jpalbny

Monday June 12th. Sea morning en route to Gotska Sandön (Gotland Sand Island). This is basically a glacial moraine in the middle of the Baltic...a giant sand dune! We slept in and didn't get moving until 9AM. Some coffee in the Panorama while we enjoyed the smooth seas and beautiful warm sunny weather. We booked two more cruises this morning! The Kimberly for next June on Silver Cloud, and Hong Kong to Singapore in January 2025 on Silver Dawn (that is a WC segment). Then time for briefing and recap. Today we'll just hop a zodiac to shore independently and hike on our own. We have bug spray so we should be good to go. Lunch on the pool deck under glorious sunshine. There was an Asian buffet with all sorts of tasty treats including a very spicy peanut sauce that tasted great on everything. Interestingly we were buzzed during lunch by a fighter jet! It flew by, low and close, on the port side. Then it made a tight turn amd buzzed the starboard side even closer! We all ran up to the walking track but it was long gone and did not return. Wow! What was that about? More this evening. Hopefully off soon for some nice hiking. A quick teaser shot of the island. Look at that smooth water! Should be a beautiful zodiac ride.

Örnsköldsvik, city wander on our own. The "First Hotel' was visible from the ship and the pier. We started on the outskirts, looking for a few sundries but no luck at the Circle K. So we headed back to town. This unusual apartment building was hard to miss. I walked around a bit, hoping I could capture its reflection in a neighboring building. We walked up a pedestrian street to a large open square. There was also a large grocery store. We found toothpaste easily but no bug spray. I used Google translate and asked an employee, who showed me to the right shelf. Restocked, we headed onward. This pretty pedestrian street (Storgaten) has a nice view of the ocean. We did some walking back and forth, finding some interesting new and old buildings. Nice contrasting styles. And City Hall. Back at the large square, we now walked through a few blocks of park. There was some construction going on, and the greenery was a bit overgrown in places. The park ended at an art museum. Now we took the long way back to the ship. Along the coast you could see that the water looked brown. I assume the forests make the river water tannic. At the end of our pier, some kind of beacon. The sun was in a good spot to light it up. Silver Wind is back in view! We should make it there by 13:30. That building is just so unusual. I couldn't resist another picture. Sorry! We returned to the ship with time to spare. Lunch at the grill. I had the sizzling jalapeño steak which was cooked reasonably rare, and tasty. Chris wasn't impressed with the burger. But the fries were good! We walked a bit on the deck but the wind was fierce. The sun was in perfect position to catch the Silversea lettering on the side of the ship, though. As RachelG noted, Gnaggen Island was not very impressive as a fly-by. This was it... But the passage between some of the other islands was pretty. Some beautiful pink granite rocks! Just an example of many. Trivia was a win for us, surprisingly, since we didn't do that well. But the questions were challenging and I guess everyone else had trouble too. We passed the High Coast Bridge for views. Then time to clean up and look pretty for the Venetian Party. Details above. We had dinner with the HD and then played the majority rules game with Zaid before bed. PS the internet is pretty fast this evening, as I've been able to upload all of these pix relatively quickly. As it's almost midnight, until tomorrow all!

Sunday June 11th. Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. We gained an hour last night as we crossed the Gulf of Bothnia. Much needed! Smooth sailing, and we were docked early. The first hiking groups were called just before 7:30 which was 15 minutes earlier than expected. Our hike was 45 minutes later so we had time to walk the deck and check out our surroundings while everyone else rushed off. The sky was clear and the water was like a mirror. A gorgeous day! What a welcome to Sweden. The town looked charming too but that would be later. We had a mountain to climb. So we went for some coffee. We had a short bus ride to the Gula Leden trail head and our guide Lars set out at a nice clip. It was a steady climb with few breaks. We hung close to Lars in the first group and opened up some space behind us, so we had a little time for pictures, if an odd-shaped tree appeared at the right moment. We stopped at a boulder field. Unlike the one in Rauma, this was presumably not built by giants. Here and there, a quick photo stop as we went higher. But not long, as we were promised better views ahead. Not a technical hike but plenty of incline. At the summit. But no time to linger here. The snacks were further along the trail and we had to get there ASAP! So after a short rest we plowed ahead on the trail. Finally we reached a scenic viewpoint with a lean-to, where Lars's two children were waiting with pastries and coffee. The view of Själevads and its church was very nice. Across the lake (Veckefjärden) there was a horse racing track. And further on, the fjord (they call them fjards) led to the sea. After a nice rest stop we hiked another 5-10 minutes and the bus was waiting for us. We had a scenic ride down and made a quick stop for an overview of Örnsköldsvik. Silver Wind was partially hidden by trees but with a little lateral movement you could get a clear shot. Now back to the ship where we arrived about 11:All-aboard was 13:30 so it was now or never. We unloaded our coats and set out to explore the town. The weather was spectacular! High 60s and bright sun. Lunch could wait!

