afto

Its that time of the year again when I go to Roskilde Festival do I probably won't be a leg to reply for the next week or so.

 

Now your sharp mind thinks, hey isn't it first tomorrow that the festival starts, and yes you are correct.

But I'm going to a friends house one hour or so away from here to celebrate Sankt Hans tonight.

 

Technically its Midsummer celebration even thought Midsummer was Wednesday, why its celebrated today there is probably a good explanation for but I don't know it.

 

So those of you that are in Copenhagen tonight I suggest that you go to Tivoli or one of the many other places in Copenhagen that has Bonfires tonight.

It's very cosy.

I just read this hilarious article about the new "Pisner" beer that makes use of, um, contributions from festival-goers and thought of you. Hope you have fun at the festival.

http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/press/copenhagen/piss-pilsner-pisner-beer

May 21: Day Five (Oslo, Part Four)

After the Fram museum, we went outside to find that the sun was shining brightly; it was really quite a dramatic change from the early morning. The museum is next to a waterfront park, so I walked around a bit to take in the views. The Silhouette was visible on the other side of the harbour and there were all kinds of pleasure craft out on the water.

We were sitting outside enjoying the sunshine when a bus pulled up and out popped a band from Berlin. They set up and started playing, and people gathered to watch and applaud; it was fun.

I took some pictures of the band, and those would be the last pictures I would take with my Nikon D5000. I dropped the camera at that point and broke the shutter; we tried poking at it with the closest thing that we had to a DSLR camera repair kit — a plastic pen cap — but I think we "may" have done more harm than good. When I put this in the perspective of all the horrific events that have taken place in Europe this summer, in Manchester, London, Paris, and elsewhere, this really was a non-event and we were lucky to have had such a great holiday.

Just in case it was raining hard in some of the ports, I had packed another small and ancient waterproof Fuji point-and-shoot that I use mainly when I am snorkeling; the sensor is probably about a quarter of a mega-pixel, or maybe a third, and I am not exaggerating all that much when I say that. I also had my older model iphone with me. So I was not without a camera for the rest of the day, but you will notice a difference in the quality of the pictures. At least I hope you will, or else it really hasn't been worth lugging the Nikon around for all these years.

We caught the passenger ferry from the dock behind the Fram Museum, and it dropped us off right in front of City Hall.

Notice the perfect backdrop of bright blue skies behind the building.

There was a fun statue of a shiny scuba diver there, poised as if ready to jump into the harbour.

I know it sounds like we have covered a lot of ground today, but most of the museums that we visited were small and we did not spend as much time at Vigeland as we had planned, because of the morning rain. So we were back at the ship in time for a quick tour of Akershus Castle itself and a stroll around its grounds. Great views out over the harbour from up there. We sat in the sunshine for a while and concluded that Oslo had been a wonderful first port of call for this cruise.

The ship was docked right next to the castle, so we were not worried about missing sailaway. Before we boarded, I fired off a quick post on the CC Copenhagen thread, hoping that Danish Viking could point me in the direction of a good camera store in Copenhagen, which would be our next port of call.

May 21: Day Five (Oslo, Part Three)

The rain had stopped by now, and we walked from the Viking Musuem to the Norwegian Folk Museum, practically next door. 160 buildings of various types are gathered here from different areas of Norway; it’s a large, hilly, wooded site and a nice peaceful place to walk around. People could easily spend all day exploring this open-air musuem, but our objective was just to visit the beautiful stave church and then move on.

We stayed a little longer than planned because there were dozens of people in period costume wandering around — dancers, a marching band, families with children, etc. It seemed too elaborate for this to take place every day, but perhaps I am wrong. We never did figure out what was going on,and whatever it was did not look particularly Norwegian, but it was very colourful and so I was happy to spend a little more time there taking pictures.

We climbed back on the #30 bus at the stop right in front of the folk museum and rode it for just a couple of stops to the Fram and Kon-Tiki museums, which are located next to each other.

If you are not familiar with Thor Heyerdahl’s expeditions, I am not sure that you would find the Kon-Tiki museum very interesting. I read the books in the days of my youth and re-watched a film about the Kon-Tiki expedition recently, so I was intrigued by the opportunity to see the Kon-Tiki raft and the papyrus boat, Ra II. Worth a short stop if you have the time; longer if you want to watch the film.

Kon-Tiki balsa wood raft:

Ra II papyrus boat:

The Fram Museum houses an original polar exploration boat, the Fram, which you can enter and explore (so to speak). Other exhibits tell the story of Norwegian expeditions to both the north and south poles. Every few minutes there is a simulation of the northern lights projected on the ceiling and walls of the building, which was cool.

We would have benefited from a bit more directional signage — or maybe we should have just paid more attention as we entered. As it was, we seemed to be traveling backwards in time through the stories of the Norwegian expeditions, so it was a bit confusing. Obviously, if we can’t find our way around a museum, it’s better that we stick to cruising rather than self-guided polar exploration; I believe that there are also mountains to be navigated in Antarctica, so polar exploration is probably right out of the question for me anyway. There is a lot to be said for knowing one’s limitations. There is a sign outside indicating that this is “the best museum in Norway” (according to Trip Advisor, 2015) so I think that most people were more successful at navigating around the museum than we were.

May 21: Day Five (Oslo, Part Two)

We exited the monolith area through one of the park's beautiful wrought-iron gates and took a diagonal path out of Vigeland Park.

From there it was straight down the street to Bygdøy allé where we caught the #30 bus to the Bygdøy Peninsula. It’s about a 15-minute ride, and we would spend most of the day there.

