Friday
May 30th, 2025
Charles De
Gaulle airport, Terminal 2 in Paris was quite impressive – massive, spread out,
fast and efficient and we were soon on our way with SAS (Scandinavian)
Airlines. Our flight was pleasant, and we were even offered a complimentary
coffee on board.
On landing
we knew we needed to catch the train to the central station. With the help of a
friendly young guy, we were soon on our way for about a 20-minute ride into the
Central Station in downtown Copenhagen.
.jpg) |
Copenhagen and the beginning of our
Scandinavian Scuttle |
Our cruise
departed the next day, but through hard experience we have learnt to allow a
buffer day when travelling, as things seem to go wrong with flights on a
regular basis. If it’s not snowstorms it’s maintenance issues and so on. We had
booked the Mayfair Hotel, which was about three minutes’ walk from, the
station. This was the beginning of a very costly stay in Copenhagen. After 24
hours we figured pretty much everything was about 2-3 times the cost of what
we’d expect to pay in Canada. The Danes are either earning very high salaries, paying low
taxes, or they can spot a tourist coming and quickly put out their expensive
signs. To test my theory, we ended up at a McDonald’s before hopping on our
cruise. We ordered a medium coffee, small fries and a chicken burger, which
cost us $20. McDonald’s is considered one of the most reliable ways of
comparing the cost of living between countries.
The Mayfair
was a nice hotel. Our first impression was good. It had an elevator to our second-floor
room, which was a good start, but we were disappointed that there was no tea or
coffee available in our rooms. I needed my afternoon tea so went to the
reception desk where they were happy to oblige by offering me a E7.50 ($12) cup
of tea. We were sorry to hear that our pricey hotel room didn’t offer breakfast
in the morning, which we could have paid an extra $40 for. I’ll say no more
about money as it makes me breathless.
We went out
for a late afternoon walk to check out our surroundings. We had two very
surprising experiences, both of which left us scratching our heads. As we left
the hotel, we noticed a young woman crouching over a drain on the street,
relieving herself. A guy was trying to screen her but without much success. We
walked on and about half an hour later, we came across an old woman doing the
same, in the street. There were some bushes behind her which she could have easily
taken some shelter in. We began to feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland trying
to make sense of things that just don’t.
We found a
bit to eat at a cozy Vietnamese restaurant, before we retired to our room for a
soppy movie and bed. Tomorrow, we have a Hop on Hop off (HOHO) tour of Copenhagen booked, so we would
see if the rest of Copenhagen was as odd as our first impressions had been.
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Colorful main canal
|
Saturday
May 31st, 2025
We had a
free morning in Copenhagen before boarding our MSC Cruise in the afternoon. We
had pre-booked a HOHO bus which departed about a three-minute walk away from
our hotel. Because our time was limited, we were there for the first pickup of
the day. As it turned out, that was a good idea as things got a whole lot
busier later in the day, thanks to three cruise ships being in town as well.
The
commentary on the HOHO was good and one gets a pretty good feel for the layout
and general geography of the city. About halfway through the tour we had booked
a canal cruise. Once again, we lucked out because we beat the rush with our
boat being only about half full. The cruise departed from a canal filled with
boats of every description and a street full of brightly colored buildings.
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Some of the bridges were a tight squeeze
|
Our
tour guide was very pleasant and gave us a good tour. The first instruction was
to keep our heads down when passing the bridges, some of which were very low. We passed a
naval dock at which the King’s personal yacht was anchored. Our much
anticipated view of the little Mermaid, was memorable, but for the wrong
reasons. The statue is about 15 feet from shore and is maybe four feet high. It’s
not terribly impressive. What was remarkable was the number of people on the
shore who were gathered to get a photo of the little lady. The tour guide mused
that she could not figure out people’s fascination with this iconic statue,
which had suffered 2-3 beheadings during its history. We also
bypassed some brand-new
.jpg) |
The Danish King's personal yacht
|
townhouse/condo units on the waterfront which are
selling for about 70million kronor which is about $15million. Apart from being
on the canal, they didn’t look anything special, nor was their outlook anything
amazing.
Every now
and then, we had to slow down to make way for oncoming boats or because the
boat ahead had slowed down. The tour guide said that in the summer at times,
things come to a standstill there is so much traffic on the canal.
On the final
leg of our HOHO, the guide remarked that “you may have noticed that mothers
leave their strollers with babies in them, outside the shops, while they do
their shopping. It is believed the babies sleep better in the fresh air and if
any baby is crying it is expected that a stranger will comfort the baby or find
the mother” There were a few gasps around the bus, so I’ m wondering if maybe
that part of the script was written in the sixties and hasn’t been revised
since then.
We completed
our HOHO tour and made for our hotel to pick up our luggage and catch a taxi to
the Cruise ship terminal. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised at how
uncrowded it was, compared to other boardings we’ve done.
.jpg) |
Our cabin - a happy home for our two weeks
|
We were soon
in our cabin enjoying being able to unpack properly for the next two weeks. As
with life in general everything has become digitalized. We now have to download
the cruise app on which every part of our cruise can be tracked, planned and
navigated. This is the first time we have treated ourselves to a room with a
little personal balcony and it has been really nice to enjoy sitting out with a
a bit of privacy attached. First order of business was to have a cup of tea
whilst we collected our wits and planned our next move.
We took a
walk around to get a feel for the geography of the ship. These floating cruise
ship palaces never cease to impress me. Everything is so glitzy and elegant.
One downer has been that we can hardly make eye contact with a staff person
without them offering us a “drinks package”. We don’t drink enough to justify
the expense, but we have seen lots of evidence of folks who are making sure
they get their money’s worth – the drinks just keep flowing.
Our first
activity before dinner was a mandatory safety drill. It took ages for people to
turn up, be sorted appropriately and be seated. It was fairly chaotic. I wonder
if in the event of a real emergency the best laid plans would be set aside in
the chaos. We were puzzled at the instructions that when an emergency is called,
we have to calmly make our way to our cabins to retrieve our life jackets, then
go to our designated spots on the deck. I cannot imagine, with a ship full of
thousands of passengers, everyone quietly and calmly going through this
procedure. It’s a bit like the safety talks on the airlines. I think they are
designed more for the peace of mind of passengers than for actual effectiveness
when and if needed.
.jpg) |
Cher waving goodbye at the dock leaving party
|
Dinner for
us was a quiet affair. We were seated at an eight-seater table but with only
the two of us. It felt a bit lonely, but we figured that it might change as the
journey proceeded. We then explored some of the lounges, taking in the
different styles of music on offer before attending an excellent show in which
the performers managed some athletic and gymnastic feats which were quite
astounding. After that we sat in one of the lounges where the music was good
and watched various couples putting on some impressive displays of well-coordinated
dancing which reminded us that this was part of our fifty years together, which
we had not taken to tbeir full potential.
