Tuesday 30 August Helsinki

We docked in Helsinki at 8:00am in the rain, we were here 4 years ago and it rained then too. By the time we had finished breakfast the rain had stopped but still looked threatening. Because we didn't have any Euros left and there was no ATM on the pier we walked into Helsinki which took about fifty minutes While we were in the market the rain started again so we had coffee and waited for it to stop. It did stop for a while but not for long and then it became very steady and we were able to try out our new coats which worked very well. As we had been here before and the cobble streets were very slippery we decided to catch a bus back to the ship but not before Di bought a pair of Crocs from the Croc shop. We waited a long time for the bus but at least the sun was shining. It only took fifteen minutes to get back and we had time for a quick late lunch before Di went for a well deserved massage. We ended up in the Sports Bar to watch our departure and were joined by Judith and John (feeling much improved). We all moved on to the Dazzle Lounge to watch a very good band and then onto to the Observation Lounge for some jazz (while Judith an John ate dinner) and back to join them for dancing and music at the Dazzle. Once again exhausted fell into bed.

Monday 29 August St Petersburg (day Two)

.After a very heavy sleep we woke feeling much better albeit stiff and sore from all the standing the day before. We were not looking forward to today because we had another eight hour tour. we were the last tour off the ship and found that we had two guides Irena and Nicoliy, they both spoke excellent English and didn't look the types to get flustered. We started the tour with a very relaxing river and canal cruise which showed a totally different aspect to St Petersburg and we both said that we were starting to like St Petersburg. We disembarked and had a short walk to Yusupov Palace that had been owned by Felix Yusupov - often said to be as wealthy as the Tsar himself. The furnishings, decor and art works had to been seen to believed - it even had a two hundred seat theatre complete with orchestra pit. There were female attendants in all the rooms and all appeared to have been trained by the KGB (not allowed to lean or touch anything . We had had a wonderful morning and didn't think it could get much better, but it did. We were taken for lunch to the St Petersburg hotel (Chaplain Restaurant) where we were served a beautiful meal of mushroom soup, beef stroganoff, and crepes and a nice glass of red. The only let down was that there was no milk for the coffee, but after all we are in Russia. After lunch we were taken to an other souvenir shop before going to the Cathedral on Spilled blood built on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. From the outside the church looks like a Russian wedding cake and on the inside it is decorated with thousand of square metres of mosaics that go from floor to ceiling and even in the cupolas. This was truly beautiful. There was a market next to the church which was one of the few places you could bargain so we bought a few more things to go in our already full cases. We were back on board by 5:00pm, David went for a drink while Di had a rest. For dinner we had hamburgers in the sports bar while the ship sailed out for St Petersburg, then went to the early show in the Starlight Lounge which was a pair of ordinary acrobats- we both said we have seen much better on Australia's Got Talent. We were off to bed when we ran into Judith and John (our friends from Somerset). Poor John had been laid up with a bad back all day and they has missed their second day in St Petersburg, he was bad enough to need medical treatment. We were still in bed at 9:30pm and because of a time change we gained an hour overnight.

Sunday 28th August St Petersburg - Day 1

Our first sight of Russia was a power station billowing smoke out of it's chimneys.
It was fine and warm when we docked, and after breakfast we ventured into St Petersburg.
This was the first port where we needed to fill out immigration forms and it took a while to pass through passport control. Our guide for the day was a middle aged lady called Vera who was very knowledgeable but had a raspy voice and kept calling us dear ladies and gentlemen until she got flustered and dropped the dear bit. She would get upset when she lost someone, we had been told earlier that ten percent loss was acceptable and the worst she got to was five percent. We travelled through St Petersburg on a quiet
Sunday morning and we were surprised how well laid out the city was with wide streets and plenty of open parkland. It is made up of a lot of islands so there are many canals very similar to Venice without the hype. There are some magnificent buildings but some of them look a bit tired and there is a lot of restoration work going on. We travelled to the Tsar's Village and Catherine's Palace (Summer Palace). The palace is breathtaking with incredible decor and works of art, the crowds were horrendous but it was well worth it. On the way back to St Petersburg we stopped at a "traditional Russian restaurant" for lunch, it was amazing how one chicken can feed forty people. After lunch we had a stop at the obligatory souvenir shop before going on to the Hermitage Museum (Winter Palace) which was the thing we were all waiting for. Next to the Louvre the Hermitage has the greatest collection of art in the world, not all of it obtained legally. Once again the crowds were horrendous and Vera didn't help by stopping at every exhibit we passed with fullsome explanations. We were all exhausted and only left because the guards were turning off all the lights. Many of us had the ballet (Swan Lake) on that night and we were getting concerned about the time. We were back on board at 6.00pm and had to be back on shore at 6:45pm. Di managed to grab some food from the garden restaurant and eat it in our stateroom while she was getting ready, David was past it and didn't eat at all. We enjoyed the ballet and managed to stay awake through it even if we were confused by the ending. The swan didn't die and our guide said thats the way they perform it in Russia so it has a happy ending. How can such a blood thirsty race be compassionate about a bird. We were back on board at 11:00pm both totally exhausted.

