Stockholm!

I really love Scandanavia.  All of the countries that I’ve visited (and I count Iceland in there too) are the most familiar foreign places.  I feel very comfortable when I’m there, and I’m never very stressed about getting around (save the first night in Stockholm last time), pick-pockets, or much else.  Just a very pleasant travel experience.

For some reason, our day in Stockholm was somewhat limited time-wise.  We docked at 9:00 (no morning trivia), and had to be back on board by 3:45.  Because we knew that time was limited, Troy and I decided that we would do a hop-on, hop-off boat ride around the islands that Stockholm sits on, get off at Gamla Stan and revisit (for me) the Nobel Museum, walk around Old Town for a while, check out City Hall, and take the rest of the boat tour back to the ship.

That’s pretty much exactly what we did.  The boat tour went very smoothly (boats actually showed up for transport every 15 minutes, as opposed to every half hour or every “whenever we feel like showing up”) and the audio was pretty good.  I did manage to identify the ship-hostel that Amanda and I spent a single night in seven years ago.  Ahh, memories.

The Nobel Museum remains a very cool experience, and I was happy to go back.  I will say that it was smaller than I remember it being, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.  Walking around Gamla Stan was very déjà vu feeling, but fun to do, and we picked up a few souvenirs here and there.  We also picked up some crazy good ice cream in fresh waffle cones (we could smell the cones from probably 2 blocks away) and went into a science fiction store that housed the two board games that we play most often (Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride), a ton of expansions for those, and like 65 other exciting-looking board games.  We’ll definitely be checking out Amazon on our return (because how much fun would Ticket To Ride be with a map of the Nordic Countries?  So much fun).

After crossing the bridge out of Gamla Stan, checking out City Hall (from a distance), and exploring a little more, we headed back to the boat stop to finish the rest of the tour, which included the National Museum, the Vasa Museum (the Vasa is a medieval ship that was created to be the best in the world… a very big deal. On the day that it set sail, the ship made it ~1200 yards into the harbor and sank.  Yay, Hubris!), and the most compact amusement park I’ve ever seen.

We got back on the ship around 2:30, had a late lunch, and kicked around for a while.  Unfortunately, we went to the wrong place for afternoon trivia, and thus missed it.  We sat up on deck for a few hours and watched the ship exit the archipelago (there are hundreds of small Swedish islands, many of which are inhabited), and had a quiet evening.  Tomorrow is our second to last day at sea :(

Helsinki!

Helsinki was our first port of call without an excursion booked.  The ship docked at 9:00, so our plan was to go to the 9:15 trivia, and then take the shuttle from the docks to the center of Helsinki.  Mike, Ivy, Troy, and I were the only ones who showed up for trivia, and this time Mike and Ivy knew the answers to the questions, so they helped us think through the questions. After sitting around and talking about past travels for a while (they’re both crazy world travelers), Troy and I broke off to figure out the shuttle.

The shuttle dropped us off in the center of town around 10:30.  Our plan was to go down to the open air market and take the ferry over to Suomenlinna to explore the island for a few hours.  When we got to the marketplace, we just missed the ferry, so we walked around for 20-25 minutes and did a little souvenir shopping (got my magnet!).  Then, we boarded the ferry and took off for Suomelinna.  Finland reminds me a lot of Maine – the colors, plants, water, and scattered islands are all very similar to Casco Bay.

Suomenlinna was a sea fortress that opened in 1748, when Finland was part of Sweden.  Then, in 1808, the fortress changed hands in the Finnish War, and became a Russian Naval Base.  In 1918, the fortress is annexed by Finland during the Finnish Civil War.  Eventually, (after very little military success), the fortress has been named an UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the island has five museums, several hundred private apartments, a cathedral, a brewery, restaurants, and a number of other attractions.

Troy and I started by going through the overview museum, which highlighted the fortress’ less-than-spectacular military history, and the process of turning it into a national monument.  For the material that the museum had to work with, they did a great job.  We then walked to the northernmost part of the island, where we stopped for lunch, and wrapped around and walked to the southernmost part of the island.  We took a longer route and walked around the coast, where there are still a number of canons, and took in the incredibly gorgeous scenery.  We also timed this perfectly, because we got to Kings Gate, which was our ferry pick-up point, approximately five minutes before the ferry and six minutes before the rain.

By the time the ferry dropped us off on the mainland the rain had stopped, so we walked up to market square, got a glass of wine, and sat to people watch for a little bit.  Finland really makes it incredibly easy to be a tourist.  In many of the places we walked through, there were young adults in green serving as tourist information points, which was hugely helpful.  We caught the bus back to the ship around 3:30, where we got some food, hunkered down, and prepared to watch the ship leave port.

Later on, Celebrity threw a “white party” in the grand foyer.  Everyone wore white, the foyer was done up nicely with sheeting and ice sculptures, and they had a lot of fun entertainers (juggling, dancing, etc.).  It was super crowded, but we were glad we stopped by.

Stockholm tomorrow!

St. Petersburg (Again!)

Today we once again set off to explore St. Petersburg, this time with our tour guide Victoria, and our bus driver Yuri (Victoria repeated both of their names ~9 times, so I’m solid on that one).  Russian customs and immigration were less intense today, as the visas we got yesterday covered the full two-day stay.  So no more new passport stamps :/

Our tour included the following stops (where the game was pretty much to get off the bus, snap a few pictures, and get back on the bus, with Victoria throwing in some facts here and there):

