2012 August, Cruising the Baltic on NCL with Cathy and Mike.

    

IT’S AUGUST,2012, AND WE ARE OFF FOR AN NCL CRUISE!

August 10:  Richard ‘buttoned up’ the house and Brenton took us to OIA.  I TAGGED MY RENTED WHEELCHAIR, AND THE ATTENDANT TOLD ME IT WOULD ALWAYS GO WITH ME ON THE PLANE. In Atlanta by 12:30 we had plenty of time to find our gate.  We had a brief lunch and headed to International flights to wait for our 3:15 to Paris.  Cathy and Michael joined us there, and I left the chair at the plane door, as instructed. (but that was the last I saw of it.) Our seating was quite close and crowded and no one slept very much.

 

August 11: We arrived at CDG air port at 6:10, waited for my wheelchair which never appeared.  After forty minutes an attendant appeared with a chair and pushed me what seemed a mile through the Paris Air Port, with the three others following.  We missed our flight to Copenhagen, and found out our bags were all still in Atlanta.  Tense hours later we were finally put on a plane to CHN, and there reported missing luggage and wheelchair.  A taxi took us to the ship through the middle of Copenhagen, and described the city quite well as we traveled.  One stop for Richard to look for clothes (no luck) and we were at the ship.  At check-in we made a full report of our four missing bags, and got to our cabin about an hour before we sailed.  Food on 11^th deck staved off hunger until dinner.  It had been a long day, and Richard and I retired early.  Cathy bought a top in the ship store, as they had an early tour.

 

August 12: Germany: Cathy and Mike took a thirteen hour tour to Berlin, on the train, and then a tour bus, and saw such historical sights as the site of the former Wall, but found a completely modern city. After sight-seeing she had time for shopping, and bought a Christmas candle tree, but had it shipped.  Richard left the ship to explore the port, but found nothing open (Sunday) but restaurants.  We were in Warnemunde, which was a port formerly in the Eastern Zone.  Mostly I rested.

 

August 13: Monday was a sea day.  Ship shops were open all day, and Richard found underwear.  I bought sweat pants and a tee shirt, but in my carry-on I had packed one extra set of underwear and socks.  Cathy found the casino, played a while and came out about even.  We like eating in the restaurant and being served.  We found the food choices more limited than previous cruises, but the service was excellent.  Mike suffered a cold, and slept a lot.  We are all glad of our Kindles.

August 14:  Still wearing the clothes we left home in on Friday, we took a sight-seeing tour of Tallinn, the capitol city of Estonia, and previously a Soviet state.  It is a Medieval town, dating mostly from about 1000 A.D., and is now a ‘democratic republic’.  One of the most impressive sits was a war memorial.  It is a sea coast town, only 82 miles across the Baltic from Finland, with which they claim similar heritage and language.  In shops near the ship Cathy and Mike bought a few souvenirs and she got an amber necklace and earrings, for their anniversary, which is this week.  When we all got back on the ship we were told our luggage had arrived, and would be sent up later.  We sailed for St Petersburg.  Sure enough, after dinner the bags were at our cabin.  We were ever so thankful for clean clothes!!  Richard was disappointed to find his new hard-side suitcase had a big dent in it.  There were shows every night but for the most part we did not take advantage of them.  The ship is very large, and walking everywhere left me very tired by nightfall.

 

August 15:  St Petersburg.  Before we could go ashore everyone had to fill out a Visa form, in duplicate, which contained all the information on our passports, but they were required also.  Then before we could get on the tour buses we went through Russian customs.  Once we got started, the first thing we saw was a huge complex of high-rise apartments.  They were close together and appeared to be somewhat flimsy.  Later our tour guide told us they were very cheaply built in the seventies, that the walls were so thin if one coughed on the second floor people on the eighth could hear them.  She also said they were soon to be torn down.  She was trim and attractive, and spoke English quite well.  On this bus tour we traveled through several neighborhoods of wide tree-lined boulevards and frequent parks, while she indicated the important buildings.  They were substantial, most a few hundred years old.  Peter the Great built St Petersburg on the river there, and on 21 islands.  Surprising to us was that they have more canals and waterways than Venice!  It was a very clean city, with so few signs that we wondered where were the grocery stores and shops, where were the schools? (other than the University, which she pointed out.  After several minutes of watching people on the sidewalks, it dawned on us that we saw no fat people at all, rather skinny actually, most of them.  There are many churches in St Petersburg, but most are museums.  She actually mentioned that services (Orthodox) were held on Sundays in two of them.

