Our Travel Blog

The last of the “early” starts for us. We’re in Helsinki, Finland that may give you a clue for the title! After another room service breakfast we headed out to our bus. It was overcast, drizzly and around 16C. Today was the day of the Helsinki Marathon, so our driver had to make a few detours.

As we started our drive around Helsinki the rain decided to welcome us. By the time we got to the first stop iy was pouring down. The first stop was the “Rock Church”, or to give it its correct name the Temppeliaukio Church. The main religion in Finland is Lutheran, and this is a Lutheran church built in 1969. Fairly modern, but unusual in design in that it was blasted out of bedrock. A few pictures below.

Today’s useless information, the organ has 3,001 pipes!

Below is the Church from the outside, not quite so inspiring.

The rain had backed right off by the time we left, but the damage had been done, my top half was warm and dry thanks to a waterproof jacket. Unfortunately the jacket diverted all the water onto my jeans!

It was back to the coach, it was not possible to get photos through the windows as they were wet with water droplets. We continued around various parts of the city until we reached Sibeliuksen­puisto or Sibelius park The park was named after Finland’s greatest composer Jean Sibelius on his 80th birthday in 1945. Within the park is the Sibelius Monument designed by Eila Hiltunen. The park also contained the first geocache of our trip!!

The next stop was senate square, unfortunately most of the square was given over to celebrate the 150th birthday of Paulig coffee. Coffee is a big thing in Finland, they drink more per capita than anywhere else in the world. The square is named for the old Senate building which is now Government offices.

Also close to the square is the Finnish Lutheran Cathedral, completed in 1852.

Traveling back towards the ship, the rain pretty much stopped! I managed a couple of pictures out of the window

Upsenski Cathedral started life in 1868 as a Russian Orthodox church, in 1919 when Finland won independence from Russia it became the main Orthodox Cathedral of Finland.

Like most Nordic countries, Finland has a relatively high taxation rate, but in return Tuition is free right through University, free health care, pensions etc. It was recently voted the happiest country in the world. If only they could control the weather!!

By the time we got up we had arrived in Estonia. Today was overcast, 20C and threatening rain. After breakfast we had a forced walk around the ship as our cabin was been cleaned. This time we took the indoor route, turns out it is much longer than the outdoor one we used the other day.

Our trip today was a quick one into the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. The Estonian language was totally new to us and resembled nothing we had heard before. Fortunately our tour guide spoke very clear English. If the rest of the Estonians are anything like him they are a fiercely independent race, strong on tradition and have a universal hatred of the Russians! Estonia gained it’s freedom from Russia, like many other Baltic states in 1991.

Estonia, in size is larger than the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia and a number of other countries yet it has a population of only 1.3 million. This equates to about 70 people per sq/km

We headed off through the newer part of town, which is quite modern, to our first stop, a memorial to the victims of communism. The memorial is a walk between 2 black walls adorned with the names of all Estonians who died at the hands of the Russians.

At the end of the walk you emerged into the garden of Peace

From here you could walk along the outside of the wall which had further significance. One portion of the wall had small metal sculptures on it.

At first I wasn’t sure what they were, but closer up revealed some bees, which play a large role in Estonian folklore.

Further along were a number of sculptured bullet holes. If you looked into the holes, each one contained a photo of an Estonian Officer killed by the communists. In all there were 842 killed, approximately 1/3 of all officers in the Estonian military.

From here we headed off to a happier place, a site where they hold the National Song festival which is a very large part of their culture. Approximately 20,00 singers and choirs participate with an audience of more than 100,000. It was while we looking down at the amphitheater stage that Lyn asked me if I recognized some one just in front of us. It was couple we had met some years ago who stayed in the same resort as us down in Alabama. For you Anchors Aweigh people it ws Frank and Kathy. We are also chasing another couple from there, Stan & Sally, around the Baltic on a different ship.

Below is the stage, ignore the bus in the bottom right corner, they were giving driving lessons to new drivers.

Below shows what the area looked like during a performance.

Next we moved on to the old part of Tallinn, I’ll just post some pictures with captions.

The last photo is worse than usual as photography was not allowed, so I quickly looked at my phone and accidently took a picture

Apologies if this is less coherent than usual, apparently it’s not a good idea to drink B52’s before writing the blog!!

The clocks went forward again last night so the time difference between Ottawa and where we are is 7 hours. Being a sea day there is no great rush to get up, so we can sleep off the lost hour!

We spent the day exploring parts of the ship we hadn’t seen before and getting some exercise in walking around the track on the upper deck.