• o   The two Egyptian Sphinx on the Neva River (Alexsey pointed out yesterday that the Sphinx were actually kind of a big deal, as they had been purchased and not merely looted after WWII)
• o   A lighthouse on the Neva
• o   The Peter and Paul Fortress (Home of the Peter and Paul Cathedral (the final resting place for even modern-day Romanovs), several military office buildings and housing structures, the Russian Mint, and a Russian Prison (the last two share a wall… how convenient is that?)).  We didn’t actually go into the Cathedral (much to the chagrin of an older gentleman in our party who apparently didn’t read the “NO INSIDE VISITS” part of the tour description), but Victoria was able to tell me about the gold used in all of the fancy roofs and cupolas.  Apparently, most of them were done in the 1850s, and the gold sheets were made by heating a mixture of mercury and gold through a sheet of brass (the heat source is under the brass).  The mercury then burns off, leaving the brilliant gold leaf firmly attached.  Unsurprisingly, a lot of people died during this process, so I suppose that it’s good that it has stood the test of time.
• o   A souvenir shop.  Seriously.  During a four-hour tour, we stopped for 40 minutes at a souvenir shop.  Sheesh.  It was across the street from the log cabin that Peter built and lived in for a time, but that (like many other attractions) was closed on Monday.
• o   A decommissioned submarine.
• o   The Church of the Spilled Blood.  Very Seussical, but unfortunately we didn’t have time to go inside.  When we got back on the bus, Victoria pointed to a stop across a bridge and said “did you go take pictures from there? It’s the best spot.”  I found this a little off-putting, since my feeling is that a tour guide shouldn’t be aiming for “gotcha, stupid tourist” moments, but whatever.
• o   St. Isaac’s Square.  St. Isaac’s was beautiful.  I wish we had had more than 10 minutes, because people could clearly climb pretty darned close to the top, and I bet that the view is fantastic.

So, while we had a lot of different stops during this tour, I didn’t care for it as much as the one yesterday.  It seemed like a random collection of facts, and Victoria was somewhat flat.  I also didn’t really care for the format of “get on the bus, get off the bus, take pictures without really understanding what you’re taking pictures of, get on the bus.”  But oh well.  The weather was gorgeous both days (80-85 degrees and sunny), and I still feel like we were able to see a lot of the City.

When we got back to the ship, we ate, relaxed for a while, did dinner, and then went to Reflections for the Pub Quiz.  Despite the fact that there was a paper airplane distance challenge thrown in there, and our team was the only one to have the airplane go backwards, we won by just the tiniest bit.  We didn’t know the name of Elvis’ twin, or who was originally slated to play the lead in Dirty Harry.  After pub quiz, we sat and watched the ship sail away into the (11:15 pm) sunset.  It was very beautiful.

Looking forward to tomorrow in Helsinki!

Catherine

St. Petersburg

Today was our longest day so far, with an excursion that started at 7:15 and went straight through to around 5:00.  We also lost another hour, so waking up was a little more challenging than one might have liked.  After a quick breakfast in the room, we made our way to the meet-up point, so that we could all go through Russian customs together.  We stood in line for approximately 50 minutes, after which we were each (very slowly) granted a Russian Tourist Visa.  This is important, because unless you do it all from home several months in advance, the only way that you can get off the ship in St. Petersburg is with a Tourist Visa, which is arranged through an excursion.  So, no excursion, no Russia.  But, we had an excursion all planned, so everything worked (and we got more passport stamps!).

Our itinerary for the day included Peterhof and the Hermitage Museum.  Our guide, Aleksey was wonderful.  He had great depth of knowledge, and was happy to make a ton of little Russia jokes (Our president has a 110% approval rating, because when you come to our country, you approve of him too!  No, no, the official approval rating is 62% - Your president would kill for an approval rating of 62%).  Peterhof was the Baroque-style summer residence of Peter the Great and his wife Catherine, followed by Elizabeth (who liked gold), followed by Catherine the Great (who didn’t).  Aleksey guided us through the inside of Peterhof, which was great, because we were able to access the mansion before the general public, and then the outside and the cascading waterfalls and fountains afterwards.  He made a point of the fact that none of the fountains or water features at Peterhof are driven by pumps, but rather entirely via gravity.  Inside, the amount of gold leaf and gilding is overwhelming in its sheer decadence – you can’t believe that it’s not just gold paint (and even if it were, the carving is amazing).

After Peterhof, we had lunch at a “local Russian restaurant” (I put that in quotes because what local restaurant can handle several tour busses at the same time?)  But the food was very good, and came with champagne and vodka for everyone, so who could argue with that?  We had soup, salad, and what seemed very similar to a stroganoff.  After lunch, it was half an hour or so to get to the Hermitage Museum.

If I understand correctly, the Hermitage is the largest art museum in Russia, with branches all over the world.  A significant portion of the art was acquired by Peter the Great, Elizabeth, and Catherine the Great, though some of it has been acquired more recently.  All of the ceilings were carved in very ornate patterns, and in many rooms, the floors mirrored the ceiling patterns with colorful inlays (as many as 14 different inlay colors in some places).  We were able to see works by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, and many more.  Aleksey was great about relaying the highlights, but also keeping things moving, since it was incredibly crowded.  We were thrilled to have him, since it’s not a super logical layout (several buildings are connected), and without a guide, we would have been lost in minutes (as it was, we were there for almost three hours, and we walked more than two and a half miles just within the museum).

When we got back to the ship, we didn’t have dinner reservations until late, so we had a snack and crashed for a while.  After dinner, we played a few rounds of iPad Trains, Trains, listened to Emily and the Nightcaps for a while, and went to bed.

Tomorrow is St. Petersburg, Day II, and we are slated to take a panoramic tour of the City.

Tallinn, Estonia

Today was our second port day, in Tallinn, Estonia.  We had zero expectations for the city, because for real, who knows anything about Estonia?  I have developed a “cruise cold,” which seems to just consist of sinus pressure, a stuffy nose, and a cough.  I largely feel pretty good, but sound miserable (so I’m tons of fun to share a somewhat small stateroom with, I’m sure).  Also, for anyone who has ever shared a hotel room with me on a trip, the “wake up in the middle of the night and talk about incoherent things loudly” phase has begun.  Last night I had what seems to have been a conversation of decent length with Troy about thread, and the fact that someone else was taking care of having it.  At like… 3:00 AM.  As I said, TONS OF FUN to share a cabin with.  Anyway, to Tallinn.

We didn’t dock in Tallinn until 10:30, which meant that morning trivia was still on.  We actually didn’t do as well (16/21) on this one, despite Mike and Ivy being trivia wizards.  Questions we got wrong included:

o   How many wings does a flea have?

o   How many eyes does a spider have?

o   Composer whose death ended the Baroque period?

