Travel: Cruise Stop "Tallinn, Estonia"

Day 7 of our cruise was a visit to the fairy tale town of Tallinn, Estonia.  We were anticipating this stop since our last visit there was so delightful and the prices were so favorable for knit wear and meals.
Since that last visit, Estonia is on the Euro and doing exceptionally well - evidenced by the high end luxury cars on the road.  The country was smart to invite techies to establish their businesses there with a favorable tax program.  It appears that aside from the lucrative seaport that does not freeze in winter, the invitation for new companies to set up here has been well received.  It appears that many are doing very well.

The cruise port had several ships in - crowds would be descending upon this most magnificent little town.  We hurried off the ship as we were meeting friends there (they live stateside, but she is Estonian).  We took the short walk from the ship towards the old town's ramparts (no need for a shuttle bus).  Many of the other passengers had not disembarked yet and we had the town to ourselves for about an hour.  During that time we walked through the park and made our way to a rampart wall that overlooks the new town; we could see the cruise ships in the background.  Great time for photos...

Meandering our way through cobblestone streets, our Estonian friend gave us a little background on growing up in Estonia behind the "iron curtain".  Life seemed normal enough, just limited travel if any and not much prosperity.  She was only 10 and doesn't remember much; her parents however do.  Estonia has adapted very well and very quickly.  We stopped for coffee after walking several hours and then more walking in search of a place for lunch...too many choices!  It was another hot day - weather this hot was unusual for the area so there was no air conditioning - and dining outdoors, in the shade seemed the smartest choice.  We found a delightful place, settled down to scan the menu and could not choose among all the good selections!

After a good lunch, we had to wind our way through the crowds!  Seemed everyone was off the ships and enjoying the bright sunshine in Tallinn.  We found a quiet lane near one of the ramparts where ladies were selling hand knitted sweaters, scarves, gloves and long socks - OK, a bit unusual since it was 90+ degrees, but the quality and designs would be great to have on a cold winter day....if only the prices weren't so high!  Oh my goodness - how much the cost of hand made sweaters went up!  Sadly, I left empty-handed...  But I did take a few pictures of the day to share with you!
Fifi

Where We Stayed/Dined

We stayed at the Kempinski Atlantic Hotel in Hamburg (http://www.kempinski.com/en/hamburg/hotel-atlantic/overview/).  This grand hotel is step back in time for refined elegance and the modern rooms and suites boast elegant finishes.
Convenient to the main rail station, easy walk to both the old and new towns and the walking path along the river make this an excellent choice for a stay in Hamburg.

We ate at the following restaurants and enjoyed every one of them!

Cafe Paris  http://www.cafeparis.net/en/home.html
We had a delightful Sunday brunch - full of locals, friendly staff and really good food!
Very cool interior including the ceiling!

Die Bank  http://www.diebank-brasserie.de/ (the website has a link to translate into English)
A former bank turned brasserie - the simple menu means an excellent meal is coming your way!
The restaurant features photos and quips from famous bank robbers!

Cox Restaurant http://www.restaurant-cox.de/  (google will translate into English!)
We enjoyed a wonderful dinner in this local restaurant not too far from the hotel.  The place was lively and the food delicious. The short walk back to the hotel was delightful.

Should you find your way to Hamburg, and want to do some shopping, there is a great mall, Hanse Viertel (http://www.hanseviertel.de/).  We discovered it as we were walking to lunch at Die Bank.

There is much more to see in Hamburg - it merits another visit!

Travel: Helsinki, Finland

The second stop of our cruise was Helsinki, Finland.  Eight years ago, we stopped there on an NCL cruise and loved it....there was something very cool about the place: young people with studs and/or blue hair side by side with very well dressed elderly couples waiting for the crossing signal - and there wasn't a car in sight!  Here you could be as freaky or un-freaky as you wanted, but everyone obeyed the rules - right down to the crossing signals! Love it!

This time around, we wanted to do something thoroughly different, away from the masses of the cruise ship tourists: a day trip to Helsinki's open air museum featuring cottages and buildings of the past 4 centuries!