We knew that the Viking Ships Museum would be the busiest of the museums that we wanted to visit, so we went there first, hoping to dodge crowds. No such luck — it was already busy, with several tour busses in the parking lot. But it does absorb visitors well, even though It's quite a small museum.

We were not in a tearing hurry to get through the museum, so we were able to patiently wait our turn to see everything, including the A/V presentation that is periodically projected onto the walls of one wing. Of course it was interesting to see the three ships with various levels of preservation, and there are stairs up to balconies that let you look down into the vessels and get close-up views of the carvings on them. I was OK with climbing up the stairs to the balconies but slightly uneasy about the low height of the walls around them. If only there was a magic spell to cure an unreasonable fear of heights …

Photo is angled slightly to try to fit in all of this huge ship:

Even more interesting than the ships, I thought, were the artifacts that had been retrieved from different burial sites, including intricately-carved sleds and carts.

You could easily spend an hour or two here learning about Viking culture. At one point I had thought that “we” might be trying to fit too much into our day, and I was considering skipping this site. But when I asked DH which of the museums looked most interesting to him, he picked this one right away, and in the end I am so glad that “we” decided to leave it in the itinerary.

I note you mentioned that you had the bed by the balcony. We have never been in a cabin with that lay out, it's always been near the bathroom. We will be on Silhouette 23.06.18, in cabin 6243 Do you have any photos? Apart from being able to see out when you woke up, were there any other advantages?

I'm also following your review for alternative ideas in ports as we sailed on Eclipse to the Baltic in 2015.

Having the bed by the balcony makes it easier to get things in and out of the closet and I think it makes the room generally easier to navigate. It does make the sitting area darker, and of course you can't see out as well from the sofa if the bed is in the way. That didn't really bother us, because if we are going to be sitting in our room, chances are that we will be sitting out on the balcony, no matter the weather. There are 2 schools of thought on this and you might try doing a search for more detail.

May 21: Day Five (Oslo, Part One)

We arrived in Oslo at 7:00am as scheduled and docked next to Akershus Castle under grey skies. Finishing my breakfast on the balcony (yes, despite the cool weather), I had a great view of the castle. On the castle lawns, I spotted two new species of birds for my life list before we had even left the ship: barnacle geese and eurasian oystercatchers. You probably don’t need to know that, but it did put me in a great mood to start the day.

We went ashore quite early, because I had so much planned for our day. First stop was the Thon Hotel Oslo Panorama (1 km from the ship), where we purchased our Oslo Passes for bus and ferry transportation and museum admissions. An electronic version is available, which you can display on your phone, but I was not altogether comfortable with that option. I could have ordered them online and picked them up at the tourist office, but it doesn’t open until 9:00am and some people have reported delays in picking them up. Many hotels also sell the passes, so I picked one that was on our way to the bus stop for our first destination, and that worked perfectly. (If it hadn’t, I was prepared to buy them through the telephone option.)

[The Visit Oslo web site includes information on the passes and links to all the sites that we visited: https://www.visitoslo.com/en/activities-and-attractions/oslo-pass/]

The streets of Oslo’s city centre are pretty quiet on a Sunday morning.

With passes in hand, it was just two blocks from the hotel to the bus stop on Prinsens Gate. I had wanted to walk over to see the Opera House, but it was a very grey morning and raining by then, so I didn’t. Because it was early on a Sunday morning, the trams ran only twice per hour and we had just missed one so we were a bit damp by the time we boarded the #12. We got off at the Vigelandsparken stop. I had planned to see the Vigeland sculptures as our first stop of the day because most of the other attractions we would be visiting did not open until 10am or later. Since the park is open 24 hours a day, it made sense to stop there first, but it was a pity that it rained the whole time that we were there. This park with its sculptures was even more impressive and interesting than I had thought it would be. We walked from the main gate over the bridge and up to the monolith, admiring the vision that had driven the sculptor and the timelessness of these works. We loved it, and I think it’s the “must see” stop on an Oslo excursion. I had already read quite a bit about Vigeland before we left home, and so I decided not to take the time to visit the museum while we were at the park. I’m including 4 pictures of the park here, because it is hard to choose just one or two favourites.

[This web site has useful information aboutthe park, the sculptor, and his works: http://www.vigeland.museum.no/en/vigeland-park]

[This web site has useful information about the park, the sculptor, and his works: http://www.vigeland.museum.no/en/vigeland-park]

Below is "angry boy," probably the most well-known sculpture in the park. His hand is shiny because so many visitors want to snap a pic while holding his hand. The museum asks visitors to refrain from this practice; it is wearing some of the detail away from the sculpture. What you might do instead is photograph yourself mimicking the little guy's facial expression ... and that's another one of those photos that I won't be posting.

Nice fountains, surrounded by more figures.

The monolith is at the highest point in the park. The pillar has 121 entwined figures carved from a single block of granite. There are also many other interesting granite figure groups surrounding the monolith.

Thanks again to those who have commented and others who are following along. I will try not to drown you in detail ... it's hard to strike a balance between too little and too much. As we go along, if anyone has any specific questions I will do my best to answer them. Oslo posts coming up next.

Thanks for the kind comments, tweetylori.

May 20: Day Four (At Sea)

There is something so luxurious and relaxing about a day at sea, isn’t there? By the time that we disembarked in Stockholm, I think that many passengers were reeaallly wishing we had just one more sea day towards the end of the trip. As it was, we had two sea days, but these were both in the first half of the cruise.

