Star Baltics review June 12 - 21, 2013 plus pictures

[kingpgmr]

Pre-cruise – Sunday and Monday, 6/9 and 6/10 To Copenhagen

Just for some background, this was my tenth cruise, my wife’s eighth cruise and my step kids (daughter age 17 and son age 21) fourth cruise. I have previously cruised on Carnival and Royal Caribbean as well as Norwegian and have found them to be comparable in quality. This would be our first time in a suite on Norwegian Cruise Lines so I was eager to try out the suite life.

 

We left on Sunday, June 9 for the journey to Copenhagen. The trip actually almost did not happen though. Upon waking up I checked our first flight from DFW to Atlanta and it was delayed an hour which wasn’t good news at all. We had a 2 ½ hour layover in Atlanta before our next flight to London which was now reduced to only 1 ½ hours which was tighter but still doable. I checked the flight status an hour later and it was now delayed almost two hours and the layover in Atlanta was down to 40 minutes which was no longer doable and panic set in. My wife called American Airlines but they weren’t much help and we were advised to get to the airport as soon as possible. Thus we hurried and finished our last minute packing, loaded up the car and headed to DFW airport. The news at the check in counter was pretty grim as we were told that we could not make our connection in Atlanta (and certainly our luggage wouldn’t make it) and that there were no other flights available within the next two weeks which could get us to Copenhagen. I’ve never had this happen before so was in full panic mode. Would the trip be over before it even started? We talked to a second person at the check in counter and she helped us devise a game plan. There was an earlier flight to Atlanta that would give us plenty of time to make our connection but it was of course full. We could only fly standby and hope that all four of us made it on the flight. We waited at the gate as this earlier flight boarded and it seemed bleak (as the boarding was almost complete) when they called my name and amazingly they had four slots open for us (as we were first on the list of standby passengers on a list of 23 people waiting to fly standby on this flight). Thus, we flew from Dallas (DFW) to Copenhagen on American Airlines with a layover in Atlanta of 2 hours. Our next flight was from Atlanta to London Heathrow on British Air and things went much better with this flight. My wife and I got upgraded to World Traveler Plus for some unknown reason which meant lots of legroom, a larger screen to watch “on demand” movies, a foot rest, and a nice quiet cabin. It was a very relaxing flight. The kids said that the normal cabin was good too so all were happy. We had another 4 hour layover in London before our last flight from London to Copenhagen on British Air. We finally arrived in Copenhagen on Monday evening at 5:30 pm with all of our luggage amazingly intact!

 

It was sunny and warm upon our arrival in Copenhagen and we got a taxi (no problems at all finding one although we had to wait for a station wagon to fit our four large pieces of luggage in the trunk) and headed to an apartment I had found for our two nights pre-cruise stay. The taxi driver at first couldn’t find the address I gave him on his GPS but it eventually came up for him and he found it with no problem. Most people in Copenhagen speak English so language wasn’t a barrier at all here.

 

It was 6:30 pm when we reached the apartment and Jette (the owner of the apartment) immediately came out to greet us. We rented a two bedroom apartment which features a larger room with two beds, another smaller loft with two more beds, a small kitchen and a bathroom. There were also a couple of sitting areas and three televisions in the unit as well as free wifi.

 

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The train station was within a five minute walk so the location was convenient as well. The refrigerator also came stocked with a few beers and sodas and some rolls that could be heated up. We really enjoyed our stay here and Jette was very hospitable. She sold us some train tickets ( a 10 clip card) too which made things easier for us.

 

We were hungry so we ventured out and a few blocks away was a convenience store and pizza restaurant. We ordered a pizza and brought it back to the apartment and then turned in for the night shortly after dinner, although it was still light out at 10 pm at night! I woke up at 3:30 am for a little while and the sun was out and shining brightly in the room. This was common as the sun usually set at 11 to 11:30 pm and rose at 3:30 am most of the places we visited on this trip.

