Hezu

8 hours ago, KINGBOBOFTHENORTH said:

Definitely the train from Hamburg Hbf to Kiel Hbf. Many of the trains are ICE high speed trains.

It is worth a mention that Hamburg does have also other long distance railway stations, so if your accomodation is closer to those, you probably should book your journey starting from there rather than the central station.

34 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Yesterday we learned about some mythological Finnish creatures. Not sure if this "Hiisi" is similar to the Hiids.

Actually, "hiisi" is the singular base form of the word, in Finnish when you inflect words that can trigger vowel harmony and consonant gradation and in case of this word inflection triggers some changes and thus the plural (in nominative case) becomes "hiidet".

I guess certain features of Finnish language may not be that simple for those who are more accustomed in English (or should I say Indo-European languages in general) and first time encounter this Finno-Ugric language.

5 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

Why did the Canadian geese remove their Venetian masks?

Because those are not Canadian geese, but barnacle geese.

2 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Örö Island, continued.

I don't remember what this building was.

 

Former "soldier's home", perhaps a mess would be an ok translation in English. A place where off duty soldiers can socilize and have something to eat (fresh doughnuts are traditionally top sellers in these). I think currently there is no activity in that building.

And Örö certainly has lots of signs of its military history, starting from the days when Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian empire. I think one of the most fashinating signs of this history is that the main roads bear names Pitkä ikävä and Lyhyt ikävä, which translate as Long misery and Short misery, which you might understand if you have to walk (or march) these pebble stone roads for longer periods of time...

34 minutes ago, Hezu said:

Be prepared for lot of daylight hours and short nights in these northern latitudes: For example, in Helsinki today sunrise was at 4:01 and sunset at 22:35 and further north you get (and closer to summer solstice) shorter the nights will be. And sure, once you head south the night time will again slightly increase, but not significantly.

Oops, I meant to say the daylights hours decrease, not increase, as you get further in south...

2 hours ago, RachelG said:

We sailed just after finishing dinner.  It was still bright light outside.

Be prepared for lot of daylight hours and short nights in these northern latitudes: For example, in Helsinki today sunrise was at 4:01 and sunset at 22:35 and further north you get (and closer to summer solstice) shorter the nights will be. And sure, once you head south the night time will again slightly increase, but not significantly.

21 hours ago, sixpackeddie said:

May I ask how the weather has been in Northern Europe? We are on the same sailing on June 25th.

I can tell that at least in Finland this June has started with cool (or maybe even cold) weather, although the weather forecasts are predicting bit warmer weather in the near future. Obviously no reliable forecast extends into the dates when your cruise is going to take place.

40 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Saturday June 3, Helsinki 

 

We got to the hotel just after 6PM and cleaned up for dinner. We were ready by 7 so went out for a wander. First the harbor area but no sign of Silver Wind.

After seeing this thread I got curious about this ship and more importantly how it is supposed to handle the stops at the smaller island, which do not have port facilities that could handle a large cruise ship and did some searching and found out for example that it will call at Hernesaari harbour early today. And that port facility is not visible in your picture, which shows Eteläsatama ("South Harbour") and more specifically the Katajanokka quay. That occasionally gets some cruise ships, but since the route there is thru narrow Kustaanmiekka strait between Vallisaari and Suomenlinna it is only suitable for smaller ships, bigger ones must head to Hernesaari, which has more space. And last, as seen on that picture the cruise berths on Katajanokka are currently occupied, USCGC Eagle is visiting Helsinki and it is accompanied by Finnish Border Guard's offshore patrol vessel Turva. Barque Eagle is expected to leave sometime today, so keep eyes open while in and near Helsinki.

2 minutes ago, Mr Luxury said:

Did you know that Gogland Island is 173m at its highest point.

I didn't remember the exact height, but I knew it was tall and I have seen it (from a distance) when I have been in the vicinity.

On 5/31/2023 at 7:02 PM, pavementends said:

Looks like a neat itinerary with visits to many of the smaller islands. You get to peer across the water into Russia, for now inaccessible to most of us.

I think you probably won't see that much into Russian territory despite the eastern-most stop is near the Finnish-Russian border, although at least the silhouette of island Gogland in middle of eastern Finnish Gulf should be visible while sailing to/from Ulko-Tammio.

On 5/31/2023 at 5:20 PM, lincslady said:

Looks great, jp.  Lots of ports most of us have never even heard of, so looking forward to reading about them.