Saturday 27 August Tallinn Estonia

We sailed into Tallinn on a beautiful clear, sunny, and warm morning. We weren't leaving the ship until nine so we had time for a leisurely breakfast in the dining room. We left the ship in the first group and finished up in bus number one. Once again we were very lucky and and got an excellent guide. "Annie" spoke impeccable English and had a very good sense of humour. She was old enough to have experienced atrocities and hardships the Russians inflicted on Estonia and her people and some of her memories and stories are horrific. In the west we knew things weren't good in the USSR's satellite states but I don't think we had any real idea how bad things really were. Tallinn is a small city that has a village atmosphere about it, parts of it are still very medieval and parts of it very well preserved or have been or are being restored. We visited the Song Festival Ground, a natal amphitheater that hosts Estonia's national song festival. We were taken to Pirita which was the site for the 1980 Olympic Games yachting regatta. A short drive took us to Tallinn's Upper Town to see Toompea Castle, now the residence of the Estonian Parliament. We visited the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral and a Gothic dome church known as St Mary's Cathedral. We walked along gothic cobblestone streets to a viewing point from where you could see all the lower town and port area. After a short walk down Short Leg street we had lunch in a medieval restaurant, which was a experience. We were on the third floor in a long room with no natural light and only a few candles on the tables to see by. They served us soup, pork with a damper style bread with nuts in it and lentils. We were given some shopping (or relaxing) time before a short trip back to the ship. There was a market at the pier where we bought a few souvenirs. We played with the photos for a while then had dinner in the Four Seasons restaurant. After dinner we went to the show in the Stardust Lounge, where there was a German musician playing nine different instruments he was excellent except that he sweated profusely and we were seated in the front row.

Friday 26 August At Sea

We were up in time to catch a late breakfast and we were amazed how many people were doing the same thing, the Garden Terrace was packed. After breakfast we played around on the computer until lunch time when we went to the Indian buffet where we met some of our new English and American friends. After lunch we went to a talk on the art treasures in the Hermitage museum in StPetersburg and how they had been acquired and lost. We spent the afternoon trying to do the blog on the iPad which was frustrating because David had forgotten how to do it, but it's slowly coming back. For dinner we went to Le Bistro which is the French restaurant on board. We both enjoyed a lovely meal followed by the late show in the Stardust lounge.

Thursday 25 August Warnemunde, Berlin, Germany

After a well needed sleep we were up at 06.30 for our first shore excursion. Got breakfast delivered to the room to save time and just made it to the briefing at 7.30am We were allocated group 5 led by our gorgeous german guide LISA (photo for Kristian) and headed across from the boat to hop on a special train which took us into Berlin (2.5 hrs). We got into bus 5 and started our tour - beginning with the East Side Gallery. Berlin was having an unusually hot day around 30 degrees. Artists from all around the world have painted on parts of the wall which has been preserved. Very moving and impressive. You can see the stones on the road where the wall used to be. Di is standing with one foot on the East and the other on the West. We then went to Check Point Charlie one of the main crossings between East and West Berlin. We toured around for an hour or so seeing Bebelplatz the home of the empty library in memory of all the Jewish books being burnt - the Potzdamerplatz where the first hole in the Berlin wall was made in 1989 - before going to a typical German Restaurant for lunch. We sat with a lovely couple from Somerset, and two couples from US. After lunch continued on seeing the Brandenberg Gate, the Charlottenburg Palace and the Holocaust memorial which is made up of 1200 blocks of concrete. Walking around it makes you feel invisible (as the Jews were made to feel). We arrived home late with the band music welcoming us (10pm). Instead of going straight to bed ended up at a barbecue around the pool for a late supper. Grabbed a crepe and took it back to the cabin to watch a movie and then slept very well.

Wednesday 24 August, Copenhagen, Denmark

Feeling much better we ate a lovely buffet breakfast and went down to the lobby to meet our fellow travellers who were a mother (an academic from Montreal) with two teenage children and her parents from Hong Kong. They were using the cruise as a family catchup. The driver was terrific gave us a guided tour through Copenhagen on the way to the port. We embarked within twenty minutes of arriving and settled into shipboard life, making reservations at the Teppanyaki for tonight and Indian and French for other times. The Teppanyaki was great and the company good as we were with a couple from Edinburgh (who showed us how to make origami birds) and another couple from French Quebec.

Tuesday 23 August Copenhagen, Denmark

After 33 hours traveling we finely reached Copenhagen at 12:30pm. We cleared customs quickly and had a short walk to the Hilton Hotel. We were luck enough to get a room upgrade which allowed us to use free wifi, it's a pity we were too tired to make full use of it.
We were glad to have a bath and shower before having a few hours sleep.In our sleep deprived state we managed to eat a small dinner before checking on transport to the port the next day. The concierge said there was a family of five who had booked an eight cab to take them to the ship the next morning, he rang them and they were only too pleased to allow us to join the and share the costs. The room had a great view and was amazingly quiet.
{Having trouble adding photos - will add later)

Monday 22 August - 22 September

We will be travelling from Melbourne to Copenhagen, via Singapore and London. One night in Copenhagen and then board Norwegian Sun for 9 day cruise to StPetersberg and back. Two nights in Copenhagen and then fly to London for 2 weeks in Midlands and Cornwall/Devon. 2 nights in Singapore and home. We would love to have your company on our travels. love Di and David xx