We were impressed that Celebrity had cleverly scheduled this first sea day for a warm day with blue skies and fairly calm seas. Perfect.

First thing we did that day and every day was to check out the “hand-washing guidances” that Celebrity provides as an On Demand TV option. I appreciate good hygiene as much as the next person, truly I do. But seriously, Celebrity, how many people do you think will watch this video?

We washed our hands thoroughly and went to our roll call meet and greet in the morning in the Celebrity Theater, where we had a chance to say hello to people that we had not met at the Sunset Bar the night before. The captain and several officers came and introduced themselves and then left us to our own devices. A number of roll call members had set up private tours, especially in Russia, and so this was an opportunity for everyone to meet the others in their group. Margo (MOLAcruiser) was our MC for the event and helped us to make the most of our allotted time in the theater. Soon after the roll call was established, Margo had set up an online spreadsheet detailing all the various private tours and activities that people had arranged, which helped everyone to keep things straight and saved a lot of confusion and repetition on the roll call; this was a really helpful resource for roll call members. If you are ever on a roll call with Margo, you’ll be lucky. Jay (visibilityunlimited) had brought along t-shirts and a certificate to present to Margo and some of her deputies, as a thank you; it was a thoughtful gesture. DH and I were part of a 16-person group on a tour in Russia, so it was especially nice to meet most of the members of that group at this connections party; we had met up with all of our group by the end of the day.

Later, I went to see Dr. Fisher’s talk on the Vikings. I learned a few things that I didn’t know, but I think that I could have learned a lot more if he had included fewer personal anecdotes. I didn’t attend any other of the Beyond the Podium events on this cruise; there was just too much else going on.

At some point in the day, DH had to fit in his customary laps around the ship. I decided to join him for a change, but after about half a lap I remembered why I don’t usually do that: I make frequent photo stops and apparently that is a serious violation of walking regulations. DH was forced to pull out his rule book and sure enough, there it was in black and white: no photo stops while walking or driving. I left him stuck in a walking traffic jam and I wandered up to Deck 15 to admire the blue sky and make sure that Captain Peppas had us headed in the correct direction.

Many passengers were enjoying the open decks, walking and sunbathing, and I think at some point I saw some people in the outdoor pools. There were still plenty of lounge chairsavailable.

The clouds started to roll in later on in the afternoon, but it had been a beautiful day.

In the evening we went to the first of the production shows, Cosmopolitan. Later in the cruise, we would see Pearl. We thought that both were fine, but entertainment preferences are very subjective. My main criteria for assessing shipboard entertainment is, “Is this good enough to keep DH out of the casino for 45 minutes?” Everything that we saw on this cruise passed that test with flying colours. On previous cruises, I have often felt that one of the singers was struggling a bit, but that was not the case on this cruise: we thought the singers and dancers were all very good. Probably because of my previously reported fear of heights, the acrobatic aspects of these shows make me nervous. Although I appreciate the talent and the hours of training that go into acquiring their amazing skills, whenever I see performers dangling in the air from a piece of string all I can think is, “What a way to make a living!”

As we headed north, light lingered in the sky until late in the evening. I don’t think we were up late enough to see a truly dark sky on more than one or two nights on this cruise. We were looking forward to Oslo, bright and early the next morning.

I am really enjoying this review, thank you - you have a great turn of phrase!

 

We have 'done' a Baltic cruise and also A'Dam independantly but have just booked our first Celebrity cruise ( which is why I have invaded this board).

Welcome Slugsta. You will find lots of information about Celebrity in this forum; I have learned so much from those who post here. We are Celebrity fans and I am sure you will enjoy your cruise.

May 19: Day Three (Part Three)

It took us about two hours to sail down the Ij River from Amsterdam to the open sea. There was plenty of river traffic behind and beside us as we pulled away from the city.

A couple more shots of our departure from Amsterdam:

Chairs in the Lawn Club Grill were kitted out with blankets in anticipation of evening diners.

We had select dining. We tend to eat early, and I had made reservations for 6:30 or so most evenings. We ate in the main dining room most of the time, and never had to wait more than a minute or two for our table. We were happy with the service we received from waiter Hernando, his assistant Terence,and wine steward Nina, and their section was a relatively quiet corner of the dining room, so we became regulars in that section. I asked for a back cushion on the first night because I have short legs and I find those dining room chairs to be extremely uncomfortable; Terence brought it automatically on subsequent evenings. Makes such a difference to my enjoyment of the meal. Food was good, service was good, no complaints. I particularly like the Indian dishes that they offer, and DH enjoys the always available salmon. But my single favourite menu item is crème brulée. Made the mistake of ordering some kind of chocolate macadamia concoction one night and regretted that decision after one bite. I pushed the offending dessert in the general direction of DH and it was soon replaced with a crème brulée. Phew! Panic over.

I had wanted to be up on deck for our transit of the locks at Ijmuiden. Just as we were finishing dessert I noticed that we had stopped moving. So I scampered back to the cabin for the camera and was up top in time to see the lock gate opening.

I watched the Silhouette’s snout poking its way out towards the North Sea as the sun was getting lower in the sky. This has to be one of the best things about cruising, being out on deck or on the verandah and watching the world and the occasional bird go by. That and the crème brulée of course. For both DH and me, all the ports from here on would be new territory, and we were very much looking forward to adventures ahead.

Met up with DH for the evening show with Claire Maidin. We had encountered Cruise Director Ben Powney (referred to by another entertainer later as “your miniature cruise director”) on a previous cruise, and we don’t mind his sarcastic brand of humour. We thought that the entertainment and the cruise in general was off to a good start.