It was time
for bed. Tomorrow will be another port and another day.
Sunday
June 1st, 2025.jpg) |
Warnemunde - seemingly a lock leaving favorite
|
We woke up
early and observed from our balcony as we entered the port of Warnemunde in
Germany. We were fascinated to enter the docking area, then do a complete 180
degree turn and basically reverse into our docking spot. I had always found it
a bit challenging in our 20 foot pontoon boat to dock without a bump and these
guys were docking our massive cruise liner with barely a nudge.
We shared a
breakfast table with a German couple who were about to disembark after a week
on board. We asked them how their trip had been and the husband was a bit so-so
in his response. He said, the cruise was good but it was bad as a German as
there had been not enough German spoken in the announcements and so on. This
comment interested us as we have felt much the same but in regard to English.
The poor announcers are faced with 6-8 different language groups who all need
to understand what is being said. Generally they tend to start in one language,
roll into another and keep trolling through other languages. One gets the
general drift, but it’s not a sure thing. It seems to work as a rule of thumb
but can be a bit frustrating for us uni lingual English types who have always expected
the rest of the world to speak the King’s English, as is only right and proper.
.jpg) |
Warnemunde has a huge beach with
lovely sand
|
As we were
docking we noticed a bunch of fairly tightly parked Class B, mini camper style
RVs parked alongside a fun fair at the dock. Cher remarked that it must be an
RV sales depot. We walked past it later in the day and it turns out that it is
an RV campsite. The campers were all parked about 3-4 feet away from each other.
There are no picnic tables, hook ups or sitting out areas. It makes us realize
how good we have it in RVing terms in North America.
.jpg) |
Warnemunde is mainly a beach resort town
|
We were in
port for most of the day. It turns out that this town is a major embarkation
point for the large German group we have on board. We had not booked an
excursion, so we took a stroll around the town of Warnemunde. It is quite a
cute little seaside town, complete with a massive, long lovely sandy beach. We
are not quite into the full summer season yet, but something that caught our
eye on the beach were hundreds, if not thousands of little fold up cabins,
which include a sun shelter, a table a couple of seats and a drawer to store
your gear in. They have a handle on either side to move them to cut out wind or
sunshine. We have never seen anything like this in our travels.
We returned
to the ship in time for lunch and our mandatory nap and then took to the pool
area where there is generally life to be found. The sun was shining, and I
decided to check out the water for a swim. I was pleasantly surprised to find
the pool was heated. We enjoyed sitting watching the world go by and a bunch of
keeners being instructed in dancing the Mambo. This was a mainly women
dominated activity although there were a couple of men bravely trying to look
suave and sophisticated. The ladies definitely had the upper hand in that
exercise.
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Sitting by the pool was nice - as long as
one has a blanket to fend off the breeze
|
When we got
to dinner we found we had been allocated a bit of company. Phil, an Englishman
and his wife Sabena, who live near Berlin. Phil had been with the British
forces in Germany in the 1970s, met the right woman and stayed on. Sabena had
been brought up in East Germany under the USSR. She understands English
reasonably well, but doesn’t speak much. Phil made up for that, and we enjoyed
having a bit of company. The subject of drinks packages came up. Phil, who was
slugging back glasses of wine at quite a rate explained that they had each
bought a package that allowed them 15 “free” drinks a day. Sabena doesn’t
drink, so Phil was manfully making up for her lack as best he could. We
couldn’t top that and tactfully changed the subject.
Once again
our evening ended with an excellent show. This troupe of young people putting
on the shows are extremely talented and so far we have been greatly impressed.
Monday
June 2nd, 2025
Today, we
are sailing from Warnemunde in Germany, back the way we had come, past
Copenhagen, then west and north up towards southwestern Norway, where we will
explore three different ports over the next few days.So, we had a
full day at sea. It was nice to be able to relax into a day on the ship. The
program was packed with a host of activities to cater for every taste. I love
quiz shows, so participated in the Zebra lounge in a quiz which focused on
which beers come from which countries. I was quite surprised at how
knowledgeable I was on this topic and scored maybe 8-9/12, missing the winning
spot by one or two. Signs of my misspent youth I suppose.
While I did
that Cher attended a presentation on making a variety of chocolate and coffee
drinks. We are not great coffee aficionado’s so it’s a bit like water off a
duck’s back for us.
Later in the
day, we participated in a memory game. We had thought it would be a quiz, but
we ended up standing up front of the crowd trying to match up pairs of pictures
as the game masters kept changing their position on us. Needless to say, this
was a game we didn’t excel in. After that we watched another group being
coached on how to do the Meringe. I almost persuaded Cher to get up and give it
a shot, while I observed, but she chickened out. Later that evening we watched
some of the ship staff strutting their Latin American dance moves. It is fun to
watch and takes a lot more skill than the typical, jiggle to the beat, that us
average dancers typically can come up with.
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One of our evenings was a chance
to dress up a bit.
|
We have
enjoyed every evening before and after the main show, listening to some of the
bands in the different lounges that do their best to get folks up and dancing.
It has been fun listening to popular songs from the sixties and seventies and
see how some folks dance so naturally to it.
Tuesday
June 3rd, 2025
Today we are
in Stavanger Norway. We woke at 5am to watch as we entered the port. We weren’t
sure if this would include a spectacular fjord so had not wanted to miss it.
This was our first view of Norway. Stavanger is the oil capital of Norway,
which is the third or fourth largest oil producer in the world. With North Sea
oil coming into production in the sixties, most of the town looks fairly
modern, although the original town dates back to the 800s and the town
cathedral has been functioning since the 12th century. Norway and
the UK have both shared North Sea oil. UK has spent every penny of this found
wealth. Norway on the other hand, sets aside money from every barrel which goes
towards their 100 year Sovereign wealth fund. This money will be benefiting
Norwegians for centuries to come while UK will be wishing they’d had the
political will to do the same thing..jpg) |
Our massive cruise ship needed a bit
of a nudge from this little guy.
|
We had
breakfast with an interesting couple, Jorge and Felisa who are Spanish and have
retired to Las Palmas which is off the coast of Morocco on the Atlantic side
and is still considered part of Spain. Jorge’s English was meticulous and
Felisa managed fine, so we enjoyed their good company.