Trivia this time was with Mark, who is our Activities Director.  We had a lovely conversation about how not-crowded everything on the ship is, despite the fact that there are more than 2000 passengers and 160+ children on board.  I mentioned that the only place I’ve really seen tons of people are in the buffet restaurant.  Mark just kinda rolled his eyes and acknowledged that yes, all of humanity is in fact at the buffet.  I like that our cruise personnel have good senses of humor.

We chose to do a scenic discovery tour of Tallinn, which started with a bus ride through some of the suburbs, where our guide gave us a lot of general information about the City and Estonia.  We stopped a few times.  The first time was at the site of a major music festival that happens every 5 years.  It involves choirs from all over Estonia, and is either attended or participated in by more than a quarter of the total population (1.3 M).

We then went to the upper city, which seemed to be built entirely out of limestone (as is the country).  It was cool that there were very visible areas of expansion and different time periods.  For example, anything with a red roof pretty much defined the “Old Town,” which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Then, in the suburbs, it was very clear what was soviet-era housing and what was newer.  We toured several churches and learned about the Estonia Parliament.  Apparently, at the ripe old age of 27, I am pretty poised to become the President of Estonia (he’s 28).  The Prime Minister is 32.  Now you may be saying, hold on Catherine – you’re not Estonian.  If you were, you’d probably have known something about Estonia.  Well, correct.  But the President of Estonia is from New Jersey.  The president of Latvia is from Toronto, and the president of Lithuania is from Chicago.  So… if water and wastewater consulting doesn’t work out, Tallinn was lovely, and seems very progressive.  I say that because apparently the Prime Minister has a child with his girlfriend (they’ve been together for 5 years) and that’s not even a thing.  Apparently, the tabloids just make a joke out of it and tease him about a big proposal.

Overall, we were both really impressed by our tour guide and the tour in general.  It was a good overview, and he was very good about pacing.  Andres was pretty interesting, and had a very musical voice.  In Estonian, it’s pretty much all long vowels, and we all had single-ear earphones, which, if you weren’t actually looking at Andres made it seem as if Dracula was narrating our tour.  Coolest thing ever.

We got back to the ship mid-afternoon, grabbed lunch, and did some reading.  I’m now through The Art Forger, The Wheel of Time, The Disappearing Spoon, and the first of the Dresden Files.  Next up is Trash, by Andy Mulligan.

We lose another hour tonight, so tomorrow morning will likely be brutal, especially with a head cold.  That said, I did get an antihistamine that seems to be working like a charm J

Saint Petersburg tomorrow!!

Trivia answers: None (trick question), 8, Bach

Day at Sea (sub II)

Hey all,

In an effort to get caught up (I’m a few days behind on the blogging), today’s post is a bullet list of activities with commentary where I have comments.  Our second day at sea did include a “don’t forget to move your clocks back” notification, which of course, we forgot to do.

• ·         Morning Stretch (which was a bit of a scramble, since 6:30 is really very early, if you’re expecting to get up for 7:30)
• ·         Breakfast
• ·         Trivia with Mike and Ivy (we also teamed up with another couple here – I don’t recall either of their names, but I’ve seen them around a fair bit).  We won!  This time our life changing prize was a Celebrity Cruises pen!  Woo!  Questions included:

o   What was a Puffing Billy?

o   What is feldspar?

o   What is the most common fast food restaurant in the world?

• ·         A nap.  Time changes are brutal.  Or something. 
• ·         Reading/hot tub/reading/dozing/reading (that may or may not have been the correct order of operations)
• ·         Progressive trivia – Troy and I got 12/15.  Our friends from Massachusetts got 13/15, but only rubbed it in a little.  Things we got wrong:

o   What is the only mammal born with horns?

o   What band does Brian Jones play for?

o   What country comes first alphabetically?

• ·         Dinner (we did not make new friends at the dinner table, but the food was delicious)
• ·         Battle of the Sexes!   (Troy and I were unsure as to whether we were going to actually go.  We showed up and stood there trying to decide whether we would stay, and the announcers roped us in.  It was super cute though.  Men won the trivia and ladies won the challenge.  I did pretty well with the female trivia, but wouldn’t have done all that well without a solid team on the male team).

Tomorrow is Estonia!  Woot!

1^st trivia answers:  A Puffing Billy was a steam engine in a train.  Feldspar is a mineral.  The most common fast food restaurant is actually not McDonald’s.  It is Subway.  And that fact blows my mind.

2^nd trivia answers: Giraffes.  We said rhinos.  Brian Jones plays for The Rolling Stones.  Afghanistan comes before Albania.  Now we know.

Germany!

Hey all,

Usually, my blog posts go pretty chronologically.  Today, I think it’s vitally important to not bury the lead – I remember enough German to successfully purchase large pretzels.  I just wanted to allay all fears to the contrary before going through the day.

The ship wasn’t set to dock until 10:15, so in advance of that, I did morning stretch again, grabbed breakfast, and met Troy for morning trivia.  This time we paired with Mike and Ivy, who are from Clearwater, FL and were recognized last night for having spent more than a year at sea doing different cruises (apparently pretty much all of them).  They’re wiz-bang at trivia though, so we more or less cleaned up.  As a reward for our efforts, we were awarded life changing prizes (lanyards to put our key cards in… so swanky).  We hung around and talked to Mike and Ivy for a little while afterwards, and then got ready to depart for Deutschland. 

Our tour started with a half hour drive to Rostock, during which our tour guide Katarina regaled us with all of the parts of Rostock that were destroyed in World War Second.  Rostock was very quaint (pictures to follow when internet is not quite so outrageous) and after walking around Rostock University Square and the Abbey of the Holy Cross, we had a little bit of time to wander around the square and the large fountain on our own.  Enter the point where I successfully bought pretzels J

As a group, we then walked to the St. Marien Church, which was built in 1230, and has a mostly-functional astrological clock that dates back to 1472.  Apparently a lot of the church was walled off during WWII to keep the Nazis from coming in and taking all the metal to recycle into wartime efforts, so much of the original artifacts and artwork remain.  Even the huge stained glass window more or less survived a somewhat direct bombing toward the end of the war.