May 19: Day Three (Part Two)

Check-in at Amsterdam’s passenger terminal was quite efficient. We had received a letter from Celebrity indicating that, because of congestion, boarding would be according to deck number. We were asked to arrive at 3:30pm; we decided that 1:30 was late enough to get to the pier. For some reason, the people-sorting lady directed us to the Elite line; I explained that we did not have the credentials for that line, while DH tried to shut me up. People-sorting lady just looked at me as if I were crazy, which I might very well be, and waved us on. So, very short line and soon we were on board, sipping a mimosa in cellar masters. Painless.

We wandered around for a bit, congratulating ourselves for having the good sense to book another Celebrity cruise. There is always a feeling of familiarity when we arrive at the cabin, and unpacking is a breeze since we more or less know where everything goes: I claim all the conveniently located storage areas for my things and DH gets the over-the-bed shelves, with a couple of those collapsible storage boxes to serve as “drawers” for his belongings. Sounds fair to me. This was our first time on the Silhouette, and I did miss that shallow top shelf in the wardrobe that I am used to finding on other S-class ships. Otherwise, we were happy with everything in the cabin; we had 6224 on deck 6, on the hump beside the atrium elevators. We love this location for convenience. Bed is beside the balcony; I have been happy with the bed in either location up to this point, but have now decided that I do prefer it by the balcony, the better to see outside when I wake up in the mornings.

Cabin steward Dixon dropped by to introduce himself; he emptied the bar fridge at our request, and would look after us very well for the entire cruise. I wonder, though,about the pressure that is applied to employees by Celebrity; he was just SO eager to please that it was a bit unsettling. I felt compelled to reassure him daily that we were more than satisfied with his service, and I have noticed that this is an increasing trend on the ships. Perhaps I am romanticizing “the olden days,” but it seems to me that this represents a change from earlier cruises, when dining room and housekeeping staff had a more relaxed and easy-going friendliness that seemed more natural than it does these days. The change must be a function of increased workload and increased scrutiny of employee performance, which must be a strain for all employees. I am probably being overly analytical here; it’s a serious character flaw, I have been told.

Muster drill: there have been threads on the boards about the new presentation, so I won’t go into detail. But DH and I agreed that a new cruiser might have trouble identifying and remembering the essential safety information that is, in our opinion, lost in the supposedly “entertaining” aspects of the new video. There was some confusion afterwards about the demonstration of how to put on a life jacket; no one actually seemed to be demonstrating that, and Celebrity was all set to release us until a passenger actually insisted that the demonstration take place. I know that the safety demonstrations can be tedious, but I do think that we need to remember that we are in a ship floating in water and the unexpected can happen.

After muster, we were off to the Sunset Bar, the traditional CC gathering place for sailaway. It was nice to finally meet some of the people who I had been chatting with on the roll call for over a year. Even Canadians like ourselves thought it was just a tad chilly out there, and very windy, and many of the group headed indoors shortly after we left the dock. Diehards like myself hung onto the railings to avoid being blown away and stayed outdoors; I hate to miss a sailaway.

We sailed upriver a short distance to make the turn, and then headed downstream. Here we are passing the passenger terminal with its curved roof, and the Movenpick Hotel right next door.

If my count is correct, that’s eight river cruisers docked here. The building with the semi-circular roof lines is Centraal Station.

Passenger/cyclist ferries wait for us to pass.

Another look at the Eye Museum and the A’dam Lookout as we sail by.

Modern rooflines frame older spires and gables.

Whenever I look at this flag, I wonder how many more Celebrity cruises I need to take before I qualify for Maltese citizenship.

Unless you were only dragging trolley bags ( the type of hand luggage that can be put into overhead lockers on a plane) you would have struggled to walk between the cyclists and up and down some steps. We walked it in 2012 and I wished I hadn't!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Good to know! Thanks.

May 19: Day Three (Part One)

Wow, this review just drags on and on and I am sure that by now you will be wondering, “Did they ever actually get on a cruise ship?” The answer is yes, we actually did. But first, half a day in Amsterdam…

In what was quickly becoming the new normal for this holiday, we were up very early. We gobbled up our included breakfast in the hotel’s breakfast room, then packed up our belongings and deposited everything in the luggage room. It was still too early for a museum visit — most open at 10 am — so we rode a tram over to the so-called floating flower market for our first stop of the morning. The Bloemenmarkt is close to the Koningsplein (I mention this because in the early planning stages I hadsome difficulty finding the correct location on Google Maps.) Really, this is more of a tourist trap than a flower market. If you want to purchase flower bulbs, there are plenty of choices there, but there are not a lot of fresh flowers. I knew this ahead of time, so I was not particularly disappointed, and it was something to do to fill the time until10am.

A quick walk from here to the Rembrandtplein, then 2 stops on the #14 tram, and we were at Mr. Visserplein in time for the opening of the Portuguese Synagogue. The history of this building and the whole Jewish quarter and the Jewish community in Amsterdam is explained on a very useful audio guide. The synagogue itself was built in 1675; the main synagogue is still in use, still lit only by candlelight and its huge windows, and it is simply beautiful. We also visited the amazing treasury, located in an outbuilding. I am wishing now that we had spent a good deal more time here, but we rushed through this visit because I wanted to allow lots of time for the Rembrandt house, our next stop.