Not knowing
anything about Stavanger, we had pre-booked a HOHO bus tour of the town. We did
this to get the lay of the land and then spent an hour or two taking in the
town, which was a mix of cute little streets, but with some very modern looking
shops inside. We discovered that we could have bought our, online purchased, HOHO
bus tickets cheaper on the dock. Another lesson learnt for the future..jpg) |
Some welcoming graffiti at Stavanger
|
We made it
back to the ship in time for lunch. Whilst we did this, we watched a mid-sized
cruise ship being pushed sideways by a tug boat into dock. The skill and
co-ordination needed to do this is impressive.
We had a
lazy afternoon. At 5pm we were invited to a complimentary snack and drink for all
the US citizens on board. I guess, with our potential status of being the 51st
state, Canadians now qualify for these kinds of invites. We were looking
forward to meeting some other North Americans. We enjoy meeting the various
Europeans we are connecting with, but the conversation is always a bit of a
slog, whereas with us North Americans we can just get right down to slagging
Donald Trump or not, depending on which side of the fence folks are on.
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Stavanger's Three Swords - apparently swords
planted in the ground are a sign of
peaceful intentions
|
We met an
interesting couple at the reception: Leslie and Michael. Leslie originates in
Seattle and Michael was born in Romania. He left in 1990 as soon as the Iron
curtain came down. They have been married 10 years and have retired to, believe
it or not, Las Palmas. Leslie had suffered a mild stroke 2-3 months ago. While
scanning her, they had discovered she had a rare form of cancer. She has just
finished a round of radiation. We enjoyed their company, and they joined us for
dinner, which was nice as it widened our party to six which made for easier
conversation. Our party ended on a tense note as Leslie almost had a stand-up knock-em
down fight with our waiter and then his supervisor because of a disagreement
over whether they should have to pay for a certain type of drink they had
ordered on their drinks package. It eventually was resolved to everyone’s
satisfaction, so all’s well that ends well.
.jpg) |
Stavanger - an unusual tribute to the ravaging
of Iraqi ancient artifacts after the 2003 US
invasion - it is made of date cans
|
Leslie and
Michael joined us after dinner in the Zebra lounge where the music was good and
dancing was entertaining. They left shortly after, saying it was a bit loud for
them. It is loud, but it’s fun to watch the dancing. Maybe we’ll see them
again. There are so many people on board this ship we have yet to bump into
anyone twice. Last night’s show was based on a disco music theme, but was a bit
new agey for me, so I dozed through quite a bit of it.
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Eidfjord - RV campsite
|
Wednesday
June 4th, 2025
We woke very
early, opened the curtains or our room and dozed while we watched out of our
window as we made our way gingerly up Norway’s second longest fjord, the
Hardanger Fjord. At one point we passed under a bridge and our chimney stack
must have missed it by inches, it felt so close. We docked in the tiny town of
Eidfjord at 8am. It is a beautiful looking town, surrounded by high mountains
with little waterfalls coming down the mountains from all directions.
.jpg) |
Eidfjord - three types of accommodation -
camping, hotels and cruise ships
|
Over
breakfast, we met another interesting couple, Maria and Joseph, from Catalonia
in Spain. Their English was better than our Spanish, so they were stuck with
speaking English. The ladies are always more willing to give another language a
shot than the men, so Maria had to do the heavy lifting. I asked her if they
are Catalonian separatists, to which she replied “Yes”. I then asked her why
and she did a pretty good job, in her halting English, of explaining why
Catalonia really doesn’t belong in Spain. She convinced me.
After breakfast
we took a stroll around the town. The town was immaculate. We were walking past
someone’s house when we heard some rustling in the bushes. On closer
inspection, it turned out to be an automatic lawn trimmer. It was diligently
making its way back and forth, trimming any out of place blades of grass. What
a great concept.
.jpg) |
Cher in front of the tourist center, complete
with grass on the roof and built in goat trimmer
|
Something else that struck us was the number of people who
grow grass and moss on their roofs. It seems to me that it would cause a lot of
maintenance issues, but maybe the environmental benefits outweigh the
disadvantages. The Norwegians seem very organized on other issues, so I’m sure
they are right on this too.We had a
tour booked for noon, so we had a quick late morning snack at the buffet before
going to our rendezvous point. The first stop was at a Nature Center presenting
Norway’s flora, fauna and geography. Much of it is like Canada’s, but it was
well done. The highlight was a half hour panoramic video of Norway’s fjords,
plateaus and natural beauty. It was exceptionally good. On emerging from the Nature
Centre, we noticed that a large tourist center, complete with grass roof, had
it’s own personalized goat who lives in a little house on the roof. Presumably
his job is to keep the lawn trimmed.
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Eidfjord area - Voring Fossen waterfall
|
Next up was
the Voring Fossen waterfall. This involved us driving up a steep very curvy
road with a lot of tunnels. At one point one of the tunnels did a full 360 turn
uphill – quite a feat. When we reached the peak, the falls were right there. It
was very impressive. The main falls drop about 180 meters in total and merges
at the bottom with another waterfall coming in from another mountain. The
merged river then makes its way down to end up in the river which flows into
the Hardanger Fjord which we had just come from. They had really optimized the
lookout points and all in all it was exceptionally well done.
When we got
back to the ship we decided to go and pick up a snack at the ship’s buffet,
which was still open at 3.30pm. We couldn’t get over how many people were
eating full meals there at that time of day. We ended our mid-afternoon snack
with a smoothie at the pool deck. |
This is our cleaned up version
- as good as it gets these days.
|
As we were
walking into the theatre for the show that evening, we heard the dulcet tones
of a sweet South African accent. We introduced ourselves and enjoyed meeting
Bev and John Hoog who hail from Port Elizabeth for us old colonial reprobates
or Quebera (pronounced Tawbegggha) for the non colonial version. We met up with them
after the show and enjoyed chatting about some of the problems now common to
South Africans, which is always a popular pastime. A rather sad fact is that
the current ANC (African National Congress) government, who had started the New
South Africa after apartheid under Nelson Mandela’s enlightened leadership, now
has instituted over a hundred anti white racist laws against white South
Africans. This is making it very hard for folks like John and Bev to get ahead,
their kids to get to university and so on.
On our way
to our cabins we stopped by to take a look at the photos that had been taken of
us on our dress up evening from a few nights back. Photographers harassing us
to have our photos taken has been exceeded only by others harassing us to buy
drinks packages. Having made up our minds ahead of time that we were “not
buying” outrageously expensive photo packages, we were quite impressed at how
well we had cleaned up and how good they had made us look on our formal dress
evening. We had fun with the two photo guys as we tried to negotiate them down
price wise. We eventually agreed that we would think about the deal they were
offering us and they agreed to store our photos while we think about it.