After St. Marien, we bussed to the Brauhaus Trotzenburg, where we were given beer, more pretzels, and souvenir shot glasses.  After trying the beer (and listening to people say that the pretzels were just too big to eat (What?!?! Really?!?!), we took a tour of the production center.  Brauhaus Trotzenburg fits pretty squarely in the microbrewery category – they don’t distribute at all, just make enough for their own restaurant and operations.

We got back to the ship around 2:00 and got some lunch.  This was followed by reading on the deck, a nap, and a walk into Warnemunde, which was the actual town/village that we docked in.  Warnemunde was very pleasant – sort of a Virginia Beach meets Germany feel, right down to the intense sand sculptures.  No big Neptune though – we assume it’s under construction.

Dinner was not formal, but very delicious.  It was “Top Chef” night, so all the recipes featured had been created for Top Chef Challenges.  After dinner, we went to one of the lounges and watched karaoke, which was both awesome and awful, depending on who was at the microphone.

Tomorrow is another Day at Sea, before we hit Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm J

First Day at Sea

Surprisingly enough, I was able to get up in time to make it to morning stretch, which seems to be a yoga-lite.  Fine by me.  A little more challenging when the floor lurches a bit, but mostly not balance-intensive, which is better for me anyway.  Troy made it up in time to have room service deliver breakfast.  We then did a morning round of trivia to get the brain waves going.  Out of 15 questions, we got a grand total of six correct.  We did not do well with baby animals (baby alligators are hatchlings, as it turns out) and several other categories.  To really ramp up the friendly competition, the group in front of us got 15/15.  Apparently, they had heard it all before.

After trivia, Troy was feeling a little seasick, so we went back to the stateroom and dozed for a bit.  When the Dramamine kicked in, we nursed our wounded trivia pride in the hot tub for a while, and then read on the deck.  Pretty gorgeous weather – cool and sunny.  We went to the buffet for a late lunch and roamed the decks looking for shuffleboard.  No such luck on shuffleboard being an option.

At 4:00, we went into the Rendezvous Lounge to wait for the progressive trivia tournament to start, and we had the opportunity to hear the end of the passenger choir’s first rehearsal.  I just think it’s awesome that that’s an option for participation on board.  Now all they need are some arts and crafts, and I’m set.  You’ll be happy to know that Troy and I performed considerably better during the progressive trivia round, missing only three of the fifteen questions.  These are the ones we missed.  I’ll put the answers at the bottom.

·         What color is most common in the flags of the countries of the world?

·         What color is slug’s blood?

·         What is the only word in the English language to end in –mt?

After trivia, we had our first formal night in the dining room.  I once again had French onion soup, and lamb medallions for the entrée.  Very tasty, and we sat with a couple from Australia, and a couple from Southern California.  Learned some about Australia (was able to drop some knowledge from the history of the periodic table of elements book that I’m reading (The Disappearing Spoon)), and generally had a good time.  Both couples were veteran cruisers.

The next “event” was the Captain’s Address.  Captain Tasos is the youngest captain ever in the Celebrity fleet and had a nice sense of humor.  He introduced his senior officers, and talked for probably five minutes before the event turned into “Production Spectacular: Hollywood!” which was a singing dancing number that was very high energy and had a whole lot of costume changes.  We finished the night off with Emily and the Nightcaps.  And by “finished the night off,” I mean, we were two of four people who hung around to hear Emily and the Nightcaps go until “late.”

Tomorrow is Excursion the first!  We’re going to Rostock, Germany and doing a tour of the town and the brewery.

More later!

Answers:  Red (we said white), Green (we said yellow), and Dreamt (we said... nothing)

Celebrity Cruising!

Cruise day sub 1

We were startled awake by someone coming into our room unannounced.  We’re pretty sure that it was housekeeping, since they opened the door, didn’t say anything, and then closed the door again.  To be fair to housekeeping or whomever, it was later than we might normally have slept.  But, I’m pretty sure that we’re now on board with local time.  So anyway, the unanticipated and slightly creepy wakeup call got us going.  To make the best use of our 24-hour public transportation passes (and our hotel’s 11:00 AM checkout policy) we got organized and headed to the ship for check-in.

Wait for it.  In the pouring rain.  Because of course.  By the time we navigated the tram and did the 15-minute walk from Central Station to the Passenger Terminal for cruise ships, we looked (and felt) like drowned rats.  Let me tell you, the “first picture after having just checked in” is a less than flattering presentation (at least of me – Troy looks very nice, as usual).  Because we were checking in a few hours before the deadline, we made it through all the opening stuff in less than a half an hour, and were greeted on board with champagne and mimosas.  Nothing not to like there.

We didn’t have our luggage, and our stateroom was still being prepped, so we went to explore the ship and find some lunch.  Thankfully, their buffet was open and we were able to grab a solid amount of food.  The downside was that everyone else on the ship had the same idea at the same time, so we took it outside where we were covered, but still damp.  We’re embracing the damp at this point.  Plus, the ship has an entire ice cream bar that is open basically all the time. We bummed around in the solarium until we were able to get into our stateroom, and then we took the opportunity to try out the solarium’s hot tub/thalassotherapy pool.

We opted for the “classy casual” dining option, and based on the quality of the French onion soup and the salmon, that will be my preference moving forward.  It was AWESOME.  We chatted some with the couple sitting next to us, who were from Worchester, Massachusetts.  It was a very pleasant experience.  After dinner, we went to one of the lounges to read for a while, and listen to Emily and the Nightcaps, who played an interesting variety of covers.

The only thing that really annoyed me was that I had used pretty much all of my Bank of America credit card points to purchase a $500 Celebrity gift card, which I assumed (based on zero information to the contrary being provided by BoA when I purchased) that the giftcard could be used to pay for excursions and on-board expenses.  Lies.  It actually says pretty specifically on the back of the card that it can only be used in booking new travel, so I won’t be able to use it on this trip.  Guess we’ll have to book another.