[info: https://www.european-traveler.com/netherlands/amsterdam/visit-portuguese-synagogue-amsterdam/]

The Rembrandt House was, for me, the least enjoyable of all the places that we visited in Amsterdam, even though it had been top of my priority list when I was planning the trip. Due to a combination of its popularity and the small size of many rooms, it felt cramped and crowded. My impression was that the creators of the audio guide placed too much emphasis on being entertaining; in places, the recording just seemed silly so I stopped listening. I also thought the guide was rather long-winded, and since audio guide users often turn into zombies, stopping dead in their tracks to look at whatever the guide is discussing, this did nothing to improve the flow of visitors through the house. For me the whole experience was just claustrophobic and slightly annoying, and I was soon ready to leave. Unfortunately, DH had inadvertently misplaced himself. Not knowing that he was misplaced, he did not adhere to our standard “if you are ever misplaced” protocol, and it took me a while to track him down. He was actually enjoying his visit, watching a demonstration of how to mix paint in a large upstairs studio. I would have liked to see that, but I arrived just in time for the very end of the demonstration. Overall, I am not sorry that I went, and I accept that my expectations may have been too high, thus setting myself up for disappointment. Given slightly different circumstances, I am sure I would have enjoyed the visit.

[info: http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/en/]

In any case we found ourselves outside with a little more time to kill before heading to the cruise terminal for an early afternoon check-in. We decided to walk back to the hotel via de Wallen, the red light district. I don’t have much to say about that, except that it seemed less racy than when I first visited it 30 years ago. Our Amsterdam city cards were still valid, so we made a brief unscheduled stop at the Oude Kerk. Another beautiful old building, huge, with lovely stained glass, a terrifying-looking spiral staircase and, when we were there, an intriguing art installation that covered most of the floor, hiding many of the old gravestones. I had originally left the Oude Kerk off the itinerary only because I knew that we would be seeing several churches in Germany, Russia, and Estonia, and I am glad that we had time to visit it after all. [info: http://www.amsterdam.info/oude-kerk/]

Oude Kerk

Outside the church stood the small sculpture “Belle,” inscribed “respect sexworkers all over the world.”

By this time, we were thinking that we ought to head to the cruise terminal. It was a short walk to the hotel, where we retrieved our belongings and had the front desk call us a cab for the short ride to the terminal. I suppose that we could have walked, but I overpacked as usual and it was fairly cold with some threatening-looking clouds overhead. First sight of the Celebrity Silhouette from the car was the usual thrill: we’re going on a cruise! And on a slightly more luxurious vessel than this one, thank goodness:

I promise that my next post will include pictures taken on the Silhouette.

Thank you for the wonderful report so far. We did a similar trip last year on the same ship but would have loved your overnights. I easily spent three hours at the Resistance Museum - did you go to the children's bit? It was so well done and thought provocking.

Wendy

Hi Wendy, thanks for your comments. We skipped the children's section, but I agree that the whole musuem is very thought-provoking and well worth a visit. I appreciated that it presented multiple perspectives on the occupation, with a focus on the choices that individuals made, and the reasons for those choices.

May 18: Day Two (Part Three, I think)

Next stop was Micropia, opened in 2014, which bills itself as “the world’s first museum of microbes.” Located right next to the main gate of the zoo, Micropia is a high-tech, highly interactive science museum that opens your eyes to the world of tiny wee creatures. The museum is small, but we thought it was fascinating and we spent well over an hour here. It would be an especially great stop for families with older kids or teens.

This is Micropia's “kiss-o-meter,” which will inform you of the approximate number of microbes you might just have exchanged with your partner. It will also rate your kiss: I am embarrassed to report that ours registered on the Micropia scale as “prudish pecker”; that’s what getting old can do to you, kids.

[info about Micropia: https://www.micropia.nl/en/footer/about-micropia/]

Due to spectacularly bad planning on my part, we went for dinner right after Micropia. We chose an inexpensive and friendly nearby Italian restaurant called Palorma; it has the kitchen right in the front window, which we thought was a good sign. Still, we were glad not to have any of Micropia’s microscopes on hand for a closer inspection of our delicious pizza and salad. The waiter brought us complimentary liqueurs to finish our meal, which was a nice touch, and that surely helped to counteract the effects of any microbes that we happened to have consumed that day.

The day’s itinerary was not yet complete, so we postponed dessert and took a 10-minute walk to cross the picturesque Magere Brug (“skinny bridge”) over the Amstel River. Next stop Centraal Station; I honestly can’t remember what form of public transportation we used to get there, and I blame this lapse on the liqueurs. From the back of Centraal Station (lower level, along the river) we “hopped” on the free ferry across the Ij River and walked just a few minutes to the Eye Museum.

We had decided to have dessert at the restaurant there; the museum exhibits were closed by this time, but it was a nice spot to admire the architecture of this striking building, enjoy the views, and watch the river traffic.

Next door is the A’dam lookout, where those so inclined can sit in a contraption that swings them out over the edge of the highrise building to “enjoy” the view. After the previous day’s debacle involving the ladder of death at Zaanse Schans, I was not so inclined.

[info: https://www.adamlookout.com]

Incidentally, those three “x” symbols that you see at the top of the building are the symbol of Amsterdam, and they represent St. Andrew’s cross — not the red light district.

[Amsterdam coat of arms info: http://www.amsterdam-travel-guide.net/amsterdam-coat-of-arms-xxx.php]

Our very active roll call had planned a cocktail party at the Doubletree Hotel for that evening, but I had not RSVP’d for that because I wasn’t sure how our schedule would work out. As it happened, we were feeling pretty scruffy and exhausted by this time, so we just went back to our hotel, where we quickly dropped off to sleep … with visions of the Silhouette dancing in our heads. Tomorrow, we board!