The ship is larger than we are used to with 3600 passengers and 1300 crew. The smaller ships are better. It seems as though the bean counters have had a say in “improvements” to the ship. Areas that were once viewing areas or areas to relax in have either been converted into cabins or an expanded casino.

This leads to overcrowding in public sitting areas and line ups for restaurants. We have developed a work around to the restaurant issue that works quite well! We have become known to the hostesses and so far we are getting window seats for most meals! Despite the bean counter influence, the staff we interact with all seem to be (genuinely) happy and friendly.

Below is a picture of the Plaza area stretching vertically for 3 decks. How long before they put cabins there???

We’re now on our way to Estonia, another new country for us.

We had passed into the Baltic sea last night, and docked in Warnemünde early in the morning

We had an even earlier start this morning, I won’t mention the time as it will only encourage ridicule! Room service again provided breakfast. The weather had changed for the worse, it was 16C heading to 19C which was OK, but it was raining!

We headed out on a coach to a monastery at Doberan. The first abbey was built there in 1171 but was destroyed 8 years latter in the war of succession. The current building was completed in 1368.

From here it ws back on the coach to the railway station for a journey on a 1930’s era steam train.

We were on the last carriage with an open door looking back down the line. This didn’t last for long as the engine swapped ends and we were now at the front of the train with a very good view of the engine.

This was about as close as you could legally get to an operating steam engine. As the journey progressed we certainly got the steam experience as the carriage filled with smoke.

The first part of the journey took us down the main street, the continuous sound of the train bell and whistle was certainly head ache inducing, the smell of the smoke unlocked memories from early childhood.

After a couple of station stops on the main street we headed out into the country and no more bells.

We traveled for about 30 minutes more before arriving at the sea-side town of Kühlungsborn Ost

We stopped off at an old bakery in town for a sample of the local pastry and a coffee. The pastry was tasty, but in German style very heavy.

In order to offset the recent calory in take we headed off for a walk along the coast. As mentioned in the title, this area was part of East Germany until re-unification in 1990. The two pictures above show a watchtower use by the GDR to prevent people escaping to the west by boat.

Along the beach were hundreds of mini cabanas that could be rented for the day.

We headed back to the bus, parked opposite the local church. From here we drove back through the countryside to the ship. The rain had stopped for a while but as we got closer to the ship it started again.

Below are a couple of pictures of the town of Warnemünde taken from our balcony. The first shows the more drab buildings of the communist era.

In the picture below are the more modern houses, with some older communist era apartments in the background.

We had see a ferry boat passing quite a few times with a huge tower in the middle of it. A little Googling revealed what it was.

The tower is 30m tall and is rotated by the passing air, this is a Flettner rotor sail. The sail is coupled to a generator and the power from it is stored in batteries. This reduces the amount of diesel power that is required to run the ship.

Tomorrow we are at sea all day, so I’m not sure if there will be a blog.

Our second and final stop in Denmark. As we had an early(for us !) start today, we took advantage of room service for breakfast in our cabin. Life is so tough!! We headed down to the meeting point and then onto the bus for the tour. First impressions were of a clean, well cared for city. Many of the buildings around the dock area were old (300 years +) military ones which had been renovated for commercial or dwelling purposes, but had maintained their original character.

Our first stop was at the quayside for a boat tour of the Harbor area. Copenhagen has a rich and long naval history which is still preserved today.

In the picture above, as well as a 20th century ship now used as a museum , there is a structure to the left that is a crane dating back 400 years that is made entirely of wood and ws used to lift masts into the old wooden sailing ships.

Following the Battle of Coenhagen in 1807 when the British “borrowed” the Danish fleet to prevent Napoleon getting his hands on them, the Danish had to rebuild, they could not afford large battle ships so they built large numbers of small single cannon boats. These were built and stored in long sheds. These sheds still exist and have been converted into homes or businesses.

One of the taller buildings visible from the water is the Church of Our Saviour, completed in 1697. The stairs to the top of the tower are all outside. Although we didn’t try it we were told that on a windy day the climb is quite scary as the all wooden structure sways quite a bit!

There are many very nice, and some not so nice, houseboats all around the harbour.

In some places the view was very reminiscent of Amsterdam

Denmark has a constitutional Monarchy, and where there are Monarchs there are palaces.

Many of the new buildings along the water front have been designed by world famous architects.

The BLOX building above was built to commemorate Lego (a Danish invention)

From the boat we went back to the bus for more of the city tour. T

The city is in a battle with Amsterdam for the most bicycle friendly city, a title it held until a few years ago. As a result many streets are being made bike only, meaning there is nowhere for the cars to ago, hence very slow traffic.

Above is Copenhagen’s most expensive Hotel, rooms start at $1300 US per night

Around the dock area there is reclaimed land to be used for housing, again the housing is designed by famous architects, giving a wide variety of styles.