.jpg) |
Cher - doing a great job at her first shot
at the Meringue
|
Thursday
June 5th, 2025
Today we
were headed to southern Norway town of Kristiansand. In the morning,
we had been sitting in one of the lounges and there was a Meringue dance class
in progress. Cher surprised me by saying “I’m going to give this a go” and
proceeded to do a great job of sashaying back and forth in great style. After
50 years of marriage she still has a few surprises for me up her sleeve.
We docked in
Kristianstad at noon. We were greeted at the dockside by a couple, dressed in traditional
dress of black and white, who sung hauntingly beautiful Scandinavian melodies to us as we
docked and disembarked. My assumption was that they were busking for money, but
there was no hat or basket out and seemingly they were just there to welcome
us. My guess is that our cruise line had arranged it. It was a nice touch.
We had
booked a 5.5-hour excursion which departed at 1pm, and soon were headed out
with our English speaking group. Our tour guide, Cecile, was a real fun
character and she joked and traded stories with us without any apparent effort
on her part. Our tour was taking us to three different towns along the coast,
to get a feel for life in Norway. Cecile prattled on in entertaining fashion as
we moved between the towns. Her patter gave us a really good insight into life
in Norway. Some interesting facts that struck me:- At one point, Norway was the world’s
largest exporter of camels – it’s a long story.
- In southern Norway the mountains are
oriented north/south and to get past them they have many tunnels which go east
west. They have the longest tunnel in the world at 22kms.
- They claim to be one of the
wealthiest countries in the world thanks to their oil
- Drinking and driving is a no no. The
fine for being caught driving after one beer is one month’s salary. This
ensures that everyone is punished fairly.
- A bus driver earns about 60,000 Euros
a year, and a doctor earns about 80,000. Practising medicine is seen as just
another job. The average rate of tax is about 37%.
- University attendance is free for as
many degrees as one wishes to obtain.
.jpg) |
Grimsted - had a very pictureseque harbor
|
- Many Norwegians own not only a summer
cottage, but also a winter get away cabin.
Our first
town was Grimstad, a cute little fishing town. We walked around the shops and
then climbed the hill to view the church, which was the most imposing building
in town, with the best view of the area. We finished our tour with a couple of
fish cakes, which Cecile had recommended, which we bought from the local fish
market. I suspect the owner of the fish market is her cousin or best friend.
The next
town was Arundal. It seems its main claim to fame was the castle, which is now
a Catholic school, which supposedly was the inspiration for the Disney movie
Frozen. It wasn’t that impressive, but hey, it makes a great story to tell
tourists. The town had an elevated observation elevator which gave us an
amazing view of the town. As the highest point in town, it was naturally
sporting a gay pride flag, along with numerous others wherever one looked.
.jpg) |
Arundal Castle
|
Cecile had
recommended a pokey little café/restaurant which sells Munken (or something sounding like that), which is a type of muffin. Apparently, we should not leave Arundal
without trying one. We tried and unfortunately, they were out of stock.
Our final
town was Lillesand, which was just a quiet little seaside town, with not much
happening as it seems it is still too early in the season. We took a stroll
around town taking note of the types of houses and enjoying the peaceful
atmosphere.
We had aranged to meet Bev and John Hoog, the South African couple, to do a Trivia
Quiz game show with them and were back from our excursion just in time for
that. It was fun, but our combined efforts only netted us a 5/10, so we live to
improve on that next time around.
.jpg) |
The shows were really good most nights
|
The show this night was
a bit too raunchy for our liking last night. There is so much talent in our
group of performers, but whoever had choreographed their show, pushed it a bit
further than we were comfortable with. It had been a long day, so we turned in
early. Tomorrow is Oslo, the capital of Norway, so we need to be fresh for
that.
Friday
June 6th, 2025
We docked
earlyish in Oslo and made it off the boat relatively early to find our HOHO
bus, to get the lay of the city before focusing on anything specific we’d like
to see more of. Our dock was pretty close to the city so we could have easily
walked in.
.jpg) |
Rob helping stand guard in front of the
Royal Norwegian Palace in Oslo
|
Our day got
off to a bad start when the audio guide on our HOHO bus wasn’t working. We
tried changing seats, other riders were frustrated. The driver said he would
report it. Eventually Cher found the commentary on our cell phone. My wife is a
genius on that little toy. We decided to hop off in downtown Oslo to look
around. The downtown
area had a very wide pedestrian only area. It looked up the hill to the Palace
and downhill towards the National Parliament Building. In between there were a
number of other significant Opera Houses, National Theatres and so on. We
walked up to the Palace which was a grand affair. As we got there it started
raining and we were thankful for our windbreakers as we sheltered under some
trees. The rain eventually stopped, and we decided to emerge from the shelter.
It wasn’t long before our shoes and socks were sodden.
.jpg) |
Oslo - Vigeland Park contains the life
work of the artist
|
Cecile, our
tour guide from the previous day had told us that we must see the statues at
the Vigeland Park, so we hopped on our HOHO bus to get there. It was quite an
unusual place. The work there represented the life work of the artist, Gustav Vigeland. There were at least 200 statues of naked figures in
some kind of physical contact with other figures. It wasn’t sexually
suggestive, just intriguing as to what on earth was going through his head when
carving this vast variety of figures.
We had had
enough by then and decided to head home to the cruise ship for a bite to eat
before a well earned nap. On our third attempt the audio was working on our
HOHO bus, but having missed two thirds of the prior commentary we weren’t
impressed. Cher emailed them later and complained and they gave us about a 40%
refund which improved our attitude a bit.
We got back
to the ship and ventured to the buffet for a mid afternoon snack before
retiring to our bed for a recovery snooze and a read.
In the
evening, it was dinner as normal, the evening show and then Cher and I stepped
out by having a bit of a dance in one of the dance spots who were playing our
kind of 60s and 70’s pop music. We have really enjoyed watching some of the
folk who just don’t hold back when it comes to dancing. They let rip with some
great moves and it’s very tempting to get up and attempt something similar.
Some of the couples are well practiced, whilst others just do the group dance
thing, which is nice as it allows for those who are on their own to also join
in the fun.
