Nynashamn, (Stockholm), Sweden

Wednesday, May 21

This was the only port on this cruise where tenders had to be used. Because we were not doing a Princess shore excursion, we had to wait until they were all cleared until we could go. Only five tenders (or water limousines as Royal Princess refer to them!!) were being used but each moves 220 people at a time so, despite it being a 20 min trip to shore, we made it in time to start our SPB tour at 9am. Again, we were greeted by locals and a band playing "American Patrol".

The welcoming band

Exiting one of the "water limousines"

Our guide, Carlos, introduced himself and told us he was from Mexico, of all places. He had come here 6 yrs ago, fallen in love with a Swedish girl, learned the language, obtained citizenship, then lost the girl. He explained that one love affair had ended but not his love for Stockholm. Apart from being very easy on the eye, he was both knowledgeable and entertaining.

Carlos, our Mexican guide (too animated to get a good pic!)

We set off on a 50 min coach ride to the city with Carlos pointing out things of interest and telling us about life in Sweden. First stop was a vantage point that gave us a breathtaking 180 degree view over Stockholm. What a beautiful, clean city it is. Al was excited to spot the sailing ship "Af Chapman" moored in the harbour as this was the boat (still used as a youth hostel) that he and the boys stayed in 40 years ago. After a brief photo stop, we were off to the Vasa Museum.

From the vantage point overlooking Stockholm

Everyone we know who has been to Stockholm told us we must not miss this museum and, once inside, we could see why. The Vasa was commissioned by the King of Sweden as a war ship back in 1628. One would expect such a ship to be sailing for 25 years or more but this ship sailed for only 25 mins before capsizing in the harbour in a gust of wind. The King blamed the designer but it was really the extra canons he had ordered to be fitted to the top deck that caused it to be top heavy. The ship remained submerged for over 300 years but because it was in fresh water, it was preserved. In 1961 it was salvaged and restorations were carried out. The reconstructed vessel is 98% original - amazing

The salvaged Vasa

Next stop was City Hall. Impressive on the exterior, it was jaw-dropping on the interior. The first room we entered (Blue Room) is where the Nobel Prize Banquet is held each year so features a large gold medallion with Nobel's head embossed on it. There is not an inch of blue in the room but apparently the architect had planned to have it painted blue but when he saw how good the brickwork looked, he decided to leave it unpainted. The plans however, showed it as the Blue Room and it has always been called that. The next room was the Gold Room and it lived up to its name with all the walls decorated in mosaic tiles covered in gold leaf making it very impressive.

The Blue Room at City Hall

One of the mosaic walls in the Gold Room

From there we headed to the Old Town - much like most European old towns. Carlos showed us the Royal Palace, the Lutheran Church, the Nobel Museum, an old stone with a Viking inscription and a number of different styled houses.

Outside the Royal Palace in Old Town

The Lutheran Church

We then had an hour to explore on our own. As it was about 1.30pm we were all famished (we have usually had about 5 meals by this time of day!!) so the general consensus was to go and eat first. After a delicious bratwurst roll and fries (we are travelling with Americans after all!) and a very strong espresso to go with the most unbelievable cake - marzipan base covered in dark chocolate topped with fluffy marshmallow coated in delicious white chocolate (1bn calories per bite!) - almost unable to walk, we headed off along the cobblestone streets and looked in some quaint shops filled with typical Scandinavian wooden handicrafts, woollen jumpers, hats, etc., and of course, more fabulous little eateries.

One billion calories per bite!

As we had to be tendered back to our ship, we didn't want to leave it till the last minute to catch a tender so we piled back into our coach for the 50 min drive back to Nynashamn. Fortunately the queue for tenders wasn't too long so we were back on board by mid afternoon ready for our 5pm departure and a restful day at sea tomorrow - if you call packing restful! Sadly, tomorrow is our last full day on this cruise.

Our "boat" is masquerading as a "water limousine" so we now have an unobstructed view!

 

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Helsinki, Finland

Tuesday May 20

Last night sailing to Helsinki we got an hour back on the clock so we caught up on some sleep and were nice and refreshed for our SPB tour today. It was 11:15pm last night before we turned our watches back and it was still light outside!

Going to bed and it's still light

We met our guide, Tania and headed off on the coach with 22 other people from our ship. Our first stop was Senate Square with the Lutheran church - St Nicholas Cathedral - overlooking it and offering a great view over the city. Compared to the churches we visited in St. Petersburg, the inside of this one was very austere (much like the Finns themselves) and it is actually used for services and not just as a tourist attraction.