Venetian Party was tonight. The Captain is busy steering the ship because some internet thingy isn't working? Only 135 guests on board. Barely 50% capacity! May have missed something as I typed frantically but breakdown is something like this: 69 USA 15 Australia 15 Germany 12 UK 7 Canada 6 Switzerland 3 Italy 2 Hong Kong 2 New Zealand 2 Sweden 1 Finland 1 Ukraine We had a nice dinner with the HD and the NZ couple as well as a solo lady from Australia. More from today if pix upload. The internet got flaky in the north and hasn't fully recovered.

Saturday Night. Anniversary Dinner in La Dame. (Lois, it's #28) So we made it back to the ship at 20:13 and changed into our dinner clothes in record time. We grabbed our Dom and headed to La Dame. We made it there 5 minutes early for our 20:30 reservation. We traded our bottle of Dom for a chilled one, and settled in with the menu. But the surprises were just starting. Rachel and George had ordered a bottle for us too! Chris started with the lobster salad and I had the duck foie gras. Both really nice with the Dom. The soups were delicious too. Chris had the mushroom and I had the lobster bisque. Lemon sorbet on a chilled plate. Love the presentation! We both had the duck breast for our main course. It went well with the Burgundy wine. For dessert Chris had the strawberries and chocolate. It was ok though the chocolate coating was a weird consistency. I had the pistachio soufflé which I liked a lot. It was mercifully small, even better after all the preceding dishes! Service was great as there was only one other table. And we moved right along, finishing up around 22:15. So we had time to catch the last song for a dance at 70s night. After that, Zaid (activities director) played DJ until it was finally bed time. Tomorrow we're in Sweden so we gain an extra hour of sleep. We are sad to say goodbye to Finland which we have thoroughly enjoyed on this our second visit, but excited for our first visit to Sweden!

Saturday evening, June 10th. Vaasa, last stop in Finland. Took a nap after breakfast and then had trivia at 1:30 after lunch. We got second as RachelG has already reported. When we got back to the suite there was a surprise for us. We docked an hour early but the tours couldn't be moved up so lots of waiting around. Unfortunate because we had La Dame reservations tonight and an earlier finish would have made it easier. But as long as we're not late all ok. We were at an industrial port just out of town. Huge windmill turbines all around. They made the cars look like matchbox toys. We assembled and left on time at 16:45. The first stop was at the site of a meteorite crater. The crater itself was far too massive to get a decent photo. It is 5km in diameter and 500 million years old. Its been underwater until relatively recently. The floor is flat and full of rich ocean sediment, hundreds of feet deep, and is now prized farmland. There are some nice exhibits on the geology of the area and other meteor strikes in Finland. Now off to our next stop, an open-air history museum at Stundars. We had time to look around. First stop was an early 20th century general store. All sorts of random stuff on display. Then we visited a late 19th century farmstead. A large common room for eating, cooking, and sleeping. Apparently bread baking only took place once or twice a year. It was stored on racks near the ceiling. It must have been hard as a rock. Luckily we were not offered any samples! Meals were cooked over the fireplace and eaten from a common bowl with your own individual spoon. After dinner you licked it clean before hanging it back on the spoon rack. The common room was very pleasant though...in the bright sunner sunshine! There was even a coffee station! Off the common room, some utility rooms. I am familiar with this brand name, but I thought they only made chainsaws! This looks like an earlier iteration of a Silversea expedition parka. I didn't ask to trade mine in. Now we had a few minutes to either wander the rest of the museum, or have pastries and coffee. Since our La Dame reservation was in less than an hour we skipped the food and made a quick loop through. This cute but chubby bunny is how I'm feeling after a week on board. They really feed you a lot here. A small sample of the 70 buildings in this museum We were loaded up on time and back at the ship two minutes early. Time for dinner!

