Cruising the Baltic

It had been a while since our last cruise so when a deal popped up for the Baltics offering a reduced price with gratuities paid, port parking paid and an came with all inclusive free wine / beer package  how could we say no! Travelling companions Christine and Peter and Anne and Art swiftly booked too and the planning began.
Being a Baltics cruise with bridges and smaller ports to contend with to get us closer to the action it was a smaller boat this time, RCI`s Brilliance of the Seas. Only 2,200 on board and not so much to do on the sea days which were necessary as we sailed from Harwich. Cruise ships are abandoning Harwich next year (RCI and Holland America at least). Don`t know why as it was so easy for us to drive down there and get on.The ship - was a little old fashioned , a classic liner shape but I have to say lacked the wow factor in terms of the impact that the Liberty of the Seas had on us. Generally food, service, entertainment  and the boat itself were not as good, though it was an enjoyable cruise and the destinations were fabulous which was the main reason for going. There was a climbing wall, basketball/ football pitch as well as the golf, a cinema and poolside cinema where films blared with no-one really watching them. No grand parties and the captains greeting night was a small scale affair

Engine room

The Captain

The Crew

Our first formal night onboard

The name`s Bond

Abba featured large in entertainment

Golf was popular

Art claimed the title

I won the shoveboard

We had been given mytime dining meaning we could eat any time and did vary our meal times. However this had the effect of moving us around the dining area never getting to know our waiting staff. One waiter showed he knew us a little by explaining how to best serve us to a colleague. "You give them 6 glasses of Merlot, then come back in 5 minutes and give them another 6" he said. Yes my beer/ wine sticker did go feint through  repeated use in the machine and true we did seemingly drank the ship dry of Merlot and had to have an alternative until they re-stocked at next port one night, but I`m sure others would have made far more use of unlimited wine and beer passes! 4 of us went on the murder mystery night - great fun and the best meal of the week I thought.

After a day at sea our first port of call was wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. We walked into town and did our own thing. I think we might have got more out of it with a tour or walking tour had we gone straight to the Town hall meeting point for them but a lovely day in a lovely city.

Lots of wind farms in Denmark. You might have seen recently that they had a day where their wind farms produced 140% of their power needs.

The Little |Mermaid

Watch her Hands Christian Anderson!

 Nyhaven Harbour

 Next stop was Tallin. here I had booked ahead onto an official tourist office coach tour and guided walk.The bus tour took us past (not stopping!) a beautiful palace in the park ("You`ll see loads of palaces in St Petersburg anyway" said the guide!). Instead we were able to admire the wooden houses on the outskirts and see the park where thousands sung songs of freedom when the revolution came to Estonia and a bloodless independence was gained. The coach trip set a personal record for me when we lost 2 people I`d "met" through Cruise Critics Forum and a Meet `n Mingle on boards who got lost within 2 minutes of stepping off the coach and were not seen again on the tour until passing them in the street later! Nice one Gail and aunt if you read this but your tips prior to the cruise were very helpful;-)

Nice coffee stop

Unfinished Bridge Sculpture

Sue by the boat

Ours is on the right

Then what we always thought would be the highlight of the trip.. and so it proved, St Petersburg. Avoiding the issues of expensive visas and coping with Russian direction signs etc I had booked us ahead onto an excellent 2 day tour (visas included) with https://spb-tours.com/. Our own guide Elena, in a small minibus, with lunches  at much less than the boat tour prices for a 46 seater coach group. St Petersburg was a very wealthy city and part of me would have loved to have had a visa to roam more freely though. Elena talked endlessly to give us a full picture, cracked the odd joke almost without realising it then on hearing our laughter would say in a deadpan way "Yes, ees very fahnny" Other times she `d call to us through our headphones "Come to me, come to me" and head us through visitor turnstiles with shouts of "Wait...Go...Wait...Go" as we obviously could not be trusted with our own tickets. Excellent company and tour though- highly recommended and they gave us a discount!

Art learning the guiding ropes from Elena

Dour Russians enter the subway. Wait...Go...Wait...

The Hermitage - maybe looked at a few too many paintings for me

A running event rather spoiled the outlook for us

Like another Venice

 By this time Art had launched a takeover guiding plan as the teacher`s pet.









Church of the Spilled Blood

Peter and Paul Fortress

After a boat cruise  it was a hydrofoil to Peterhof and the Grand Palace

 The onto Catherine`s Winter palace. This had been all but gutted by the Germans in the war but splendidly restored and painted using squirrel tail brushes according to Elena " all original" but new!

Back on the boat and
time for cocktails.

Amazing still waters as we cruised

 Loving couple shots

and Ipad Woman







Helsinki was the next stop.

 Here we got the ship shuttle into town to save us the boring walk in and then did our own thing. Nice city and fairly relaxed tour.

The palace

 

The Harbour

The Lutheran Church

 This was their equivalent of Harrods and they had a lovely food section.

Next stop was another main highlight - Stockholm. It was such a lovely sail into and out of Stockholm seeing all the islands with grand summer houses, saunas and decks to splash into the water straight after. here we used a hop on , hop off boat service to get straight to the Vasa Museum and then to the town centre - a perfect way of approaching the city. Got a much better deal by walking to the launch point and haggling with the two suppliers rather than buying tickets at full price at the port gate.

 The warship Vasa sank on her maiden voyage in 1628 and was not salvaged until 1961. It had an inherently faulty design that made it top heavy - all knew but no-one dared tell the king who insisted it be launched with crew and families on board. It sank after a few hundred yards. This museum is amazing and it really is quite a sight to see and should not be missed.

Our boat was smaller but stable!

Grona Lund theme park

Into town for a less than  impressive changing of the guard!

The Little Orphan Boy

Old women knit bobble hats for him to keep him warm

Rub for luck but a curse if you take the money!

Loved the old streets

Main square

Had a coffee in the Nobel Museum, the old stock exchange.Nobel prize winners autograph under each seat.

Surprised by the amount of graffiti

Those with this symbol had fire brigade service in t he event of a fire.

Narrow street

First troll sighted

Artist at work

Then back to the ship...

and sailing on to Skagen

So calm again

We had originally been meant to dock at Visby next but one of those unexplained changes happened and Skagen it was. I`d never heard of it to be honest, though Christine had a Skagen watch. All I knew was that it was the point where the Baltic Sea meets the North Sea so no great expectations. As it happens it was a nice little town made even better by us hitting on a day when they had a free music festival happening in the streets. So much music and drinking going on as we walked to and from our ship.

 A bit like India with the train track next to the houses and cafes!

We took the Sandormen tractor train to the point. It was amazing seeing the waves from each sea crash into each other and actually seeing the join as they have differing salt levels. You could have one foot in each sea - but not for long as the water was so cold!

Then came a days cruising back to Harwich. Peter had waited until the last morning to try Eggs bendict cooked fresh for breakfast - no said the waiter! Don`t wait until the last minute for those treats when they just want you off the boat is the lesson here! We passed on the tours in Harwich as the onship lecturer stated "There is nothing to see here" before diverting  Americans etc to Windsor. An easy transfer from the ship and a drive home with Chris and Peter. Great trip and we had loads of laughs with Anne, Chris, Peter and Art. I love getting deals in retirement!