Day 13–Bluebirds Over the White Cliffs of Dover.

As the sun slowly sets on the cruise..

…with the white cliffs of Dover almost in view…

..it’s time to reflect on the highlights of this holiday.

When we choose this cruise there were two things that were paramount in our thinking, firstly the timing , to coincide with our anniversary and secondly the itinerary. We were not disappointed with any of the cities visited but St Petersburg with all it’s history was probably the favourite. There was some much to see one visit was probably not enough to do it justice but we tried our best.

The inside of St Isaac's Cathedral was truly spectacular and one that should not be missed.

The other city that impressed me was Stockholm, very friendly with plenty to see (even if we did miss the Abba museum),

..with the journey up the archipelago out of this world.

Tallinn for such a small city offered plenty with its small streets and many towers, again a great place to visit.

Overall the places we have visited have been first class and the weather has been unbelievable, even today the decks have been full of people getting that last drop of sun.

During the afternoon we were treated to a Q&A session with Mike Doyle that had the whole audience in raptures, they certainly saved the best for last.

Overall a great holiday which we have both thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you for joining us and I look forward to writing again soon.

Day Twelve–At Sea.

With all our stops completed, today was at sea as we make our way slowly home. Sylvia has started to think about packing the cases and we have our disembarkation information. It really feels as if the cruise is over even though we have two days left to go.

The weather today was once again splendid apart from a stiff breeze across the decks. This didn’t deter the sun worshippers from gaining that last bit of sunshine….

….although the girls in the band have known it warmer.

We once again watched the Hot Glass show on the top of the ship. This really is worth seeing for the artistry of the glass blowers working in what must be difficult conditions for them.

They are only allowed to sell four items per cruise and these were all auctioned for charity. Despite our best efforts we were unable to buy any of these items but our bidding at least ensured that the charities raised more money.

Tonight was the last formal night and Sylvia managed to get this sneaky picture as we left our room.

The show tonight was “Ovations”, a mixture of West End shows, with lots of singing and dancing, culminating in a series of songs from “We Will Rock You”. A fun evening.

I’ll use this opportunity to answer a couple of queries that have arisen from the comments. Firstly Diarra, no I haven't used my i-pad to post my blog, mainly due to not wanting to store all the photos on it. Even though this is truly an Apple ship I’m afraid I am still using Windows Live Writer.

Secondly Anneloes, yesterday was indeed Denmark Day or Constitution Day, which celebrates the signing of the first Danish constitution in 1849. It was a Bank Holiday which meant that the majority of main shops were closed after noon and the Tivoli Gardens were probably more crowded than normal.

Tonight we gain another hour to bring us back to British time in readiness for our last day. Tomorrow will be the highlights and lowlights of the cruise.

Day Eleven–Wonderful Copenhagen

There are three things that Denmark is famous for, firstly Danish Pastries, (incidentally not called Danish Pastries here)..

…..secondly Lego and third and most famously Hans Christian Anderson. Here “The Happy Family” is shown with the famous statue opposite the Tivoli Gardens.

Like all the cities that we have visited photo opportunities abound especially as once again we had clear blue skies and temperatures well in the twenties. The Nyhavn with it’s picturesque fishing boats is the view that everyone remembers.

It was here that Hans Christian lived  and it is said that many of his stories were written about events in his life.

Throughout the city we saw references to his works, “The Wild Swans”,

“The Emperor’s New Clothes”…

“The Ugly Duckling”

and some “Steadfast Tin Soldiers” outside the Royal Palace.

The centre-piece of the city however is the Tivoli Gardens, an amusement park and gardens built in the centre of town. Here we spent a couple of hours taking in the sights and listening to the children scream on the white-knuckle rides.

But of course the sight that everyone comes to Copenhagen to see is “The Little Mermaid”….

and her lesser-known sister “The Not-So Little Mermaid”.

Apologies for the late posting all these days of sun and walking took its toll and I had to have an early night, meaning I missed Mike Doyle in the theatre. He was according to Sylvia very good and I should get a chance to see him tomorrow.

Only two days at sea left now so it will be time to make some comparisons with other cruises. See you later.

Day Ten–Relaxing at Sea

After four city visits in five hectic days it was nice to relax on the ship this morning. Although the sun was shining there was a stiff breeze across the deck early on, which meant the solarium was the place to be. This is a glass covered area with a pool and several Jacuzzis which also houses a small cafe serving healthy snacks. Here it is in a quieter moment.

We spent most of the morning here reading about our next stop, Copenhagen and talking about some of the characters we had met on the cruise so far. The joy of Select Dining is that we are free to eat at whatever time we choose with no set table, which means we get to meet different people each mealtime. Several stand out as figures of note.

Firstly the Australian who makes his living betting on horses who allegedly has been banned from every Blackjack table in the world!! When asked if he makes much money, he replied that he had two houses one in London and one in Brisbane and that he enjoyed cruising. He wasn’t however able to give me any tips.