Saturday
June 7th, 2025Today we are
back in Copenhagen, and it is the end for the majority of passengers, who are
only doing a one week cruise. We will be back again in a week’s time when we
will disembark for the final time. We are interested in how folks get from the
ship into town. When we came from our hotel a week ago, it had cost us about
$75 for a taxi, so we were keen to see if we could find a better way. It soon
became obvious that a lot of people were loading their cases onto a municipal
bus, which was waiting at the cruise ship terminal for a nominal cost. We discovered
later that this bus dropped folks at the Metro, rail station, which dropped
them pretty much wherever they wanted to go across Copenhagen. We are thinking
we’ll try it next week and save a few pennies. .jpg) |
On our second time in Copenhagen we
found ourselves to be seasoned tour guides
|
While we
were waiting to catch our municipal bus connection into Copenhagen for the day,
we met two different lots of people. We spotted a guy wearing a South African
cap and engaged him in conversation. His name was Casper Strijdom with his wife
Avril. We hit it off immediately but were catching different buses, so agreed
we would try and connect later. As we were
waiting for our bus, a small family group came up behind us and asked us if we
minded if they joined us as they didn’t know their way around. We introduced
ourselves. They were Fadi, Janet and their thirteen year old son Mark. They are
Egyptian by origin but have lived in Florida for twenty years.
We had briefly
connected with the son, Mark, the day before in Oslo as we shared our cell
phone audio with him on the HOHO bus. He spotted us in the bus line up and said
to his parents, “can we go with them today”. As it turned out we were all
Christians. They were Coptic and very involved in their church in Florida. So,
we found ourselves acting as their tour guides for the day. It was nice to have
the company.
On our canal
tour the previous week, we had spotted that there are municipal water buses, so
decided to try that. This took us directly into the heart of downtown
Copenhagen to what must be their prettiest street with brightly colored
buildings on either side of the canal and where all the tourist boats leave
from. It is an absolute buzz of activity and sidewalk cafes abound.
We fled the
madding crowd and headed for the Kristianhaven area which we had been told was attractive
to walk around. It was very pretty walking along the canal and seeing a variety
of houses, house boats and so on. We headed for a church which is a Copenhagen
landmark. It has a circular tower, with over 400 steps. which can be climbed
and a great view enjoyed. When we got there, we discovered that to climb the
tower one had to have pre-booked and there were no more bookings available. I
think we were all secretly relieved as from the bottom it looked like it was a
long way up.
We headed
back to see the King’s Palace, the Amahlenborg Palace and the beautiful Marble
Church alongside it. On our canal cruise the previous week, the tour guide had
proudly told us that the water in Copenhagen is clean enough to swim in and
people do it all year round. It was not a warm day, and whilst making our way
over to the palace, we walked past a woman who had been swimming. She emerged
from the water, and we realized she was eye poppingly topless. She seemed quite
unselfconscious, put on her top and went on her way. I guess this is the
Scandinavian way, c’est la vie and so on.
.jpg) |
Rob and Cher standing in the centre of the
Palace complex with the church in the background
|
The King’s
Palace was built around a very grand large open square which is open to the
public, which we gather is unusual. We made our way up to the Marble Church and
were disappointed to find a wedding going on, so could not go in. We moved on
down the road and found what looked like a Russian Orthodox church. We popped
our heads in and found a service of some kind going on. It must have been a
private baptism or something similar because we were shooed on our way.
By then,
we’d had enough and went to the nearby water bus stop to catch a ride home.
There was a large line up and Cher and I found ourselves standing alongside a
young couple. We got chatting. He is from Portugal and she from Columbia in
South America. They had met in Copenhagen a year earlier at a business meeting and
had kept in touch and were now meeting up again. It looked like there was love
in the air. He runs his own tech start up. I asked him if the start up was
going to make it. His comment was “for sure. I will definitely make it big”. So,
who knows maybe he’ll be the next Steve Jobs. I should have got his signature.
We made it
back to ship in time for a quick snack at the buffet and then we both collapsed
on the bed. I eventually woke Cher up and we had missed our deadline for
supper. We wanted to say goodbye to our dinner buddies, Phil and Sabena, so we got
gussied up and joined them for dessert and said our fond farewells.
We played a
bit of cards before the show. We have been disappointed to find that the shows
we have watched on our first week are to be repeated on our second week. The
shows have each been rather grand, clearly taken a lot of rehearsal and so we
understand that they have a limited range to offer. Maybe this upcoming week,
Cher and I will focus on learning some slinky Latin American dance moves. That
will be a bit of a stretch for me, so maybe we’ll have to get more creative
than that.
We had not
had supper by 9pm and decided to raid the buffet and see what we could find.
Pizza, was about the only real choice, which hit the spot just nicely. It had
been a good day and we were ready for bed.
Sunday
June 8th, 2025
It is our
second Sunday on board ship again and it is business as usual – not even a
feeble attempt by the cruise line to offer a service on board for those who
might be interested. It’s a sad comment on the state of our western culture
which has turned its back on God and has it’s hands up to its ears in a vain
attempt to shut Him out.
Another sad
thing in our travels has been to observe the beautiful churches, which were
built at great cost and effort, with limited engineering expertise, in a desire
to glorify and honor God. Too many of them stand as empty shells, only able to
pay the bills by turning themselves into tourist attractions. Having said that
I am often inspired when entering these buildings at the lengths to which
communities went to express their love for God.
At breakfast
we sat with a couple from Bulgaria – Sishi and Angel. I know next to nothing
about this country, so I enjoyed the opportunity to quiz them on their country
and customs. They repeated the refrain we have heard numerous times on this
cruise from Europeans – “the young people don’t want to work”. It seems the
modern generation considers a 30-hour working week hard going. They will
determine their own working hours and conditions. When we ask how they are
going to get ahead in life, we are met with a shrug. No one knows. To me, it is
yet another sign of a civilization in collapse. Unless there is a great turning
back to God, our children and grandchildren face a future in which God turns our
societies over to their own devices. The end will be disappointment, despair
and destruction.
On that
cheerful note we embarked on our exploration of Rostock. We had docked at
Warnemunde where we had been a week earlier. This is a port in northern Germany
which is an easy embarkation point for the hordes of Germans who are on this
cruise. In our visit a week ago, we had investigated how to get to Rostock
which is a nearby town, which is home to northern Europe’s first university,
dating from the 1400s.
.jpg) |
St. Nicholas in Rostock - three levels of
accommodation in the roof.
|
We bought
our train tickets and then bumped into Casper and Avril Strijdom, the South
African couple we had met briefly the day before. We sat together on the 20-minute
train trip to Rostock and got acquainted. They seem to live a good life in
South Africa, enjoying the best it has to offer. Casper is the ex-General
Manager of one of the oldest gold mines in the country.We split up
in Rostock to do our own exploring. Rostock on a Sunday morning was like a
ghost town. It took a while for us to figure out our way to the town centre. On
the way we passed by the St. Nicholas church, which is a massive old church,
which now doubles as an arts and community centre. Interestingly it also houses
three levels of apartments in the roof of the building. A creative but sad end
to its original intent..jpg) |
Rostock skyline from the 14th
century University
|
We had been
looking for St Marys church which reportedly has an ancient clock which has
operated nonstop since the 1600s. At noon every day, when the clock strikes the
hour, the twelve apostles come out. It turns out the clock is inside the church
building beyond the altar – go figure. We didn’t feel like paying the entrance
fee to visit the church, so we missed today’s visitation of the apostles. We
stopped in at the Town Centre for a coffee and a German pastry before continuing
to look for the old university and the nunnery which dated from way back as
well. The old nunnery was interesting, now housing a cultural history museum.
