July 22 & 23rd, 2008 - Back in the USSR!!! St. Petersburg, Russia

Dan and I finally made it to Russia. This was on Dan's wish list - not mine. We did have a fantastic time here, but it really isn't anywhere that I would return, and neither would Dan. BUT... it was a great place to see and we had a fantastic private tour guide and driver for our 2 days here in St. Petersburg.

I did a LOT of research on St. Petersburg before our cruise. I decided on Alla Tours and it was a great decision. The 6 of us had our own driver and guide for the 2 days. Elena of Alla tours made our stop here worthwhile. She was an English professor during the school year, and a top ALLA tour guide during the summer when all the ships are sailing. She spoke excellent English and it was amazing the history she knew of her own country. Russia's history is so vast, that I found that it was hard to remember much.

This is Dan and I outside St. Isaac's Cathedral.

One of the most popular stops in St. Petersburg is the Church on the Spilled Blood. The inside is completely done in mosaics. It is incredible inside. It has only been recently reopened and I was glad we were able to go inside since this church was one of the highlights of the city.









This is one of the mosaics they have brought down to view. These were the best mosaics I have seen. We were told how all the different tiles were made and different solutions they were put in to make the exact colors that were needed. The shading and detail were unbelievable.













This is our guide, Elena, with Debbie and Rich outside the church.

After several churchs and other historical sites, we decided we wanted to try a typical Russian restaurant for lunch. This is the Idiot restaurant... named after a famous Russian author of the 1800s. It was an extremely interesting experience. They handed out the local paper in English while we waited. Our private guide for the day had to stay and help us order our lunch.

This was the very strange bathroom inside the restaurant.

The next stop was the Hermitage Museum. This is a must stop in St. Petersburg. It is HUGE! All I can say is Thank God we had our private tour guide to lead us through the "must sees". This is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world. This was the former residence of the Russian emperors.

This is me in front of one of the old fireplaces inside the museum. These were all covered in Dutch tiles and it radiated the heat. These were everywhere!

The second day of our time in St. Petersburg was taking a drive to Catherine's Palace and Peterhof. This was very interesting and probably my favorite part of this stop in Russia.


This is me outside Catherine's Palace. This was once the summer palace of the Russian tsars. It is extremely gaudy in decor.

This was a church at Peterhof.

Here are the fountains at Peterhof. Known as the Russian Versailles. We did not enter the palace but instead just toured the grounds. This canal looks out towards Finland and we later boarded a hydro-foil that took us back into the city center of St. Petersburg.

July 21, 2008 - Reindeer and Rocks - Helsinki!!!

Well... we sailed into Helsinki today. It was another gorgeous day in the Baltics. We were doing out own thing today again. We decided to forgo any touring and just do our own thing. We skipped the $5 shuttles into town and decided to walk it. It was about 2 miles from the port into town and it was a gorgeous and easy walk.

We stopped at a side-walk cafe for coffee when we got into town. This is Helsinki's main square. You can't miss this cafe.





The only thing we really wanted to find here in Helsinki was the Temppeliaukio Church. This was an easy walk from the square and super interesting inside. This church opened in 1969 and the interior is built right inside a rock. The acoustic quality of this church is supposedly amazing. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything going on while we were there. It was still a great stop on our day in Finland.






They had a huge farmer's market going on and we decided to take a look at everything they sell along the street and also partake of some street food. This is reindeer sausage and potatoes. It was actually quite good.... it was sitting in a raspberry type sauce. Interesting stop...

July 20, 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

The next stop was Stockholm, Sweden. The sail into Stockholm was just incredible. We travel through the Stockholm archipelago. There are approximately 24,000 islands that make up the archipelago. It is unbelievable to sail into this city. I highly recommend it. At some points there were seriously cliffsides just outside our balcony. You could almost touch them. The sail-in takes about 2 hours...