      Cathy and Mike had a much more interesting tour that day.  It was a full day tour, which included Catherine the Great’s castle, and the Hermitage, which houses thousands of objects d’art, from many famous artists.  They also had lunch served in the Hermitage, but were not greatly impressed by Russian cuisine.

 

 

August 16:  Still in St Petersburg, the four of us together took a combination bus and boat tour, and we seemed to see much more from the tour boats.  Both days included one stop at a small shop, where we could buy Santa ornaments, nesting dolls, chess sets, sample vodka, etc. It was small, but was so stuffed with goods there was no vacant wall space.  Richard bought me an apron, and Cathy got Christmas ornaments.  The weather was nice and we really enjoyed the boat ride.   Bridges were only a block apart, and one young man raced from bridge to bridge to wave to us! As mentioned, signs were scarce, with only corporations such as Coke, Volkswagen, and Samsung being obvious.

Most impressive of the churches was one built on the spot where a ruler was killed, known as the “church of the spilled blood”.  We went inside to see the mosaics, the art work, and the icons.  Our next port was Finland.

 

August 17:Helsinki has about the same population as greater Orlando, and the whole country has fewer than the state of Florida.  Boat building is an important industry, as is lumber. We walked about a quarter mile to a park, from which we took a boat ride while the tour guide gave us statistics and facts about the country.  The Royal family has a castle right in Helsinki, and  all the government buildings are close by.  The largest church is a Methodist, and their favorite son was obviously Sibelius.  A park dedicated to him has giant pipes that ‘sing’. From the boat we walked through a huge street market selling all kinds of crafts and hand-made goods.  Cathy fell in love with a sweater, but it was $800 Euros!  They claim not to have been involved in the second World War, which meant that they accommodated their neighbors enough not to be invaded.

 

August 18: Stockholm, Sweden is also very much a land and water city.  Again we toured by bus and boat.  They also have a Royal Family who lives mainly outside Stockholm, but the royal castle is right there next to their state house, and that’s where official functions, dinners, balls take place.  It is a bit larger and more modern than Helsinki, with somewhat more trade, but their trades are pretty much the same.  Both are so near the arctic circle that winters afford only six hours of daylight, so people go and come from work in the dark.  Both boast of extensive cultural opportunities, which were more obvious in Sweden.  We remarked several times that they were an attractive race of people.

 

August 19: Another sea day gave us a chance to enjoy all the boat had to offer.  We slept late,  browsed the shops, Cathy and I made more contributions to the casino.  Richard and Mike enjoyed a stage show, an illusionist.  The shops offered folk items from Russia, gemstone jewelry from around the world, and mostly clothes with the Norwegian Logo. All things we could do without.  Cathy and Mike celebrated their twenty-third wedding anniversary, and the restaurant personnel sang to them, quite beautifully.

 

August 20: We were packed and ready to depart so took our own baggage off the ship and waited our turn for a taxi.  Our return trip took us through Amsterdam, where we had a lengthy wait, then boarded a KLM for Atlanta.  The return flight was significantly better.  The plane was a bit more spacious, the food much better, and the attendants very helpful.

Back in Atlanta  we cleared customs and went in search of the wheelchair we left behind.  We had no luck at all, although Richard spent hours then and the next day trying to find the right place to file  a claim.  It was late, we were tired, and so we spent the night at the Airport Hyatt, where I had reserved a room.

 

August 22:  We were so glad to see friend Carl F., who came to the Orlando Airport to pick us up. We were also happy to see home again, where frequent rain had kept the grass and plants green,  lawn service kept it trim and neat, and Carl had cleaned the pool!