For me the names are mostly familiar, although the only ones I have actually visited are Örö and obviously Helsinki, where I currently reside.

Although I have to say the spelling those names on that map is somewhat dubious (granted I can understand the lack of Scandinavian letters), the most odd one is clearly "Ulko Island", which should actually say Ulko-Tammio (the prefix "Ulko" means outer, there happens to be other island called Sisä-Tammio, "Inner Tammio" and those names tell something about those islands' relative distance to the mainland). Another  weird spelling is "Gotska Island", which is less ambigous, but probably most often you see the name written as Gotska Sandön. The rest are more understandable, albeit there is umlauts missing in Örö, Valsörarna, Örnsköldvik and slash in Christiansø. And in most of those names, the base word is ö or ø, which means island in Swedish/Danish.

34 minutes ago, SakeDad said:

Luckily the day we leave there are only 3 very small exploration ships in port so we won't be competing with 3,000 other passengers. Should make it better.

Note that quite a few people visit Iceland to make a land-based trips around the country, cruise passengers are just a small portion of tourists visiting Iceland.

On 5/19/2023 at 10:10 PM, hallasm said:

Denmark and Sweden are not in The Euro zone - Finland and Estonia are in The Euro Zone.

Bring Euro. For Denmark and Sweden use credit card (chip and Pin)  - almost cashless. 

And cards are widely accepted also in Finland and Estonia, so probably you won't need much cash even in those countries. On the other hand, if the Baltic cruise includes stop in Germany, there for some odd reason many places won't accept credit cards, but obviously euros in cash are accepted.

If it is sunny, it is rarely a bad idea to use sunscreen. And even if you don't bring sunscreen, it should be fairly easy to find from local stores in the cities you visit.

Are you fixed on those Panasonics? I guess those might be ok, but I think the best compact superzoom currently on the market is still Sony RX10 IV, which I believe has superior autofocus capabilities in addition to very versatile 24-600 mm equivalent lens. Granted, it might not be the cheapest option nor the smallest one, but still far more compact than an ILC and telephoto lens with comparable reach.

12 hours ago, croozen said:

Hamburg (Kiel)

It is certainly worth noting that Hamburg is quite far away from Kiel and traveling between these two will take over an hour in each direction.

18 hours ago, KYBOB said:

Well fate has decided for me! With 120 days until the first leg of the AAA tour I am calling it. (Alaska, Australia and last Africa. I fell last Tuesday and broke my left elbow, like snapped it in two. I go Monday for surgery to have a plate installed to reconnect it. So I have 4 months to be able to hold a camera so…looks like the 100-400 will be the one to go this trip. Even it may get sidelined for the 70-200 f2.8 Sonys new version ii is super light and the lightest 70-200 I have ever used. I still have a Nikon Z7ii and a Z24-200 lens that would be super light if I am not back up to strength by then. 

Ouch, I can sort relate with this, some years ago in mid-May I fell on bike and fractured my upper arm, survived without surgery, but sadly had to cancel a trip to Iceland that would been in early June. The arm started to feel normal only couple months later.

If lifting heavy camera+lens combinations continues to be a problem when you travel, I suggest to seriously take a look at getting Sony RX10 IV. The feeling of the controls and EVF might be tad inferior compared to your ILCs and the smaller sensor might be less suitable for low light situations, but that camera packs a versatile lens (field of view comparable to 24-600 mm in full frame terms) and very respectable AF in reasonably small and light compact form.

3 hours ago, em-sk said:

First thing is you want everything on one ticket. That way if you miss a connection, the airline is responsible for rerouting and rebooking.   I would avoid going through Europe, it just makes everything longer than it has to be.  With the issue with Ukraine and Russia, the western airlines all have to fly a few extra hours around Russia making everything much longer.

Actually the flight restrictions over Russia and Ukraina do not affect most Europe<->Singapore flights as much as it affects flights between Europe and Korea, Japan and northern parts of China, which have to take much longer detour whereas Singapore flights still follow roughly similar route as earlier, just tad more southern flight path.

6 minutes ago, Apel said:

 

I don't know what the cost of the Hoho bus is, but if you just want to get around the city a day ticket for all public transportation costs €9 and most cruise ports have a tram stop nearby.

Majority of cruise ships dock in Helsinki at Hernesaari (Ärtholmen in Swedish) and the distance between the quays there and the nearest tram stop is something like a kilometre, so not exactly something I would call nearby, although for a able bodied persons not impossible distance to walk.