We were invited by the captain, with a handful of others to join the sail-in on the bow of the ship. Most of the ships we have sailed on have the bows open as public decks, but not this one. So, we joined the others and watch from the front of the ship. It was a great morning to be in Sweden. We had many things planned for the day.



Our first stop was the Vasa Museum. This was an incredibly interesting museum and on everyone's "must do" when they arrive in Stockholm. This is the where the 64 gun Vasa war ship is. This ship sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. The builders of the ship told the King, at that time, that the ship would sink. The King did not want to cancel the sailing and instead most people died onboard the vessel. The ship was not located again until the 1950s. The ship was salvaged in 1961 with most of it's hull largely intact. This picture is what it looked like when it set sail.



Our next stop was the original Absolut Ice Bar. Dan and I had already been to the Ice Bar in London but everyone in our group wanted to go and so we went. It is a lot of fun, but with only one day in Stockholm, I would NOT suggest the Ice Bar. This city is far to interesting to be inside a bar. Just my opinion of course, but we are really hoping for a re-do of Stockholm someday as it is a very beautiful city and we spend far too much time indoors.






Here is Dan and I in our Ice Bar gear. Everything in the bar is made of ice. The glasses, the bar stools... the bar... everything. It really is a "cool" place but only if you are going to spend some real time in Stockholm... not just a day.

July 18th, 2008 - Warnemunde Germany!!!

Our first port was Warnemunde, Germany. Neither of us knew too much about this town, but I had done a little research before we left home. We were leaving our buddies today and doing our own thing. We wanted to see the area by bicycle, so we walked the short walk into town. It was very easy from the cruise port, and a local gave me exact directions (including pictures) before we left home. You cross over this adorable little bridge and you are in the little town of Warnemunde. I would LOVE to come back here some day. Along the water front there are many shops and restaurants. TONS of seafood and fish since this is a big fishing community.


The streets were all cobblestone, and the are CUTE... but on a bike... wow... not so cute :)

First stop was locating our bike rental place. And sure enough it was right where my photo guide led me. We had a great conversation with the store owner, Sven, and soon we had our bikes and we were off to explore this amazing area.

Our first stop took us along the boardwalk. After the canal area it opens up onto a huge beach area. There were 100s of these little shacks everywhere. SO wild! They look like they are closed up with some pallet type thing, and they are all numbered, so I am assuming you rent them and we saw a couple of guys come over with a dolly and put them in an area where you want. Strange... the pallet type thing comes off... two drawers pull out for foot rests and you sit under the awning. You can see how busy the beach season is here. This was the middle of JULY!

Next we head down the boardwalk... figuring we would just see where it goes and all of a sudden we are biking through the woods of Germany. This was the most amazing ride I have ever been on... if I could have bottled the experience, I would. The ocean was crashing on the right of this picture... but you were totally surrounded in the forest. I later found out that we were on the Baltic Sea Bike Trail that runs for 467 miles. I would love to spend a vacation biking this trail. Every mile or two there would be a turn off that advertised some type of Pub or restaurant that was down a few yards by the ocean. It was almost completely flat and so gorgeous that this picture does not do it justice. If you ever have a chance to get to Warnemunde, I highly suggest biking this trail. Anyone can do it.

Here I am stopping off the trail to have a glass of wine at some Greek place overlooking the ocean. It was such a fantatic day! It was overcast most of the day, but perfect weather for biking.

We had to stop before we went back to the ship for some good coffee. The ship had horrible coffee on this cruise. The specialty coffee shop and all the restaurants. NOT good! So... I saw someone drinking THIS off the side of the road and I turned the bike around and went back. Oh soooo good!

July 16, 2008 - Time to board the Century!!!

We woke up early and got everything ready to go over to check in for the ship. This was an extremely easy process since we were right at the port! Dan went out early for a walk and to get some orange juice and wine to bring onboard. It was going to be a great day!

This is the check in terminal in Amsterdam. It was so quiet and easy!


When you step onboard a Celebrity ship, you are greated by Champagne or a Mimosa... I choose the Mimosa and it was sooo good! This was going to be a fabulous 2 weeks!










