Home Again

 So this is just some random guy who happened to be sitting across from me on the JetBlue flight home.

The seats are actually more comfortable then they appear.  They are set up herringbone style at the front of the plane.  JetBlue flies this configuration to Europe, we flew to London a couple of years ago and they were the same.

We had an early start to the day.  Amsterdam Airport has a reputation for long check in times and from what we could see today they certainly lean into that reputation.  They recommend getting to the airport 3 hours early for international flights.

We had breakfast at the hotel and made our way over to the terminal.  JetBlue only has two flights out of here each day but the staff was there and we were able to get our luggage out of hands, good first step.  Since we're flying business class we could go through priority security, good second step sort of.

We started to take all our electronics out of our bags and put them in the bins when we were told, no you don't have to do that anymore, just leave them where they are.  So no electronics out and no liquids out (we didn't have any).  You then proceed to a full body scan, no problem for me but Fred had to take his belt off (even though he was told earlier that it wasn't necessary).

Sounds great, right?  Not so much.  The number of bins that were shunted to the side for additional inspection was huge, and that included mine.  When I was FINALLY called up it was clear the secondary inspection person had no idea why my purse was flagged.  She felt obligated to swab it for drugs and I had to wait until the machine said I was good to go.

Alright then we're ready to get going, right?  No, because now you had passport inspection.  I won't go through all the details but, and remember this is early Sunday morning and the airport wasn't crowded, but it took us 45 minutes to get through the entire process.  Once we got up to the passport desk it was an easy, 'where have you been and why did you enter through Hungary'.  That was it.  A minute and a half tops.

The plane ride was fine, the Captain warned us there would be turbulence when we entered Canadian air space and there was but all else was fine.  Fred was able to sleep some, not me as usual.  I downloaded four one-hour shows from Netflix and one 2 1/2 movie and that turned out to be perfect.  They do have a good entertainment system on the plane but you never know what it will be.

Boston traffic was awful but we got home safe and sound.  We've been awake since about 2AM this morning,  welcome to jetlag!  We had our official end of the trip weigh in this morning, Fred didn't gain any weight and I lost two pounds.  Amazing, or someone recalibrated our scales while we were away, either way we choose to believe those numbers.

Thanks for coming along!

Amsterdam, Netherlands - June 8, 2024

Disembarkation day!  

Back a few years ago, cruise lines would try to schedule your departure time either by deck or loyalty status or their whims.  On the last few cruises we’ve been on you can choose when you would like to leave the ship and pick up the appropriate luggage tag for that time period.  I’m sure it cuts down on a lot of complaints.

Today we didn’t have to make a choice because we decided to take an excursion and then get dropped off at the airport.  We’re staying at the Hilton at Amsterdam airport so that worked out for us.

It was a cold windy morning and as I’ve said before we have a number (large number) of people on this cruise who brought clothes for the Caribbean rather than the Baltic.  It was a long walk from the gangway to the port building and Fred and I saw some very cold people taking that stroll this morning.

When we got off we saw that there was a long line (outside in the cold) snaking into the building.  Apparently, customs was taking quite a long time.  We don’t know if another person showed up or what but the line moved much quicker as we got up to it.  I did notice that people were asking for a stamp in their passports (rookies).  When we got up to the desk they did thumb through the pages before handing it back.  They spent a little longer on Fred’s, he’s got an older passport and they might have been looking at his stamps from Jordan, the UAE and Israel that were in the same area.  Who knows?  We got through found our luggage and went to the tour bus.

Unfortunately, we were late leaving because of a family group that had two scooters.  There was no room in the undercarriage of the bus for them, not with all the luggage down there.  I don’t know who screwed up there.  The cruise lines are usually so accommodating, it could have been the tour company’s bad planning.  In the end we had to leave them but it did cut into our time for the tour.  I'm sure they made it to the airport okay, but we never saw them at the tour site later on.

We went to Zaanse Schans Windmills about 15km north of Amsterdam.  First, I want to show you that Fred is indeed alive and well, he even managed a smile.

This location has a number of working windmills, the foundation of the industrial revolution as they claim.  Windmills do more than pump water, they can produce power to run machines and produce products.

At this site they had a cheesemaking windmill, a wooden clog windmill and a saw mill.  The saw mill was really interesting.  Below you can see the power of the wind run the saw that cut the trees.  Once they are cut, they are left out to dry as the next picture shows.

I was so glad to come here today.  A few years ago we spent some time in Amsterdam and I had planned a day trip to this site but we never went.  Our tickets to the Anne Frank house came through and really there was no competition between those two choices.  After all these years I finally got here and it was more interesting than even I thought it would be.