May 18: Day Two (Part Two)

After the Van Loon house, we walked over to the Rembrandtplein, popular in the evening with club-goers. Poor old Rembrandt stands on a pedestal in the middle of the square here, often with a pigeon on his head, looking down at life-sized bronze figures representing his famous painting, The Night Watch. Note: the Rembrandt house is not here at the Rembrandtplein, but about a 10-minute walk away at the Waterlooplein.

We were headed to the Plantage area for the afternoon, so from the Rembrandtplein we hopped on the #14 tram and hopped off at the Artis stop. When I say “hopped,” understand that I mean more of a careful middle-aged plod than an actual hop; did not want to start out the trip with a twisted ankle.

It was warm and dry enough for a quick beverage and a snack at an outdoor café, and then we walked a short distance to the Dutch Resistance Museum (Verzetsmuseum), which deals with themes of collaboration as well as resistance during the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. Some interesting and thought-provoking exhibits here, like this baby’s pram with a hidden compartment for transporting weapons. It’s not a huge place; an hour should be enough time for most people.

[info: http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/verzetsmuseum/]

From the museum, we crossed the street to the Zoo (identified on maps etc. as Artis or Natura Artis Magistra). I know that not everyone agrees with the concept of keeping animals in captivity for our education or entertainment, but I have not yet joined that camp. We enjoyed a couple of hours at Amsterdam’s small-ish zoo, one of the oldest in Europe, with its historic and modern buildings, an interesting variety of exhibits, and lush grounds.

It was nice to be outside, and there was plenty to see, including this hole, possibly dug by a giant anteater. I was hoping to see the anteater itself, but no such luck.

The zoo has an interesting collection of birds, and we stopped to watch the penguins being fed.

There was an opportunity to measure one’s wingspan at the birds of prey area; mine is slightly shorter than an Egyptian vulture’s. Someday I may find that information useful. (Yes, photos of this activity exist, but I am not posting them.) There were also plenty of wild birds flying around, including small flocks of rose-ringed parakeets and dozens of gray herons. The herons were active around their nests at the top of the zoo’s many trees; an employee told me that the zoo is host to the largest gray heron rookery in Amsterdam.

[info on the zoo: https://www.artis.nl/nl/language/visitors-information/]

Thanks for the interesting review. An Adriatic itinerary is on my bucket list.

May 18: Day Two (Part One)

Welcome aboard to those who have recently commented; thanks for the encouragement. Norris, I have enjoyed your reviews in the past, so I am happy to have you following along.

I have to start this post with a picture of the bitterballen from last night’s dinner because, seriously, don’t they look deliciously unhealthy?

We woke up to a cloudy sky and threats of rain, but the showers never really amounted to much and we had a great day in Amsterdam. An adequate breakfast at the hotel, and we were on our way. We found the trams easy to use, after we figured out that some of the doors are for exit only and others for entrance only. You have to tap in and tap out as you enter and leave the vehicle. I have been to the Anne Frank house and the Rijksmuseum and while I would have loved to visit both again, I decided to skip those justifiably very popular sites for this trip and opt for less crowded attractions. On a side note, all the sites that we visited today were included in the Amsterdam city cards.

First stop was the Stedelijk Museum, which focuses on modern and contemporary art. DH has a particular aversion to modern and contemporary art, so I thought it was a good idea to get this over with early in the day before he got cranky. I always learn a lot from the audio guides at art galleries, so that slowed my progress down quite a bit, but DH was remarkably patient. If modern art is your thing, I recommend the De Stijl exhibition, which runs until August. If modern art is not your thing, you might at least want to walk by and decide what you think about the 2012 addition to the building, which resembles a giant bathtub. Photo below is slightly squint because I wasn’t packing the wide-angle lens around that day.

[info: http://www.stedelijk.nl/en]

Because we were on the go early, it was still morning when we left the Stedelijk, and and we had time to fit in the Museum Van Loon before we headed to our planned stops for the afternoon. We walked past the long lines at the Van Gogh Museum and and beside the reflecting pond in front of the Rijksmuseum, stopping at the I Amsterdam sign, where the selfie-stick crowd seemed to be having a lot of fun.

We ducked through the tunnel under the Rijksmuseum, crossed the bridge directly ahead, and it was about a 10 minute walk from there to our next stop, on the Keizersgracht. It would have been an 8 minute walk if I didn’t have to stop and drool outside a bakery for 2 minutes; I love anything with almonds, and almonds feature prominently in Dutch baking.

The Museum Van Loon is a canal house that was eventually owned by a wealthy merchant family. It was built in 1671 but the interior decor dates from the 18th century. The house has a quiet private garden behind it and a coach house (complete with coach) on the opposite side of the garden.

It’s a peaceful spot, and there are signs in English to help you learn about the house. A friend of mine is interested in monkeys so I am always on the lookout for them, and I noticed this delightfully fanciful wallpaper: monkeys, parrots, and even ostriches!

I was also intrigued by the door in the second floor master bedroom. Note that on the inside of the bedroom the actual opening door is camouflaged to blend in with the wallpaper and wood panelling and when it is closed it is designed NOT to look like a door; what LOOKS like a door right next to it is actually a false door that does not open. The real door looks like a door on the outside, but not the inside. Are you still with me? The design is a result of the home-owner’s desire to achieve symmetry: the false door fits in the centre of the wall when viewed from inside the room, and the real door lines up directly opposite a door across the corridor when viewed from the corridor outside the room. Clear as mud, right? Well, the family still live upstairs; if you need further explanation about this ingenious feature, you could always ask them next time you are in Amsterdam. OK, moving on.