We disembarked early from the ship and took the shuttle to the center of town.  From the shuttle bus drop-off, we walked across the street and boarded the local bus headed for Seurasaari Open Air Museum on the island of Seurasaari!  A scenic ride of about 20 minutes and we arrived to Seurasaari (last stop on the bus, so there is no getting lost).

A walk across the wooden bridge and we stepped back in time.  Cottages, storage sheds for tar-boats and cured meats, playhouses for children, summer cottages, multi-family dwellings and a lovely old chapel.  I took lots of pictures and but you can always click on the official link for more detailed information. (http://www.nba.fi/en/museums/seurasaari_openairmuseum)

We walked and toured through some of the buildings and later on had lunch at just off the museum "grounds" at Ravintola.  The server was delightful but spoke no English - brought us menus that had rough translations into English.  We ordered the "Fish and Ships" (Fish and Chips!)....We attempted order something else, and not being sure what we wanted, he brought out the young chef who could speak a bit of English.  Order sorted and we were delighted with our meal!  The place looked out of a storybook!

After a hearty lunch, we walked the second half of the museum before heading back to the center of town.  By this time, the museum/park was full of locals out with strollers and toddlers or older ladies arm-in-arm walking the grounds for an afternoon of summer air.  Soon, we were back in the center of town and on the shuttle bus to the ship....there was a glass of chilled white wine with our name on it waiting at the Crown Lounge! Grab your glass and check out my pictures!
Fifi

Travel: St. Petersburg, Russia

Our previous cruise visit included an overnight stay in St. Petersburg, Russia.  At that time, we visited the Hermitage Museum (http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/index.html), along with a fabulous visit to Catherine's Palace in Pushkin (http://eng.tzar.ru/).  Another tour had us visit the Church of the Spilled Blood, river cruise and a tour of Yusupov Palace (http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/yusupov-palace/) where Rasputin was poisoned, stabbed and refused to die!  Interesting visit then but there was still much to see.

And just like the previous visit, you could leave the ship if you were on a tour.  If you wanted to leave and tour on your own, you needed a visa that was issued by the Russian Embassy/Consulate prior to departure from the US.  We opted for the cruise tours: safe and easy.

This cruise stop was 3 days: Day 1 was another visit to the Hermitage, specifically to the "Gold Room".  This was a very early morning tour! (Yikes)  The exhibit features anything and everything in gold: crowns, jewelry, artifacts, works of art etc.  No photos allowed and there were more than several pair of eyes watching us at every turn and move.  (In fact, while waiting for the curator of the Gold Room to arrive, our guide told us to visit the collection in the adjoining room.  A group of us proceeded and when entering the room we were rushed upon by solidly built Russian women who forcefully and loudly called "NO!".  As we quickly exited the vast room, they slammed shut two humongous doors.  We winked and smirked to one another but from there on, we walked on eggshells!)  That was our morning tour and back to the ship for a very, very quick lunch.

Afternoon tour was the "Metro & Market Tour".  Metro?  Yes, the metro!  Their subways system, besides being the deepest (it crosses the river), is very clean and many of the stations are works of art.  One station was done in red mosaics.  Another had beautiful sconces, busts of historical figures, gleaming tile work and all under surveillance!  Yes, there was a woman watching CCTV!

After a few stops, we exited and walked along neighborhood streets to a local food market.  It wasn't overly stocked but the vendors were just as happy to see us enter.  We photographed, walked around and checked out the prices.  Seemed fairly priced....  Upon exiting, we encountered a group of young girls, giggling and chatting away with a boy (we could hear his voice) and they were video-chatting via FaceTime or Skype.  Young people are the same where ever you go!

That was Day 1...it was an early start for these night birds so Day 2 was going to be a bit more laid back.
An evening at the St. Petersburg Ballet for a performance of Swan Lake.  It was spectacular!  The Prima Ballerina was magnificent - you actually thought she was a swan her moves were so fluid and graceful.  No photos were permitted - and we dared not be rude and violate the rule!  We did get a  photo of the husband and wife dancers at the end of the performance under the strict guidance of their manager!  Fabulous!