We also met an old man who very much reminded me of Sylvia’s dad. He was 92 years old and confined to an electric wheelchair. He was having a general moan about the cruise especially due to the fact he hadn’t been allowed on any of the shore excursions due to his lack of mobility. He was a Londoner born and bred in the Battersea area where he has lived all his life and despite being critically ill earlier this year was intent on enjoying the rest of his life. Thankfully we later saw him ashore at both St Petersburg and Tallinn and joked that they wouldn’t allow him back on the ship. I hope I’m as good as that in my Nineties!!

At lunch today we were seated with two American guys from Indianapolis who when we said we were from South Wales remarked that they were near us on the day prior to departure. Having hired a car at Heathrow they were told to take the M4 to Southampton, once they had crossed the Severn Bridge and reached Barry Island they realised they must have gone wrong and turned around. One of the guys was an on-board lecturer and was very interested in Sylvia’s skills of teaching and water colours as his agent is always looking out for people with this skill-set for other cruises. I think I could handle that, cruising around the World while Sylvia teaches other passengers how to paint – Sylvia will need some persuasion though!!

The following picture is for Oliver, the Celebrity i-Lounge, full of Apple products to use and buy.

Tonight we sailed past the coast of Sweden onwards to Copenhagen tomorrow.

Day Nine–Tallinn, a fairy tale city.

As we sailed towards Tallinn it appeared just like a fairy-tale town, high on a hill with towers and church spires pointing into the sky. A short shuttle bus ride took us to the outer walls of the city which we continued to explore on foot, every turn in the street giving a photo opportunity.

We climbed the steps ….

….to the Alexander Nevski Cathedral….

to look down at the rooftops….

….and even more towers.

A street musician played a traditional key-harp…

..as we descended the steps once again…

..to the town hall…

…..and still more towers.

I sat and talked “Bull” with the locals…

…then continued to walk the pretty streets….

…….never knowing who you might meet in such a fairy-tale setting.

We can’t believe the weather that we are having on this trip, as once again temperatures were up in the mid-twenties with bright sunshine. We returned to the ship to relax after a very busy morning and Sylvia sat on the balcony painting the city scene before us.

This evening was the second of the formal nights, so dressed in our finery we had a lovely dinner and then the production show. This was an acrobatic dancing experience in the style of “Cirque de Soleil”, very well performed although the music wasn’t as good as the visual content.

Later we had coffee in the buffet and met with two other families from Wales, there being quite a large contingent on board. A man from Llanelli told us his bad experiences of his shore excursions in Sweden, Finland and Estonia, and we realised that Tallinn was not a fairy-tale city for everyone!!!

Day Eight–St Petersburg from the inside.

If yesterday was about seeing the exteriors of the many beautiful buildings of the former Russian capital then today was about seeing the interiors of three cathedrals. After a morning spent lazing by the pool in the hot sunshine we boarded our coach at 1.15 that took us on the now familiar route into the city.

First stop was the magnificently golden domed St Isaacs Cathedral, named in honour of St Isaac of Dalmatia whose feast day is celebrated on Peter the Great’s birthday.

The building is now longer used as a place of worship but has been restored to it’s former glory after years of abuse and neglect under the former Soviet regime.

The photographs barely do justice to the gilded statues…

…..the painted mosaics….

…and the superb dove at the centrepiece of the dome.

It seems absurd that for decades this building was used as a store room for army uniforms and to house an exhibition proving to the masses that God did not exist.

The next stop on the tour was the Church of St Nicholas and the Epiphany, known by the local children as Father Christmas Church.

This is the only church that we were visiting that was still an active church and therefore no photographs were allowed inside. A baptism was taking place and judging by the noise that the baby was making, if it is true they cry to let out the devil, it would be a very pure baby indeed. In fact the cries were probably due to the method of baptism, the child being held by it’s ankles and totally immersed not once but three times.

In common with many churches, the bell tower is situated a little away from the main church structure so as not to be too heavy on the church.

Interestingly the gold that gilds the towers of the church was gifted to the congregation by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1960s.

Throughout the city there are many statues of the famous former residents including this one of the composer Rimsky-Korsakov,

…a little further down the street was the house where Rasputin was murdered.

Our final stop was the iconic Church of the Resurrection of Christ “On Spilled Blood”, built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded in 1881.

Again the walls are adorned with magnificent depictions of Saints ..

..and bible stories….

… with  ornate chandeliers…

.

and ceiling mosaics.

Despite the crowds the visits were most memorable and will serve as a life long memory of the magnificence of this city.

We always knew that St Petersburg would be the highlight of the trip but the sights of this city were truly breath-taking and the weather was really a bonus. I am writing this at 10.15pm local time while Sylvia is laying on the balcony in the warm evening sun. At it’s height today the temperature reached 27 or 28C something you don’t really expect in the Baltic.

So as the sun sinks in the sky and Fred Olsen “Balmoral” slowly overtakes us….

….we look forward to Tallinn tomorrow.