afto

I take back what I said about the tulips not being in full bloom yet in Oslo! They look glorious in your picture from the city centre!

May 28: Day Fourteen (Moscow, Part One)

Going to Moscow! So excited! It takes a lot to get me excited about anything that requires getting up at 5am.

Golden domes ahead! These ones belong to the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, just outside the Kremlin Walls.

A little side note: I have twice re-written my comments about some logistical problems that we encountered with the Moscow tour, trying not to go into excruciating detail about our experience. I have decided not to post those comments here after all because I feel that they may generate some discussion that would be in the wrong place. If anyone is interested in the specifics, you might post a question about the Moscow train on the Northern Europe board. I think you will get multiple responses there.

In any case, we were looking forward to travelling to Moscow this morning on the Sapsan. Russia’s high-speed trains are named for a high-speed bird, the peregrine falcon. Apparently the train company’s web content was produced by someone who has never seen a peregrine falcon; they describe it as a “mythical bird.” Peregrine falcons are real, russiantrains.com! Believe!

We had a bit of a delayed departure from the port due to mechanical problems with our bus but we made it to the platform just in time for the 7:00am train. It’s a journey of almost four hours each way between St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The train itself was modern and clean, including the toilets. The seats were comfortable enough, but they would have been more comfortable if we had only been required to sit in them for 2 hours instead of nearly 8 hours.

[if you are especially interested in the train, you can read more about it here: http://www.russiantrains.com/en/page/sapsan-train If you are looking for a description of the cars that the tour companies use, scroll down to the information on “Economy Class (Cars #2 - 9)”]

The Sapsan is fast, but not as fast as Japan’s bullet trains. Its maximum speed is about 250 km per hour, but the fastest speed that I noticed when I happened to look at the information screen was 199 km. The landscape is flat and not particularly scenic, in my opinion, but then I do live in British Columbia.

We had heard that the food is not great on the train, so many of us brought some snacks with us, as suggested by Alla. At the time that we travelled, there was no problem in bringing food ashore in St. Petersburg. I have never done this anywhere else and I know that in many ports it would be a serious infraction, but not here. Regulations do change frequently, so be sure to check this out for yourself, but definitely DO NOT TRY THIS IN AUSTRALIA!

Tour guides for the many groups from St. Petersburg met us at the station in Moscow and there was a bit of milling about in a parking area while the guides rounded up their own small herds of tourists. Max was our guide and throughout the day I was very impressed with his professionalism.

Our day in Moscow happened to be a special day on which people where encouraged to cycle through the streets. After a few minutes stuck in traffic gridlock, Max informed us that if we wanted to make it to the Kremlin in time for our scheduled admittance time at the Armoury Museum we would need to abandon the van and take the Metro instead of the van. We agreed to follow Max underground.

We emerged from the Metro behind the State Historical Museum, right next to Red Square. The yellow building that you see on the right of this photo is inside the Kremlin walls. No time for an extended photo shoot; we were on a mission to get to the Armoury.

Kremlin pictures to follow. It is taking me a while to sort out all the shots, trying to figure out the names of the towers and which golden domes belong to which church.

The BEST way to reserve a lounger is to lay on it!

(y)

Glad you decided to post! I am looking forward to seeing your pictures and reading about all the things I missed!

SO afto, your review is quite timely, as we sail with Pushka in a few days.... BUT I can't help the feeling that we have been left out in the field Like Father Frost's Daughter (so to speak) as that was the abrupt end of the day's posting... THANK YOU - GREAT WORK. I just hope that my 4000 photos come out half as good as yours.

Sorry for leaving you out in the field, Crusin Kelly! I am gathering my thoughts and images and hope to be able to continue with some Moscow posts tomorrow.

Enjoying your review. What I notice most about the great photos is your DW's lovely smile; looks like you are having such a great time. Also .... mmmmussels! Yum!

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Five)

I’m not sure whether the captain of the hydrofoil was particularly disturbed by our group or whether he just greets every trespasser on his vessel’s gangway with this facial expression. Luckily for him — and for us — he is not working for Celebrity, so he is not compelled to attend cocktail parties with his passengers. And vice versa.

In any case, he did transport us from Peterhof back to the city centre, with great views of many of the city’s most well-known buildings as we approached.