Tomorrow is our first day at sea.  My plan (we’ll see if it happens) is to get up and do Morning Stretch, and maybe yoga.  Then, there are two trivia periods, a “buy another cruise” talk (that I already have an incentive to go to), BINGO!, dinner where lamb is the suggested entrée, and all sorts of other things to explore.

Yay for cruises!

Amsterdam!

Hey All,

I know that a post never showed up detailing our day in Amsterdam.  That’s because the place we stayed had very selective internet accessibility.  As in, some internet algorithm decided which pages would load and which wouldn’t.  Gmail? Fine.  Google blogger? No.  Facebook? Fine.  Facebook messenger? No.  Anyway, here’s Amsterdam sub 1.

After getting up especially early on Monday so that we could get breakfast before getting on the train to Amsterdam, we were surprised to learn that Belgian Waffle stands aren’t open at 7:45 for breakfast.  FOR REAL? WHO DOES THAT?!?  So no waffles for us L.  Taking the train to Amsterdam was very easy, and we got there right on time at 10:40.  The metro that would have taken us straight to our hotel was out of order, so instead we took the metro to some random stop somewhere, where we then took a bus to our hotel stop.

We dropped our stuff and headed back to Central Station, to meet up with the hop-on, hop-off bus, which came every 15 minutes (ish).  At the first stop, there was a line about 50 deep to get on, so we were a little worried, but we were able to get on to the second bus.  We rode several stops, and listened to the tour (this used to be the post office, but now it’s the mall… this used to be a crappy place to live, but now even Rembrandt couldn’t afford to live here… etc.).  We got off in an area with a lot of restaurants, grabbed some lunch and walked around for a while (while trying not to get run over by a tram, bus, car, vespa, or bicycle, all of which seemed to have a better sense of the unwritten rights-of-way than we did).  Then, we got back on the bus and listened to most of the rest of the tour.

The next time we got off, it was to go to the flower market, which was crowded, but still managed to smell nice, and not like a sea of sweaty humanity.  I appreciated that.  It was relatively close to Rembrandt Square, so we walked over there after the Flower Market and caught a canal cruise.  The canal cruise was pretty awesome, because the buildings that line the canals are all super pretty, and we even got to go out into the harbor and see all the larger ships and whatnot.

After the cruise, neither of us were starving, but we found a place to stop by Rembrandt Square and got a snack and a few drinks while we debated what to do next.  The hop on-hop off tours had ended at that point, so we decided to head back to the hotel (via the most time consuming tram ever) and get dinner around there.  We both fell asleep within ten minutes of getting back.  An hour and a half later… it was pretty late, so we grabbed dinner at the hotel, and went back to repack, and get ready to head to the cruise ship the next morning.

One day closer to caught up J I’ll do another later.

Catherine

Waffles and Parliament

Hey All,


Hope everything's going well stateside :).  We got a slightly later start on the day (I think we were trying to make up for little to no sleep on the way over).  But luckily, in Belgium, breakfast is an all day event.  Assuming you want waffles (which of course we did).  And they were delicious.


After that awesome start to the day, we wandered over toward the European Parliament.  I say wandered because it was off the map that the hotel gave us, so we had a general sort of sense of where we were going.  I wouldn't say that we took the most direct route, but Brussels is very scenic, so it all worked out. 


We got to the EU Parliament around noon, and started exploring the exhibits.  The internet had told us to expect to spend around an hour in the museum, and around 30 minutes in the actual EU Parliament building.  Lies.  We finished the museum around three hours later, and among the things we learned in the museum was that Parliament is actually on vacay this week.


The museum was very well organized, and had a lot of cool technology to walk you through the history of the EU and the current state of things.  Everyone got their own iPod-like speaker that you could just swipe in front of certain symnpls, and it would either give you information on the screen, or it would start talking to you.  There were a few frustrating parts (for example, you would swipe your iPod-like-thingy and be reading through the information on a large television monitor when someone else would come up and swipe theirs and the screen would reset and be in their native language - European collaboration, my butt), but for the most part, it was very well put together.  Lots and lots of information.


After wandering back by a large gate (in the rain, because let's be real, apparently that's pretty much the weather here), King Leopold's Park, and several other significant areas of Belgium, we finally found the metro, and were able to get back to the general area of our hotel.  This was obviously cause for ice cream celebration :)  Or just ice cream.  I don't need an excuse.


Tonight for dinner, we followed a recommendation from Neil and Katie and had a very tasty dinner, followed by more wandering around.  Pictures to follow, as soon as I recharge my computer.  Tomorrow, we're off to Amsterdam!


Catherine

Mini-Europe, Atomium, the Grand Platz, and the Rain. Mostly the Rain.

Hi All,

When we arrived at our hotel at 7:00 in the morning, the somewhat grouchy (but maybe just aloof, non-morning European) lady at the front desk informed us that there would be no rooms available for several hours.  So, not wanting to waste time, we glanced at a map and took off for the metro.

Rather than noticing the metro stop 50 feet in front of the hotel, we walked a few blocks in the direction that our taxi driver had pointed us.  To a tram station.  Not, as it turns out, the same thing.  But there were several people sleeping outside in tents, so that's something.  After we got our bearings, we walked back and found the metro stop by our hotel, went down, and hopped on the number six line to do what we considered to be probably the height of awesome tourist activities.  We were on our way to Atomium and Mini-Europe.

This is what we found when we got there:

That, my friends is Atomium.  A description will follow, but please note the impending rain and complete and total lack of other people.  Because Mini-Europe opened at 9:30 and Atomium opened at 10:00, we headed over to Mini-Europe.  Got there around 9:00.  No one was there.  No one.