 

 

Pre-cruise – Tuesday, 6/11 Copenhagen

We took an S train from Danshoj station (near our apartment) to Flintholm station where we transferred to a metro to Kongens Nytorv. The trains (we took s trains, metro and regional trains during our stays in Copenhagen) in Copenhagen were all modern and fairly easy to figure out. We only had a conductor ask for our tickets once during all of our rides, although we were told the penalty was pretty steep if one did not have valid tickets. We walked from the metro station to the Netto boats for a canal tour. The Netto boats are cheaper than the DFDS boats by almost 50% for pretty much the exact same tour.

 

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We found this canal tour to be a good overview of Copenhagen as we got to see the Little Mermaid (although it was hard to get a clean picture of it due to a large crowd on the shore),

 

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Amalienborg Palace

 

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and Christiansborg Palace, as well as several different regions of Copenhagen. The tour took about an hour and the weather was perfect as it was just about 70 degrees and sunny.

 

After the canal tour, we walked about 10 minutes to Ida Davidsen for lunch as we wanted to try smorrebord which are basically open faced sandwiches.

 

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We were seated right away and told we had to go to a counter to pick our sandwiches (they had samples of what was available that day). I thought they had 500 different sandwiches but apparently there are 500 possible sandwiches of which they only make 20 or 30 kinds each day. I tried a pork sandwich with grilled onions and several other toppings and it was quite good. The meal was expensive though for just sandwiches (over $100) which we found to be a theme when eating in Copenhagen. It is definitely not a cheap city for dining out.

 

After lunch, we walked to the Stroget which is a pedestrian street closed to cars and lined with shops.

 

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We enjoyed window shopping but didn’t purchase anything and stopped for a pastry along the way at a bakery that looked good. We then walked up to the Stone Tower and climbed to the top for a nice scenic view of the city.

 

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Finally, we took a train from Norreport station back to our apartment. After relaxing for awhile, we walked to a local café for dinner where we ordered burgers and club sandwiches for another $100 meal! We made sure the blinds were shut before going to bed tonight as the sun would be rising quite early (we learned our lesson from the previous night).

[kingpgmr]

Hmm, doesn't seem to be any interest in my review so far. I was going to post more tomorrow morning if anyone is reading along!

[Silverman]

Im with you. I always enjoy reading reports.

[CanadaTraveller]

Same here. Fantastic pics!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[laxfanmom1]

I'm there! We leave next Thursday for Copenhagen and I can't wait to read more! Did you stay in a family suite onboard? We are a family with two (of our 5) kids, 25 & 23 staying in the family suite. Please go ahead with your review!

[NayRN]

Just got home from work!!!! Keep it coming!!;)

 

This cruise is on my Bucket-List!!!:eek:

[Cubechick]

Just got home from work!!!! Keep it coming!!;)

 

This cruise is on my Bucket-List!!!:eek:

 

Exactly what I was going to say! Looking forward to more. :)

[mfeenker]

kingpgmr, Thank you for the review so far hope you will continue. Did you change any currency to DKK?

[JeffandMelissa]

Please do continue! I am enjoying your review! Linked to it from the Baltics board. Thanks for letting me know it was here.

 

We leave in about 4 weeks.

 

Thanks so much for your time in doing this.

 

Melissa

[chezbo99]

I'll be following, too! Thanks!

[valleyvillage]

Thank you so much for posting! Vicarious thrills!

[Ilikebigboats]

Excellent review so far!

We are trying to decide if we want to book this itinerary or "jump ship" and book the RCL 12 night baltics cruise.

Looking forward to your port adventures and your overall opinion of the ship!:)

[Fins2theleft]

Great review so far, keep it coming.

[Norwegianlatvian]

Hmm, doesn't seem to be any interest in my review so far. I was going to post more tomorrow morning if anyone is reading along!

 

 

Come on!...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

..Good review so far though.

[kingpgmr]

kingpgmr, Thank you for the review so far hope you will continue. Did you change any currency to DKK?

 

We changed some currency prior to the trip (used Wells Fargo online services which was real easy and quick). There were plenty of ATM's around (English was an option so there was no problem using them) too.