It was late afternoon by now, but Olga thought we might try to fit in a visit to St.Isaac’s Cathedral. On the way, we passed the famous equestrian statue of Peter the Great. It was Pushkin’s tragic poem “The Bronze Horseman,” about the flood of 1833, that gave this statue its nickname. I had never read any Pushkin, but I downloaded this short poem and read it on the plane. You can find various translations of it online; among other themes, it reminds readers that ordinary workers were much more vulnerable to the cyclical flooding that swept this low-lying city than was the founder of St. Petersburg and its elite families in their sturdy palaces and townhomes. Is this description convincing you to read the poem? No? This is why I am not in the sales business.

[More on the statue: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/monuments/bronze-horseman/ ]

At St. Isaac’s, Olga tried to obtain admission tickets for our group but she was unsuccessful. The visit was rescheduled for our second day in St.Petersburg; for today, we would have to be content with admiring the cathedral's monumental and firmly closed doors.

[More on St. Isaac’s: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/cathedrals/st-isaacs-cathedral/ ]

Sergei then drove us to a large and well-stocked souvenir shop, where we were met by a representative of Alla Tours who collected payment for our tour. I am usually resistant to making purchases at shops when I am brought there by a tour company, and really we are not shoppers at all, but DH did find some painted wooden Christmas tree ornaments that he thought were cute, and he insisted on buying them, so we came home with those. Or something like that. I think the salesperson told me — I mean DH — that the figures represented the story of Father Frost, but it’s possible that I am conflating that with the story of St. Nicholas.

When I came home, I googled the story of Father Frost and, like most fairy tales, it was completely horrifying. I think I will hang the ornaments on the back of the tree for a few years until I have forgotten the part about the old man taking his daughter out into the field and leaving her there to freeze.

[The tale of Father Frost: https://russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/father-frost-tale.html]

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Four)

Our tour, like most of the standard let’s-see-everything-that-we-can-in-two-days tours, did not include an inside visit to the palace. So we walked at an easy pace from the upper terraces down to the waterfront to board a hydrofoil for the ride back to the city. It was a delightful walk through Peterhof’s beautiful gardens. In May, when we visited, the flower beds were planted with tulips and the other flowers of spring.

More fountains throughout the gardens, all the way down to the Gulf of Finland.

More tulips, more fountains. Yawn.

Along the shore, a little lighthouse.

Alla had provided each of us with a handy little booklet that describes some of the main attractions of St. Petersburg. The booklet notes that Peterhof attracts millions of visitors every year, which is not at all surprising. By the way, the illustrated booklet also included a map of the city centre, a subway map, short biographies of some of the tsars, and a genealogy chart to help us keep them all straight. I thought it was a nice touch. And I brought it home so that family members who might be reluctant to sit down and look at, say, 4000 of my photos could at least get some visuals to accompany my enthusiastic monologue about St. Petersburg.

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Three)

We would only be in Russia for three days, so I never really became tired of snapping pictures of golden domes, especially when they were contrasted against a crisp blue sky. It was as if the metallic shininess was producing some sort of magnetic force drawing the camera lens upward automatically. It’s really quite an astonishing phenonmenon, given that there are so few metallic parts in my new camera. This is the Grand Ducal Mausoleum, next door to the the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

The blue skies that we had enjoyed in the morning were replaced by a uniform nondescript greyness by the time that we arrived at Peterhof, as you can see in this photo of the Grand Palace Church.

Even under a canopy of unrelenting greyness, the palace complex with its gardens and many fountains was absolutely spectacular. Standing on the terrace looking out at the Grand Cascade, I had one of those “I can’t believe I’m actually here” moments.

A few more shots of the main palace and the Grand Cascade.

[More on Peterhof: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/peterhof/ ]

I wish everyone with pending visits the very best of luck with the immigration process at St. Petersburg. Fingers crossed that the line-ups will be shorter for all of you than they were for us.

May 27: Day Eleven (St. Petersburg, Part Two)

From the Yusupov, we proceeded to the Fortress of Peter and Paul. We were playing catch-up at this point so we did not have time to see anything here other than the Cathedral. I really appreciated Olga’s efforts to ensure that we still saw everything on the itinerary over the course of our 2 days in St. Petersburg, despite the immigration delays that caused us to start our tour almost two hours later than scheduled this morning.

The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul is the oldest church in St. Petersburg, and until 2012 it was also the tallest building in the city, thanks to its spire.