We popped in and it gave us a good insight into how the village of Rostock came
about and its key role in Baltic trade.
By now time
was moving on and we decided to walk back to the train station via modern
suburbs. It was interesting. Most houses are well maintained and clean looking,
butting right up onto the street. They probably have small gardens in the back.
What was disappointing was the almost solid graffiti which adorned most houses
at street level. I’m guessing local homeowners have given up trying to stop the
graffiti “artists” and they just live with it.
We bumped
into Casper and Avril again at the station in Warnemunde and agreed we would
“meet later, for a drink”. Without an actual plan and a location, on a ship
this size, that’s like promising to both agree to find the same needle in the
same haystack.
On this leg
of the cruise, we had requested that we be put at a table with others, so that
we could meet more people. There was great nodding of heads and agreement at
our request. When we arrived at dinner we had been placed at a table for two.
Cher is not one to take things lying down. She went and spoke to the Manager of
the restaurant who nodded understandingly and immediately allocated us to
another table and sent us off with a waiter to find our newly allocated table
770. Lo and behold, it was a table for eight, but we were the only people there.
By that stage we just decided we would enjoy each other’s company. It is, after
all, our anniversary celebration and we should be enjoying the romantic opportunities
for us as a couple.
We decided
to skip the evening show as it would be a repeat performance for us. We settled
down at one of the quieter lounges with lovely piano music playing to settle
some scores in our ongoing card game competition. We were just getting into it,
when Casper and Avril wandered by and they joined us. We ended up going
together to a late night “meet the staff team event” which was loud, noisy and
fun. The MC was Italian and his introductions of the staff in his unsteady
English left a bit to be desired. It was close to 11pm by the time we headed to
our cabins - a bit later than our best before date. Tomorrow is a late docking,
so we will sleep in.
Monday
June 9th, 2025
We went for
a nice quiet breakfast on our own in the dining room where we expected the
waiters would service us in whispered tones in elegant surroundings. Instead,
we arrived to find the dining room a zoo of activity. The serving staff were
dashing to and fro feverishly and there was a lineup of 10 or 12 people waiting
for a table. We decided to head up to the buffet where at least it’s honest
chaos. At that time of day, it is virtually impossible to move without bumping into
someone. We decided we would brave it and ventured up to Level 13 where the
buffet has something for every taste.
.jpg) |
Entrance to the Old Town in Gdansk.
Ancient buildings on the left. New
buildings on the right with
ancient facades
|
We were
docked in Gdynia, Poland and had booked a tour of Gdansk a nearby shipyard and very
historical town. It is also the home of Solidarity and Lech Walesa who led the
charge in unseating the Russians from Poland in 1990.
It was a one-hour
bus drive to Gdansk. Our guide was excellent, giving us general knowledge,
trivia and history the whole way. He had a very complicated polish name and
said, “I think you should just call me Greg, for all of our sakes”. That seemed
to be a workable solution.
.jpg) |
Note the dragons which spew out water
collected from the rooftops
|
The history
of the area is complicated to say the least. This part of Poland has moved
between, Prussian, German, Russian and even French control over the centuries.
Their language and architecture all point to these mixed influences. The old town
of Gdansk was a delight to behold. Greg led us down ancient streets, with a
story to tell at every turn. He pointed out the gutters on either side of the
streets which would fill up with the household waste which would be tossed from
on high and would slowly ooze down and into the canal. He then noted that every
house had a dragon which was collecting rain water from the roof, with a water pipe
exiting from it’s mouth. The rainwater would collect on the roof, run down the
pipe, out of the dragon’s mouth and the flow of water would lubricate the flow
of waste into the canal. A tribute to mediaeval modernity and clever town
planning.
We visited
the St. Mary’s cathedral which for various complicated reasons had swung
between Catholic and Lutheran control over the centuries. It is currently back
under its rightful owners – the Catholics. Greg pointed out a famous painting
showing a very clear depiction of the return of Jesus. Some were being welcomed
at the pearly gates by St. Peter and others were heading for eternal damnation.
The artist wasn’t pulling any punches. The painting had been stolen and
reclaimed by various factions and groups right up to and including Nazi German
and then Soviet occupation.
.jpg) |
Bringing us up to speed on the
key facts about amber
|
We ended our
official tour in an amber store. This part of Poland is well known for amber.
We were given a brief talk on how to tell the difference between fake amber
which was being sold by all the dastardly street dealers out there and the
genuine article which was on offer right here in this store by a fully licensed
and reputable agent at reasonable prices. To sum it up, fake amber sinks in
water and real amber floats.
We were left
to explore the town on our own for an hour and a half. The town was awash with
schoolchildren on various end of term school outings. Many of the groups had
earnest teachers explaining things to a handful of interested kids, while the
rest were working on their cell phones, or checking their fingernails and so
on. I was taking a photo of Cher down a very attractive street when we were
approached by a gaggle of giggling teenage girls who indicated they wanted to
take a photo of us together. We thought this was part of a class project and
assumed they would use their phones. No, they were just offering to take our
photo together, which they did and moved on in a delight of giggles and
youthful exuberance. It was a nice gesture, and we were suitably impressed by
this example of manners and consideration by these young folk.
.jpg) |
The day was warm and ice cream
readily available
|
We were
moving towards our rendezvous point with our tour group, when who should we
come across but Casper and Avril Strijdom, our South African friends. They are
intrepid adventurers and had decided to make their way to Gdansk from the
cruise ship by a combination of buses and trains. They were quite unphased by
the possibility of things going wrong. As it turned out we bumped into them later
on the ship and things had indeed gone wrong on their way home and they made it
back with only 15 minutes to spare before the gangplank went up. Phew, that
must have been a bit nerve wracking because the cruise ships don’t wait for
folks who get back late.
We wrapped
up our evening on board, with a game of contract whist. So far on this trip,
Cher has pretty much wiped the floor with me at most of our card games, but
tonight I managed to pull off a win by the skin of my teeth.
Today was
Poland. Tomorrow will be Klaipeda in Lithuania. It’s all go around here. We
were going through a time zone change overnight so it was going to be a short
night and we turned in for an earlyish bedtime.
Tuesday
June 10th, 2025
We had some significant
swells on the sea overnight. Cher woke up feeling a bit queasy and we weren’t
sure if it was the sea or the food. Time would tell.