No. We're on board now for our 15th (or thereabouts) cruise and we're having as much fun as ever. We're so fortunate to be able to cruise like this. Why would I try to ruin it by looking for negatives? Nothing is perfect but the crew is doing everything they can to show us a good time. Agree that SS may not have survived at all without the takeover. Best to enjoy your cruise without trying to compare to what may have been. SS isn't what it was 15 years ago, but what is?

Saturday June 10th. Anniversary hiking at Valsörarna. This is a nature reserve which we were lucky to visit. Few are allowed here and you have to stay with a guide at all times. Glacial uplift causes the land to rise 8.5 mm per year here. So over the recent centuries the landscape of these islands has changed substantially. We had been expecting a 6:30 call for hiking but instead the call came at 6AM. Luckily we were almost ready and scrambled to make the second zodiac. We were ashore and hiking by 6:30. A boggy and rocky landscape with some trees but mostly scrub vegetation. The path was narrow and we didn't have much time to stop, as we had 2+km to hike each way. Time was limited. Onward! Cool weather despite the bright sunshine. We stopped briefly at a monument where the bones of Russian soldiers are interred. Gruesome story. In the winter of 1808-9 the Russian soldiers marched across the frozen gulf and burned a Swedish town. However they were ill-prepared for the cold and many froze. Apparently the bodies lay where they were, and only years later the bones were finally gathered up and interred. Further onward we crossed a bridge from the late 1800s. Back then, there were two separate islands. Glacial uplift at work - now they are one. We made double time through a really boggy section of woods. The mosquitos were very dense. Luckily they were sluggish in the cold. We made it to the lighthouse. An odd location, because the sea is nowhere to be seen. It was built by the same company that made the Eiffel Tower. But due to glacial uplift, it's no longer near the coast. Maybe they should put it on wheels! Where is the ocean? Since we'd made such great time, we could continue on to the southern coast of the island. Finally, water. And whooper swans in the distance. Now it was time to turn back. The mosquitos were warming to our presence so we had to move. We went even faster on the way back and after the boggy part in the middle of the island, we stopped at this lake. It used to be an inlet of the sea, but now it's risen so high that there's no longer a connection. So it's become a freshwater lake with lots of bird life. The trees grow low and slowly here. Conditions are harsh. We finished and were back on the zodiacs by 8AM. Silver Wind awaits us. We made it with plenty of time for breakfast at LT. We even had an outdoor table, first one of this cruise. Now sailing to Vaasa for more fun this afternoon.

June 9th. Dinner. Another early dinner in the MDR. A windowside table with a great view. The menu. Some interesting choices. Chris started with the lobster frittata. Delicious. The sauce was unexpected though as it tasted more soy sauce-based. I tried the sour sea bass salad. Not much sour flavor. I put extra salt and some balsamic vinegar on it to make it sour enough. A gull followed along, probably looking for a piece of my fish. The pilot boat collected our pilot and we forged onward. Mains were Chilean sea bass for Chris and black cod for me. Large portions. Nicely prepared though if i could split hairs I'd want the skin on mine seared a bit more crispy. Included wines were a Pinot Grigio from Hungary and a red that I don't remember as we didn't drink it. Chris had the black forest cake and I had the chocolate blueberry trois-feuille. Missing the other 997 layers but yummy just the same. A nightcap in the bar before bed. Another early wake-up call at 6AM tomorrow. Should be easy after today!

My Samsung S22 Ultra. One of the pix I posted was a pure cellphone shot. The others were with the cellphone, but through a spotting scope with 25x magnification. So the phone had very little work to do.