So, it's a Saturday morning, in the summer, and there are exactly zero people at what seems to be a reasonably popular tourist attraction.  Granted, within the next 10-15 minutes, it was actually raining pretty hard.  But still, we weren't sure what to make of that.  At around 9:25 a girl showed up, got things organized, and opened the gate so that we could buy tickets.  She seemed pretty surprised to see us, and didn't really give us any hint as to what we were about to encounter.  Which was totally awesome.

Mini-Europe is a series of models of major European landmarks.  They're made meticulously to a scale of 1:25.  It really was like touring all of Europe in a day.

Seriously, they really had pretty much everything.  Best parts:

• It was totally interactive.  They had buttons that you could push to hear the national anthem of each country, knock down the Berlin Wall, and make the Dutch windmills turn.  They also had a lot of little games that you could play.  For example, in the France section, they had a Mona Lisa heist set up.  Troy was the robber, and I was the police, and we both had to run in place on a special mat.  I caught him, and the Mona Lisa was safe.
• The Romania section featured Dracula!
• We were literally the only ones there for the majority of our visit (and at some point the rain tapered off some).

(Note the Charlotte love (and lack of weather-appropriate clothing))

After learning more about the spirit of cooperation that forged the EU, it was on to Atomium.  Atomium was built as the showcase structure of the 1958 World Fair.  According to placards inside, architects were generally unimpressed, but the public went wild :).  We were able to go in to four of the electrons, via a series of elevators, stairs, and escalators.  And we had a lovely view from the top :)

Most of the exhibits talked about what went into hosting a world fair (300 multi-lingual hostesses, dressed in red blazers and blue skirts, who both were coy and coquettish) and some of the scientific advances that were being presented.  The permanent exhibition also included a really neat light (and somewhat trippy) light show in one of the spheres that was set to music, and supposed to make us think about artificial intelligence and what would happen if it were to get out of control (that was on a plaque after the light show... I missed the memo until then).

After leaving Atomium, we grabbed lunch near Mini-Europe and headed back to the hotel, where we were able to check in a little after 1:00.  We fell asleep almost immediately.  When we finally got moving again several hours later, we were excited to see blue sky, and headed off toward the Grand Platz, to see what it was all about.  We got there just as the Belgium-Argentina World Cup game was beginning.  While it was cool to be walking around in the midst of that (there were a lot of restaurants that had it on with crowds outside), I was a little underwhelmed by the lack of general pandemonium.  Oh well.  We found a nice place to sit outside and have dinner, and just as we were finishing up, it started raining again.  Surprise!  Oh well.  

Tomorrow we're off to eat waffles and visit Parliament.  There's also apparently a comic book trail around here (we think we may have met TinTin at Atomium), so we may venture off in search of that.

Such a fun day!

Catherine

Hey all!


After a mostly uneventful flight (who knew that there are international flights without TVs on the chair backs?!?!?!), we've made it to Brussels, and are getting ready to go explore.  I'm sure that excellent pictures will follow.  Troy has already documented the signage in our taxi, which either meant "wear your seatbelt in the taxi" or "don't be naked in the taxi."  We don't speak french, so it was a little hard to tell ;)


More later!


Catherine

Honeymoon!!

Hi All,


Yup, that's right - just three-and-a-half-ish months after our epic trip to Portugal, I'm packing up and hitting the road again! And this time, Troy's coming too!! Given that this is our first big international trip together (Montreal doesn't count), and also our honeymoon (!!!), we have quite the awesome itinerary ahead of us. And here it is:


Friday, July 4: Fly direct from Charlotte to Brussels

Saturday, July 5: Arrive in Brussels, hang out, maybe watch some soccer with the Belgians, maybe visit Atomium (which I hope will be reminiscent of Chicago O'Hare).

Sunday, July 6: Continue to hang out in Brussels, eat chocolate and waffles

Monday, July 7: Depart Brussels via train, arrive in Amsterdam, do the hop-on, hop-off bus, see tulips

Tuesday, July 8: Hang out in Amsterdam, board cruise ship (!), depart Amsterdam

Wednesday, July 9: Day at Sea, read books. All of them.

Thursday, July 10: Warnemunde, Germany - walking tour, brewery, BRETZELS! There will be sooo many bread products coming back on board with us.

Friday, July 11: Day at Sea - Explore the ship, eat the food

Saturday, July 12: Tallinn, Estonia - Touring the city, exploring the 159.2 km2 of Tallinn, which houses 32.7% of Estonians. Thanks for sending us on the tour, Jenn!

Sunday, July 13: St. Petersburg! We're going to do Peterhof and the Hermitage. So many pictures forthcoming there. Peterhof is modeled after Versailles, which I haven't been to, so I need to soak this experience in and count it twice. Speaking of twice-ing things...

Monday, July 14: St. Petersburg again! I believe that we're aiming to take a tour of all the places Rasputin died. Who doesn't love that this even exists?

Tuesday, July 15: Helsinki, Finland - See the sights, bask in the not 98 degree weather of Charlotte, NC

Wednesday, July 16: Stockholm, Sweden - Play I Spy with Nobel Laureates, find the chef, eat the meatballs

Thursday, July 17: Day at Sea, re-read all the books. Probably nap and play shuffleboard.

Friday, July 18: Copenhagen, Denmark - Learn what the Danes do all day

Saturday, July 19: Day at Sea, Eat all the rest of the food - all of it!

Sunday, July 20: Dock in Amsterdam, train back to Brussels

Monday, July 21: Remember to miss the cats, feel bad, return to the States to find them generally disinterested in our presence.


Temperatures are forecasted to be between 65 and 78 the whole time we're there. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a really, really stellar honeymoon. I cannot wait to get going!


Until tomorrow!


Catherine


Currency Exchange Rates:

$1 = .74 Euro

$1 = 11.73 Estonian Kroon

$1 = 34.27 Russian Rubles

$1 = 6.82 Swedish Krona

$1 = 5.48 Danish Krone

Belem

After carefully availing ourselves of our Lisbon transportation options, Jenn and I decided to bite the bullet and really be tourists for the remainder of the trip.  As such, we started the day by purchasing 48-hour tickets on the hop-on, hop-off double decker bus.  There were a lot of benefits to this, including its ability to take us to areas that the somewhat limited metro can't, an audio tour (that worked approximately 50% of the time), and getting to see a little bit more of the City in transit.

