Scandinavia/Russia - Eurodam-July 15, 2008

[cruisetour]

:)Dear Friends,

We are frequently asked about where we have been and where we are going. This forum is the best way to check on our whereabouts, hopefully fantasize about being with us, joining us on a future voyage, and communicating with us in connection with any questions or comments that you may have.

During this trip, we will be onboard Holland America Lines' NEWEST cruise ship, ms Eurodam, departing July 15, 2008. Not only will this be a wonderful cruise through Scandinavia/Russia, but we will be celebrating Jay's 70th birthday onboard the ship. How exciting!

We invite you to log into our forum and post comments as you read through our adventures. This way you will read our experiences during our voyage to the Capital Cities of the Baltic countries.

We look forward to seeing you soon, and wish you good health and happiness.

Sincerely,
Jay and Mary Pat

[cruisetour]

The Eurodam has a special breakfast venue for suite guests that we took advantage of this morning with another couple in our group. Even though it is not the best breakfast for a diet, I really enjoyed the Belgium waffles. The view from the panoramic windows was magnificent as our ship approached our first port of call, Tallinn, Estonia. Unfortunately, the weather forecast is predicting a rainy day, so before disembarking our ship, we put on our rain jackets. On the way to disembark, we met six of our customers and we all decided to sightsee together. None of us had made plans with the ship so we were going to explore this beautiful city on our own and see what treasures we could find. It did not take long for us to realize that we were no longer in Texas. The scenery is very different with all of the spires and onion dome churches.

After walking just a short distance, we came across an on again-off again bus that was offering 55 minute tours for $20 per person. This was so reasonable that we could not resist, and so we “hopped on” and off we went. The tour was an excellent decision because no sooner did we leave the pier than rain started. At first, it was a drizzle; but soon it became a shower, and not too much longer, it was a storm. And it continued to pour, heavier and heavier as the hour went by. As a result, the windows were so splashed that our photos were almost worthless, but we did get to see the city as well as the old town, and we did not get wet.

After going through the tour route, we returned to the pier where we had boarded the bus, and got off there to run back to the ship. Having been gone for an hour, we decided to have some hot bullion and continue with lunch. The rain stopped and started several times while we ate. During one of the lulls in the rain, I got my camera again and took some pictures from the promenade deck.

I joined some of our group for an ice cream break during the afternoon, but limited myself to a glass of water while the others enjoyed cones, sundaes, and milkshakes. I am so proud of myself.

This evening was my official birthday party even though my real birthday had occurred a couple of days ago. All of our 37 friends met in the Pinnacle Grill, one of the Eurodam’s alternative restaurants, at 6pm for the occasion. I got there first because in addition to the place cards, we placed a hooded sweatshirt at each chair. This was one of the gifts we ordered for all of our clients on this cruise. As our guests arrived, several of them commented that the sweatshirt was something that they would really use in the cool weather that we were experiencing.

The restaurant had personalized a menu for us; and after dinner, I was surprised to discover that the maître d’ had baked me a cake. Mary Pat was also surprised as she had not ordered one. Our dinner included a fancy chocolate volcano dessert, but this did not stop my guests from sampling the cake. After everyone sang happy birthday to me, I asked for a knife and was walking around our tables cutting slices for everyone when the maître d’ asked if I was auditioning for a job. It was a delicious dinner and a lot of fun too.

Afterwards, Mary Pat and I walked through the shop where there was a display of Faberge eggs. I asked about one of them that looked especially beautiful and was told that it cost $33,000 (but that the price included delivery to your home). I decided not to buy that item. There was a beautiful sunset at 11pm, and we took some photos to remember how pretty it was.

Even though we did not see very much of Tallinn, it was still a nice day and no one seemed bothered by the inclement weather. We really have a wonderful group of people with us.

[cruisetour]