Day 3 was leisurely....we opted for a river cruise.  The sun was shining and it seemed like a perfect day to enjoy the sights on the tour boat.  We passed former palaces of the Tzars and their relatives (they all had a palace), beautiful architecture, golden domes, the Fabrege Museum and countless Russians on their boats enjoying the day as well.  Just like anywhere else...family and friends out for the day on the boat.  After the boat ride, we boarded the bus for a "shopping" stop - this souvenir shop had the most Matryoshka nesting dolls I have ever seen - and in all sizes from tiny little ones to jumbo ones big enough to be a toddler!  It was a perfect way to end our visit to St. Petersburg...the ship was preparing for an early evening departure and again, a chilled white wine awaited us in the Crown Lounge atop the ship - panoramic windows perfect for a farewell toast!  (Enjoy the photo/video in two parts)
Fifi

Travel: Cruising

     I am just back from a 14 day cruise of the Baltic Sea.  Travelled with friends on this itinerary which began in Stockholm, Sweden.
     We sailed on Royal Caribbean's "Legend of the Seas" - a 2000+ passenger ship, which by today's standards is a mid-size ship!  The ship underwent a renovation recently and looks lovely!
     I'll be writing future posts on each of the itinerary stops with a short video of the pictures taken - it would be too long a post to cover it all!
     The ports we visited were:
Stockholm, Sweden (Overnight)
Helsinki, Finland
St. Petersburg, Russia (2 nites)
Tallinn, Estonia
Riga, Latvia
Klaipeda, Lithuania
A day at Sea
Warnemunde, Germany
Fredericia, Denmark (the first cruise ship to ever dock there!)
Copenhagen, Denmark
Day at Sea
Arrival and Disembarkation at Hamburg, Germany
    The cruise began as follows:
We arrived to Stockholm Airport and after collecting our luggage, we were greeted by Royal Caribbean's "greeters".  As more guests arrived we boarded the motorcoach for the comfortable ride to the cruise ship terminal....ahhh!

The check-in process was smooth: we tagged our large bags with our cabin number and surrendered them to cruise personnel (we kept our hand luggage with us).  We then checked in at a desk where we were given the key cards to our room which were also our ID cards to disembark & embark at each port and served as an "account card" for any onboard charges (tours, bars, shops, etc).  And then we boarded the ship - what a fabulous main lobby!  We quickly made our way to our room and our cabin steward introduced himself to us - we'd later come to find that he would magically/mysteriously slip into our room and tidy it up every morning and turned down the bed for us every evening...it was delightful!  The room was immaculate.

As we began unpacking our small hand luggage, our two suitcases arrived! With plenty of storage on board, we started unpacking so we could start investigating the ship....then the phone rang!  Our friends had arrived earlier and were eager to meet up...15 minutes later we were hugging and ready to start celebrating our vacations!  Up to the Crown Lounge at the top of the ship!  (This was to become our regular "hang out"!)  We relaxed over a bottle of wine and planned for an early dinner and good night's sleep aboard as we had a few hours the next day to walk through Stockholm...
     This post is a quick snapshot of the ship!

Fifi

Travel: Cruise Port of Stockholm, Sweden

Early rise, hearty breakfast and off the ship!  We were docked far from the city center/old town, so we hailed a taxi and we were on our way.  First stop was the Royal Palace.  We walk around the Palace, and then onto the cobblestoned streets of Gamla Stan (old town).  Gently curving lanes lead to open squares.
Historic buildings, quaint eateries, wide waterways, beautiful people everywhere!!  We aimlessly walked and strolled finally settling down for an outdoor lunch.  It was unusually hot and cold refreshments, under a shady tree with a slow hearty lunch was perfect - we people watched as we ate!
We were fortunate enough to catch the changing of the Palace guards - marching band and all!  It was a perfect day to start a perfect vacation!  Enjoy the photo video!
Fifi