After our too short of a visit to the site we went on our way to the airport where we’re staying at the Hilton again.

Before we had lunch at the airport we went to see where the Jetblue check-in would be.  That was an adventure.  There is only one terminal at the airport but it’s divided up to three ‘departure zones’. Unlike US airports where the check in counters are forward facing, the ones we’ve seen in Europe are not.  They are set up like long rows perpendicular to the main hallway.  It’s hard to see to the end of the row and catch all the airline names.  Jetblue only has two flights a day so once they are done, the personnel are gone.  Long story short we found where it usually is and also how to figure out where it will be tomorrow morning when we have to check in.

This is a Saturday and the airport is packed.  It was difficult to get around. I was glad to get back to the peace and quiet of the hotel.

We fly home tomorrow so the last post will be after that.

Copenhagen, Denmark - June 6, 2024

We did not actually go into Copenhagen today we’ve been there before and it’s a great city but we hate to repeat ourselves if possible.

We instead, went out to the city of Roskilde, about 45 minutes from Copenhagen.  Roskilde is the home of the Viking Ship Museum.  The tour was also supposed to include a visit to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Roskilde Cathedral.  However, there’s a funeral today so we can’t go in.  Really this is no loss to us, we’ve seen the inside of plenty of cathedrals and frankly Lutheran ones are not that exciting inside – no disrespect intended.

The good news was, the tour guide had the time to take us along the backroads to Roskilde and we got to see some charming little villages.  We stopped in one to look around and we liked this far better than another cathedral. Later on we got to see the former royal stables in Roskilde.

The Viking Ship Museum was founded after the discovery of five Viking ships in the local waters in the 1950’s.  The ships were purposely placed, or intentionally sunk to block all but the most difficult sea transit to the city.  By strategically placing these blockades they forced their enemies past encampments that would send a warning down to the city in the event of an attack.

Archeologists built a caisson around the area where the ships were and painstakingly removed the timbers one by one.  Once removed they worked to preserve them but this isn’t as easy as letting the wood dry out.  All the pieces were placed in a water tank and a glycerin compound was slowly added to the water.  Overtime the glycerin replaces the water in the wood and hardens allowing them to be handled and displayed.  For some of the bigger pieces it took over a year.

The museum then built metal frames for the boats, using the wood where it was available to give an overall picture of the vessel.  As you can see, some had more wood recovered then others.  They were able to recover some of the original wooden pegs.

In addition to restoring the boats, they also built replicas that are used both for display and for actual cruising.  There were several around, both in and out of the water.  This was the largest one.

The Vikings were not just warriors marauding about the countryside as they are often depicted.  Most were farmers and settlers.  However, over the years the name Viking only gets applied to the war like members.  Last year we saw where the Viking settlements were in Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland.

The museum is still working to preserve new finds even today.  There was one recently found just outside Copenhagen.  Ordinarily, a wreck is left at the bottom where it was found but in this case the channel is going to be widened so the wreck would be demolished.  They are using the same preservation techniques on this vessel.

The tour guide we had today was great.  One of the best, if not THE best ones we’ve had for the last month.  She was so enthusiastic about all the topics presented from the Vikings to living in Denmark.  

She noted that the Danes will adopt English words for things, like ambulance.  They don’t feel the need to make up a Danish word for it, unlike the Norwegians who have to come up with their own word for everything (a dig at the neighbors).  

She also noted that the Danes will adopt traditions from other countries as well.  Within the last 20 years Denmark has adopted Halloween and trick or treating.  She told us years ago kids came to her house for the first time, but her husband didn’t know anything about it and was a little freaked out.  

The weather was not great today, pretty cold actually.  The air temperature was in the high 50’s but the wind was really strong and of course we had rain in the afternoon.

We did have a little bit of excitement at the end of the day.  Just a few minutes before the ‘all aboard’ time a call went out asking two couples to check in with guest services.  This is done when the ship realizes they have no record of the people being on board but assume it might be a glitch with their cards.  

Later, the Captain came on and said two couples are not back from the city and they don’t know where they are but they have to leave at a certain time whether they showed up or not.  What the ship personnel do in these cases is go through the passengers’ safe to get their passports (assuming they didn’t take them ashore) and then leave them with the port agent so the folks can get to the next port and meet the ship.  

In this case the two couples did eventually show and we left 45 minutes late. They came on a public bus (! Didn’t they think a cab would be better!).  They were lucky, the ship doesn’t have to wait for people.  Maybe we’ll get the scoop from other passengers tomorrow about what happened.