This was the view of our hotel from our balcony room onboard the ship. We were this close to the hotel. So incredible cool. I would sail from here any time! Our room was gorgeous and we were ready for the day! I LOVE "check in day"! The excitement and everything around you is so happy and energetic. AND we were going to all places we hadn't been. That was exciting too.




Another self portrait of the Muster Drill... leaving from Amsterdam means that you get to do it in 4 different languages. It was a long Muster Drill.







It was finally time for sail-away. We met at the Sunset Bar... soon to be our favorite bar on the ship. It was a gorgeous day in Amsterdam, and we were sailing up to meet the North Sea. We would go through one set of locks to reach the North Sea. It was a very interesting sail-out. One of the best we have had.

If it's Tuesday it must be Belgium - July 15, 2008

It's July 15th, and we were getting ready to leave for Amsterdam. Our cruise left in the morning and we were REALLY ready to board the ship. We had been planning this cruise for more than a year. We were going to visit German, Russia, Sweden, Copenhagen, Estonia and of course, Amsterdam.

Here we all are at Gard du Nord in Paris, waiting to board the Thalys train to Amsterdam. It's a 4 hour journey.

Here is Dan and Debbie on the Thalys train. We talked and joked all the way into Amsterdam. It was a very nice, fast train ride.

We arrived Amsterdam in some drizzly weather, so we checked into our hotel. The Movenpick... it was VERY nice. The ship would be just outside this very window in the morning. I have never stayed so close to the port and this was a GREAT place to board a ship!

After a week in Paris, all I wanted was a hamburger. Too cute! We all had some lunch at the Movenpick and then headed out for day 1 in Amsterdam. It was just a little after noon, and we had reservations for the Anne Frank house and then we were meeting up with more friends that flew in from Canada. John and Deanna will be sailing with us tomorrow... and we were meeting them in a few hours at the Vyne Bar. A VERY cool wine bar that I wish we had here.

We are in Amsterdam... It's not a very pretty day, but at least it has stopped raining. We walked all through the city center on our way to the Anne Frank House. We really expected to like Amsterdam more than we did. We found it to be quite dirty and seedy. We did enjoy our time there, don't get me wrong, but it's not on our list to get back to.

We met up with John and Deanna and quickly found our wine bar, Vyne. It was such a great night! It was fun catching up with them. We hadn't seen them in 2 years and it wasn't until the last minute that we knew for sure they were coming on the cruise. SO, we were very excited to meet up with them, and very happy they were joining us on all our touring yet to come.

July 14th - the last days in Paris

Basilique du Sacre Coeur. I just love Montmartre. It is one of my favorite areas of Paris. It is just cuteness around every corner. The cobblestone streets... the very steep hills and stairways. It's just adorable.








Dan climbing out of the subway station at the Abbesses metro stop. It is really deep and it's a long spiral climb.








This was our lunch stop in Montmartre. Debbie looks ready to kill over after our climb from the subway station. Everything is on a slope in Montmartre. I had to keep holding onto my diet coke so it didn't slide off the table.





Here is some male bonding happening. This is right outside our hotel in Paris. We are on our way to get some drinks at Les Deux Magots. This is my favorite place for a glass of wine. I love the people watching... and the little waiters in tuxes. Awwww...







The sun sets on our time in Paris... tomorrow we board the train to Amsterdam. It has been an amazing week in Paris. I cannot believe the time went so quickly. I must make arrangements to come back soon! Anyone want to come with me?


A view of Notre Dame from our favorite Cafe au lait place. You can see why I love this cafe.

July 12-14th - the arrival of the Folkers!

My friends had finally arrived Paris! Debbie wanted to hit the ground running as soon as they made it to the hotel, so I had everything perfectly planned. Well... almost. Had it not been for major holiday celebratioins, our next 2 days would have gone a lot better. But... it was a great 3 days. It was just tweaked a little see'ns now ALL of France was in Paris for Bastille Day. But.. one cool thing, so were we! SO... this picture is our favorite morning spot. The Notre Dame cafe. Yes, it's touristy but you can't beat the view of Notre Dame.