Today, we took the red line, which had a stop down the block from our bed and breakfast.  We got to the stop, and waited.  Then we waited some more.  And then we waited.  Finally, one of the drivers from another double decker tourism bus company (there are three) took pity on us and gave us a ride to Belem, which was our intended destination (all three bus companies use the same routes).

Belem is a fairly concentrated area at the mouth of the Tagus River.  Famous sites include the Tower of Belem, which we walked around for a while, and Jeronimo's Monastery.  Jeronimo's Monastery has lovely gardens outside, where we hunkered down and dozed in the sun near a large fountain.  The weather was pretty close to perfect - high 60s, mostly sun... beautiful.  When we completed our cat-like activities, we explored the Monastery, and walked around Belem a bit.  As you may have already guessed, the weather was perfect for gelato.  So obviously we got some.  And it was delicious.

We wandered a little further, and then found the hop-on spot.  There was slightly less waiting this time, and we stayed on the bus for about half of the almost-two-hour tour, to get a better sense of Lisbon.  We hopped off for half an hour or so at the Marques do Pombal square, so that we could climb to the top and see the view.

(I haven't uploaded my pictures yet, but this is exactly what it looked like)

By this point, it was getting a little late, so we hopped back on and headed back to the general vicinity of our B&B to find dinner and do a bit of souvenir shopping.  Dinner was actually at Burger King.  For some reason, I was really feeling a burger, and Burger King now sells bean burgers, which Jenn said was surprisingly tasty.  Now if only they had real Diet Coke... (this is my one-week-iversary without it... clearly, it can be done.  But why should it?)

More exploring (and shopping) tomorrow.  We're both trying not to go back to the ATM unless absolutely necessary (I had $9.14 in fees after withdrawing money on Sao Miguel - totally ridiculous, and we won't need leftover euros in the states), which puts us each at around 20 euros, after you take our money for our 4:15 AM cab ride to the airport on Saturday.  We'll see if we make it...

Lisbon!

Scene: 5:45 AM - Hotel Ponta Delgada
*Alarm goes off*
"I don't waaaaaaannnnnnnnnaaa get up."  grump grump grump.  Up by 5:55.
End scene.

And with that illustrious start, we headed to the airport, sat around for an hour (we were the only ones there for the first 30 minutes of that hour), boarded a flight to Tercierra (another island in the Azores), and landed 45 minutes later.  Our layover was pretty brief, and a 20+ person ensemble serenaded us while we waited and then again on the plane for Lisbon.  The weather was pretty crappy this morning, so we were pretty excited to see that it was upper 60s and sunny in Lisbon, and should remain so for the duration of our stay.

We were able to check in right away at Whatever Art Bed and Breakfast.  This is our room.  And, there were peacocks on the back patio.  In other words, life is good.  We spent a little time getting settled in, and then headed off to find lunch and explore the City Center.

So far, I like what I see of Lisbon.  After Ponta Delgada, the hustle and bustle is awesome, and it's been very pleasant to walk around thus far.  Tomorrow, we're planning to go to the Belem area, which comes highly recommended by the Whatever proprietor, Carlos.

And now, despite the brief blog post, I need to go finish the last little bit of my book.  Until tomorrow!

The Sea!

I think that if you go to an island and never go out on the water, that's a big ol' missed opportunity.  So, after almost missing our opportunity (the company (which was otherwise awesome) never sent us direction to the meeting spot, so we went to the wrong one twice), we took to the sea for a whale watching extravaganza. Due to our tardiness, we missed the English version of the introductory safety information, but we're pretty sure that it boiled down to "remember that you're on a boat and don't be stupid," and we did hear the "the sea - it is not flat" warning, so we assumed that we were all good.

Now, at least for me (possibly due to my New England roots), whale watching conjured up visions of small cruise ships with many levels, different places that you can hang out, get snacks, enjoy being out on the water, and ideally see whales and eat snacks.

With that picture in mind, allow me to introduce you to our seaworthy vessel for today's adventure (note the lack of snacks).

We got up close and personal with the marine life.  Really personal.

So, our group of 12 straddled our elongated pommel horses and headed out to sea.  We first headed to some traditional fishing boats.  Apparently, all fishing in the Azores is done in the traditional fashion - either hooks and lines or the nets seen here.  These nets allow for trapping fish, but do not trap dolphins, so they're very ecologically responsible.

And apparently, dolphins appreciate this ecological responsibility, and choose to hang out around the fishing boats, hoping to steal lunch.  We were able to see a few pods of common dolphins (~3M in the world), including this one.

So that's the benefit of the weird pommel horse boat.  The dolphins come three feet away from you.  Now we know.

After hanging out with these dolphins for a while, the captain of our blow-up vessel hear that there were other marine life sightings, and we took off for those.  At the next stop, we saw two converging pods of bottlenose dolphins (like Flipper, but without the jumps).  

The second dorsal fin from the left belongs to a baby dolphin.  Apparently, mother dolphins are pregnant for about a year, and then nurse for two years.  Most babies are born in the summer, so this guy was a little early.  We hung around and followed these guys for a while, and then headed further out to the open sea.

Unfortunately, the as we got further away, the visibility decreased, and we were unable to see any other marine life - so no whales this trip.  It was great to be out on the water though, and a very pleasant day for it (especially since Futurismo gave us rain jackets and pants to protect us from the spray - if only we had had our Frog Toggs).

When we got back to shore, we disembarked, had tea, and took off to meander through Ponta Delgada.  We stopped for lunch at a restaurant on the water and wandered through some of the side streets in town (continuing to be impressed by the mosaic sidewalks).