So tomorrow is packing day.  We’ll have to have our suitcases out in the hallway by midnight tomorrow.  It’s a sea day so there will be no report tomorrow.  

On Saturday we disembark.  Our flight is actually on Sunday so we’re staying over at the airport before flying home.  We’ll be at the Hilton again.  This wasn’t our original plan, our flight on Saturday was changed from the afternoon to mid-morning. There is no way we could guarantee getting to the airport by that time so we had to move it to the next day.

Kiel, Germany - June 5th, 2024

Kiel is the northernmost large city in Germany.  It’s located at the end of a 17km fjord and holds the key to ship travel between the Baltic and North Seas.

A lot of people on board took this opportunity to go to Hamburg which is about 90 minutes away or Lubeck, a medieval city that’s supposed to be home to the best Marzipan cake in the world (or so they say).  We weren’t interested in either of those destinations.

We decided to take a tour that included a visit to the Kiel Canal and the Naval Memorial in nearby Laboe.  We were glad we did it was a very interesting day.

The Kiel Canal was built in the 1890’s and connects the North and Baltic Seas.  If ships don’t go through the canal they have to go all around the Denmark peninsula to travel between the seas.  Of course, this was much more important when ships were under sail and traveled much slower then today.

Kiel has more in common with the Suez Canal then the one in Panama.  The Suez Canal is basically a ditch between the Red and Mediterranean Seas while the Panama connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through several elevation changes.  The Kiel Canal has one lock.  The Baltic Sea, being mostly inland does not have the tides that you would find in other bodies of water but they do have strong winds that can raise or lower the water level.  The one lock adjusts for this level change and allows ships to sail onto the North Sea.  We saw a cargo ship entering the lock today.  It moved very slowly.  

After the Canal we took a little tour of the town itself before moving out to the surrounding farmlands and Laboe.  Kiel was the most bombed city during WWII after Coventry England.  Our guide told us his mother lived in the city then and would always have a bag packed and ready to go to the bomb shelter.  We went by one of the few remaining shelters left, it has been converted to a museum. 

Most of the tour guides we’ve had at various German locations have been younger and they refer to the people in charge during WWII as the Nazi’s, as in, the Nazi’s were the party in power, or the Nazi’s did this or that, not Germans.  This guide today, whose mother and older siblings remember the war used ‘Germans’ whenever referring to who was in charge.  It was an interesting difference.

Our next stop was the Naval Monument in Laboe.  The monument was conceived after the first world war to honor all sailors lost at sea.  It was dedicated in 1934.  Of course, after that, WWII started and at the end of the war this area came under British occupation. The British were destroying all monuments to the Nazi’s but decided this one, dedicated to sailors could stay.  It changed its focus to honor all sailors at sea regardless of their nationality.

It was very well done, from the tower to the underground passage to the museum and the grounds.  In one of the tower rooms there is a depiction of all ships lost by Germany in WWI, the other side (pictured below) is dedicated to all ships lost in WWII.  I couldn’t get the whole wall in because it wraps around the room.  

They also have a German U-Boat on the grounds that can be toured.  I toured a WWII submarine once, never again!  It is so tight in there I don’t know how the men stood it for weeks at a time. 

All and all one of the better tours we’ve had with a guide who was very engaged and interesting to talk to.

The weather was pretty brisk today. We had to wear our down jackets. It’s amazing how many people came on this cruise with just tee shirts and shorts.  I can only imagine they’re from Florida and think, hey it’s summer, it has to be warm everywhere.  

Tomorrow we’re in Copenhagen.  We’ve been there before and took a pretty exhaustive tour of the city, this time we’re going to a Viking Museum that kind of ties into our trip last year to Iceland and Greenland.

Ronne, Bornham, Denmark - June 4, 2024

Bornholm is an island closer to Sweden then it is Denmark but it is nevertheless Danish territory.

It has a very interesting post-WWII history.  It was occupied by the Nazi’s during the war.  In 1945, the Russians ordered their surrender but the German commander of the island wanted to surrender to the British, not the Russians.  The Russians bombed the city of Ronne and other areas of the island killing Danish citizens and forcing the surrender.

Denmark was aligned with the west having been liberated by the British and Americans.  Bornholm was the only part of the country under Russia’s influence.  They remained as occupiers for 11 months until an agreement was reached and the island was freed. This home was in the bombed area, but went untouched.  They commemorate it with a painting over the door.

I wish I could say we got all this information from our guide, but we did not.  She was a very sweet women who talked low and was more interested in the architecture of the area then the history.  Oh well, sometimes that happens, you can’t always get a guide that matches your exact interests.