[info: http://www.amsterdam.info/museums/van-loon/]

May 17: Day One (Part Four)

The bus from Zaanse Schans dropped us at Centraal Station. I looked over at DH and he appeared to still be alive and almost awake, so I talked him into a canal cruise before dinner. I find that it’s much easier to talk him into things when he is almost awake than when he is fully awake. I have been to Amsterdam a couple of times before, but DH hadn’t, and I think a canal cruise is a good way to see some of the city because you can gawk at the architecture with no fear of being run down by a cyclist. It made sense to try to fit this in while the sun was still shining rather than take our chances on weather the next day. We had to walk right past the canal cruise docks anyway on the way back to the hotel, and the cruise was included in the I Amsterdam card, so why not? We just picked the cruise line with the shortest queue and were soon on our way.

The cruise is about an hour and I think that most of the companies have very similar offerings: you float on water, see lots of buildings, and listen to commentary about them. Following protocol, here are exactly six pictures from the cruise.

Starting point was just in front of Centraal Station:

NEMO, the science museum:

The National Maritime Museum:

Looking down the Reguliersgracht from this point you can see seven bridges, and the captain of the boat insists that everyone take a picture. Apparently, it’s mandatory that you do so; border control agents have actually sent people back if they try to leave the Netherlands without a picture of the seven bridges. Oh, never mind, I think I might be mixing that up with some other country.

Just the one bridge in this shot:

I think this shot could also be mandatory:

After the cruise, we had a light dinner at the restaurant attached to our hotel. Bitterballen with grainy mustard for me; I love those little morsels and they went well with a cider called Apple Bandit. Those of us who were still awake at the end of the meal were very proud of ourselves for making it past 8pm before crashing, and we slept very soundly indeed.

May 17: Day One (Part Three)

After the successful high-altitude rescue, we wandered around for a while like the sleep-deprived zombies that we were. There were farm animals in the fields, and lots of birds. This one is a jackdaw:

Cows, no doubt thinking about what kind of cheese they should make today:

We stopped for an ice cream at the cheese factory and for a look-see at the rather interesting clog museum/souvenir store. Wooden roller skates:

We watched a fellow demonstrate how wooden shoes are made, and decided that we could easily do this ourselves at home if we had the right equipment.

Wedecided to take a Connexxion bus back to Amsterdam, since the bus stop iscloser to the village than the train station that we arrived at, and we thoughtit would be nice to have different scenery on the way back. By this time it was late afternoon, trafficwas heavy, what was visible from the windows of the bus was not especiallyinteresting, and it took about an hour (compared to about 20 minutes on thetrain) so if I had to do that over again I would take the train both ways. Five euros one way, about the same cost as thetrain; pay the driver, cash only. [https://www.connexxion.nl/industrial-heritage-line/1243]

May 17 Day One (Part Two)

At Zaanse Schans, we walked along the dike and stopped in at the mill called de Zoeker (the Seeker), which is an oil mill. There is a small admission fee (covered by the I Amsterdam Card). It was interesting to learn about how the oil is processed from seeds, and watch the work in progress.

Looking out from de Zoeker mill: I'm in a windmill, looking out at tulips. Must be in the Netherlands.

There is an opportunity to climb a ladder up to the deck of the windmill. Lured by the prospect of a good photo angle from the deck, I thought I could handle climbing this ladder, forgetting that what goes up must come down. DH was shocked that I followed him up, and it took a considerable amount of patience, coaxing, and specific directions about hand and foot placement to get me back down. And yes, I do know that the ladder is quite short, very sturdy, and probably perfectly safe most days.

View from the deck was not much different from the dike. I should have been able to figure that out without climbing the ladder.

easyboy, no need to keep you in suspense: no, we did not do a Berlin tour from Rostock, because we were flying to Berlin after the cruise for a few days.

May17: Day One (Part One)

We had a pleasantly uneventful non-stop flight to Amsterdam on KLM, who provided more food than anyone should reasonably expect to eat on a transatlantic flight, some of it actually edible. They deposited us at Schiphol Airport on time and the sun was shining — hurray! Luggage successfully retrieved, immigration hurdle easily negotiated, and the last step before heading out of the airport was to stop bythe Holland Tourist Information Centre in Arrivals Hall 2 to pick up our 48-hour “I Amsterdam” City Cards. As you will see, we made very good use of these cards and thought they were excellent value. They included transportation within the city of Amsterdam as well as admission to all the sites that wewould visit.

[i Amsterdam card info: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/i-am/i-amsterdam-city-card]

We purchased our train tickets to Centraal Station (easy to use machines; pay by credit card; tickets about 5 euros each), and descended to the train station below the arrivals hall. [useful instructionshere: http://www.dutchamsterdam.nl/40-public-transport-to-and-from-schiphol-airport]

We were in the city in no time or, more accurately, 15 minutes.

Amsterdam hotel prices are high, and I had planned to do so much during our stay there that we didn’t expect to spend much time in the room. So we had chosen a budget hotel near the station, the Ibis Styles. I have stayed in Ibis properties before, and I know that the rooms are basic and small, but that just gave us a chance to acclimatize to living in a smaller space prior to boarding the ship. We walked across to the hotel from the station and checked in before noon; we were assigned our room right away, so that was very convenient. Luggage was unceremoniously dumped in the room, covering all available floor space, and we were soon out the door. I didn’t want to linger in the room long enough for DH to get any ideas about napping; he had agreed before we left home to trudge bravely through whatever agenda I had planned for that day. The idea was to adjust to the 9-hour time change in one day by staying awake until after dinner.