We docked on
time in Klaipeda, Lituania and the ship was greeted by a group of about 7 buskers, dressed up in
traditional outfits playing what sounded like some serious German sounding
oompah music. It was nice. Unfortunately, they were gone by the time we
disembarked but it was a good start toj our day.
.jpg) |
A bronze model of Klaipeda
|
.jpg) |
The bronze model even had braille signs so
blind folks could "read" the map better |
We met our
pre-arranged walking tour of the downtown historical Klaipeda. The tour guide,
Martinas, was a young guy who spoke excellent English and clearly enjoys
history. The port has always been an important feature which has largely
determined the town’s history. Much of the history has been Prussian based, or
Russian, or Polish, or…. French. You name it. At one point Lithuania was the
largest country in Europe – go figure.
.jpg) |
Klaipeda town square where Hitler was welcomed
with rapturous applause in 1939
|
Most
recently, he explained how the Lithuanians wrote to Adolf Hitler in 1939 and
invited him to come into the country. We stood in the town square where Hitler
had addressed the crowd who were giving him Nazi salutes with great adulation.
When the
Russians were pushing back the Germans in early 1945, the population of
Klaipeda, particularly the men, fled over the ice towards Germany, leaving old
women and children behind. The women were brutally raped. The Russians, based
on their support for the Nazis did their best to humiliate the Lithuanians. Martinas
showed us how the Soviets had dug up the main graveyard in town. They melted
down the metal crosses and cut up the gravestones into rectangular stones which
they used for edging the cobblestone roads. There was not much love lost
between the Soviets and the local Lithuanians, until the iron curtain came down
in the early 1990s.
.jpg) |
Klaipeda - Old Town architecture before
the big fire of 1864 destroyed most of the city
|
During the
tour Martinas showed us where three big churches had been in the Old Town prior
to WW2 but they had been flattened during the fighting. So he basically showed
us empty spaces, where they had been. In his wrap up he said he has only ever
had one review that gave him only 3/5. The comment was that Martinas
concentrated too much on what isn’t there anymore. We all had a chuckle at
that.
We headed
back to the ship around 2pm for a quick bite and our now mandatory afternoon
snooze.
We had met
another couple, Stanley and Ria Louw, from South Africa the previous day and had agreed
to meet them for a drink at 5pm. They are wine farmers in the Cape, which
produces excellent wines. We were just getting warmed up with this couple when
Casper and Avril arrived. Bottom line we all really clicked, and we decided to
move our meal to the later time slot at 8.30pm so we could all sit together. We
had a lovely evening and eventually the waiter’s kind of eased us out at about
10pm. We all took a side trip to the buffet on our way to bed, to get water and
milk for our morning tea.
Wednesday
June 11th, 2025
.jpg) |
Riga - our tour guide had come up with a
very good graphic depicting it's history
|
Today we are
in Riga, which is the capital of Latvia. It has a similar history to Klaipeda,
and by now we are getting quite good at figuring out all the opposing forces
over the centuries in their history. It had not suffered the same destruction
as Klaipeda during the second World War and the skyline was amply dotted with
beautiful church steeples in every direction. It was very beautiful.
We had
booked a walking tour. Our tour guide was very good and spoke from the heart
about how bad the Soviet occupation had been. She shared how when the USSR
collapsed, the Latvian economy was devastated. She said her Mom and her
developed quite a range of cabbage recipes because that’s all they could
afford. She also never bought any new clothes for the first 10 years of
“freedom from Russia”. She says she now compensates by never buying any used
clothing, even though it is quite trendy, apparently.
.jpg) |
Riga - Grimm Brothers story about the donkey,
dog, cat and rooster who were all on a mission.
The statue depicts the four animals peering through
the Iron Curtain and being astounded at what
they had been missing in the west.
|
I had woken
up aching all over, so I battled to keep up with our group today. It was
freezing and along with that I was shivering, my feet ached from all of the
cobblestones which are a bit of a challenge to comfortable walking. I was
looking forward to getting back to the ship to warm up and lay my poor aching
bones down.
Our tour
ended rather abruptly when our guide suddenly just disappeared into the crowd
and never returned. She had been acting a bit erratically during the tour, so
maybe she got triggered by something that was said or a question that was
asked. Our tour group was absolutely flummoxed. Eventually we all drifted to
whatever was next for us. I felt bad for her, because she would have scored all
kinds of tips. It was very strange. We
headed back to the cruise ship as I was done for and couldn’t face any more cobblestones.
 |
Rob and Cher - dressed up and ready
to dance. |
After a
snooze we had a cup of tea and then went to order some photos from the professional
photographers onboard. They had actually taken some really nice photos of us
over the course of almost two weeks. These photos are not cheap, but if we had
asked a professional to do this job for us at home, it would have been in the
same price range I reckon.
So here I
sit, not feeling that well, but feeling bad that it’s not nice for Cher to be
left to her own devices for the evening. I’m encouraging her to join the South
African group for supper, so she is not left completely high and dry.
Tomorrow we
are in Stockholm, our final city, a day at sea after that and then our cruise
will be over. These holidays are so long in the planning and anticipation and
then somehow it is all over in a flash it seems. We are thankful for the
experiences we have enjoyed and realize we are so privileged. Thank you Lord
for your blessings in our lives.
Thursday
June 12th
We woke up
this morning thinking we must be very close to Stockholm as we were gliding
gently past land very close to our ship. Actually we were making our way up the
Stockholm Archipelago, which seems to never end. We had this feeling of déjà vu
because we felt as if we were on a 30,000 island cruise on the St. Lawrence
River, or somewhere in the Muskokas. The islands, granite outcrops and forest
all made us feel as though we were back home.
The entrance
to Stockholm City consists of about 50kms of yes, 30,000 islands. The closer we
got to Stockholm the greater the number of cottages. We feel it is like the
Muskokas, but on steroids. We were reminded of a comment by a tour guide in
Norway, that many Norwegians own a summer cottage and quite a few have winter
getaways too. As we passed some of the beautifully manicured properties, I said
to Cher, “do you know what I think when I look at these properties?” She was
quick to respond, “Yes – work!!” She was correct. I guess that’s what 50 years of marriage will
do – we reach like mindedness on many things.
We decided
to go to the Dining Room for a nice cozy little twosome, away from the madding crowd.
When we got there, they said sorry, but we had to share with someone else. We
met a lovely mother and daughter couple, Ana and Alida. Alida, the mother was
born in Israel had a career as a teacher and school principal. Her parents were
Polish, so they must have escaped the Nazi purges. The daughter Ana is a serial
entrepreneur. She has lived in London for over 30 years. She is a wine expert,
and runs a factory based in Italy that manufactures shoes for tango dancers.