Ouch. That's very descriptive.

Friday June 9th. Oulu, later that morning. It was a great wildlife tour, not just for the owl sightings. We saw a few moose aside the road but they bolted before any pictures were possible. Saw lots of hares, and many birds including a Capercaillie, which our guide said was quite rare to spot. We had a breakfast stop aside a beautiful lake where we enjoyed the morning light. Cool water skating insects. Mosquitoes too, but they were sluggish in the cold weather. We were cold too, despite both layers of our parkas, because a chilly breeze was coming from the north. So a nice campfire took care of that. We tried for another sighting but the Eurasian pygmy owl was shy and we only got a glimpse of its face looking out of the nest box. Chris has a cool picture of its eye! The mosquitos were very dense in the forest! So we didn't wait around too long for the pygmy owl. It seems that mosquito season is ramping up quickly. Back to the ship around 8AM where we had a second breakfast in LT. We were ready for the 9AM shuttle into town but it was about 10 minutes late. We were off walking around the city by 9:30. At city hall, an exhibit about democracy. As best I could tell. We walked through a nice pedestrian section of town until we reached Market Square. The Toripolliisi Statue is a well-known landmark and a good photo stop. Market Hall was worth a quick stroll too. We headed out between the theater and the library. Here, a statue and some flags to celebrate Oulu being named a European Capital of Culture for 2026. And evidence of one scofflaw Finn. All those orderly spots for scooter parking, and it's perfectly outside the lines. There are numerous islands at the edge of town, in the river mouth, so we tried to do a big loop back to the city. Here, a water park. Not much use today, as it's 8C/46F despite the bright sunshine. Here, a fallen tree was left in place and carved beautifully. A nice monument. Fountains in the river. We started looping around but had to backtrack a little as the hydroelectric plant was blocking our route. But we passed by a beautiful building which Google identified as an elementary school. We were now upstream from the dam and the water level was high. A nice path back towards the city. We crossed into City Park and saw the fish ladder that was constructed for salmon. A nice design! It almost looks like a natural stream. The sun was finally heating us up enough to shed one layer of our parka. There are more fountains in another part of the river. And with the right angle, a rainbow! We set course back to the bus. This statue is entitled "Kuluva aika' which translates to "Worn out." How did they know? I resemble these people. There were some beautiful murals underneath the overpasses. We stopped for photos. And this eagle reminded us that it was time for lunch. We made the 11:30 bus easily and were back on board 15 minutes later. A nice light lunch in LT with some wine (for napping purposes). We had a well-needed nap until 4PM and went to trivia where we had a solid first-place finish. Now at tomorrow's briefing. Tomorrow is our last day in Finland. How sad! But, we are planning for an anniversary celebration tomorrow, capped off with dinner at La Dame.

Not only that, but you can "date" them by the styles of the parkas in their collection. We have one that says "Prince Albert II" so that's an antique from 2009. When they first started the two-piece parkas I think the liner was blue but we don't have one from that series. We have grey liners. We're seeing all sorts of the parkas on this trip. Good to be cruising with so many SS veterans.

Not too close. We were on a path and the nest was in the forest, a good distance away from us. It was hard to spot and without the scope it would have been hard to see the owls.

Friday June 9th. 3AM owl hunting. Success! A female on the nest with her 3 owlets. The male arrived with breakfast while we were there. Cell phone shot. All others were through the spotting scope. Babies!

We brought ours. SS will very likely provide a parka for your trip though. They did in 2019 for our circumnavigation of Iceland.

3AM, and time to look for owls. It's quite light out though. We'll see!

Briefing included a nice map marking our progress so far, and what's to come. Tomorrow is Oulu, our northernmost stop this voyage. We went directly to dinner and got a prime window seat. Tonight's menu. The wines were a Vermentino di Sardegna which we liked very much, and a Chilean Cabernet. We started with shrimp cocktail and the scallops as our appetizers. Both very good and they went well with the white wine selection. Chris got the beef tenderloin, and I had the Malabar chicken for mains. I knew that the white wouldn't hold up to the chicken but didn't want a Cab with it. So I asked for a lighter red like a Pinot noir. This was offered and it was a nice match. Funky nose, but nice acidity and fruit that went well with the very peppery chicken dish. I couldn't finish the bottle though. Hopefully they forgive me? We had the brownie and the éclair for dessert. Wake up call in five hours. Good night all!