SO... we set out on our walk to the Champs Elysees, the Arc de Triomphe, Montmartre and of course the Tour Eiffel. There were amazing things happening all over the place. There was an air show going on as we were walking and 3 jets flew right down the Seine, streaming red, white and blue smoke (France's colors of course!) There was a huge parade of tanks also. I had no idea tanks could move so fast. I told our friends that I had all this brought in for their arrival. This is me on my favorite bridge in Paris. Everyone has one... the Pont Alexandre III is mine. It is gorgeous! It leads to the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, which then leads right onto the Champs Elysees. Paris SO agrees with me!


Dan and I had been to Versailles before but our friends had not. So, we arranged an entire day out to the Chateau Versailles and a golf cart ride around all the grounds and Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. It was a gorgeous day. We took the train from near our hotel in the Latin Quarter and arrived Versailles when they opened. The grounds of Versailles were beautiful and because we were there on a Sunday, the fountains were all working. I have been on "non fountain" days during the week, and can say that the crowds on Sunday are not worth seeing the fountains. It was nice... but there were twice as many people as last year when we were here on a Thursday.


Here is just one of the many buildings inside Marie Antoinette's Hamlet. It is just a gorgeous place to be and you can understand why she preferred being here over the main chateau.

I could never get tired of wandering around Versailles. Next time it will not be on a Sunday though.

Normandy - July 10, 2008

We had never made the trip to Normandy so we decided this year we were going to do what it took to spend a day touring around the beaches of Normandy... We set out early in the morning and took the train into Caen. From there I had arranged to rent a car through Hertz and it was right across from the train station. You can't miss it. We rented a Peugot or similar and got "similar". All day we referred to the car as our "similar".

Our first stop was coffee at Utah Beach. It was incredibly gorgeous outside. The little cafe at the beach was done all in WWII memorabilia and it was very interesting inside. I wanted these mugs that had Utah Beach on them, but for 20 euros each I decided I didn't need them that bad.

During our day in Normandy we toured the American Cemetery. Unreal place. You just must go. I can't put into words what it's like. All you can hope for at the end of the day is maybe the view helps all that is buried here. From the American Cemetery, we took the coast road and visited Omaha Beach, Gold Beach, and Juno Beach. All of them very interesting and what a beautiful drive. We did very well navigating our way through unfamiliar land. We still have no idea how we found the car rental place again. But we did.

July 9, 2008 - Paris

We wanted to do something we haven't done before, so we sat out to take the canal boat on the Canal St. Martin. This goes from the Bastille to the Bassin de La Villette. It was a great new thing to do, but after doing this for 2 hours! we decided once was enough.

(self portraits, by the way)

We had to go through 9 different locks to get from one end of town to the other. The first part of the ride was 2 miles underground and that was incredibly cool.

One of the 9 different locks.

Arrival in Paris! July 8th, 2008

Today we started off for Paris! We decided to use some skymiles and upgrade to first class, and this is always a great decision! There is nothing like flying first class into Paris.

We decided against a reserved car and just grabbed a cab after we landed. With just two people, this is what I would suggest. It is easy and you don't have to worry about being late. If you are unlike me, and travel with little luggage, I would take the train into the city center. But that never seems to be the case with us. We always seem to be going on a cruise after a land trip, so we have much luggage. Always.

We always stay in the Latin Quarter. I just love it here. This is the view out of our 4th floor room at the Hotel St. Severin. We had 4 days in Paris before our best cruising buddies showed up from Kansas. Debbie and Rich have never been to Paris so I was so excited to show them around.

But first... our first night consisted of our favorite place for dinner. Relais L'Entrecote. It is JUST steak and fries. There is no menu. You sit... they come over and ask how you want you steak and that is it.