St. Nicholas Cathedral

Our next stop was at the Olympic Stadium where Helsinki hosted the 1952 games. They were meant to host them in 1940 but, due to the war, their turn was postponed. The statue in front of the stadium is of their most famous athlete, Paavo Nurmi, the winner of 9 gold medals and 3 silver medals from the 1920, 1924 and 1928 games. He also set 22 world records during his career - quite an athlete!

The Olympic Stadium

Helsinki sits on top of granite rock and you can see it everywhere throughout the city and especially in the parks. The monument to Sibelius, their famous composer (he wrote Finlandia), is constructed on an outcrop of granite overlooking a lovely park and bay and apparently when it rains or is windy, the monument makes musical sounds but we didn't experience any on such a warm sunny day.

The monument to Sibelius

Our last stop was at the Church in the Rock and it is literally carved into the bedrock and covered with an enormous copper dome. Again, this church is used for services and seats about 1,000 people. It was very peaceful just sitting and taking in the marvellous natural setting and the brilliant architecture.

Noelle at the Church in the Rock

Helsinki has a number of interesting buildings with totally different architectural styles to the other Nordic countries we've visited and the railway station that was built in 1909 was one of them.

Helsinki Railway Station

As we didn't have very long in port today, we couldn't stroll around the city to see some of the other attractions there and people watch but from what our guide told us, the Finns like to keep their distance and hardly speak to their neighbours unless they are in a sauna (with no clothes on)!

 

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St Petersburg, Russia - Day 2

Monday, May 19

After a very "fast" sleep, we were up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6am ready to meet the rest of our tour group at 7.15am as we all had to exit the ship as one group. What a day! We have been so blessed with the weather and today is forecast to be 28C (82F) - almost unheard of in StP for this time of year (They had snow on May 1).

The Canal ride

Our first stop was for a 45 minute canal ride through StP. It is the most beautiful city and even more so viewed from the water. It is easy to see why most StP residents are so enamoured with Peter the Great when you see all the things he did for the city and the lovely buildings he is responsible for. The palaces for the Romanov family and other nobility are like fairytale places and there are just so many of them. Peter had excellent planning skills and put regulations in place prohibiting buildings being any taller than the Winter Palace or being built forward of it towards the Neva River. The result is very pleasing to the eye. StP is Vladimir Putin's home town and when he came to power he gave US$2bn for building restoration and it appears to have been well spent.

Beside the Neva River with the Winter Palace in the background

From the canal trip we boarded our van for a one hour drive to Peterhof where Peter's Summer Palace is situated. The gardens are glorious and we saw more tulips here than in Keukenhof, Netherlands. Peter had studied boat-building in Amsterdam so there are a number of Dutch touches in StP and its surrounds. The Summer Palace is renowned for all it's fountains - all of which are gravity fed and run from 11am to 5pm every day, and then empty into the Gulf of Finland - no water is recirculated! They are really a magnificent sight and we really enjoyed our stroll through the gardens (along with thousands of others but stil nowhere near as many as in the height of summer).

In front of the Peterhof Palace

The Main fountain

The Sun fountain with revolving centre piece

By then we were all ready for a bite to eat so we boarded our van for the short drive back into Peterhof city area where we had another good Russian lunch. Thankfully we had a 40 min drive ahead so were able to have an "after lunch" snooze.

Catherine the Great's holiday shack

At the end of our drive we were in Pushkin where Catherine the Great's Summer Palace is located. My goodness, those Czars knew how to build ostentatious palaces! It was obviously a good thing to be the architect too as they were often gifted a small palace for their efforts!

The Gold Room (Ballroom) - shades of Versailles!

Our guide explained that during WW2 the Germans used the palace as their headquarters but near the end of the war when the Russian Army was getting close to StP, the Germans bombed the palace and the resulting fire destroyed most of it. It has now largely been restored and it is absolutely fabulous to see. There is so much gold throughout and the Amber Room is breathtaking. Apparently, despite efforts to conceal the original Amber Room at the beginning of WW2 with plaster walls, the Germans still found it, dismantled the panels and the amber has never been seen again despite exhaustive investigations by both the Russian and German governments. Currently the thinking is that it is probably somewhere in Argentina because of the large number of Nazis that moved there. Sadly, we were not allowed to take photos in the Amber Room so it has to be one for our memory banks (and we doubt we will ever forget it!)