Because we have been to St Petersburg several times, we have done the usual tour programs going to Peterhof and Catherine’s Palace, as well as the hermitage, Peter & Paul Fortress, and St. Isaac’s Cathedral. We had heard about a tour along the waterways that connect the islands making up this fantastic city, and decided that we would send most of the group on the tours mentioned above because they are so exciting while we went on this one that we had missed up to now. The tour was called “St Petersburg Waterways and Church on the Spilled Blood”. This tour exceeded our expectations as it allowed us to view the city from the waterways surrounding the numerous squares, monuments and palaces instead of from a bus window and gave us a clearer perspective of Peter’s city containing three rivers and over 50 bridges. St Petersburg has been labeled the “Venice of the North” and now we know why. The weather could not have been better for our cruise past sights including the Hermitage (winter palace), Yusopov Palace, the opera building, Menchikov Palace, and the Faberge home. After the boat, our coach took us to the Cathedral of the spilled blood, built in 1907, on the spot where Russian Czar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. To me, this is the most outstanding building in all of St. Petersburg because of the multiple onion domes. We also got to visit the well known flea market across the street from the cathedral that has booths selling anything and everything that a tourist could want. We returned to the ship at 6pm and had to eat quickly because within the hour, we, along with 28 members of our group, were disembarking the ship to see a 90 minute folkloric spectacular including music and dances from different regions of Russia with acrobatic Siberian Cossack dances, Russian and Ukrainian choral singing and a special gypsy ensemble with includes the famous Russian folksong, “dark eyes”, accompanied by live balalaika music. The tour also included a glass of champagne. We did not return to the Eurodam until after 10pm and had no trouble falling asleep.

[cruisetour]

During our visits to Tallinn and St. Petersburg, everyone in our group was split up on various ship tours. Starting with Helsinki, the rest of the tours for our clients are all on private coaches that we arranged before leaving home. Today’s we will be seeing the sights of Helsinki as well as learning about the Jewish Heritage of Finland. Our guide is Andre Zweig who is the cantor of the only synagogue in Helsinki.

MaryPat gathered the group together at 8:45am while I went pierside and met Andre. He was waiting at the gangway with a Cruise Consultants sign. After calling MaryPat on the walkie-talkie, she brought our group to where we were standing and we took off to see the city.

As we were driving, Andre told us that Helsinki is known as the “white city of the North” and the “daughter of the Baltic”. We visited the open-air market, drove past Uspenski Cathedral and the winter icebreaker ship facility, and then continued to Senate Square where the elegant Lutheran Cathedral is located. From here, we drove along Mannerheim Street, named after the Finnish leader who saved the Jews from Nazi persecution during WW II.

After pointing out Parliament house, the national museum and the Finlandia Hall Concert and Convention Centre, we stopped to see the Olympic stadium that was built for the 1952 Olympic Games. Our next stop was at Sibelius park where we stopped to see the monument of 527 steel pipes honoring the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.

Finland has one of the smallest Jewish communities in the world, and just one Community Center that services 1,500 members in the entire country. We stopped and visited this center, and the attached Jewish Synagogue that is a part of it. Other parts of the center include a home and care facility for the elderly, a day care center, and the only Jewish day school in the country. The center was originally built in 1902, and was rebuilt in 1961. Andre discussed the Jewish heritage in Finland, and then got out his guitar and sang two cantorial hymns for us before we reboarded our bus for our final stop, the beautiful Temppeliaukio Lutheran Church that was built by blasting into solid rock with dynamite.

We returned to the ship at 1pm and gave everyone free time to relax or go back to town. At 7pm, we hosted a cocktail party for our group and had the photographer take a photo of our group. During the party, Mary Pat and I had the honor to announce that another couple had achieved the “50 night at sea” milestone with Cruise Consultants and we presented them with their 14k gold medallion and Cruise Consultants wrist watch. Also, that another of our clients had now surpassed the “century club” milestone of 100 nights at sea, and we gave her a certificate for a beautiful coffee table book about cruise ships and cruising that she will receive when she returns home next week. Our award recipients are also having their names added to the honor plaques that hang in our office for all to see and admire.

[cruisetour]

Stockholm is situated at a point where Lake Malaren meets with the darker hue of the Baltic Sea. The city is often called the Venice of Scandinavia.

The main stops on today’s special tour for our group took us to the Stockholm City Hall, The Vasa Museum, and Old Town. Our first stop though, was at Fjallgatan, where we had a magnificent view of 8 of the 14 islands on which Stockholm is built. We learned that fifty-four bridges connect the 14 islands. After admiring the view, we drove to the Vasa Museum where we saw the royal barge that sank on her maiden voyage killing 63 people, on August 10, 1628. The Vasa was not relocated until 1956 when a scientific team found the wreck on the bottom of Stockholm Strom; the vessel was not raised until 1961 when it was restored and put into this museum.

From here we drove to the 800 year Old Town (Gamla Stan). Today, it is an area of historical heritage and cobblestone streets. While there, we visited the 13th century coronation church, with its stature of St. George and the Dragon that was sculpted in the 15th century.

From Old Town, we drove to the Stockholm City Hall with its square tower capped b three golden crowns. We walked through the public and also private parts of the building, including the glass-domed Blue Hall where the Nobel Prize banquets are held, and the golden hall with its fantastic gold leaf mosaics After the tour, some of our group opted to stay in town for some shopping while the rest of us returned to the Eurodam for lunch and a lazy afternoon.

