Because we had such a busy couple of days in Russia, Mr. and I did not do any kind of planned excursion in Finland. Instead, we decided we would go into Helsinki ourselves and see some sights. We originally planned to visit two places: a shop that did cake tasting and Temppeliaukio Church, which is a church that was carved from stone. Unfortunately, it was Sunday so we struck out with the cake shop because it was closed (ok because we went to a cupcake tasting back on board later in the afternoon) and the church because services were going on (we didn't have it in us to walk the whole way back to the church later when there were no services). Even though we printed out Frommer's walking tour of Helsinki, we skipped most of the sights and really just walked around the central square with the big Lutheran church and then went to the outdoor market for some shopping. There was loads of stuff here made from reindeer and so was not for those who are against furs and such but we managed to buy a couple of things like a magnet and an ornament. The weather in Helsinki switched between rain and sun every couple of minutes so that was annoying but otherwise, we enjoyed our time here.
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| Helsinki |
After Helskini, we sailed to Stockholm, Sweden. We had debated on doing an organized tour here but, in the end, decided to see the city ourselves. From the port, we took a hop on/ hop off boat to our first sight, The Vasa Museum. (Stockholm is made up of a number of different islands so the boats make a nice way to get from place to place.) Mr. had suggest going to the Vasa and while I normally veto any museum on our first day of sight-seeing in a city, I said OK. It was actually pretty cool and I am glad we went. The Vasa was a Swedish vessel that sank in 1628. The Swedes managed to raise it up and build a museum around it. The museum, one of the ones open on Mondays, opened at 10AM. We arrived at 9:45AM and they let us in. This was a coup because there was no line and it was not crowded at all. YEAH!!! We spent a bit of time looking at the ship and other things in the museum and then headed to the Gamla Stan (Old Town). It dates from the 1600s and has lots of narrow streets, shops, and old buildings. We had Frommer's walking tour to guide us but the sight numbers didn't match with the map which was a little frustrating. Regardless, it pointed us in the right direction because from the Vasa, it helped us see the Royal Palace and a few other things before getting to the Old Town. I liked Stockholm the best of any city we visited and would love to go back.
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| Gamla Stan |
Sweden is made up of thousands of islands so we spent a few hours cruising the archipelago on our way out. It was really cold and windy on deck but nature but on a great display with a double rainbow.
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| Archipelago with Double Rainbow |
The next day was an at sea day. Hooray! We needed a major rest from touring before our next stop: Germany.
In Germany, we hit up two ports. The first was Warnermunde. From there, you can take a three hour train ride to Berlin. Neither of us having been to Germany, Mr. and I decided to take a full day excursion to Berlin. This consisted of a three hour train ride, a visit to the Allied Museum, lunch, a tour around the city, three hour train ride back. It was supposed to be a 12 hour excursion. It took over 14 hours and frankly, I had a meltdown on the train on the ride back. It was way too long and my head was seriously hurting and it was overall just terrible. When I reviewed the excursions we went on at the end of our cruise, this extra few hours was the reason why they did not get a top score.
Anyways, so at around 6:30-7AM, we boarded the train. The ride there was OK. I read my book, they gave us a snack for breakfast (but were sorely lacking in tea), and the entire train was chartered by the cruise line so that was nice. On reaching Berlin, we hit up the Allied Museum first. This was a museum dedicated to the Allies from WWII. It was ok but generally, I thought a tad weak. After the museum, we went to lunch at a Hofbrau (brew house). We were served traditional German fare of pork, sauerkraut, sausages, potatoes, apple strudel. It was actually really good. After lunch, we took a tour around the city to see some main sites including the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate. We did manage to get a glimpse of Mrs. Merkel, the chancellor. This was quite exciting as I do not normally run into celebrities. Then, we headed back to the train and this is when I may have lost it a bit. I think I needed caffeine big time and as I discovered the next day when I woke up with a sore throat, I think I was starting to be sick. Either way, we managed to survive and this tour piqued our interest in learning about the Cold War.
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| Brandenburg Gate |
(As a side note, Mr. asked me when we disembarked in Warnermunde if a quarter of me was dancing (he may have done a dance as he said this) since I am a quarter German and this was my first visit to a country of my ancestry. I shook my leg a bit but that was the end of my enthusiasm.)
When we arrived back to the ship close to 10PM, I wanted to take a shower and go to bed. Alas, our toilet was broken so I laid on the bed with a towel on my face until the guy came and fixed it while Mr. ordered some room service. After trying to eat, I passed out.
The next day we arrived in Kiel, Germany. I had originally wanted to do an excursion of the lakes and castles around there but Mr. had said that was maybe not a great idea since we were in Berlin all day on Wednesday and the next day we were leaving. On waking up Thursday, I was so happy we made this decision. We disembarked and walked around Kiel for maybe two hours. I bought some things and we ate some German cuisine of pretzels and schokobrotchen (basically a donut type thing with chocolate icing and filling... OMG... I DIED over it.).
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| Kiel Square |
Thursday, we both started to get sore throats and come down with a bit of a cold. It turned into a pretty bad one and made for an icky flight back to the US from Copenhagen, our final port, since we couldn't sleep and the plane was unbelievably HOT. We had direct flights on SAS both there and back so I can't really complain seeing that SAS was generally good otherwise.
All in all, it was a bit of a busy vaca but we saw lots of great sights and had a fab time.
I will post a review of the cruise next since that was a vaca in and of itself.
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