[information on the cathedral: http://www.saintpetersburg.com/cathedrals/peter-paul-cathedral/ ]

It was the first of five churches that we would visit in Russia, each one interesting in its own way. This cathedral houses the tombs of most of the Russian tsars, including Catherine the Great and Peter the Great. The potted palms seem oddly out of place.

The remains of the last of the Romanov tsars, Nicholas II, and those of his wife and children finally found a home in one of the cathedral’s chapels in 1998.

The iconostasis that separates the sanctuary from the rest of the interior is a standard feature of Eastern Orthodox churches; our tour guide pointed out that the style of this one is more western than eastern, as is much of the architecture and decoration of the building. Not sure whether the potted palms qualify as eastern or western.

Lunchtime! Tomb-visiting can really give a person an appetite.

We were one of the day's last groups to arrive at this banquet hall near Peterhof, where they handled us quite efficiently. No choice of dishes, other than for those who had indicated special dietary needs in advance, so staff were able to start serving the first course as soon as we were seated. My sense is that this establishment aimed to avoid any offense to overly-sensitive tourist taste buds; I don’trecall exactly what we ate, but it was fairly bland. Nevertheless, we were all more than ready for lunch by then and I don't recall hearing any complaints about the meal.

Kim, thanks very much for sharing your experience. Glad to hear that your advanced planning paid off and that meeting at 6:30 am DID make a difference! Getting up that early, you deserved to have your day get off to a good start. I was thinking myself that if I were ever to do this again, I would arrange to be picked up at something like 11am the first day in order to avoid the entire mess. Oops ... I really should NOT be thinking about "again" but really, there was so much more to see and do in all of these ports that if I had an unlimited travel budget I would gladly book a Baltic cruise again.

Before I go on, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that the best way to see St. Petersburg is probably by private tour, as recommended by scubacruisersx2 and others in their reviews. Because we were going to Moscow on the second day, this might not have worked out well for us anyway, but we did not seriously investigate this option. We presumed that it would have been much more expensive than a group tour, but I am now convinced that the difference may not have been all that much and that for some people this would be worth it. The advantage of a private tour would have been that we could tailor it to suit our own interests, fitting in the sites that we particularly wanted to visit. And it would have allowed the flexibility for this shutterbug to take the time to move around a bit more (to find better angles) rather than keeping up with the group, or to stop for photos rather than driving by a point of interest. I might have dropped the Yusupov Palace from the itinerary and spent more time at the Hermitage. Personal choices: you can make more of them on a private tour.

But there are advantages to a group tour as well, and we were happy with our decision to book the Alla tour, in part because travelling around with our fun group of 16 really enhanced our experience in Russia. You know how there are always one or two annoying people in any excursion group? We didn’t have any! Hmm ... maybe the annoying people were DH and me. I can also attest to the fact that this was the best-looking excursion group I have ever encountered. I would love to post a photo, but I have not asked everyone for permission, so please just take my word on that.

We were awake very early in St. Petersburg. In addition to the Eclipse, the Aida Cara and the Koningsdam were berthed nearby. We knew that this would be one of the busiest weekends of the summer. The Sihouette was scheduled to dock at 7:00am and our Alla tour was to start at 8:30, so our group had agreed to meet on the ship at 7:30am and disembark together. We received a notice from Celebrity the night before advising us that the clearance process “may take up to 45 minutes from arrival.” That turned out to be wishful thinking. The ship itself was delayed in clearing, but finally passengers were permitted to disembark. To avoid a mob scene leaving the ship, we were politely herded in a sort of lazy conga line all around the public rooms including even the dining room. It was a way to keep people moving and therefore prevent them from getting restless, but I don’t think we really needed a tour of the ship at this early hour. Someone in our group said that whenever we had a choice of going left or right, we should go left, as this was usually the shorter line; I was at the front of our group and for some reason we always ended up going right instead of left. To make a long story short, we ended up being one of the last groups to eventually clear Russian immigration. It was after 10:00am when we met up with our Alla guide and driver who were patiently waiting for us outside the terminal. I don’t know that lining up at 6:30am would really have made much difference, so I can’t really pass along any advice for other cruisers other than, wherever possible, “Go left!”

Once we were actually off the ship, we stood in line for about an hour and a half, or perhaps longer. At least it wasn't raining.

