Overview of next three ports on our Baltic/N. Europe July 2023 cruise: Stockholm, Berlin, Aarhus

[Dr. Peds]

Our fifth port was the capital of Sweden, Stockholm.  The sail into and out of Stockholm was an unexpected bucket list experience.  As we left, the experienced captain said that he believed this to be the most scenic and interesting approach to any port in the world.  We agreed. The archipelago was amazing and the mix of homes, little villages, fishing huts, and natural beauty was breathtaking,  Once we arrived in Stockholm, we went ashore via a shore excursion through Princess that was called Nobel Prize Museum and City Hall Stockholm.  A bus tour was included but fairly incidental even though our guide was quite informative.  There were then three parts that involved leaving the bus:  1)  A tour of the City Hall; 2)  A walking tour of the Old Town; 3) A brief tour of the Nobel Prize Museum.  This was a tour that I had very much looked forward to.  I have met 24 of the Nobel Laureates in economics, including at least six who were on the faculty in my department while I was there (none of whom had won their Nobel Prize at that time our paths crossed).  Anyhow, I digressed.  The City Hall tour was quite interesting and quite good,  This is the site of both the Nobel banquet for that year's winners, as well as the post banquet dance.  The banquet is held in the Great Hall, the dance in the Gold Room.  Both are very impressive, as is the City Council Chamber itself.  We then proceeded to Old Town, arriving simultaneous with the parade for the changing of the guard at the royal palace.  The parade was fun and an unexpected bonus.  We then proceeded to take a walking tour of the Old Town (Gamla Stan) that was quite informative.  Like almost all cities we visited, the walking was tough on the uneven cobblestones,, narrow passages, and elevation changes.  The walking tour ended at the Nobel Prize Museum.  The summary is easy:  Interesting, overcrowded, not a ton to see in the time we were there, and absolutely stifling in terms of both temperature and lack of air movement.  The museum was a let down as a result, but the concept and contents are worth a visit if it is not too crowded.  

 

The next port was Berlin (Warnemunde, Germany).  Warnemunde is a large and important port on the Baltic Sea.  It is a couple of hours from Berlin via train or bus.  We traveled to Berlin on a train that had been chartered by Princess and then were met by a guide who took us on a bus and walking tour of Berlin.  The day was twelve hours long, but it was doable and worth it.  Our tour was Berlin and Jewish History.  I felt that it was a combination for me of a bucket list visit to sites I had only seen in books or read and a thorough discussion of the history of Judaism in Germany and other parts of the world.  For me, our guide was exceptional.  I may not be the best judge as I am a bit of geek and lifelong learner who has spent nearly 50 years in higher education as a student and professor.  Our guide knew his stuff, had personal and family experiences that added to the commentary, and we had a small group of only 18 persons.  Nadav broke our group into two subgroups.  The first group toured the Jewish Museum with him, and the second group enjoyed a tasty box lunch that was provided to us and eaten in a courtyard at the museum.  Most people chose to eat lunch first.  They were one short on the first tour, so I volunteered.  Our tour with Nadav was only five people and was amazing.  Some of this was the guide, some was the greater nimbleness with such a small group.  I gave this day and this tour very high marks.  It is pricey to go on any of the shore excursions that went all the way to Berlin with or without intermediate stops.  Plan on $250-350 per person.

 

Our next port was Aarhus.  The port was very secure and somewhat cut off from the town itself.  A shuttle bus was provided at this port.  As I recall, this was the only port where the shuttle was free and provided by the port authority.  We took a simple Highlights of Aarhus shore excursion from Princess.  Overall, it was HORRIBLE.  This was the consensus of our tour group which was predominately extremely experienced Princess cruisers.  While there can always be glitches and there can be unforeseen needs to change the order of a tour, we had what seemed to be a knowledgeable guide who was totally clueless and incompetent.  We got to sites and they were closed (that is, the opening time every day was an hour later than we arrived).  We were supposed to visit the Aarhus Cathedral, but he did not included that in the tour (it would have eliminated the wait that we had for the restored village to open) and made it optional by dropping people off there and telling them to find their way home on the general shuttle.  He also informed us that our bus would not return to the ship and we would have to transfer to the shuttle bus to get back.  He would show us where.  He suddenly got off before the end of the tour.  The bus drive who had not spoken all day gave us a nice condensed tour of a part of the city we hadn't been and took us all the way back to the ship as we had originally expected.  The restored village in Aarhus was amazing and Aarhus is worth visiting despite our horrible experience.

[hallasm]

14 minutes ago, Dr. Peds said:

The restored village in Aarhus was amazing and Aarhus is worth visiting despite our horrible experience

Sorry to hear about your horrible experience with your Aarhus tour.

Aarhus is a quite a small town and with a little planning it's easy to arrange a visit to the best sights - 'The Old Town' (the restored city) is definitely one of the best sights.