 

      2012 August, Cruising the Baltic on NCL with Cathy and Mike.

 

IT’S AUGUST,2012, AND WE ARE OFF FOR AN NCL CRUISE!

August 10:  Richard ‘buttoned up’ the house and Brenton took us to OIA.  I TAGGED MY RENTED WHEELCHAIR, AND THE ATTENDANT TOLD ME IT WOULD ALWAYS GO WITH ME ON THE PLANE. In Atlanta by 12:30 we had plenty of time to find our gate.  We had a brief lunch and headed to International flights to wait for our 3:15 to Paris.  Cathy and Michael joined us there, and I left the chair at the plane door, as instructed. (but that was the last I saw of it.) Our seating was quite close and crowded and no one slept very much.

 

August 11: We arrived at CDG air port at 6:10, waited for my wheelchair which never appeared.  After forty minutes an attendant appeared with a chair and pushed me what seemed a mile through the Paris Air Port, with the three others following.  We missed our flight to Copenhagen, and found out our bags were all still in Atlanta.  Tense hours later we were finally put on a plane to CHN, and there reported missing luggage and wheelchair.  A taxi took us to the ship through the middle of Copenhagen, and described the city quite well as we traveled.  One stop for Richard to look for clothes (no luck) and we were at the ship.  At check-in we made a full report of our four missing bags, and got to our cabin about an hour before we sailed.  Food on 11^th deck staved off hunger until dinner.  It had been a long day, and Richard and I retired early.  Cathy bought a top in the ship store, as they had an early tour.

 

August 12: Germany: Cathy and Mike took a thirteen hour tour to Berlin, on the train, and then a tour bus, and saw such historical sights as the site of the former Wall, but found a completely modern city. After sight-seeing she had time for shopping, and bought a Christmas candle tree, but had it shipped.  Richard left the ship to explore the port, but found nothing open (Sunday) but restaurants.  We were in Warnemunde, which was a port formerly in the Eastern Zone.  Mostly I rested.

 

August 13: Monday was a sea day.  Ship shops were open all day, and Richard found underwear.  I bought sweat pants and a tee shirt, but in my carry-on I had packed one extra set of underwear and socks.  Cathy found the casino, played a while and came out about even.  We like eating in the restaurant and being served.  We found the food choices more limited than previous cruises, but the service was excellent.  Mike suffered a cold, and slept a lot.  We are all glad of our Kindles.

August 14:  Still wearing the clothes we left home in on Friday, we took a sight-seeing tour of Tallinn, the capitol city of Estonia, and previously a Soviet state.  It is a Medieval town, dating mostly from about 1000 A.D., and is now a ‘democratic republic’.  One of the most impressive sits was a war memorial.  It is a sea coast town, only 82 miles across the Baltic from Finland, with which they claim similar heritage and language.  In shops near the ship Cathy and Mike bought a few souvenirs and she got an amber necklace and earrings, for their anniversary, which is this week.  When we all got back on the ship we were told our luggage had arrived, and would be sent up later.  We sailed for St Petersburg.  Sure enough, after dinner the bags were at our cabin.  We were ever so thankful for clean clothes!!  Richard was disappointed to find his new hard-side suitcase had a big dent in it.  There were shows every night but for the most part we did not take advantage of them.  The ship is very large, and walking everywhere left me very tired by nightfall.

 

August 15:  St Petersburg.  Before we could go ashore everyone had to fill out a Visa form, in duplicate, which contained all the information on our passports, but they were required also.  Then before we could get on the tour buses we went through Russian customs.  Once we got started, the first thing we saw was a huge complex of high-rise apartments.  They were close together and appeared to be somewhat flimsy.  Later our tour guide told us they were very cheaply built in the seventies, that the walls were so thin if one coughed on the second floor people on the eighth could hear them.  She also said they were soon to be torn down.  She was trim and attractive, and spoke English quite well.  On this bus tour we traveled through several neighborhoods of wide tree-lined boulevards and frequent parks, while she indicated the important buildings.  They were substantial, most a few hundred years old.  Peter the Great built St Petersburg on the river there, and on 21 islands.  Surprising to us was that they have more canals and waterways than Venice!  It was a very clean city, with so few signs that we wondered where were the grocery stores and shops, where were the schools? (other than the University, which she pointed out.  After several minutes of watching people on the sidewalks, it dawned on us that we saw no fat people at all, rather skinny actually, most of them.  There are many churches in St Petersburg, but most are museums.  She actually mentioned that services (Orthodox) were held on Sundays in two of them.