Alla guide and driver, Olga and Sergei:

Tour van:

Our first stop was the Yusupov or Moika Palace, once the home of a noble Russian family, one of whom helped to plot the killing of Gregory Rasputin in 1916. Here he is, Prince Felix Yusupov and canine companion. As far as I know, the dog was not involved in the plot, but the conspirators did have to poison, shoot, and then drown Rasputin before he actually died, so there may at some point have been a dog bite or two thrown in for good measure.

The saga of Rasputin’s long-drawn-out death begins in the basement of the Yusupov Palace and today the scene is populated by creepy wax figures, including one of Rasuptin himself. Not my cup of tea. But most of the tour of the palace takes you through extravagantly-decorated rooms full of gorgeous furnishings and many works of art.

[More about the palace here: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/palaces/yusupov-palace/ ]

My favourite item in the Yusupov was this painting of monkeys painting cats, because it really made me ponder the question, “What is art?” I wish I had made note of the artist’s name — and I am assuming here that it was painted by a human rather than by a second monkey. I wasn’t paying enough attention at the time to remember if Olga had anything to say about it; I can imagine the painting as wry commentary on the status of an artist who must earn a living from commissioned portraits. I wonder what the artist would think if he or she had lived long enough to see the cat-centric fantasy universe portrayed here actually come into being with the arrival of the internet.

It’s going to take me a while to finish sorting my photos from Russia, but I will try to get a few more up later today. Thank you again for following along.

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Thanks very much to all those who are reading along and especially to those who have taken the time to provide such encouraging comments. Much appreciated.

upwarduk, thanks for the shots of the Silhouette! I will even this out at two apiece by including one more shot of a very dark Eclipse. This was taken after we returned from Moscow on our second day. As you can see, it was well after "lights out" for the Eclipse's passengers. This was one of the few occasions on this cruise that we were actually up late enough to see a truly dark night sky.

Thanks so much for the review and pictures. Awaiting with anticipation your next cruise and review!

Setting levity aside for this post, here are “our” thoughts on shore excursions in Russia, and our rationale for booking what we did. I will suggest that you skip this post unless you are as hyper-analytical as I am.

I think that most passengers on the Silhouette expected Russia to be the highlight of their cruise, and the idea of a two-night stop in St. Petersburg was a major reason for booking this particular itinerary. So, what to do with those three precious days in Russia?

For me, the significant thing about having two nights in Russia was that it would give us an opportunity to travel to Moscow on the second day. It is, of course, a very long day, whether you travel to Moscow by rail or by air. On the surface of it, it seems like a crazy idea to spend 8 hours (round-trip) on a train just to spend 8 hours in Moscow. We considered spending all three days in St. Petersburg and having a more leisurely and more wide-ranging or in-depth experience there. But in the end, I just really wanted to go to Red Square and the Kremlin, and I don’t think we will be back in Russia again, so the decision was made. DH thought for a while that he might opt out of the second day of the tour and enjoy a “sea day” at the dock in St. Petersburg, but by the time we made final payment for the cruise, he was looking forward to Moscow as much as I was.

We briefly thought about doing DIY excursions in Russia, because there were a couple of things that I wanted to see that would not be on any of the tours. But applying for independent visas is expensive and a pain in the neck, the logistics of getting to and from the cruise port (and Moscow) was a bit daunting, and we knew that we would see more if we were in the hands of a competent tour company. Now all we had to do was find the right tour.

Knowing that we were looking for a tour with 2 days in St. Petersburg and 1 day in Moscow, we weighed our options. We did not seriously consider any Celebrity shore excursions because in our experience it is much more pleasant to travel with a smaller group and because local companies are usually less expensive. (We do occasionally book Celebrity excursions, but there has to be a really good reason for doing so. None that we have taken have been awful.) I did not take into account that Celebrity excursions are guaranteed to be off the ship first; there were conflicting reports about that and, sitting at home a year and a half before sailing, it seemed like a minor detail.

I read many many many reviews of 2-day tours offered by all the well-known St. Petersburg tour companies. There was very little negative feedback on any of them, and they all sounded equally reliable. I could not find any reviews of 3-day tours because I think that this season was the first time that these 3-day stops were offered by major cruise lines; not quite sure about that. I studied the tour company itineraries and the content was very similar: all the tour companies would take us to the same places, but the order of the itinerary differed. I studied this TOO closely, really, and I chose Alla Tours because their sample itinerary included Catherine Palace on the first day. I was less comfortable with tours that visited Catherine Palace on the last day, because the palace is located so far from the ship. I knew that the Alla itinerary was subject to change — and in fact it did change, so that the Catherine Palace WAS the very last site that we visited on the third day. So much for careful planning!

