pastel colours with ornate decor like in Gdansk. The Russian Orthodox church had onion tops to its towers. A real mix of architecture but not a single repulsive 1960/70s build in sight. Amazing considering it has had to be rebuilt several times.


Feeling a bit peckish, we then stopped for lunch. We found a lovely restaurant called Ribe where we decided to throw caution to the wind and have the chef's special 3 course meal. (we aren't eating until 9 tonight). The highlight of this was the main course: Paplamaa metsisea duo rosmariiniga maitsestatud mitsiku rusiga kuogivigadega ja kvisi punaveinikastmes.
This translates as wild boar with rice, rosemary and red wine gravy. The waitress said this was very typical Estonian food so we topped it off with an Estonian beer Saku.


We took a walk through the Lower Town, taking photos and browsing the souvenir shops. We converted some Euros into Estonian Kroon since the ship had told us everywhere would accept Euros, which was totally untrue!

Tallinn centre isn't very big so by 3.30 we were ready to head back to the ship. We discovered that a small market had set up on the dock selling souvenirs for Euros not Estonian Kroon. This must be all the ship staff see each time they dock here!

We've tried to find somewhere for a drink outdoors since the day is still ok weather-wise but those people that didn't leave the ship (we don't understand that at all) still have their entertainment going on, so Andrew is currently dozing on a deckchair while we wait to cast off. At 6 we are heading back to the spa/gym/hydropool.

Tonight we are dining at the Orchid (nothing to do with Dharma) which is one of the a la carte restaurants.

Tomorrow we will wake up in Russia!!!

Nagemist (goodbye in Estonian)!
(p.s. We are currently 2 hours ahead of the UK-tomorrow we will be 3)

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Stockholm

Stockholm was excellent. We definitely need to come back here as half a day was not enough. We would have had longer but the tender embarkation and a bus load of wheelchair users late back from Gdansk put us nearly an hour behind schedule.

We did the "Stockholm on your own" tour rather than travelling independently so we could get guarenteed transport from Nynashamn to Stockholm.

They stopes us at the old town (Gamla Stan) area which is where we mostly stayed. We got caught up accidentally in the changing of the guard ceremony, which was impossible to see through the crowds, but also impossible to escape from because of the security. The Royal Palace was very beautiful though.



Gamma Stan is one of 32000 Swedish islands-fortunately we didn't need to see them all.

The old town was really pretty and we ate a Swedish hot dog outside the Nobel centre-we're saving this for our return visit here.





We walked from here through to the newer shopping area Drottninggatan where Victoria bought some Swedish mittens to match Andy's Sweden woolly hat!

The weather was warm today although cloudy, but at least it didn't rain!

We're returning to the ship now via the tender again-we would like to stay in Stockholm longer. Of course the coach driver got lost and we all had to direct him, but we're finally back on the lifeboat.



We didn't meet anyone called Sven, or eat meatballs but we did hear ABBA in several shops.

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Shuttlecrafts deployed

We are just leaving the ship via tender to take a coach into Stockholm. Tender=lifeboat. Below is view from tender of our ship.




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Stormy seas

Last night was the first rough night if the cruise. We left Poland at 5.30pm and almost immediately the sun came out. But that didn't last for long.

Victoria had her G-form treatment (a series of electrodes that are supposed to break up fat) and Andy rowed 5000m on the rowing machine, then we both did the 1km walkathon round the promenade 3 times. The wind was starting to pick up and the ship was starting to rock.

By the time we sat down for dinner we were bobbing along vigorously and even our seasoned cruise companions commented on the sway. Andy still managed 4 courses and coffee but Victoria only managed 2.

But we went off to sleep pretty quickly.

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Gdansk

Wow! Really didn't know what to expect of Gdansk but it was fab. Much better than Oslo.

We were dropped near the Long Market (dlugi targ) which is a cobbled long street lined with old buildings, each of which were intricately painted. It had a French/dutch feel to it, including a fountain of Neptune.



We walked around this area then took a stroll to the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers and the Solidarity museum. This was really interesting for us since it happened in our lifetimes but we know virtually nothing about it.




We walked back to the Market area by which time it was raining, so we went in a cafe and sampled some Polish savoury snacks.

We then walked along the banks of the River Motlawa and saw the Solda-the first polish ship to be built after WWII (according to another tourist). Unfortunately, while we could see the maritime museum, we couldn't get to it without a long walk to the next bridge so we didn't make it there.

In a desperate attempt to spend our remaining Zloty, we sampled a polish delicacy - pig fat on bread with gherkins. It was truly revolting. We spent the rest of our coins on two cheese pastries- yet to be tasted.

Photo below is of the river, the Solda and Gdansk's famous crane- a medieval crane which was the largest in Europe.




Tonight is 60s/70s night, but first Victoria has her free treatment in the spa.