[cruisetour]

This was an early morning and a long day. At 6:45am, I located our escort and driver, while MaryPat was waiting for the group to assemble. Our group was on the coach and away from the pier by 7am. The drive from Warnemunde to Berlin took three hours during which our escort gave us a commentary on the transition from being an East German to being a part of unified Germany. We were also told that traffic would probably be a problem today because Berlin was getting prepared for a visit and talk by Barack Obama and there was a lot of security precautions being put in place. When we reached the Charlottenburg Palace at the outskirts of Berlin, we picked up our city guide. We made a lot of stops along the route, one of which was the one that everyone had been waiting for—Checkpoint Charlie. There were also several stops at remnants of the Berlin Wall that were still standing. Just after noon, we arrived at the Spree River and disembarked the coach for a 1 ½ hour boat ride that took us past the Chancellery, the Reichstag, the Berlin Cathedral, and Museum’s Island. During the cruise, we were served a deluxe box lunch with two sandwiches, a muffin, a candy bar, an apple, and a beverage that we enjoyed as our guide gave us a wonderful commentary of German history. At 1:30pm, we left our tour boat at the Nikolai Quarter, Berlin’s oldest living area. We visited the 13th century St. Nicholas Church and walked through this area to explore traces of the past centuries when Humboldt, Lessing and Schinkel used to live here.

Back in the bus, we passed by Hitler’s bunker that has been changed into a parking lot and children’s playground, as well as the holocaust museum. We then stopped at the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column where Obama will be speaking before more than 200,000 people tomorrow afternoon before proceeding to Opernpalais, an old Prussian Palace located on the historical Unter den Linden Blvd for tea and special cakes and pastries before making the drive back to Warnemunde and our ship. We arrived at the pier just before 9pm, giving us just enough time to get to the dining room before they stopped serving dinner. It was a long walk from the dining room back to our room, and a very short time before my head hit the pillow and I was sound asleep.

[cruisetour]

Today is our last full day on this Eurodam cruise, and our final private tour. The ship docked a little later than originally scheduled, so our three hour tour today started at 10:30am.

The Arhus port area is one of the most important Danish harbors, and the city of Arhus is the second largest city in Denmark. Our tour took us past the city hall to the University which is the 2d largest in the country. We then drove through the Marselisborg Forest to our first stop, the Marselisborg Palace, one of the official residences of the Danish Royal Family, and a spectacular one, for sure. After we walked around the palace grounds, and looked into the windows, we reboarded our coach and drove to the open air museum of Den Gamle with its half timbered medieval houses that were gathered from all over Denmark. The tour included a glass of champagne in a beautiful beer garden. We used the occasion to toast our group and thanked everybody for choosing to be with us on this cruise.

Afterwards, we continued walking through the shops. Our final stop was at St. Edmunds cathedral, a Lutheran Church that previous to the reformation in Denmark was a Catholic Cathedral. The church still had a lot of the Catholic symbolism, and some Hebrew inscriptions as well. From here, we drove back to the ship where I had a quick lunch because I had scheduled a meeting with the onboard cruise consultant on behalf of several of our passengers.

We had dinner in the new alternative Pan-Asian restaurant with two couples from the group after which I went to the dining room and had dessert with the rest of our group. We returned to the room after dinner, packed our suitcases, put them in the hallway, and called it a day. Tomorrow, we leave this beautiful new ship for a day in Copenhagen, one of my favorite world cities.

[cruisetour]

We did not get up in time to have breakfast in Pinnacle Grill so just met everyone in the Neptune lounge for a continental breakfast, and to wait until notification that the van to take those of us that were staying overnight in Copenhagen had arrived. The call came at 9:15am. We are really glad that we made these plans because the wait for a taxi was at least 1 ½ hours long. We had no problem getting our luggage, and bypassed the line. Our van had a separate trailer for the luggage and it is a good thing because we filled it up. It was only a short drive to the SAS Radisson Hotel where we were staying tonight, before catching our flights home tomorrow.

We decided to walk along Stroget, the famous walking street, to Nyhavn, and see the sights and people there. My reason was to stop at my personally favorite hot dog stand and break my diet with a wonderful hotdog smothered with fried onions. It was as delicious as I remembered it to be. After a fun time, we retraced our steps, went back into Tivoli Gardens for the 10pm concert, and from there returned to our hotel for the evening. After our 5 mile hike, I was glad to see my pillow. It was a short night because tomorrow after breakfast, we were going to the airport for the flight back to Texas.