We booked the tour over a year before departure and we would be part of a group of 16. I was impressed by how responsive Alla was to my e-mails, and I appreciated the careful attention they gave to offering alternatives when I had some questions. But from what I have read any of the well-known local companies would provide a very similar experience ... in other words, there may be very little point in trying to find exactly the "right" tour for this destination.

When we travel our experience is shaped to a large extent by our expectations and I have found that doing as much research as I can before I go helps to keep my expectations reasonable. I also accept that no amount of research will ensure that a trip will go entirely according to plan, so I try to go with the flow when the unexpected happens. I am not always successful at going with the flow, as demonstrated by the unfortunate squawking incident at Rosenborg Castle. But I do try. There were one or two times during our days with Alla when things did not go exactly as planned, which I will explain later. But overall, it was a good tour and we came home with great memories of our three days in Russia.

I'm finding it difficult to post this with no photos at all, so here’s the Eclipse following us into the cruise port at St. Petersburg in the early morning of May 27. For obvious reasons, I do not have any shots of the Silhouette sailing in, so this is a reasonable facsimile.

May 26: Day Ten (Helsinki, Part Five)

Next stop was the Church in the Rock. We walked down the hill and caught a #2 tram, getting off at Sammonkatu (not to be confused with Simonkatu). The church is just one block up the hill from the bus stop but approaching from this direction the entrance is not obvious. Wandering around the building looking for the entrance gave us an opportunity to fully appreciate the, um, rockiness of the rock the church is built into. Yup, it’s a great big rock, no question.

As of this year, there is a fee of 3 euros to enter the church. It was interesting to see, but it’s not somewhere that you will want to spend a great deal of time. We went because it was the only site in Helsinki that I had actually heard of before I started researching this destination.

We walked back down the hill from the rock church and caught a bus to Töölön kirjasto stop near the monument to Finnish composer Sibelius, which is located in a lovely leafy park. There were birds in the park, but I am not posting pictures of them because I did promise you that the fieldfare was the last of the bird shots for today. There was also a choir of tourists (singing “Edelweiss” of all things) in front of the monument. They were well-rehearsed and they sounded great, but it was something of a surreal moment. Like when the brass band from Berlin set up and played outside the Fram Museum in Oslo.

I believe that this is one of those mandatory shots, akin to the one of the seven bridges in Amsterdam. At this point, you can still see blue sky through the pipes that make up this monument.

Despite the mostly blue sky, we started to feel a few rain drops, although it was only a brief light shower. When we returned to the ship, we realized that we had been very lucky with the weather in Helsinki; there were localized heavy downpours in the afternoon and many people reported being soaked through.

From the park, we took a bus and then connected to tram #9 to take us back to the port. Heading in this direction, we didn’t really need the green line to help us find our way back to the Silhouette.

We had thoroughly enjoyed our relaxing low-key day in Helsinki. We sailed away from the city and its bird life at 6:00pm and it remained light throughout the evening. Sunset: 10:18pm. We were very excited about our arrival in St. Petersburg the next morning.

I have room for one more photo from Helsinki, so here is a shot from Suomenlinna of something that is made of wood and is therefore NOT actually a bird.

May 26: Day Ten (Helsinki, Part Four)

Based on a tip from roll call member Jay, we thought we might pop into the newly restored National Library at Senate Square, just for a quick look around. I spend a lot of time in libraries and I like to visit interesting ones when I travel. We were turned away because of an unspecified special event. We had a quick walk around the beautiful square.

At one point we considered renting bicycles. Sorry, that was a lie. Renting bicycles was never under consideration, but they do look very nice and yellow, don’t they?

A bell began tolling and a slow procession started to make its way out of the library and up the hill towards Helsinki Cathedral. We had no idea what was going on until a local man explained to us that this was the convocation procession of the University of Helsinki. PhD students were dressed all in black, including very snazzy hats, and they carried swords. Convocations — and even weddings — in North America would be so much more fun with swords!