      Cathy and Mike had a much more interesting tour that day.  It was a full day tour, which included Catherine the Great’s castle, and the Hermitage, which houses thousands of objects d’art, from many famous artists.  They also had lunch served in the Hermitage, but were not greatly impressed by Russian cuisine.

 

 

August 16:  Still in St Petersburg, the four of us together took a combination bus and boat tour, and we seemed to see much more from the tour boats.  Both days included one stop at a small shop, where we could buy Santa ornaments, nesting dolls, chess sets, sample vodka, etc. It was small, but was so stuffed with goods there was no vacant wall space.  Richard bought me an apron, and Cathy got Christmas ornaments.  The weather was nice and we really enjoyed the boat ride.   Bridges were only a block apart, and one young man raced from bridge to bridge to wave to us! As mentioned, signs were scarce, with only corporations such as Coke, Volkswagen, and Samsung being obvious.

Most impressive of the churches was one built on the spot where a ruler was killed, known as the “church of the spilled blood”.  We went inside to see the mosaics, the art work, and the icons.  Our next port was Finland.

 

August 17:Helsinki has about the same population as greater Orlando, and the whole country has fewer than the state of Florida.  Boat building is an important industry, as is lumber. We walked about a quarter mile to a park, from which we took a boat ride while the tour guide gave us statistics and facts about the country.  The Royal family has a castle right in Helsinki, and  all the government buildings are close by.  The largest church is a Methodist, and their favorite son was obviously Sibelius.  A park dedicated to him has giant pipes that ‘sing’. From the boat we walked through a huge street market selling all kinds of crafts and hand-made goods.  Cathy fell in love with a sweater, but it was $800 Euros!  They claim not to have been involved in the second World War, which meant that they accommodated their neighbors enough not to be invaded.

 

August 18: Stockholm, Sweden is also very much a land and water city.  Again we toured by bus and boat.  They also have a Royal Family who lives mainly outside Stockholm, but the royal castle is right there next to their state house, and that’s where official functions, dinners, balls take place.  It is a bit larger and more modern than Helsinki, with somewhat more trade, but their trades are pretty much the same.  Both are so near the arctic circle that winters afford only six hours of daylight, so people go and come from work in the dark.  Both boast of extensive cultural opportunities, which were more obvious in Sweden.  We remarked several times that they were an attractive race of people.

 

August 19: Another sea day gave us a chance to enjoy all the boat had to offer.  We slept late,  browsed the shops, Cathy and I made more contributions to the casino.  Richard and Mike enjoyed a stage show, an illusionist.  The shops offered folk items from Russia, gemstone jewelry from around the world, and mostly clothes with the Norwegian Logo. All things we could do without.  Cathy and Mike celebrated their twenty-third wedding anniversary, and the restaurant personnel sang to them, quite beautifully.

 

August 20: We were packed and ready to depart so took our own baggage off the ship and waited our turn for a taxi.  Our return trip took us through Amsterdam, where we had a lengthy wait, then boarded a KLM for Atlanta.  The return flight was significantly better.  The plane was a bit more spacious, the food much better, and the attendants very helpful.

Back in Atlanta  we cleared customs and went in search of the wheelchair we left behind.  We had no luck at all, although Richard spent hours then and the next day trying to find the right place to file  a claim.  It was late, we were tired, and so we spent the night at the Airport Hyatt, where I had reserved a room.

 

August 22:  We were so glad to see friend Carl F., who came to the Orlando Airport to pick us up. We were also happy to see home again, where frequent rain had kept the grass and plants green,  lawn service kept it trim and neat, and Carl had cleaned the pool!