[kingpgmr]

Day 1 – Wednesday, 6/12 Embarkation

We slept much better with the blinds shut and woke up feeling rested and refreshed. We checked out of the apartment at 10:45 and took a taxi (Jette had called one for us) to the pier. I had printed out the name of the port, and just handed the print out to the taxi driver so there was no problem finding the Norwegian Star. We also discovered that most Copenhagen taxis accept credit cards. I had heard that American swipe and sign credit cards would be a problem in Copenhagen but we found we could use our cards pretty much everywhere without problems. The only places we had trouble was the small pizza place for our first dinner and a taxi cab in Stockholm. There were also a couple of small shops where we asked and they said they could not accept our cards. We found it best to ask first rather than just assuming our credit cards could be used. On those occasions where we could not use our credit cards, I was able to use cash. I found that almost every city we visited would accept American cash (and in Russia they preferred it to Rubles).

 

We arrived at the port around 11 am and dropped off our luggage (there were plentiful luggage porters around to assist). We went inside, breezed through security and checked in for the cruise in the suite line (there was no one else in line so it was really quick) After checking in, we were introduced to our butler Gary and were handed our room cards. A minute later, they announced that the Star was ready to be boarded and we were personally escorted upstairs to Cagney’s for lunch. We met Omar the concierge and were quickly seated for lunch after I asked Omar to book the chef’s table for me and my step son (more about the chef’s table later in the review). This was the quickest and best embarkation we’ve had for all of our cruises. NCL does a great job in this regard and it is even better for suite guests.

 

Cagney’s for lunch was very good. The menu featured several sandwiches, steak, a couple of fish dishes, salads, etc. They also had an excellent shrimp cocktail appetizer that featured jumbo shrimp. The menu did not change during the week but there was enough variety to keep me happy. This is definitely a nice perk for suite guests.

 

We made our way to our family suites 12516 and 12518 which were amazing cabins.

 

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Each cabin featured a large flat screen TV, DVD player, Lavazza coffee maker, table and chairs, a sitting area with a coach and chairs, extremely comfortable beds (although I never saw a pillow menu), lots of storage room, large windows (no balcony), and a large bathroom with both a tub and glass shower stall. It felt more like a hotel room than a cabin on a cruise ship and we loved the rooms.

 

Our kids room was decorated with birthday decorations and a birthday cake (it was both my wife and step daughter’s birthdays during the cruise) so we had some cake to celebrate! We checked out the television and noticed the channels were very limited (probably the most limited of any cruise I’ve been on) but there was a DVD library of about 100 titles available for suite guests. The TV did not have interactive features which I missed as I like to keep track of my account status, check restaurant menus, etc. I managed to make due “old school” style though as I had the reception desk print out my account balance every few days. We had $500 in “on board” credit per cabin due to an American Express promo when we booked the cabins. This definitely helped out with specialty restaurants, photos, and other purchases. We could not use the credits for gratuities though so still had to pay for them.

 

We ventured out to explore the ship and visited the Stardust Theater, Spinnaker lounge, the fitness center, several specialty restaurants and the pools.

 

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We returned to the staterooms, and our luggage arrived shortly thereafter. Gary, our butler, came by and said hello and brought us two trays of snacks. We really looked forward to and enjoyed our snack trays each day at 4 pm and during the duration of the cruise we received fruit, canapés, cookies, brownies, little sandwiches, and cheese plates. We unpacked and then it was time for the dreaded safety drill. Our muster station was in the Stardust Theater and we didn’t need to wear our life jackets so it actually wasn’t a bad experience.

 

We decided to try the Versailles dining room for dinner tonight, which is in the back of the ship. The food here was good but not great. Freestyle dining (eating whenever you want) sounds great in theory, but I do miss the camaraderie and rapport that develops when you have the same waiters/waitresses for the entire week (and they learn your likes/dislikes). I also missed getting to meet and know your tablemates (and potentially meeting new friends). It was nice though being able to eat when we wanted to and not having to rush back to the ship from excursions to fulfill a particular dinner time, so it works well for the Baltic itinerary. It also seems that the dress code is getting more casual on NCL as jeans are now permitted in virtually every restaurant and shorts are allowed in most of them. This helps with packing as it’s no longer necessary to bring a separate set of clothes just for dinners (although I realize that many still enjoy dressing up).