View from our first-floor room below. Centraal Station is the red brick building in the top left corner. Canal cruises left from just across thestreet and several tram lines ran right by the hotel. Light sleepers should probably ask for a room that does not overlook the street, but we had no problem sleeping even though we left the window ajar.

It wasvery sunny and by this time very warm. This would be the warmest day of the entire trip. Looking at the weatherpredictions for the next day, “we” (OK, yes, I mean “I”) decided to shuffle ourminute-by-minute itinerary around a bit and do our outdoor excursion that dayinstead of the following morning. This wreaked havoc on the planning spreadsheet,as you might imagine. Nevertheless, back over to Centraal Station we went,where we bought one-way tickets to the recently renamed Zaandijk Zaanse Schansstation. A 15-minute walk from there broughtus to windmill central — the village of Zaanse Schans.

[info: http://www.amsterdamtips.com/tips/zaanse-schans.php]

Six old working windmills have been broughttogether on this site, and there are other buildings there too, also constructed in a picturesque traditionalstyle. It is indeed very touristy,complete with cheese-making and clog-making demonstrations and several shops,but it is also very photogenic and a nice place for a low-key stroll after atransatlantic flight.

Apparently I can only include only 6 images per post, so I will have to post each day's activities in several parts. Alternatively, I suppose I could post fewer images, but then I did want this to be a photo review. Thoughts?

Thanks for your comments everyone, and for following along with us. Kim, it was nice to meet you too, and feel free to chime in on this review. In fact, if I run out of steam, I will count on you to finish it for me. Miched, I had heard about the virtual birds on the Silhouette and wanted to see them but I never came across them. On any other cruise, I would have asked a crew member where this artwork was and gone looking for it, but on this cruise we put so many miles on our shoes when we were ashore that most days it was all we could do to just to limp to dinner and back to the cabin after we boarded in the evenings.

May 16: Day Zero

Son-in-law appeared right on time to pick us up for the ride to the airport. And by “right on time” I mean that he was there half an hour early — he knows we hate to be late. Nice to have that door-to-door service and not have to deal with parking lots at Vancouver Airport. Thanks to this great service, we were there nearly four hours before flight time and were thus able to enjoy the delights of sitting in a departure lounge for two hours longer than necessary. Eventually, the plane showed up, which is always a relief. It looked big enough to handle the numerous pieces of luggage that I had decided to drag along, but just barely.

Baltimore gets my vote!

May 19 2017 Silhouette Baltic (+ Berlin)Photo Review

Silhouette Photo Review continues …

Research. On any cruise, DH would be happy to just get off the ship, stroll into town, and see what catches his attention, but he is rarely allowed to indulge in this easy-going and mentally healthy approach to travel because I am afflicted with obsessive over-planning syndrome. This was really a trip of a lifetime for us, and I did not want to waste a minute of precious holiday time, so I started researching this trip the day that I got back from the Caribbean and continued until the day we left. DH has resigned himself to this system, and if he finds it to be too much he has been known to park himself on a bench in the foyer of the third or fourth museum/art gallery of the day and have a power nap. This system works for us; your mileage may vary.

Apologies for the long preamble, but I do want to mention a few things that might be useful for those who are planning a Baltic cruise in the near or distant future. Others may want to skip the rest of this post. I used a lot of the standard web sites (eg. Trip Advisor) to plan our itinerary, checking reviews of particular attractions before deciding where it would best to spend our time, and keeping in mind that individual reviews will reflect the tastes and expectations of the reviewers — I take both negative and positive reviews with a grain of salt. Many people swear by Rick Steves; I find him annoying for reasons that I can’t fully explain, so I did not consult his book or videos. There, I have said it. Sacrilege, I know.

For those of you new to Cruise Critic, I will just point you in the direction of a few very useful threads on this site.

Many previous cruisers provided detailed reviews, and I read every word of these three, in particular:

scubacruiserx2: Eclipsing Northern Europe by cruise :Basic black , and Baltic blues

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2372103

pjs678: Russian Around the Baltic on Silhouette

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2374365

nekzaadvakil: Review: 12N Scandinavia & Russia - Celebrity Silhouette 28/May/2015

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2223669&highlight=Baltic%2Cnick

I am also enjoying Nick’s current review of his western Caribbean sailing.

I also gleaned a good deal of useful information from various threads in the “Northern Europe & Baltic Sea” forum in the Ports of Call section of these boards, and I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the dedicated local residents who have opened threads about their home cities. These threads are a great source of local information; a good start is to read the first part of the threads by Desdichado62 (Stockholm), DanishViking (Copenhagen), Norwaylady (Oslo) and Jonza (Helsinki); GradUT and UltimaThule have also been very helpful. Travelanni often answers questions about Northern Germany and also has tons of useful information on her web site: http://travelanni.webs.com

We are really so very grateful for the above individuals (and others) who take so much of their own time to help strangers on these boards. It was the detailed information about transportation, etc., that only a local can provide that made it easy for us to organize our own excursions in most ports on this cruise. Special mention to DanishViking, who bailed me out in my time of need — more on that in a later post. Thanks very much to all of you.

Am now frantically sorting pictures of Amsterdam, and will post again soon.