A magnificent Delft Heater (no doubt due to Peter's time in Amsterdam)

On our return to the ship, we faced an enormous queue to go through Russian Immigration. It was quite hot standing in the sun but fortunately we were in Russia and not India, so the queue moved at a good pace and in 15 minutes we were facing the unsmiling face of an Immigration Official who carefully checked all details before handing our passport back with nothing more than a grunt. (Our StP native guide put the unsmiling faces and seeming lack of friendliness down to the fact that they don't see enough sunshine - so now we know!!)

 

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St. Petersburg, day 1

Sunday May 18

What an unbelievable day in St. Petersburg! Firstly we were blessed with a beautiful warm, sunny day which was their first one of the year and considering they only get 30 a year we were off to a good start. The sun had already been up for 15 minutes when our alarm went at 5:30am to have us up and ready in time to clear Russian immigration and get going on our tour. These are long days!

We knew most of the people from the 3 cruise ships in port would visit the Hermitage museum today as it is closed on Mondays so we were expecting big crowds, along with the normal mass of tourists. However our first stop was a visit to the underground to ride a train one stop and exit from the second deepest train station in the world, while admiring the mosaics and artwork along the way. Again being a Sunday and still early it was very quiet which suited us, as we'd been warned about pickpockets in the city.

The top of the escalator with mosaic in the background at the Admiralty station

On our way to the Hermitage we made a quick stop to take pictures of St. Isaacs Cathedral from the outside as it was on the schedule to see inside it later in the day. Being with an organised tour we got quick access to the Hermitage and Helena our guide lead the way and her commentary was transmitted to us by "magic boxes" which all 15 of us carried and could hear her through our headphones. We only had 1.5 hours inside but were pleasantly surprised at how few people there were, so we could get up close and personal to some of the masterpieces we were told about. In between stops you just had to swivel your head from left to right and up and down to take in the incredible works of art you were passing!

Entering the Hermitage

It wasn't just the paintings here that blew us away, it was the furnishings, tapestries, flooring, painted walls and ceilings, chandeliers, vases, fireplaces, chairs, carved doors and columns decorating the various rooms we passed through. In the time we had we would be lucky to have seen 1% of what it holds but it was an incredible experience. We had 15 minutes to view the Impressionist rooms which were set out by artist and contained all the big names. I can only include a few photos to give you a sample!

Our tour group in the Reuben's room

Al with some Cezannes

Noelle at the square behind the Winter Palace of the Hermitage

 

After a much needed pit stop Roman our driver took us to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, which is where one of the Tsars was assassinated. Again this was incredible on the outside as well as the inside - a typical Russian Orthodox Church on the outside but inside the walls and ceiling were covered in mosaics instead of being painted, and the carved wood altar screen was adorned with gold, silver and icons.

Church of the Spilled Blood

Altar screen and mosaics in Church of the Spilled Blood

 

Our lunch break was well earned and we enjoyed a typical Russian meal of borscht soup, beef stew with potato pancakes followed by carrot cake, washed down with a forest berry fruit drink. Then it was off to the fortress of Peter & Paul which contained another church with a huge gold spire and more amazing detail inside, including the tombs of most of the Russian tzars.

The Church of Peter & Paul

Inside the Church of Peter & Paul

We were all feeling a bit "museumed" out, so at the Usopova Palace (the home of a rich nobleman) where you had to pay extra to take pictures inside no one could be bothered. This turned out to be a good idea as most of the treasures were lost in the 1917 revolution so it was bare compared to the other places we'd been to already. However it does have the distinction of being the place where Rasputin the mad monk was killed, although there are many myths about his death.

Our final stop was St. Isaacs Cathedral and again this was a jaw dropper. The outside is classical with massive columns of granite and incredible bronze doors. The casting on the inside and outside of these doors was masterful, and apparently they weigh about 20 tonne each! This is also one of the few Russian Orthodox churches that has stained glass windows in it.

St. Isaacs Cathedral

Part of the inside of St. Isaacs Cathedral

Back on board the ship we all decided on an early dinner in the food court and then an early night. We went to see the folkloric show at 9pm which was very energetic with great singing, dancing, music and colourful costumes - well worth the effort and a great way to finish the day. Tonight the sun set at 10:37pm and an hour later it is still light outside and it's only mid May!