 

After dinner, we relaxed and decided to skip the Welcome Aboard show as tomorrow would be a long day. As a note I didn’t care much for the cruise director Archie Archbold. I barely saw him the entire cruise and he didn’t seem very personable during his announcements. On other cruise lines, the cruise directors seem much more engaged and visible. Another area that NCL could improve upon is reducing the number of announcements regarding bingo, sales in the shop, art auctions, etc. On several occasions, I attempted to nap during the afternoon only to be woken up by an announcement for bingo or the like.

 

One other note about bingo: On other cruise lines, my wife and I enjoy playing bingo but we discovered on a previous cruise that NCL has taken up-selling to a whole new level with their bingo games. On Carnival and RCCL, we usually spent $10 to $20 (the high end for any of their bingo sessions) and had a good time. On NCL, the basic packs are $20 to $25 and to really have a realistic chance of winning, one had to spend upwards of $100, which is ridiculous to us. The reason for this is NCL uses bingo machines, which basically play the entire game for those who purchase them (they are idiot proof) and replicate 70 to 100 game cards for each game. So, instead of spending our $10 to $20 per bingo session during the week, we played no bingo at all.

 

 

Day 2 – Thursday, 6/13 Warnemunde

The Star docked on time at 7 am this morning in Warnemunde, Germany. We went to Cagney’s for breakfast and it was fantastic. The menu does not change each day but features omelet’s, waffles, pancakes, French toast, Eggs Benedict, Crab Cakes Benedict (which my step son ordered virtually every morning of the cruise) and a couple of fish dishes. I had the Eggs Benedict most mornings and it was delicious and perfectly prepared. They also had a buffet each morning with rolls, Danish, croissants (the chocolate croissants were delicious), cheeses, meats, cereals and orange and cranberry juice. Fresh squeezed orange juice is available for an extra charge. The French press coffee was among the best coffee I’ve had and was so smooth and flavorful. The breakfast at Cagney’s alone would be a good incentive to me to book another suite in the future with NCL. We also developed a nice rapport with the staff here (the same rapport that I missed at dinner time) and they got to know us during the week and were always very friendly!

 

We had scheduled a 12 hour tour to Berlin with Alla tours (we got a good price on the tour as we also booked with Alla for St. Petersburg. We were really looking forward to the tour and it turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment partially due to the tour guide and partially due to the fact that Berlin is so far from the port. We boarded a jam packed bus for a three hour ride to Berlin with only a short stop along the way to break up the long drive. The German countryside was scenic but homogeneous so quickly became monotonous. Also, the air conditioning on the bus did not work very well so it often was too hot for comfort. This became more of an issue on the drive back to the port as it was a fairly warm day in Berlin with temperatures reaching the mid 80’s. Obviously, something was not functioning properly with the bus air conditioner (only a trickle of air blew out of the vents) but when mentioned to the tour guide, he merely made excuses.

 

We finally made it to Berlin and the bus was split into two groups of 25-30 to make touring in Berlin more manageable. We drove past many sights of Berlin and it was a good overview of the city but we did not make many stops.

 

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The only real stop during the day was at the Brandenburg Gate which I really enjoyed.

 

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We also stopped briefly at Checkpoint Charlie.

 

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I was extremely disappointed that we did not stop at the Berlin Wall (not even to take a brief photo) as that was one of the top sights I was looking forward to.

