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.
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.
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| Copenhagen and the beginning of our Scandinavian Scuttle |
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 |
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
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| 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.
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.
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| Our cabin - a happy home for our two weeks |
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.
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| Cher waving goodbye at the dock leaving party |
It was time for bed. Tomorrow will be another port and another day.
Sunday June 1st, 2025
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Warnemunde is mainly a beach resort town |
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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Stavanger's Three Swords - apparently swords planted in the ground are a sign of peaceful intentions |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
- Many Norwegians own not only a summer cottage, but also a winter get away cabin.
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| Grimsted - had a very pictureseque harbor |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| Rob helping stand guard in front of the Royal Norwegian Palace in Oslo |
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| 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, 2025
Today 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| A bronze model of Klaipeda |
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| 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.
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| Klaipeda town square where Hitler was welcomed with rapturous applause in 1939 |
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.
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| Klaipeda - Old Town architecture before the big fire of 1864 destroyed most of the city |
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
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| Riga - our tour guide had come up with a very good graphic depicting it's history |
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.
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| 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. |
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.
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. 
Rob and Cher - dressed up and ready
to dance.
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.
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| 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.
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| Narrowest street in Stockholm |
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.
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| Rob had a lucky day with the bean bags |
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.
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| Casper and Avril Strijdom |
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| 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.
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.
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.
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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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