She did take us to a local cemetery, and that is one of Fred's interests.  No one famous was buried here she just wanted to show us what a Danish cemetery looks like.  It turns out it looks like a garden.  

We did ask her about the secret – not so secret – base on the island that listens in to Russian communication and probably some other stuff as well.  She said, they really don’t talk about it, it’s not part of their daily lives (that makes sense).  She did say that a very large transport plane was seen over the city last week and that there are ‘a lot of’ American soldiers on the island.  The base itself is quite a distance from Ronne where we were today.

Her home has a barn and she told us one day Danish soldiers showed up asking to use it for some search exercises.  She told them sure, what else was she going to say.  

So, the city itself was very charming with narrow streets and many half-timber homes, as they are called.

That last one is for sale and has been for sale for a while if you're interested.  I think she said they are asking in the $300K neighborhood.

I forgot to get pictures, but in the shipyard where we were docked there were dozens of wind turbines ready to be set up in the Baltic for the production of electricity.  Our guide didn’t know when they will be going in but all the parts appeared to be there.  The city is also building a cruise terminal to attract more ships to the island, that will be quite a boon to the economy here.

Our guide told us that some people on the island actually work in Copenhagen and fly to work each day.  It’s a 25-minute flight she said.  

It was a nice visit for us. After the walking tour we looked around ourselves for a while and had lunch at a restaurant in the town square before heading back to the ship.  

Tomorrow we are in Kiel Germany. 

Visby, Gotland, Sweden - June 3, 2024

Gotland is the biggest island in the Baltic (we were told).  It belongs to Sweden and has a year-round population of 60,000 people.  During the summer months that population grows substantially.  We saw three ferries in town today from the mainland.

It's a beautiful island, very idyllic and the interior reminds me a lot of the interior of Martha’s Vineyard.  Visby is the biggest town on the island and still has many medieval buildings intact, including its city wall that goes back to the 1200’s when the Danes and Germans had taken over the island.

The island has been overrun by the Danes, Russians and Swedes over its long history.  In addition to its amazing city wall the city has a few medieval churches still standing, sort of.  At least the skeletons are still there.  

The Russians invaded at the turn of the last century.  Our guide didn’t want to get into politics, or recent history but he did mention how happy everyone was now they are in NATO.  They’ve had to step up their military spending and will actually have more military on the island as part of that initiative, right now there are about 300 stationed here.

In addition to spending time in the city, we got out into the countryside.  There are 92 churches on the island and remember the population is 60,000.  It seems that every small group of 10-12 families wanted their own church.  They are mostly simple in design like the one pictured below with a small Parsons’ house.  It was plainly decorated inside and is still in use.  The churches are Lutheran, although there was one small Catholic Church in Visby.

Vikings also play a part in their history and we visited a burial site, one of about 300 on the island and they all have the same structure.  Rocks are formed to look like a ship that will take the deceased into the next world.  Only one person would be buried in this site.  This one is very well preserved but we did see another one just off the road when we were driving around.

Fishing is an important leisure activity here.  I didn’t get the impression there were any big professional fleets still active, but I might have missed that information.  We went to a small enclave of fishing shacks.  These shacks are used to store equipment mostly but we did see a couple sitting outside one so we wondered if they also use them to stay when at the marina.  Our huge bus was able to just fit through these shacks.

For some reason we had a very short day on the island today.  Normally all aboard would be 4:30-5:00PM or even later but today it was 2:30. We had no time to look around on our own and explore the city wall towers.  This will go in my review of the cruise.  It was such a nice city, with such an interesting history.  On one hand you curse the way cruises work and the short time at each port, but on the other hand, we would never know this place existed if the ship hadn’t stopped here.

I love colorful doors...

Tomorrow we’re on a Danish Island to visit Ronne. 

Stockholm, Sweden - June 2, 2024

Stockholm is a wonderful city and like some of the others on this trip we were last here in 2010.  At that time we were mostly interested in seeing the Vasa, a warship that sunk within sight of the dockyard where it was built in 1628.

It was found at the bottom of the harbor in 1956 and in the early ‘60’s it was raised.  It took years to dry out and eventually in 1990 they built a museum around it.  It’s a fantastic ship and a must see for anyone going to Stockholm.

Cruising into Stockholm is as beautiful as the city.  The route takes you past hundreds of little islands, most with houses or summer camps on them.  This was the view from our balcony today looking towards Stockholm.  That’s an amusement park to the right, we could hear the screams from the roller coasters during the day.