Few smaller cruise ships (+ Silja Line and Viking Line cruise ferries) do call at South Harbour (fi: Eteläsatama, sv: Södra hamnen) and from there the distances to the nearest tram stops are much shorter.

16 minutes ago, nansi said:

Taxi rates for a trip within the city were very reasonable. To the airport VERY expensive.

Just for sake of clarity: the main international airport serving Reykjavík area is Keflavík Airport, which is something like 50 km from the city centre, which probably explains why the taxi fares are quite expensive. There is also another airport, Reykjavík Airport, that is next to the city centre and taxi fares between the cruise terminal and that airport are more tolerable, although since that airport offers only flights to elsewhere in Iceland and some destinations in Greenland, for most people that won't offer any help. For connections between central Reykjavík and Keflavík, the more cost-effective transport method is probably bus.

If you want to take just a part of the HOHO bus route, you probably could use regular public transportation to travel to the opposite direction. Most HOHO bus stops should have bus or tram stops or a metro station in the vicinity. Of course, for these you will need a different ticket. For more information about public transportation (routes, ticket prices etc.) in Helsinki region, please check out HSL website.

My personal experience on cruising around Svalbard is quite limited as I have only taken a short (three nights) cruise on Hurtigruten's MS Polarstjernen, which is a fairly small ship (especially as it is rather old and thus her cabins tend to be much smaller than on more modern ships) and I think that particular cruise was not even fully booked. Fewer passangers is obviously an advantage if the cruise includes landings on smaller boats as otherwise the process of getting people on the boats and back to the ship would take longer time and there might be crowding on the beach.

And there are certainly smaller ships sailing around Svalbard, I believe the smallest ones are M/S Origo, M/S Malmö and M/S Freya. These sister ships take only something like 14 passangers and primarily they are used for photo expeditions around Svalbard. There are also other bit larger expedition ships, eg. MV Polar Pioneer, that has something like 25 cabins in total.

21 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

The only issue with the 2 tram is seeing where you dock.  You'd need to get from the port to the tram.  We took a cab but there might be other alternatives depending on where you dock (we had a 3 year old in tow, so our ability to navigate was a bit limited but the public transportation system in the Baltics was excellent).

The most commonly used cruise port in Helsinki is Hernesaari, which sadly is currently without any nearby tram or bus stops, closest one is something like kilometer away from the quays. And that is for tram line 6. Although if you want to ride around on tram 2, you could for example take tram number 6 to either Fredrikinkatu or Erottaja stops on Bulevardi, go to the stop on the other side of the street, hop on the next tram on line 3, which will eventually change into tram number 2 at Olympiaterminaali stop (and also the other way around for trams that are going to the opposite direction).

But in general, the public transport in Helsinki should be able to get you on most locations around the city quite easily, for more details on routes, prices and possible announcements on interuptions, please check out HSL website. The route planner there can be useful tool if you want to know how to get from certain location to some destination. The route planner is also included in HSL mobile app. It is possible to purchase tickets with this app. And all HSL area tickets include unlimited changes between busses, trams, local trains and Suomenlinna ferry as long as the ticket is valid (for single tickets minimum of 80 minutes).

1 hour ago, janetcbl said:

Sorry to hear that the Market Square has changed to include more “touristy” items. That market was one of my favorite places, especially the cloudberry piles in the Fall. The Karelian pies were a favorite!….tried making them at home….dismal failure!

I think there is (or at least in summer will be) vendors offering fruits, berries and vegetables. And I presume that at least some of the cafe tents would offer Karelian pasties (or "rice pasties" as the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG)  definition of Karelian pasty has quite strict regulations on how one should prepare these). But certainly significant portion of the offerings will be more geared towards tourists rather than locals doing their grocery shopping.

16 hours ago, pierces said:

Another consideration is that your old card is, well, old. Memory cards have a finite life span. The component cells actually degrade after a number of write/read/erase cycles. In real life, the number of cycles is large, and it takes the average shooter a long time to exceed the limit. Even realizing that, my two is one and one is none philosophy leads me to buy new memory with a new camera. Since I tend to keep a camera for about 5 years, I never worry about the age of the memory or the number of read/writes. That has probably contributed to the fact that I have never had a card go south on me. I do carry the old memory in my bag, because you never know... 😉

Also worth a note that the transfer speeds of memory cards have been increasing all the time and it is rarely a bad idea to have a faster card instead of slower one.