Master’s students wore a laurel wreath; women dressed all in white and men in black.

They were going to the cathedral for a prayer ceremony, we were told. It was nice to be in the right place at the right time to witness this event. We did see a woman dressed in white earlier in the day, and had thought that her garb was not quite right for a wedding, so it was good to have that mystery solved.

Last bird shot of the day, I promise, is this fieldfare looking for lunch:

May 26: Day Ten (Helsinki, Part Three)

While we were at Suomenlinna,“we” also took some pictures of the local birds — bonus! Barnacle geese were everywhere.

Apparently the Finnish arctic terns are slightly blurrier than the ones I had seen previously in Alaska. Or perhaps I just need to spend a little more time figuring out the settings on the new camera. Oh dear, I have just been interrupted by DH who reminds me that this is CRUISE Critic and not BIRD Critic. Sorry, I forgot. Moving on.

One encounter at Suomenlinna has become a story that we have now shared with all the friends and family who will listen. We were walking in a fairly quiet area, off the main path, when two Finnish boys (ages 7-ish and 11-ish) came running up to us.

Finnish Boy the Younger (excitedly): “Series of words including lots of As and Ks! Series of words including lots of As and Ks!”

DH and afto: Blank looks

afto (embarrassed by her limited education): “Sorry, we only speak English.”

Finnish Boy the Younger (excitedly): “I found a nest! Come!”

Finnish Boy the Older (calmly): “Be careful. Seagulls are territorial animals and they can be aggressive.”

Ornithologically speaking, this statement is a bit dubious, but we were just floored by the ease with which these children switched from Finnish to perfect English. Here and elsewhere in the Scandinavian countries, we had no problem conversing with local residents. We followed the boys, carefully. Mama did return, and the four of us high-tailed it out of there.

We wanted to see a bit of the city as well, so after we escaped from Mama gull we caught the next ferry back to Kauppatori. The skies were darkening and we saw some threatening clouds gathering, but the views were just as great on the way back as on the way out. Funny how that works. Finnish coast guard vessel, Uspenski Eastern Orthodox Cathedral, and a ferris wheel: an odd combination.

We picked up some shrimp and chips from a market stall and ate lunch on the edge of the harbour, keeping an eye on the avian ne’er-do-wells who were poised to take advantage of an unguarded chip.

As we finished lunch, we had a surprise visit from a marching band and drill team who quickly disappeared in the direction of Senate Square. That was where we were headed next.

BTW any tips as to your favourite MDR dishes?

We are really not very picky about food and opinions about favourite dishes are so subjective. Apart from the Indian dishes and salmon mentioned earlier, and the stellar crème brulée, I often enjoy the appetizers more than the main course; DH always always enjoys the soups. I think my favourite main course in the MDR this trip was the mushroom risotto that was offered on one of the evening chic nights.

You might be interested in this older thread about favourite dishes:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2047565&highlight=favourite+dish

May 26: Day Ten (Helsinki, Part Two)

Suomenlinna is a shutterbug’s paradise; there’s so much to point a camera at. If you were to visit some of the museums (we did not) and include a nice lunch, you could easily spend all day there. You can visit the dry dock and even tour a submarine if you wish, and if it’s warm enough there is a swimming area.

We walked to the King’s Gate at the far end of the island, climbing over some fortifications and passing through some tunnels along the way, admiring the architecture and watching ferries and sailboats cruise by.

Throughout our time there, we obeyed the posted signage to the best of our ability, including refraining from painting our hands black.

May 26: Day Ten (Helsinki, Part One)

As usual, it was room service on the balcony for me while DH wandered around the ship gathering bits and pieces of breakfast here and there. Sometimes he is kind enough to bring me an almond croissant from Café al Bacio, if I have not made him visit too many museums on the previous day. I do love those croissants but I’m not willing to alter the itinerary for the sake of pastry deliveries.

Gulls of various kinds accompanied us into port in Helsinki, more than I saw in any other port on this cruise. If you are a gull with a passion for photo-bombing, Helsinki is the place that you want to be. The distinctive dome of Helsinki Cathedral was visible from a long way off, contrasting with a bright blue sky. I don’t think that any of the elements of the shot below are actually in focus,but it’s my favourite because this is how I will remember Helsinki. (Note: this shot is not from sail in, but from later in the day.)