Finally we went to visit Copenhagen’s famous Little Mermaid, unveiled in 1913 and based on a Hans Christian Andersencharacter

I still have to learn how to take pictures into strong sunlight!

The second picture is a little better, I used a bit of AI to remove a couple of humans who were in the picture.

That’s it for today, it’s beer o’clock!

This morning we arrived in Skagen, Denmark (the “g” is silent, so Skaen). Technically not our first time in Demark as we stopped off at Copenhagan Airport once for a couple of hours! We arrived at 9AM, so after a leisurely breakfast we grabbed a jacket and headed out for a walk into the local town.

Fishing seems to be the main interest here, above you can see the port with orange roofed house of the town beyond. It was cloudy and 13C, not too bad walking weather. It was about 1mile into town, mostly through the dock area for the first half then into some housing and then the town. There were two cruise ships in today so the population of the town was almost doubled, locals were noticeable by their absence!

Below are some general pictures

Lyn (with I’m afraid to say, a little assistance from me) managed to find a few things to buy!

We wandered slowly back to the ship for the lunch, then rewarded our selves with well deserved Ice Cream. Next stop Copenhagen, Denmark.

No, we didn’t have a flood, we’re just out of sight of land!. Currently we are somewhere between Newcastle (UK) and the German – Danish border. The weather is still fine at 14C, going up to 18C tomorrow for our first port of call in Skagen, Denmark. Today we have just been getting lost on exploring the ship and trying to avoid eating too much! The sea state is disappointingly smooth, there is no vibration or mechanical noise on board, if there were no windows showing movement you could easily be in a hotel.

We have (slow) Wi-Fi on board, but it lets me get the blog written at my pace, and not scrambling to get it done before we leave port.

Passengers are a mix as usual, there are a lot of Japanese and Chinese, a good mix of Australians and Kiwis a few Americans and Canadians and as expected quite a few Brits.

This part of the North sea has plenty of boat activity, most times I look out from the balcony there are 5 or 6 in sight.

There wasn’t much to take pictures of this time, so you’ll have to make do with a picture of the cabin. We splurged on a mini-suite this time which is quite a bit larger than the normal balcony cabins we have had before. This one has the advantage of a sofa which is much more comfortable than using the bed as a seat.

Well, this time we not only made it to the country of departure, we made it onto the boat/ship/vessel, whatever the correct name is. Last nights hotel didn’t provide breakfast, so our only option was MacDonalds.

We were picked up by Uber and driven to the QE2 terminal where the Sun Princess was waiting for us. Boarding wasn’t too painful, a little bit of a line up to get through security and then it time to board.

We had an hour to waste before our cabin was ready so grabbed a quick drink, then went up to the buffet for a snack. We followed that with a trip to our muster station, which was a requirement. Following that, we headed down to the cabin. Although there had been no announcement, the cabin was ready, just no baggage. We then realized we had a couple of bottles of wine in the cases which we should have transferred to our carry on, plus a hair dryer for use later on in the trip. I suspect our bags are in a “sin bin” somewhere.

We’re still docked in Southampton where we have contrasting views from the balcony

Then we saw a tug appear, closely followed by a container ship, closely followed by a tug all tied together! I guess the container ship had a propulsion problem as there was no propellor wake behind it

We’re on the move, and both our bags have arrived without going to the “sin bin”.We left Southampton, turned left into the English channel heading towards the North Sea. Trying to get a meal tonight was pretty futile. We had a pre-dinner drink and went to a restaurant around 7:30. Normally around this time it’s easy to get a table, unfortunately we forgot to factor in that there a re large number of Brits on board who tend to eat later. The line up were quite long. Hopefully this was a first night issue, otherwise we may have to change our eating habits. We finished up in the buffet, the food was fine, the ambience not so! After food we settled down in one of the bars with a guitarist and listened to songs and music while enjoying a few drinks.

After Christening our brand new UK passports, which gave us some cause for concern a couple of months ago (most of you know the story behind that, if you don’t and want to leave a message!) we emerged from terminal looking for bus stop #12 to get the hotel shuttle. Of course the UK chose today to be part of its heatwave (28C), and of course bus stop # 12 had to be the furthest away at around 1km! Anyway we made it there and the shuttle was only about 10 minutes in arriving AND it had aircon! We arrived at the hotel and got settled, and rested! After dinner we managed to watch TV for an hour or so before the eye lids decided to succumb to gravity.