 

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Lunch was also a disaster as were taken to a subpar German restaurant with no choice given to eat anywhere else. The lunch was not included in the tour price and upon receiving the bill, I was informed by the waiter that they did not take credit cards and I had no Euros with me. The tour guide should have announced the “no” credit card policy before we sat down to eat. It put me in an awkward situation that I certainly did not appreciate. Ultimately the tour guide paid for our lunch and I paid him back with American dollars (apparently the restaurant would have accepted dollars but I was also not instructed of this fact either). The food was average and I’ve had better German food at local restaurants here in Texas. All in all, the lunch was handled poorly by the tour company.

 

Before heading back to Warnemunde, we had a 45 minute shopping stop near a department store. Unfortunately, there were no souvenir shops around so this was also a bust for us. There was basically no opportunity during the tour for any souvenir shopping. Even with the assorted problems (a/c, lunch, poor shopping), we were still glad we did the tour and got to see Berlin. It is definitely a city that we want to return to one day. I was not however that pleased with Alla tours and hoped that our Russia experience with them would be a better one!

 

We returned to the ship and it was raining pretty hard. NCL employees greeted guests with umbrellas though so we didn’t get wet. This was a very nice touch I thought. I was exhausted so the wife and kids went to Aqua for dinner which they said wasn’t as good as Versailles. I ordered a pizza “anytime” for five dollars and it was a good size and tasty. We retired early as we were all quite tired from the long day.

[Sauer-kraut]

In retrospect of your day in Berlin, do you think it would have been more worthwhile to spend the day seeing the sights around Warnemunde such as Wismar, Schwerin, Ludwigslust and that area instead of the major long distance trip to Berlin?

[kingpgmr]

In retrospect of your day in Berlin, do you think it would have been more worthwhile to spend the day seeing the sights around Warnemunde such as Wismar, Schwerin, Ludwigslust and that area instead of the major long distance trip to Berlin?

 

It's a tough call. It was a fairly brutal bus ride back and forth to Berlin but I'm glad we got to at least see the city and get an overview of it. I got enough of a taste of Berlin to know that I want to go back someday.

[Ilikebigboats]

I think I speak for everyone on CC. You do not have enough cruise experience to comment on any postings. Take another cruise before you post.

 

Thank you.

 

Yes. Sadly, inexperienced cruisers run rampant here on CC.

Haaaaa! ;):D:p

[Ilikebigboats]

kingpgmr,

 

Sorry that your Berlin tour was a bust. A crowded over heated bus, bad food, and not stopping at the Berlin Wall is not my idea of a great tour. :(

Hopefully your St. Petersburg tour was better.

Your family suite looks gorgeous. Did you miss not having a balcony?

[kingpgmr]

kingpgmr,

 

Sorry that your Berlin tour was a bust. A crowded over heated bus, bad food, and not stopping at the Berlin Wall is not my idea of a great tour. :(

Hopefully your St. Petersburg tour was better.

Your family suite looks gorgeous. Did you miss not having a balcony?

 

 

The St. Petersburg tour was much, much better! We didn't really miss having a balcony. It was a short walk to go out on deck and there was a wonderful deck area on deck 13 (one deck up) that was a relaxing place to hang out. Also, the windows are really large in the family suites so the view is quite good from the room. And finally, the rooms we were in (12516 and 12518) were both extremely quiet and we rarely if ever heard any noise from above or the hall.

[mfeenker]

The St. Petersburg tour was much, much better! We didn't really miss having a balcony. It was a short walk to go out on deck and there was a wonderful deck area on deck 13 (one deck up) that was a relaxing place to hang out. Also, the windows are really large in the family suites so the view is quite good from the room. And finally, the rooms we were in (12516 and 12518) were both extremely quiet and we rarely if ever heard any noise from above or the hall.

Looking forward to the rest of your review kingpgmr. Glad to hear the staterooms were quite as I'm in 12526.