Thursday June 8th. Kalajoki. The expedition team pronounces this in a way that sounds like Karaoke. Fortunately no singing was required at this stop! We anchored offshore, so it was back to the zodiacs today. We started a bit late but were ashore by 9AM. Our bus arrived right after that and we boarded. But then we had to wait for the second bus. Apparently the busses had been tied up in traffic? No problem. We made it to the hiking trail soon enough. A short hike to our rest stop. We'd return here for snacks after we finished the hike. Our guide said it would be 5K round trip. There was a picturesque pond with a tree that had a sign on it. I put my Google translate on the sign and it told me the tree was 21 meters tall amd 130 years old. Impressive detail! Off we went through the forest. Sometimes it was sunny but there was a definite chill in the air. It was only in the mid 40s. Pockets of mist in the forest made for a neat atmosphere. Our guide set a good pace and we got lots of steps in. At our turnaround point I figured that I'd burned a French fry or two from last night's dinner. Every bit helps. A huge swath of reindeer lichen. How do they survive on this stuff? We set an even faster pace back. A few picture stops but that was it. Beautiful cowslips along the river. It was a nice setting for a nature hike. Back to the rest stop for snacks. We had some blueberry juice boxes, and cinnamon rolls. There was a small group of locals who were grilling sausages nearby. Apparently one of our group thought the sausages were for us too, as he crashed the group and took one! Instead of getting angry, the kind hikers offered him some mustard to go with his purloined sausage! On the way back to the bus, a shot of the forest floor. It was dense with berry plants. The lighter plants are blueberry bushes and the darker green plants are lingonberries. Now the bus stopped by the sand dunes to drop off anyone who was interested. Of course, we hopped off and explored the area. Look at that wind! It's a pretty beach for sure. There was even a changing facility, if you wanted to put on your wetsuit for a Polar Plunge. We stuck to the boardwalks and stayed dry. Chris did a little extra climbing. At the shoreline there were lots of little spits of sand jutting out into the water. Some were substantial enough to build on I guess? I wonder about the insurance bill for that property. This does not look like traditional beach attire. One more large dune. We walked back to the bus stop then rode to the dock. It was a bit more windy on the ride back so some were splashed on the zodiacs. Luckily LT was open until 2:30 for lunch so we made it with time to spare. The pasta of the day was with a delicious pesto. I enjoyed it very much. Then there was a kantele concert at 3PM. Very nice! Two kanteles and a guitar made beautiful music together. We got second place in trivia. Now time to get ready for briefing and dinner. It will be an early night, as our excursion leaves at 3AM tomorrow.

No worries Terry. Chris hates snakes too. Luckily we were not in Rachel's group yesterday, and we didn't see any snakes at all.

Thank you for the explanation! The Finnish word on the website was definitely "Hiidet" which was translated to "Hiids" in English. Glad they weren't there to greet us.

We had a nice lunch at LT. Split a pizza with lots of rose. Then a nap may have been taken. One must be in the right frame of mind for trivia! We got second place. Didn't know the capital of Papua New Guinea. Or that pork is the most-consumed meat worldwide. I thought we were the only ones who like bacon. Apparently everyone else does too! Had a walk on deck afterwards. Bright sun, mild wind. Hair isn't horizontal yet. Then time for the evening briefing. We had a lesson in the Finnish language. This was an easy one. Everyone knows that feeling where you'd rather just lie around at home in your underwear, and drink, with no plans to go out? According to Tomi, the Finns have a word for that! Finnish also claims the longest palindrome. It's a word for a soapstone dealer: We had dinner at Hot Rocks tonight. The menu is familiar. Chris went with her usual Caesar salad and I mixed it up with the New York salad. We got a nice bottle from the Connoisseur's list. A red from Piedmont. Ribeye on the stones for a minute or two, until it leaped off of its own volition. For dessert Chris had the cheesecake and I had the apple-cinnamon rose. It was still light out so we had a nightcap at the bar. The guitar music was too mellow for dancing, but Alfredo started up in Panorama at 10:30. So, some dancing before bed. Tomorrow, another nature hike. Time for some sleep!