Next stop is Nyashamn-a tender port for Stockholm-so we've booked on an excursion so we can get off the ship in one if the first tender boats.
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Second sea day

It's really exhausting doing nothing. We woke to a champagne breakfast in bed while sailing through the Danish islands. After a short nap, we headed onto deck and pulled up a couple of sun loungers to enjoy the 22deg C temperature and the constantly changing view of Denmark. It us a bit windy so they've closed the upper deck beside the bridge.

We took a late lunch, then a turn around the deck, then headed to a talk about Russian art. Victoria now wants a very expensive set of Matryoska dolls.

Our Danish pilot left at 4.30 once we were through the shallows and into the Baltic proper.

We then went to the gym for 30 mins, then the hydropool. Tonight is another formal evening but we'll be having an early night as last night was another late one:

We went to the late showing of Star Trek, which was excellent. What was more excellent was the huge reclining leather seats in the theatre. Several of the older audience were asleep, and because it only takes 30 this was very obvious!

We are reading up about Gdansk now, which is tomorrow's port.


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Captain's log (supplemental)

Stardate 09082009. After a day in Norway we have opted for an evening of entertainment instead of an evening of formal dining. We slummed it (still had to dress up) at the texmex buffet then headed to the early showing of True Brit-a musical extravaganza with a Joseph finale. Add in piña coladas - with a cherry and swizzle stick - and this made for a fantasmagoric event.

We have another sea day tomorrow, so we are heading to the on-board cinema for the late showing of Star Trek (the new one that we didn't make it to the cinema to see!!).

We should wake up to the Danish islands tomorrow-and a champagne breakfast!!!

We are at warp 20 (knots), due south. Commodore, set a course for Gdansk.

But do not beam me up Scotty.

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Plunder, pillage....and peace

Our first shore day got off to a very damp start. Torrential rain welcomed us to Oslo - not the greatest of starts. Not to be beaten, we went over to Akershus fortress, and got a great view of Queen Mary 2. We then took a city tour bus round to Bygdoy to see the Kon Tiki and 3 magnificent Viking longboats. Once back in the centre, we popped into the Nobel Peace centre (including a great interactive display of past winners) and took in the City Hall and Parliament building. Then it was back onboard for afternoon tea and our departure.





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Sun, sea and spa (and sleep)

Today has been excellent! We woke up at 6.30am really excited about our first sea day. We ordered (complimentary) breakfast in bed and then slowly made our way to the spa for our treatments. Mmmmm. It was exactly what we both needed, although all the talk of anti-aging was worrying. We then spent a good hour in the thermal suite- hot ceramic sun loungers (so nice), menthol steam room and hydropool (big jacuzzi). We had to drag ourselves out of there for lunch and then headed back to the cabin and went to sleep!!!!
Woke up in time for Victoria's manicure, and Andy rowed 2km on the rowing machine.

We watched a movie in the cabin then went to check what other people were wearing at first sitting; tonight was the Commodore's welcome party - the first formal night. All the panic over dress codes was pointless, although some rude bloke in the lift asked us if we felt under-dressed when he was off to dinner in a tux and we were people watching in our "day wear". Cheek.

Welcome event was good-free drink and lobster for dinner.


Discovered one of our table companions is from Newcastle so had a chuckle over that.

After dinner we decided not to go to the show after last nights Abba event and instead found the disco-Electra-very 1980s decor. Two cocktails and a dance to copacabana and a multitude of cheese later, we've retired to bed (1am!!!!).

Tomorrow is our first port day-Oslo. We dock 9am but we'll be up early to see us sail through Oslofjord and take some landscape shots.

So far weather is good and it has been smooth sailing. Right now we are travelling at 20knots and right on the neck of the Baltic next to Denmark's west coast.

Next stop Oslo!

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So far...

We left the champagne sail-away and went to a spa intro talk in the (fab) gym. Victoria won a free mini G-form body corrective treatment which is booked for our Poland evening once we've cast off.

Thanks to wonderful Andrew, we both have a free treatment anyway-victoria having a facial and andrew having a massage. They are booked for tomorrow morning. We also bought spa passes for the trip so we are going to go straight into the hydropool after our treatments tomorrow and stay there all day!!!

Just for completion, victoria also booked a manicure for tomorrow afternoon (not free this time though).

Ship is amazing-huge. There is loads of artwork around, which is really nice.

We're currently passing Portsmouth's Spinnaker tower and can see Victory.

There are loads of restaurants-we're on second sitting at 8.15. Well be going from there straight to the ABBA tribute in the theatre!

There are a few younger people on board but it is mostly 50+.

We've had our safety briefing so We know how to put on the life jackets.

We might unpack at some point but right now it's too exciting!!!

Where's that champagne?.......


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Bon voyage!

We are just leaving port now with champagne in hand. Next stop Oslo!


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All aboard!

Well, we are now on board and have already experienced lunch. Found our cabin fairly easily where Victoria's got a very pleasant surprise - champagne, cocolates and flowers. We're now going to explore before emergency drill at 4pm. Now, where did I pack the swimming stuff....


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