Amsterdam

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The pictures are:
Arriving down the canal at daybreak
The palace of the Queen
We took a petal cab again
One of many canals in the city
Fireboat salute upon leaving

For the first time on the trip, we awoke to sunshine. That’s true; we have not had a morning with sunshine all trip. As a matter of fact, we probably have only had a few hours of total sunshine all trip, up until today.

But, we have not had any rain and it has not been cold so we are very thankful for a great trip with good weather.

The ship passed into the city through the locks before 7:00am so we were not up to see it. It took until 9:30am before the ship finally made it to the city docks and we were allowed off the ship.

Our first impression was not very good, but as we traveled the streets we liked the city more and more we came to enjoy the city. We spent 3 ½ hours on a walking trip seeing the sights of the city. “Grass” and prostitution are legal and so it was a rather strange walk through the city especially seeing the red light district and the “coffee houses” which were places where you could buy drugs – and they were everywhere.

We then walked around on our own until it was time to walk back to the ship. After getting on the ship at 5:00pm, we ate pizza on our deck as we watched the rest of the passenger’s board. At 6:00pm we sailed away to a fireboat with its water cannons blazing!

Tonight is our last night so it will be sad leaving new friends but we will have great memories.

It took us until dinner time to pack and set the bags outside the door for pickup later in the evening.

We went to the casino and played for awhile and then said our goodbyes to the staff.

Setting the clock back for the last time – a perfect time to pick up an hour of sleep.



Tomorrow is a travel day and we are ready to be home. We are looking forward to seeing everyone and the next report will be in person.

Night, night.

Love - Barb and Ed

Our last day at sea

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

As we cruised towards Amsterdam, we did almost what we did yesterday.

The pictures are:

One small part of the prep kitchen

Barb and Sheila

Barb being paid for her jackpot

Barb slept in to try and get rid of the “flu” like symptoms that she has and then we met our friends from Florida, Bob and Sheila for a tour of the kitchen. We had seen it before but they had not.

Then we changed our bag tags so that we could leave together and get our van fast when we land at Dover. It is hard to believe that we only have two days and nights left as the last few have really gone fast. But we are both ready to get back to friends, family and work.

After lunch, we all played in the slot tournament and Ed lost out as someone in the very last qualifying group beat him out.

Then it was on to a session in the casino where Ed hit again twice out of four times on black 20 on roulette and as he went to tell Barb, she hit for a great jackpot in slots.

We then went on to bingo, where Barb won one of the bingo games.

Ed played again in the casino while Barb rested before getting ready for the evening.

What a wonderful day to just relax at sea. The weather was a typical day here, 65 degrees but cold because the sun was not out. I do not think we have seen more than 30 minutes of sun on the entire trip – but at least we have not had bad weather – we just brought too many bathing suits and shorts!

A great dinner, followed by a comedian that most walked out on - he was not really funny so we went to the casino and played for just a little while.

Time for bed because tomorrow is Amersterdam - our last port and everyone is looking forward to it.

Bye for now

Somewhere at sea

Monday, September 8, 2008


The pictures are:
Inside the dome overlooking one of the pools
One of the several buffet stations
Barb and our casino host, Clauidia

We are sailing on to Amsterdam. The ship is really traveling because the Captain wants to get to Amsterdam in time for a major lock to be available for the ship to pass into the harbor. Apparently we go through a series of locks before we get to our port at Amsterdam.

Well Barb enjoyed the morning by sleeping late and she deserved it. She woke up with a little chest congestion so we have her on cough drops and Vicks liquid (which she really loves)! It appears that a lot of people on the ship have caught something.

The day was peaceful. We all played in the blackjack tournament but only our friend Bob qualified for the finals and he didn’t place. We then went to play bingo and Bob won $150 and the rest of us had fun.

While Barb rested and tried to get rid of what she caught, Ed played blackjack and won.

In the early evening, while waiting for Barb, Ed played roulette and hit on black 20 for $100 net. Roulette is a boring game, but a fun way to kill a little time.

Tonight was formal night and Barb looked stunning as the picture shows. Tonight the show was a huge singing and dancing production of rock and roll music and it was really fun.

After dinner we went to the casino and did great – missed the grand midnight buffet but the casino was fun and we really were not hungry. Today was a restful, lucky day.

Tomorrow is another day a sea - see you tomorrow.

September 7

If it is Sunday, it must be Helsinki, Finland


The pictures are:

Lunch stand at the market

Reindeer Lunch

Steps up to the Lutheran Cathedral

Inside the Rock Church

We set our clocks back so we woke up with finally enough sleep and looked out our deck at the port of Helsinki. Ed’s heritage is Finnish so going to Helsinki was something he was looking forward to.

We slept in a little and left the ship at 9:00am and took the ship’s shuttle to the center of the city. From there we walked down to the main market square where all the easy-ups were being set up by the vendors and the food stands were already selling their food.

We decided to take the ferry to Suomenlinna Fortress, which is an island fortress guarding the port. The fortress was built in the 1700’s when Finland was part of Sweden. It is also an island home now to 900 residents; however, we only saw a couple of people – it was a little eerie. The military only stopped using it 30 years ago.

Then it was back to the market where we had a wonderful lunch of reindeer sausage, reindeer "meatloaf", potatoes and salad.

We then took a walking tour through the central city, including the Lutheran Cathedral and then the Rock Church, a beautiful church carved right out of rock. It was very spiritual inside.

Back to the shuttle bus to the ship and it was time to relax before looking at pictures and on to dinner.