In Helsinki we had another DIY day planned, so DH was back in the hands of tour guide afto. We were docked at LMA, which is a good distance from the city centre. Following Jonza’s instructions (see thread "Helsinki 2017 advice and FAQ" http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2445288 ), we followed the green line through the port area from our berth to the tram stop. For 9 euros each, we bought day tickets from the driver; we could use these on trams, busses, and the ferry. (No credit cards, and no bank notes over 20euros.) Easy peasy. I liked the cheerful customized fabric on the backs of the tram seats.

We were headed for the Market Square area, Kauppatori. We took the #9 tram to Simonkatu stop. I was slightly confused at first about directional information; what I had thought to be two separate stops, for example, turned out to be the same stop because Finland is bilingual and information is provided in both Finnish and Swedish. Hopped off at Simonkatu (aka Simonsgatan), stood right at the same stop, and waited just a couple of minutes for the #2 to come along and take us directly to Kauppatori. We could have stayed on the #9 and had a short walk to Kauppatori, but changing trams was easy and it saved us steps and time.

From the tram stop at Kauppatori, the market was directly across the street. Many of the stall-keepers were just opening up for the day. The whole market area is covered by netting that has some effect in discouraging gulls from swooping in and making off with anything they can grab. The blue-grey building across the street is Helsinki City Hall.

The second dock that we came to at Kauppatori was the departure point for the ferry to the island fortress of Suomenlinna, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. [Moreabout Suomenlinna here: http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en/]

Our intention was to enjoy some fresh air, sunshine, and sea views. We had three very intensive days of sightseeing coming up in Russia, so a little bit of the outdoors would be a nice change of pace. Oh, coincidentally, there were also some birds on the island … I had NO IDEA AT ALL that there would be birds there, but luckily I had packed my binoculars and telephoto lens …

The small passenger ferries that run out to Suomenlinna and some of the other islands were completely packed in both directions, with lots of school groups. It was a short ride (about 15 minutes), and along the way we had great views of Helsinki’s skyline.

There was also a swimming pool tucked into a corner of the harbour. On the way back we noticed that many people were swimming there — it must have been well heated.

Lots of us LOVE the long-windedness...:cool:

DH is rolling his eyes and thinking “don’t encourage her!” Yes, I can read his mind. :D

Today's Tom Sawyer...Mean, mean pride.

ha ha ha ... I just got this now! Have been puzzling over what your comment meant ... How did I not notice the name of the ship before?

Thanks very much to those who are reading and/or commenting on this thread. I am happy to post a few pictures here, since I thought that those with Baltic cruises pending might like to take a peek. Meanwhile, my family here are still negotiating over how many of my trip photos they will agree to look at, and how many times they will be required to politely mumble something like, “Oh, nice cloud formation you had that day” or “Great shot of that traffic light, Mum. Thanks for sharing.”

May 25: Day Nine (At Sea)

Today was our last relaxing full day at sea. In the morning, I attended “Are You Smarter than a Ship’s Officer” and found out that I wasn’t. I usually enjoy a few games of trivia, but this was the only one I made it to on this very port-intensive trip.

At some point, I went down to Café al Bacio for an iced tea. I usually take my tea to go, but once in a while I like to sit and enjoy it there, mostly because I love the way they present it.

Dinner in the main dining room, as usual. Food and service continue to be good, in our opinion.

We recommend that you see Pete Matthews, comedy juggler, if you ever have the opportunity. He is quick-witted and talented, and there was some fun audience participation. I am all for audience participation, as long as I am not the participant. That’s why we always sit in the upper level of the theatre. We didn’t make it to any more shows until the very last night of the cruise, probably because we were getting up so early on those bright summer mornings.

The “full moon party” was in full swing in the Grand Foyer when we were on our way back to our cabin. Not sure what this was all about, and not sure if those white inflatable objects are meant to be phases of the moon or elephant tusks, but it was nice to see people having fun and dancing.

At some point in the evening, we burned up some OBC in the casino.

Checked the weather forecast before retiring, and it looked like we would have sunshine in the morning. So I was pleased that we could stick with Plan A for Helsinki, instead of switching to the rainy day alternative.

It may take me until tomorrow to get the Helsinki posts together; that depends on how long I can dodge any work and social commitments in order to work on this review. So far, no one has noticed that I am missing. ;) Thanks again, everyone, for sticking with this long-winded thread.