Talk about a niche market. With them both being Israelis, the talk naturally
drifted to the “Gaza situation”. It was a good conversation and by the end we
had almost got it all sorted out. It was a good start to our day. And then
later in the day it turns out the Israelis had bombed Iranian nuclear
facilities – just when we thought we had things all figured out.
.jpg) |
Stockholm - view of the Grand Hotel
|
We had a 1pm
excursion booked for a tour of Mediaeval Stockholm. I wasn’t feeling great, so
we loafed around in our cabin for a couple of hours, then went up to the buffet
for an early lunch snack before heading out on our excursion.
Our guide
was quite a laid-back older lady. She showed us the Parliament building, the
Royal Palace, and the Grand Hotel before taking us into the Old City. Stockholm
was first settled in 1252 when the first Christian missionaries arrived and
immediately began to build the church which still stands today. We couldn’t go
in, but from outside it was very grand. One of the statues we passed by was of a
gentleman called Birger Jarl. Jarl means King in Swedish, so she rightly claims
that Burger King has its roots in Sweden. Apart from that joke, our guide was a
bit lacking in her commentary. We passed by so many interesting looking things
without a word or comment. By the end we had lost about half of our group who
had decided to venture out on their own.
.jpg) |
Narrowest street in
Stockholm
|
When the tour
was over, Cher and I decided to go and do some mandatory shopping for memorabilia,
souvenirs for grandkids and so on. Once we accepted the fact that pretty much
everything was about three times what we’d have paid at home, we did just fine
and soon had that little task behind us. We returned to our rendezvous point
and were lucky to land a couple of seats on the shuttle bus before it left for home.
We are avoiding
other people because of my bugs. As we were departing port at 7pm , we went up
to the buffet area and enjoyed a glass of wine at our own table while we began
the reverse trip through the Archipelago. Today has been one of our first sunny
days and it was a very pretty sight as our gigantic cruise ship glided past sailing
boats and the endless islands and cottages, seemingly so close that it felt we
could reach out and touch them.
As our
cruise is drawing to a close, we decided to give the Trivia General Knowledge
quiz one more shot. I think the best we’ve done so far is 5/10. Well they’d
saved the hardest for last and we managed a miserable 2/10. On that note, I decided
it was time to quit. We’ll have to find a cruise line that offers easier brain
teasers. Cher headed to dinner with our South African friends, and I’ve been
sitting writing this and am still enjoying the sight of endless islands as we
exit Sweden.
Tomorrow is
a day at sea. That is good. We need some time to pack and then we’ll be free to
enjoy the last day of our 50th Anniversary Adventure.
Friday June
12th and Saturday June 13th.
Our day at
sea was a great day. It was some of the best weather we’ve had in two weeks, so
the poolside area was stacked with people and the entertainment, dance lessons
and games just kept going.
 |
Rob had a lucky day with the bean bags
|
Some of these
Europeans are definitely sun starved. They lie in the direct sun for hours on
end, as if they can make up for their long term shortfall in a few short hours.
Around the pool there was an excess of exposed flesh on overweight, out of
shape bodies and some of the ladies were wearing skimpy bikinis which should
only be seen by husbands in private places. We had noticed this phenomenon before
on an MSC Cruise and have concluded it must be a European thing. It's good I
suppose that these folk are not aspiring to a Hollywood/media driven model of
how we are supposed to look. Still to us more repressed types it was certainly
different.
My day was
made when I decided to enter the ring and bean bag toss competitions. By a
couple of flukes I had a couple of good throws and managed to get my name in the
box for the draw and then lo and behold my number was called and I was the
winner. So, I am now a proud owner of an MSC mouse pad, but my prize possession
is a wristband that says, “MSC World Championship” My day had peaked.
Sadly Cher
had caught my bug, so it called for a longer than usual nap in the afternoon. We
both made full use of the opportunity.
 |
| Casper and Avril Strijdom |
We had made
a plan with the rest of our South African gang that we would meet them for a final
drink together at 6pm. We didn’t want to expose them to our bugs by sitting around
a tight dining room table with them. It was really nice just chatting with
these complete strangers in some ways and yet, as South Africans we share so
much heritage that it fills in a lot of the gaps.
 |
| Stanley and Ria Louw |
By the end Cher was not
feeling good and so we said our fond farewells, shared offers of hospitality “if
we were ever in the area” and headed for our cabin, where we had to finalize
our luggage which would be taken overnight to unloaded first thing in the morning.
We were treated to a gorgeous sunset through our cabin window over a peaceful
sea at 9.45pm.
Saturday –
today, is our disembarking date. We were in no rush but had been allocated a disembarking
time and group at 10am. We were going to bravely try and navigate the way to
our hotel using public transportation to save what seemed like an expensive
taxi ride the last time. The first leg of the trip was a free municipal bus which
was scheduled to take us to the Metro station. The bus had just got fully
loaded with people and luggage squeezed in every nook and cranny. I even had
Cher sitting on my lap. The doors closed and then we heard a loud bang, and the
bus dropped about 6 – 12 inches on the one side. Needless to say but the bus
was broken. It took a while to recover from the chaos of that and we all had to
disembark. It wasn’t too long before a replacement bus came along.
 |
|
The Metro
was a breeze and it wasn’t long before we safely ensconced in our small but
sufficient Mayfair Hotel room. We had completed the whole trip for about $10
compared to our prior $70 taxi bill. When we got to the room, there was a personalized
note for us. Previously, we had stayed at this hotel on our first night in Copenhagen
and Cher, being a diligent type, had completed the online review questionnaire.
In it Cher had complained that we had missed not having tea or coffee in our
room, which we’d thought was standard everywhere these days. Well, lo and behold
the note pointed out that they were giving us tea and coffee in our room and
they hoped we enjoyed our second stay. It was a nice touch and eases the pain
of the rather lofty bill a bit.
Tomorrow, we
fly home and our adventure will be over. It has been fun, but we are both ready
to get back to family, friends and the real world again. We are very thankful
for the privilege we have had in making this trip and even more so, for having
had the pleasure of each other’s companionship for fifty years. We have so much
to be thankful for as we look back and so much
more to look forward to as we look ahead.
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To celebrate, we spent a month in May and June travelling to
Wales, visiting Cher’s sister for a week.
We then took the Chunnel to Paris and spent a few days walking the city flat. It was a lovely time. We wrapped up with a two-week cruise which took
us to Denmark, Norway, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden. This was
a part of the world we have never visited, and it was fun to broaden our
horizons in this way.
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