cherry valley forever
The Bowery Presents
$LAYYYTER
JVL
Jules of Nature
bliss lane
noise dept.
KIROKAZE
occasionally subtle
Cosimo Galluzzi
Origami Around
#extradirty
pixel skylines
Monterey Bay Aquarium
h
No title available
Love Begins
Xuebing Du
gracie abrams
Cosmic Funnies
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Italy
seen from Canada
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Canada
seen from France
seen from Germany
seen from Portugal
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Ireland
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Malaysia
@cabbinprincess-blog
VOLVO - We roll!
And last but not least was a trip to the Volvo Museum, production takes place in china, but not always, Swedish company, with a museum of all their models, neat little walk through. My favourite car… the one made of LEGO!!
Second visit was an ‘island hopping’ tour, taking the bus on a boat across to the small islands which are all connect by little bridges you don’t even know you are crossing them, but yes we did! Visiting an old church and a small set up of what Swedish towns would have been like – a little trip back in time!
Gothenburg, with a short half day stop, I didn’t get to see a lot of this side of Sweden. So what I did see was though tours, as the shuttle into town takes away half the time I could spend out! Since we are such a big vessel we can’t get very close to the city, but I wish we had more time here, another wonderful place! I managed to visit Gothenburg a total of three times, fist Lonneke and I managed to get off the ship early and go for breakfast... on a Sunday where everything was closed ha! That wasn’t very well though through! But finally something opened up!
Biking around Oslo is really nice, so did it again in much nicer weather! This time visiting the Kings Garden – with a general idea of how to get there, we made it; Daniella and I shopped for a picnic and spent the afternoon in the sun, around the other side of the harbour. Really nice little spot, tourist free (I don’t count – I’m a traveller) really pleasant!
Oslo is wonderful! visit if you can.
Rain or shine Oslo is stunning, it’s a big city! On a not so sunny day, we (Daniella, Natalia, Maritza and I) borrowed bikes from the crew club, and biked across town to revisit the sculpture park, taking a picnic with us! Oslo is easy to get around if you know where you’re going. The park just as I remember it, and about the same weather is saw it in last time! But the ride itself was really enjoyable plus the company!
Oslo is stunning, only a short walk from the ship into the city. A very memorable day spent out with George, one of my photographer friends, just taking photos, and people watching, simple but fun. A walk up and around the Opera house, which is a fantastic building, next to the opera house is a sculpture, of what looks a little like sails, or glass.. gifted to the queens .. it looks like the excess glass from the building!
Oslo, my stop here on the world cruise took me upto the ski jump, though the famous Vigeland Sculpture Park. My first passenger tour this time took me almost two hour drive out of the city, all the way out to the Glass blowing factory, where we had a demonstration of how these stunning pieces of art are made, rather fascinating. Beautiful drive out of the city, around the water, then inland through little bit of farming area, very green, very beautiful, and still a little snow on the mountains. Stunning weather too! The second part of the tour took us to the Viking museum.. Little boring to be honest.
Copenhagen
Port by port..
So the Baltic cruise went a little like this – Copenhagen (Denmark) –Morning scenic cruising into a day spent in Oslo (Norway)-a Sea day- Alternating each cruise between Arhus (Denmark) and/or Gothenburg (Sweden) with an early sail- Tallinn (Estonia) - OVERNIGHT in St Petersburg (Russia!)- Helsinki (Finland) – Nynashamn (Sweden) – and a Sea day to wrap it up. Pretty full on!
So here goes;
Copenhagen! Our turn around port, here we disembark passengers and start our new cruise. A shuttle ride into the city from the port brings you into a beautiful city, bright coloured buildings, and a great atmosphere.
To be honest I didn’t explore Copenhagen much, I stayed pretty central to the city centre. High buildings which make the city feel like a maze, cobbled streets – wonderful! If I think of Copenhagen I think of the very picturesque Nyhavn, to me this is the hub of the city, where the channel comes into the city, water tours leave from here and there are restaurants all along the strip, and its full with tourists! But it has a great feel to it! Few mornings Daniella and I would stop for breakfast there, perfect in the sun! Copenhagen is known for its wonderful theme park Tivoli Gardens (where Walt Disney got his inspiration from). A rainy day was spent here, and it was wonderful! Great rides! One I particularly enjoyed was a little aeroplane – all it did was spin around … to the point of a G force feeling! And it stops at the top and you are left to see an amazing view of the city of Copenhagen… UPSIDEDOWN! ..but all part of the fun!
Copenhagen has defiantly left me with one vivid memory, about half way though my contract, enjoying a crape chatting on the phone to my older sister to find out that I am going to be an Aunty shortly after I get home! (Straight to the Disney store I went!)
But when I comes down to it, Copenhagen sells its self, it’s beautiful! Just look at the photos!
So this contract disappeared- it went so fast, 12 cruises around the Baltic and Scandinavia have merged into one big adventure, followed by a crossing (reposition cruise) docking in a few ports in the UK, then following the route of the Titanic all the way (yes we made it) to New York.
A month around Canada and New England, and in a flash, I am home!
Back in New Zealand wondering where the last six months disappeared to!? So.. I have a few blanks to fill in, and as each cruise is a blur, I am going to focus on each port, give you a little insight to where I have been and what I did.. Here goes!!
I found my favourite place!
Now this morning, once my feet hit the shore (tender port) I count 43 countries on my list! Never dreamt this! And I can tell you it is now my favourite!! Welcome to Sweden!! Putting anchor down in Nynashamn, a 20 minute tender ride and a 45 min drive I find myself in Stockholm! And it is beautiful! My first of many passenger tours to come this season. The information I learnt about the city and country as we drove in was fascinating, I want to move here!