On this trip, having seen the number one tourist site last time, we concentrated on other areas of Stockholm, like the Old Town and the City Hall. City Hall you say, how exciting can that be?

Let’s just say it’s pretty nice.  The city went all out starting in 1913 to build the most beautiful city hall they could.  It took 10 years because funding dried up during WWI, but they got it done.

This hall is called the Blue Room, but not because it’s blue, it isn’t.  It was meant to be blue but when the architect saw the exposed brick he decided he couldn’t paint over it.  You may have seen pictures of this room before, it’s where the Nobel Prize banquet is held the night before the award ceremony.  We saw the Opera House where the prizes are actually awarded a little later in the tour, but couldn’t get inside.

We visited the City Council Chamber, it's ceiling was left exposed and painted to look like there were skylights.

The last place we saw was the Gold Room.  The walls are covered entirely in gold mosaics. At the end of the hall is a picture of a women symbolizing Stockholm.  The west is pictured to her right (maybe you can see the statue of liberty and the American flag) and the east to her left. A model of the City Hall in her lap. It’s something to see in person.

After the city hall we drove to the Old Town area.  Even the drive around the city was interesting.  We went through residential areas of all economic types, pedestrian malls and saw the very high-end department stores (also the flagship Ikea store of course).  I wish we could have spent more time here.

Old Town is very popular and this is a Sunday so it was really crowded.  At this point we were only a mile or two from the ship so Fred and I decided to ditch the tour and walk back to the ship.  Our tour guide was great, very enthusiastic and we of course we took the time to thank her before heading off.

The walk back to the ship was very nice, right along the waterfront.  Sail away was at 4:30PM.  There’s never enough time on these cruises.  At best you get to see the prime sites and get a flavor of the city.

Tomorrow we are on the island of Gotland (still Sweden) and the town of Visby.  Can’t wait.

Helsinki, Finland - June 1, 2024

Another beautiful day!  It did cool down towards the late afternoon but most of the day was great.

We’ve been to Helsinki before so we didn’t have to rush out for a tour.  We had a comfortable morning and when we were ready, we headed for the shuttle.

We’re docked pretty far out of town but they ran a shuttle for 10 euro per person round trip.  Kind of steep honestly.  Back in the old days (pre-covid) ships would run shuttles for free or a very minimal cost.  This, I think, counts as full cost, no subsidy from the cruise line at all.

The shuttle dropped us in the vicinity of Market Square a fun area with craft tents and food offerings right on the water.  We bypassed that in the morning but came back later in the day.

We headed up to Senate Square, the seat of government, to catch the HOHO bus.  We had no intention of actually hopping off the bus, we just wanted to view the circuit and decide if there was anything we wanted to go back to later.  

We’ve taken HOHO’s in other cities and the narration can vary quite a bit.  We did it in Glasgow last year and it was great, you got a real feel for the city and its history.  This one in Helsinki, well it wasn’t awful, but could have been better.  Maybe there just isn’t a lot to tell.

We did learn that the population of Helsinki is 600,000.  In Finland as a whole the service industry is the number one employer with lumber right behind it.  Helsinki gets 5 hours of sunlight during the winter and the Baltic Sea (at least parts of it) freeze over in the winter.  The Baltic is practically an inland sea and this is why.  The many ferries that come to Helsinki all year also act as ice breakers.  

All the street signs are in Finnish and Swedish and every citizen has a right to be educated in either language depending on their family’s native language.  Finland was once a Duchy of Russia and also belonged to Sweden at one point before becoming independent.

This picture is of the Sibelius Monument in Helsinki, full disclosure this is not my picture.  We saw it today, as we did 14 years ago when we were here, but getting a good picture is tough because of everyone posing in front of it.  Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer who wrote Finlandia, a rousing patriot song for Finland at the time they were occupied by Russia at the turn of the last century.

At the end of the HOHO tour we went to see the Uspenski Cathedral (but didn’t go in).  It’s pretty impressive.  It’s Saturday so we saw a number of weddings going on.

We went back to Market Square to see what they had to eat.  Turns out it was a lot of fish, which I like, but I’ve had a lot of it lately.  We also saw a lot of reindeer products, sausage, hamburgers, and the like.  Donor, Blitzen, Rudolph!  We couldn’t do it.

The ship was leaving kind of early at 4:30 so we headed back just in time to avoid the chillier, windy weather.

Tomorrow we’re in Stockholm in a much better docking area, only 2km (1.2 miles) from the Old Town.  Walkable for us but maybe not others.  There is a shuttle for $20 (all day).