[dnylla]

I followed your post from the Baltic thread and have enjoyed reading your trip review so far. It's great to see everyone's different experiences :)

[kingpgmr]

Day 3 – Friday, 6/14 At Sea

Thankfully, today was a day at sea to rest up after the previous day’s epic journey to Berlin. I slept in and skipped breakfast today for one of the only times on the trip. We mostly relaxed and read today although we did go to Cagney’s for lunch (I had the swordfish sandwich which was very good) and attended a magic show by Jocko and Maria which was an enjoyable show by a Greek magician. We went to La Cucina for dinner tonight for my step daughter’s 17th birthday (she got to pick wherever she wanted for dinner). I had some lobster pasta, Chicken Parmesan and lemon curd ricotta cheesecake, all of which were very good. It was a very good meal and enjoyed by all of us.

 

After dinner, we attended Deal or No Deal which is modeled after the TV game show. To play, one purchases a game card and two game cards are selected at random. Those lucky two get to play the game on stage, but everyone else can also play along with their game cards to win prizes. It was a fun concept, but we only played once (they had several sessions during the cruise) as game cards were twenty dollars each. This seemed overpriced and we would have played more often had the cards only been ten dollars or less. They also were selling lottery type pull tab cards also for twenty dollars each (I’ve seen them for five dollars on other cruise lines). Thus we did not purchase any of these.

 

This was a nice relaxing day which was well needed as the next five days would be fairly grueling! We had to set the clock forward one hour tonight in preparation for our arrival in Estonia.

 

 

Day 4 – Saturday, 6/15 Tallinn, Estonia

We docked in Tallinn, Estonia at 9 am. I downloaded a self guided walking tour from a well known site mentioned often on cruise critic so I would be the tour guide for the day. Getting off the ship was a breeze and we headed for our first stop of the tour which was the Great Coastal Gate.

 

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From there, we walked to St. Olav’s church, the walls and towers of the old city,

 

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Toompea hill (for a scenic overview of the old city),

 

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Cathedral of Saint Mary, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral,

 

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Toompea Castle,

 

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and St. Nicholas Church. We walked and walked and walked some more but enjoyed the tour as the weather was sunny and near 70 degrees and perfect for a nice day outdoors. After our tour, we shopped in some souvenir shops and the flea market in the central square where they had some hand crafted items and interesting foods (they had horse sausage at one booth).

 

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It was lunch time now so we decided to try the Beer House for lunch.

 

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I really wanted to try a pretzel (there wasn’t time to get one in Germany) and the menu out front clearly advertised pretzels. I ordered a pretzel along with fried Bavarian cheese and bratwurst. The rest of my family all ordered pizzas. After a little while, the waiter came back and told us that the “pretzel is finished” which could be interpreted several ways. We eventually figured out that he meant that they were out of pretzels so my quest for a pretzel would have to wait. The food was all very good though and it was a good choice for lunch.

 

After lunch we shopped some more and eventually made our way back to the ship.

 

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I estimate that we must have walked four to five miles today and we were definitely worn out. We tried Moderno for dinner tonight which is a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant (there is a salad bar and they bring around skewers of various meats). Things got off to a shaky start as the tables were too small for a party of four and thus there was not room on the table for everything which made it feel really cramped. Also, they brought us filet mignon which was raw in the middle (not rare but absolutely raw). We mentioned this to the waiter and he had some properly cooked filet mignon brought out (and as much as we wanted) and it was delicious so this problem was handled well. In addition to the skewers of meat, they also brought around some pineapple on a skewer that was cooked in brown sugar and it was absolutely delicious. We asked for several more rounds of that during the meal and they always happily complied. The side dishes of mashed potatoes and grilled bananas were also quite tasty. I would recommend trying Moderno.

 

We attended the Cabaret show in the Spinnaker Lounge which consisted of the singers and dancers from the Stardust Theater singing various Broadway songs. We actually enjoyed the show quite a bit more than we anticipated. Immigration forms for Russia were delivered to our cabin and we filled those out in anticipation of our arrival there the next morning. We had to move the clock forward another hour tonight so before we knew it, it was midnight and time to turn in.

[Cubechick]

Great so far! I've learned that as much as I'd like to visit Berlin, I will not subject us to a 13 hour tour! :eek:

 

And Estonia is a walkable DIY city.

 

Thanks!!:)

 

PS loved the "pretzel in finished" line. :D