A Royal day we have planned. Starting with a river channel tour – what a day for it! It’s a little nippy but the sun is nice and warm, the water was still, it’s a great way to see the city, takes about half an hour, and it circles around many of the thousands of islands which make up Stockholm. Following this we had a visit to the Royal Palace, it’s situated on the island which houses the old town, and it is a massive building facing the channels. A fairly new building due to the previous palace burning down in the past. It is still set up inside how it once was, but also some new set up rooms which are still used today. The whole place is filled with art, and artefacts, old furniture and its really well kept and rather fascinating, although I thought the actual layout of the building was a little odd – back in the day to get anywhere within it – and still most of it today, you have to pass though each room, there is no hall way, just doors on either side of every room.
From here we visited the old town, which is very old indeed, but lovely, and I find myself spending more and more time there. In the old town is a beautiful old church, this church was used for crowning ceremonies and other events of the royal family, but also, a church. Beautiful inside, filled with sculptures! The rest of the day was time on my own, which I spent roaming the streets of the old town, it’s cute, cobbled streets, high thin buildings, cafés and restaurants everywhere… the perfect place to put music in your ears and just wonder!
A full sea day follows the next day after we pull up anchor from Sweden. Bringing to a close this very full on 11 day cruise! One down, many more exciting voyages to come!!
Next port Helsinki Finland, where they use Euro! Another rainy day – where is there summer!? – so a stop in a coffee shop in the city, a little walk around but back onboard pretty early. Crew Party this evening – a Masquerade! A little bit of fun! And I came prepared! I packed all my wigs this contract and brought a few bits and pieces. Was a fun night in the crew bar! Hour back tonight!
What? Russia!?
Good Morning RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now here is somewhere I never expected! After being told we couldn’t book tours this week – by management incase anything comes up – Silvina and I ventured out into St Petersburg on our own, with the intention of just getting a feel of the place this week, and next week signing up for tours and really exploring! So we dock at 6.30am, tours dispatch and then about 9.30am we headed ashore – thinking this would be a good time to go through passport immigration, with a map and some very helpful information regarding the city from Natalia (Effy ambassador from Russia…With love). So we waited in line, first for 15mins, to be told, no this is a passenger line – crew line is down the end… not a passenger in sight, thanks! So we move and wait… the line took two hours! I kid you not! (at least I got a passport stamp!) Then we waited for the shuttle, which then takes 15-25mins and we find ourselves in the middle of St Petersburg! Its cold, its raining, im hungry and im irritated beyond words, but we started with what we thought would be a Russia lunch – turned out to be a French restaurant (haha not so good at finding authentic local food), walking around following what I remember of the map, cause it turned out I forgot it!
Exploring the outside of the main buildings such as the Hermitage museum, the Winter Palace, the Main square also. All around are banners for a celebration which will take place the following day – there are all the navy ships in the main river, submarines too! Was rather cool but also intimidating... the rain carried on and it was freezing and I was well ready to head back! Silvina and I stopped in a little café, wifi-ed for alittle bit, had a coffee to warm up and headed back onboard. We stay docked overnight in St Petersburg, and we will do this every cruise..
This evening however we have plans! Crew tour to the Russia Ballet of Swan Lake! Silvina, Estephania and I dressed up all nice, made it through customs in under 20mins – the officer flirted with us a little- and off we went with about 30 other crew to the ballet. The show was nice, the ballet was put on by the ballet school – so honestly I think our dancers at home are a little better – and after every dance – not every set but every dance the dances would walk to the front for a round of applause – was a bit much, but all in all I enjoyed it, champagne at intermission and then back to the ship in the late evening, and the sun was only just setting!
Due to the parade the following day I stayed onboard and rested, almost slept off my jetlag.
#39
Next stop and country #39 on my list! (so far) Tallinn, Estonia.. Started the day with crew drill, where again we got stacked into a lifeboat – entering at deck 4 – its not a fun thing to do! But its one of those things that has to be done – we practice mustering passenger into muster station, and mustering into boats needs to be practised too sometimes. Following drill, Stephano, Silvina and I walked into town, Tallinn is very cute! There is the old town, which we walked right into, which is like being back in time! The streets are all cobblestones, the building are all old, and original, very medieval! We wanted somewhere which served local food – our searching skills ended us in an Italian restaurant.. Oh well! The food was good and I tried something I didn’t quite understand off the menu, I wanted a soup because it was a cold day – I ordered a cold soup! Haha oops! A little roam into the new city after lunch then all aboard to start work for the evening.
Rostock in the rain
Sea day.. ?
Next we have our first of only two sea days in a cruise – this I am not used to! Only in the Med is it that many ports vs so little sea days. Now with the shop being Effy I was informed make sure you have breakfast and be ready to sacrifice breaks due to how busy the shop will get – I thought it was an exestuation... it was not! I had my first break at 5pm! Wow! But it makes the day go fast!
Aarhus Denmark, It rained a lot this day, so my camera stayed onboard... Walked from the shuttle to a café, had a coffee, a little walk around and came back out of the cold!
Our next port of call, and one of our long stays, is meant to be Warnemunde Germany, but due to the trains being on strike – and this being the main attraction – port way to Berlin for passenger tours, we docked in Rostock, the next port over, this meant passenger could take the bus to Berlin, and we were closer to the city of Rostock. My friend Silvina (Argentinian) and I went ashore, took the shuttle to town, and wondered… we did a little shopping, found a nice café for lunch and wondered the streets, it’s a main walking street and a beautiful square with a market. We tried the local beer also!
That evening, Silvina, Stephano and I went to Alfrado’s pizzeria for dinner onboard, before working for two hours, sailing 9pm until 11.30pm… easy night, and we finish by putting our clocks forward an hour!