Wednesday June 7th. Rauma, Finland 🇫🇮 We docked alongside the pier about 7 and we were up for coffee shortly thereafter. No zodiac rides needed today. There are two World Heritage sites here. One is the Old Town of Rauma. The other is a Bronze Age burial site called Sammallahdenmäki. Pronounced just like it's spelled, of course! We disembarked about 8:30 and caught a coach for the ride into town. We began walking near the Church of the Holy Cross. Nice blue skies, and sunny. About 50F. Beautiful weather! We walked slowly around the Old Town. Our guide giggled a lot and showed us a few buildings here and there. She ducked into a building that was a "Rauma Museum" and showed us the food storage facilities... And the inner courtyard of another complex of buildings. Back on the main street, we stood next to this building but she never told us what it was. Another "Rauma Museum" according to Google. Beautiful woodworking on the door. More nicely painted wooden houses. The more money the owners had, the more fancy the window trim. We passed by this abandoned building. It used to be a restaurant with some hotel rooms too. It's available for the small sum of about €170,000. Not bad until you consider that you're obligated to restore the building once you buy it. That will run you about €1.5 million... Looks like we could set up a dance venue here! Not sure about the ROI. Next stop was the main square, where we saw City Hall. There was a market on the square. A big line for the merchant selling smoked fish. We resisted the urge. Now we backtracked to the church where we'd started. And visited the interior. At first I thought we were interrupting this devout lady, but then I saw that she was a statue. We got back on the bus for the drive to Sammallahdenmäki. One of us fell soundly asleep and doesn't remember the drive at all... But we piled out for a walk in the woods. Typical Finnish forest with rocks, lichens, thin soil, and trees growing despite the adverse conditions. A very pleasant stroll. The Bronze Age burial sites were large piles of stones scattered around the forest. This one was called "Church Tile" or "Church Floor" and it's the largest site. Legend has that it was built by the Hiide (Hiids), a legendary race of giants from Finnish mythology. From the website: "According to the legend, the giants and humans competed for a place to live. They decided to start a competition, the purpose of the competition was to decide who gets Lapland as their place of residence. Whoever built the church faster would be allowed to stay, so the Hiids and the people started building the church. The Hiids built a foundation for the church, a stone floor, but the people then cheated a little, that they just built a support for the church bell from two trees and attached the church bell to it. When people were able to lift the bell up, they rang the bell. The Hiids heard the ringing of the bell and thought that the human church would already be ready. The Hiids got angry and threw stones around and they left." Yesterday we learned about some mythological Finnish creatures. Not sure if this "Hiisi" is similar to the Hiids. Note: Lapland in this story refers to this area, not the far north. Apparently there are two areas in Finland called Lapland. They like to confuse each other with this too. Our guide explained that someone once asked her if she was of Sami descent...and she said, "No, I'm from Lapland!" On to more burial sites. Further on, there was an encampment with people dressed in period costumes. And some Bronze Age craftsmanship going on. The ladies in the distance are weaving rope to make fish netting. We took our leave of the forest and it was a short ride to the sausage factory. We had a pre-lunch of sausage, meatballs, and potato-pasta salad. They had nice products for sale but too late, I realized that I should have bought some of their smoked pork chops for Hot Rocks tonight! Back to the boat for lunch.

Enjoy eating it! I'm sure it's delicious. Just about every part of the pig is. No matter if it's cut differently. Enjoying all of the bacon chatter. I might have to go to breakfast for real one of these days. Speaking of smoke...Hope everyone is doing OK with the smoke from the wildfires. Some of the pictures that I'm seeing from home are making me very glad to be here instead!

It looks awful back home. Very lucky to be in Finland now I guess. Hope it doesn't get any worse for all of you.