Later, we headed back to the hotel for a little downtime before dinner.  We've been staying at Hotel Ponta Delgada, which has overall been very pleasant.  The room isn't huge, but it's a good size, and we've made excellent use of the breakfast provided every morning.  The only weird thing (and I don't know if this is standard for the island, or what, but) is that the entry light and the bathroom light are only controlled through a motion detector.  So, it's very possible that you're taking a shower in the evening, and all of a sudden it's pitch black.  You then flail around for a while until the lights return, so that you can start the process all over again.  And it's vindictive - sometimes it gives you two or three minutes, sometimes it gives you 30 seconds.  I probably won't miss that system.  Jenn won't either - I asked.

Off to Lisbon tomorrow!

Sete Cidades etc.

We took our time getting going this morning, as Jenn had some work to do and I did some sewing (which has traveled the Atlantic very well thus far).

Around 11:30, taking advantage of the freedom afforded to us by Stripey McStriperson, we headed off to Sete Cidades, which is a protected area around a lake, and one of the Ten Wonders of Portugal.

The first place we stopped was a designated lookout area across the street from an abandoned hotel.  These were some of our first views of Lagoa Azul (the distant lake) and Lagoa Verde (the closer lake).

Clearly, very lovely.  In search of better views, we decided to explore the abandoned hotel.

This is what the hotel looked like from the outside...

.... And this is the lobby.  So, clearly the hotel has seen better days.  Which is sad, because we wandered through some of the suites, and clearly in its prime, this place was gorgeous.  Ultimately, we did get our better views.

Moving on from abandoned hotel land, we drove down to the lakes and stopped at a few more viewing places along the way.  Unfortunately, the town itself is pretty small and didn't have much for us to stop and do.  As such, we decided to head to the beach at Mosteiros.

We made it there, but not before getting in our ridiculous hike du jour.  So, today, we'd had pretty good luck with the marked lookout points.  So, on the edge of the crater (this island is volcanic, and Sete Cidades sits in the center of a volcanic crater), we saw a sign for a lookout point.  Not believing that Stripey would do well on the dirt roads, we decided to walk.  Forty minutes later, straight up the mountain, we decided that we must have somehow missed it, and we headed back.  We now don't think that we missed it, it was even further out.  We did get run off the road by cows though, so that's something.

And we also got some lovely views, and what turned out to be a very solid hike.  So it's all good.

When we did make it to Mosteiros, the sun was more or less trapped behind a cloud, so we sat on the beach for a little while, decided it was too breezy, and opted to head to the hot springs 20 minutes away instead.  I did gather some sand for Dr. Fenster, since Mosteiros has lovely black sand beaches.

Next, we went to the hot springs at Ponte de Ferraria.  We had been warned that the time to go was at low tide, otherwise the chill of the ocean water overwhelmed the hot spring itself.  As you may be able to tell from the picture, this was not advice that we followed, and thus observed the hot springs rather than participated in them.

Also, given that we were at the bottom of a very, very harrowing drive to the coast, and there were exactly two other people in the general vicinity, there was nothing that really screamed safe about the "climb down a ladder and swim across this cove of unknown depth, to where you can hang on to a rope and experience the warm water" experience.  So we passed.

After an equally harrowing drive back up the cliff (and almost having Stripey run off the switchback by a land rover), it was getting late, so we headed back to Ponta Delgada for dinner etc.  The island has kind of a weird deserted feel.  We never see too many people, and there aren't many shops/restaurants open at all.  Don't worry, though.  I was able to get a magnet for the refrigerator.  So it's all good.  

We ended our tour with a brief stop at a lighthouse.  Which apparently also operates as a house-house.  Who knew?

Whale watching tomorrow!  So excited!!!

A whirlwind tour of eastern Sao Miguel

We decided that today and tomorrow would be our car rental days, so that we could explore the island at our own pace.  After a very yellow breakfast (yellow eggs, buttered toast, yellow cheese, orange juice), we picked out a rental car and waited for it to be delivered.  This is our rental car.

The racing stripe is clearly what makes the car.  We're tentatively calling it Stripey McStriperson.  Nothing else really fit.  Anyway, after signing off on our rental car (a steal at 35E per day), we took off to explore.  

First on the general list was going to the tea factory, which Wade and Katie had highly recommended.

And we did that, but first we stopped at a lookout point (marked on the highway by a pair of binoculars - they're really pretty good about people not knowing any Portuguese, as we found out today).  So, for some scenic views:

 The second picture was taken by a member of a tour that hit the scenic outlook at the same time we did.  First, he tried to take a picture of us with his camera.  Then he got artsy.  This was the result.  It really was beautiful, and we got a great sense of what the coastline looked like.

We also hit the tea factory at the same time as that tour group, so we decided to take the "easy walk" through the tea plantation.  I'm beginning not to buy the words they use here to describe their exercise activities.  This was probably two and a half miles, at a better than 30 degree incline the whole time.  Conceivably, it was made not-easier by my somewhat inappropriate footwear, but I really do feel like I'm getting my daily dose of fights with my legs.  So that's good.  

The tea plantation was really fragrant and lovely.  Apparently, the tea is entirely harvested by hand, and this operation has been ongoing since the late 1800s.

After the tea plantation, we headed to Furnas, where we explored the city a bit and ended at the hot springs. These springs (labeled a geothermal phenomenon) were very heavy on the sulfer, and just over 100 degrees F.  Very pleasant to hang out in for an hour or so, and well laid out, so it was very pretty and calming.  And at 2E for an unlimited stay, who can complain?

(This was taken by someone other than me - I wasn't sure about the conditions, so I didn't bring in my camera.  Original image can be found here.)

After we finished at the hot spring and got a snack, it was around 4:00, so we started heading back in the general direction of Ponta Delgada.  This required a lot of travel on narrow and winding roads, which requires me to say how very, very thankful I am that Jenn has done all of the driving thus far.  I think I would have been a hot mess for a good chuck of this.  We tried to stop at a ceramics factory on the way home, but despite our best efforts (which required some very nimble smart car maneuvering) to find the correct street (maps here aren't all that good), it seems that the factory was closed.

Instead, we found some stairs that led down to the beach.

One more scenic lookout, and we headed back to the hotel for the evening (or at least until we go out and find some dinner, which will likely be soon).

Can you tell that I've rediscovered my favorite camera feature? :)