Eleven hours later we came back to life, got ready and headed down to the dining room for breakfast. I have to say it was the best hotel buffet breakfast ever. Pretty much a Full English, eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, mushrooms, potato and no black pudding thankfully (not sure if that is part of a Full English or not!). Even the croissants were light and flaky. Struggled back to the room and got ready to depart on the shuttle. It was back to the airport to catch, obviously, a train. We were heading down to Southampton to a hotel for the night before boarding the cruise tomorrow. The train journey was a little chaotic, we had to change trains once and it was at this station where things went a little off track (sorry!!). Beyond this station there was a trackside fire that was affecting train services throughout the south of the UK because of its location on one of the main lines. Some trains from the station were being reroute or canceled, ours was continually delayed and the poor computer was having a hard time displaying the correct info on the TV screens. We finally boarded the train, which had become very crowded with rerouted passengers. Halfway into the journey the driver announced that they had originally planned to cancel this service, but had just confirmed with him that it would run all the way to Southampton. As he put it we will arrive in Southampton, I just don’t know when!!

Well he was right, we made it with no further drama. Unfortunately the lift at the station was dead, so it was up and down stairs with the suitcases. I offered to carry Lyn’s case for her, but Lyn being Lyn said no. Some kind girl saw her and carried the case, most impressed!

We took an Uber to the hotel, it seems Southampton are short of Ubers as it took about 30 minutes to book one. Of course the location of the hotel may have been part of the problem as it is located in a motorway service area. I booked the hotel here as one, it was free (points) and two Southampton hotels appear to partake in mass price gouging the night before a cruise departs. Rooms normally costing around £150 suddenly shot up to £400 or more. Any way we’re here now, all we have to do is get back to Southampton tomorrow morning! Again, no lift at the hotel, so again Lyn decided she would carry the case, and again a kind lady helped her. Turns out she is going on the same cruise as us.

Just to prove (to myself) I can still add pictures here are a couple taken around the hotel, looks like I compressed the first one too much.

This is a multi purpose trip, 50 years ago in June I graduated from Air the Traffic Control College , so we decided a reunion was in order, it seemed a waste of an opportunity just to visit the UK, so we booked a cruise to Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. If that wasn’t enough we decided we’d stop off in Iceland on the way home.

Well, after last years disaster, this trip is not shaping up too well!! A few months ago we were advised of a schedule change, this change would have given us a 55 minute connection in Toronto. The airline insisted this was perfectly doable. We changed flights despite their assurances, today we proved we were right and they were wrong. Fast forward to a few weeks ago we got notice of another schedule change caused by a flight cancellation. This time they proactively switched us to a new flight. Unfortunately the new flight left Toronto for Ottawa 3 hours BEFORE the flight from Iceland to Toronto landed. They didn’t seem to realise that this was problematic! There was a flight with a different airline that left within 5 minutes of the cancelled one, but there was no way they wer going to book us on that. They offered a flight 24 hour later as the best solution! After 3 or 4 phone call arguing the stupidity of their solution solving they came up with a new flight. Iceland to Calgary to Ottawa. Twice the distance and twice the time. Enough was enough, I cancelled the last leg, booked a new one myself, and with the refund money made about $200 profit and still flew Business class!

Fast forward to Toronto airport, cleared security and ready to go to the lounge, whoops one boarding pass missing. I left Lyn to check in to the lounge with her pass and I went back to security as I thought I’d lost it there. Wrong, not there. Mybe it got put in my backpack after security, unusual as I always keep my pass in my passport. Back to the lounge, sweet talk my way in as I had no boarding pass. Found Lyn andstarted hunting boarding passes. I checked the pssport I had…. it was Lyns. Checked the other passport, it was mine with my boarding pass! Lyn had managed to get into the lounge on my pass.

OK what to do about the missing pass, couldn’t easily go to the airline desk as it was back through immigration which would be a pain to try. Had an old age brainwave, what would happen if I re-checked in on the phone? Well, it worked and gave us electronic boarding passes. Problem solved. Now we have to wait as the flight has been delayed by an hour. Let’s hope this is only a one hour delay this time.

Well we have arrived in Iceland, cool and damp! It’s a bit of an odd layout here, and coupled with the new EU rules with entry/exit tracking we were expecting delays. Before we left the aircraft we were told that passengers connecting to the UK or Ireland should stay in the D gate area and would not need to go through passport control…. bonus!! However when we go to the terminal we were tod that the lounge was in the A gate area and if we wanted to use it we would have to clear passport control. As we had a three hour layover we decided to risk it. We got to the passport control and there must have been 2 hundred automatic machines there, together with 6 passport officers in case of problems. There were 200 problems, not one of the machines was in service. It wasn’t too bad and we made it to the lounge. That’s enough for today, the next entry should be from the UK and hopefully the end of my negativity!!!