 

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Tallinn, Estonia

Saturday, May 17

Today was Day 2 of our SPB guided tour package. We met up with those who had been with us in Warnemunde and headed off the ship. As this is the inaugural Baltic voyage for the Royal Princess, it is obviously the first time she has berthed at Tallinn and it was another first for Tallinn because she was the first cruise ship to berth at their new dock. As a result, we were greeted on the wharf with a local brass band playing well-known marching numbers along with some Estonian music. We were made welcome wherever we went throughout the day and, on our return, were treated to a "Waterboard Show" that was fantastic. It is best described as a guy standing on a high jet of water whilst being towed behind a jet ski and attached with a huge hose. (The photo will help). He did snowboarding type moves, loops and turns and was amazingly agile so the whole show was quite spectacular.

The "Waterboard Show"

After leaving the ship we had quite a walk out of the port area to the point where we met our guide, Rita who, along with the other SPB guides, got everyone organised into groups of about 12. We were then taken by bus to the town to start our walking tours. Rita at first appeared very cold and officious but we warmed to her once we heard her passion about Estonia, her pride in what they have achieved, the terrible times they endured under Russian occupation and her appreciation of liberty now. She was very knowledgeable about Tallinn's history, architecture, culture and customs and willingly answered any of our questions.

Rita telling us about the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

We started our walking tour in the "upper town" (Toompea Hill) and progressed to the "lower" town with Rita pointing many things out to us and really helping us understand about Tallin's past and present. We all felt there was uneasiness in her voice when she spoke of the current situation between Russia and the Ukraine - understandable, given her own past and the close proximity of Ukraine.

A view over the Old Town

Rita told us that Tallin's Old Town has remained virtually unchanged for over 600 years and is now a living museum of spired churches and medieval architecture but it also has a booming computer industry, lively cafés and sophisticated boutiques. Over the years it has been influenced by Polish, Russian and Soviet rulers but it has retained many western traditions like the Latin alphabet, although they were all forced to speak in Russian under occupation.

St. Catherine's Passage

The old City Wall

The medieval Old Town is a maze of cobblestone streets and historic buildings and is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites. There are lots of artisan workshops and we saw glassworks, ceramics, leather goods, quilts and other items being created using traditional techniques. We saw Palace Square, Toompea Castle - a 13th century stone fortress, the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral with its towering onion domes, the city wall - 38 metres high and 4 metres thick, and the oldest pharmacy in Europe to still be operating. It dates back to 1422. This pharmacy had a wonderful museum displaying items used over the centuries alongside cabinets of Alka Seltzer, Panadol, etc. - quite amazing!

Beer and Pizza at Al Bastion, Tallinn

The weather was warm and sunny making it a beautiful day to be strolling around such a magnificent town. At the end of the tour, we stopped for a local beer and pizza together before all going in different directions to shop, etc

On board (with our flags) ready for departure and the Tallinn photo shoot

Royal Princess sailed out of Tallinn around 5.00 pm with local dignitaries waving us off and all of us on board waving Estonian flags for a local photo shoot. Rita explained that their national flag - three horizontal bands in blue, black and white, represented the blue sky over the black earth all standing on liberty and freedom.

 

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Day at Sea

Friday May 16

This morning was our first day at sea on this cruise so we took advantage of it and had a good sleep in to help us catch up after the early starts we've had on the last 3 days. Princess Cruises have a lot of organized activities so we joined the Buchanans and Brooks for the "Hole in 1" competition. Burgess holed one on the short hole but the winners holed the long distance hole so Burgess missed out.

After lunch there was a Champagne Ring Toss. Burgess had already won a bottle of champers in this competition on Day 1 so we had every confidence in him winning us another for our "happy hour" and he didn't disappoint. Al went close with his first two rings then was successful with his third so he also won a bottle so that takes care of another happy hour.

Tonight is the first formal night and before dinner the Captain hosted a Champagne Waterfall Party with the drinks on him! There were 365 glasses in the waterfall and you could help pour some champagne into them and have your photo taken with the Maître d' Hotel at the same time. The queue was too long for us to be bothered so we watched and enjoyed the nibbles and drinks.

The Maître 'd Hotel starts pouring the champagne

The Captain introduced his chief officers and made the welcome speech then we left for dinner. The food is very good and there's certainly plenty of choice so some discipline is definitely called for. At least we'd done a few laps of the decks today and used the stairs to go up and down the 8 levels between our deck and the Horizon Buffet so we felt we had earned our meal!

The Captain making his welcome speech

 

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