Dinner of course was fine and then it was off to the show. Tonight it was amateur night and there were four acts and three out of four were really bad. The cruise director had the exact same bad jokes that he had on our last cruise. Sometimes amateur night is good sometimes bad – this was the bad night.

Then it was on to the casino where Ed had his biggest loss (he is still ahead) and Barb was another winner.

The good news is that we set the clocks back for the second time on the cruise tonight and tomorrow is a day at sea – so good night for now.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Friday and Saturday, September 5 & 6

We are in Russia for two days


The pictures are:
The back of the Peterof Palace
The Church of Resurrection of the Spilled Blood
The front entrance of the Palace of Catherine
Inside the Hermitage

Friday
It’s St. Petersburg, Russia and would you have every thought that you would get to Russia – we didn’t, but we are here.

The day started out a little cold and cloudy but improved as the day went on. We booked a two-day tour lasting all day, each day, because you could not get off the ship unless you were on a Carnival tour or had a visa. We did not have a visa.

Getting off took a little time, but no problems. The entire two days we have felt like everyone is watching us. This has been a very strange city to visit, unlike any that we had been to in the past. No matter what, this is still a communist country. They only moved to a free market society less than 15 years ago. The first thing that everyone wants is a car and traffic is terrible. This is the first country that we have visited in Europe in the last three years that really wants dollars for payment, or Euros. Even for the price of a magnet, $2.00, they will convert the price to dollars.

Anyway, after we got to on tour bus, we went one hour to Peterof, the most brilliant to all the former summer residences of the Russian Tzars. The gardens, the fountains and then inside was breathtaking.

Then we went to the Yuspov Palace, where the assassination of the monk Rasputin took place. Following that palace, we went to a restaurant which was very quaint with an all brick interior ad lots of arches. Ed ate his first caviar and really liked. Later he found out that he only liked it when it was cold, not hot.

Then we went to the Church of Resurrection of the Spilled Blood, again another beautiful church

Then we had our worst experience on the cruise. We signed up to take a 1 hour bus ride in the evening to see the Palace of Catherine; however, because of traffic, the one hour bus ride there took three hours!!

Built in 1710 on 1400 acres it was beautiful. During the tour of the palace, we drank campaign while we listened to music and watched dancing from the period and then dinner. The ride back was only 45 minutes. It had been a long day, so we went to bed.

Saturday
Saturday was a continuation of the tour from Friday. We started out with a canal boat ride down the canals and river of St. Petersburg. It was a little cool, but fun. After that we went to the museums of the Hermitage. These museums, which some were palaces are bigger than the Louve. We were told that if you stopped at each exhibit for only 1 minute, it would take you 9 years to visit everything in the museum. We were only there for a couple of hours, but our guide gave us the highlight tour and it was fun.

Then we went to the Peter and Paul Fortress and a guided tour inside the main cathedral which served as a burial place for the Tzars.

Back on board at 4:00pm, to get ready for the evening.

Tonight the show was at 7:30pm rather than 10:45pm.

As usual, the show was good, a singer as was the food.

We then went to the casino where Ed did well and Barb didn’t but we had a lot of fun.

We set the clocks back tonight for the first time so maybe we can get some good sleep before we get off on our own in Helsinki, Finland.

Thursday, September 4

Tallinn, Estonia

Well we woke up to a very beautiful old walled city, in the mist. The weather is 55 and misty, but we are here and are going to set out to walk the town. The church with the tallest steeple is St. Olav’s and dates back to year 1000 and in 1500 was at a height of 520 feet, the tallest building in Europe!

The pictures are:
St. Olav’s church
The view from the top
The Russian church
Barb buying one of her many scarves (it is the year of the scarf)

We took the Carnival shuttle bus to the old town and set out on our own with Bob and Sheila from Florida. We spent the next 6 hours walking and climbing around this medieval town and learning about its history. Lots of winding streets and little alleys to visit throughout the city.

We stopped at noon in the city square and had lunch and watched others having lunch. After that, Bob and Sheila shopped and we went back to St. Olav’s church to climb to the top. It was 258 steps to the top in a very winding spiral stairway. In addition, the steps were 12 inches high. We also visited the Cathedral of Saint Mary the Virgin and The Russian Cathedral – all magnificent houses of worship.

Then a little gambling once we got back to the ship and then a wonderful dinner.

Both Ed and Bob qualified 1 and 2 in the blackjack tournament and then in the last round, Barb also qualified as one of the 7 in the finals.

Bob won the tournament and Ed need not to bust in the last hand.

Then Barb hit a nice jackpot in slots to end the evening 'cause tomorrow we are in RUSSIA!!

Night

Wednesday, September 3

A day at sea

Well after a really long day at sea, it was just fun to have a day that we did not have to get up.

Ed slept till 9:30am and Barb till 10:00am and then it was up and out on the ship.

After buying our pictures from the day before, we went and had lunch – the choices that they are so many. Next to us sat another couple and we both realized it was a couple from the Phoenix Corvette Club that we had met on a cruise two years ago in Europe – again, what a small world.

We joined our friends from Florida and went and played bingo. Bob and Barb each won a jackpot. Bob won $110 and Barb won the $150 jackpot, but she had to split it. Not bad for the investment.

Then it was on to the casino for an afternoon session. Everybody there is so nice.

Tonight was formal night and Barb had a beautiful long gown on and Ed had his black tux on. We went out early to watch the people and of course to have photographs taken.

After a wonderful dinner, lobster, prime rib and other great meals, it was on to the show and then to the casino.

It’s 1:00am on Thursday, it is time for bed because we will be in Tallinn, Estonia and we plan to leave the ship by 8am!!

Night for now.