Touring Russia

Here are some shots of our day in Russia.  Our favourite spot of the day was Catherine's Palace.  You will see an outside shot and a couple of inside shots....lots of gold here.  Also a shot of Karen wearing special booties that we all had to  put on. There is also an outside shot of one of the buildings on the palace grounds, also showing lots of gold.  We were treated to a great lunch complete with vodka and Russian entertainment with lots of hand clapping and laughter.  A great show.  The afternoon was spent relaxing on a river cruise.  Bye 4 Now

Some Cruising Photos

Hi faithful followers.  Trying to post to the Internet today hasw been a real frustration with access, but it looks like I have succeeded!  I will do 2 posts today, one with a few shots from the ship and one with some shots from Russia, where we are at the moment. The ship shots I have chosen are, the upper deck swimming pool, Ron and Karen all dressed up, and Ron doing his James Bond impression at the Roulette table.  Enjoy

Cruising With Vision

Hi folks,

We are now cruising the Baltic on Royal Caribbean's Vision of The Seas.  Internet use on board is very slow and also VERY expensive.  As a result, our daily blogs will be reduced to one or two throughout the cruise. Next blog probably in a couple of days with a picture or two.  Having a great time so far.  Bye 4 Now

Summary of Impressions of Coppenhagen And Denmark

We highly recommend a visit to Copenhagen!  The people are incredibly friendly. Total strangers will approach you and offer help without even being asked. It seems that everyone speaks fluent English so the language barrier is not a problem.  The homes and residences are beautiful.  They even have a by-law that no two adjoined houses, or apartment buildings can be painted the same colour, and most of them along the canals are display this rainbow effect.  The architecture is awe inspiring, and buildings centuries old are still standing and in excellent condidtion. They seldom if ever tear down an old buildiing, prefering instead to renovate and preserve.The transportation system is easy to navigate once you get the hang of it, and if you get confused just ask anyone - they will eagerly offer their assistance.  All in all, a great start to our vacation.

Of Kings and Queens

Today we visted Amalienborg, the palace of past kings and queens, and of Queen Margarethe, the current queen of Denmark. Although she was in residence, she would not agree to see us, so we had to be content with watching the changing of her guards.One guard changed his uniform with the guard next to him while several hundred people watched in awe.The posted picture today shows the guards after they had finished changing, and the sergeant had shown his approval by shoutng "Right Dress" There is also a picture of a large statue in the palace square, in honour of a former king, Frederick V, and behind you can see one of several large identical palace residences.  Not content with a separate house for each member of the family, the royals had several palaces in various parts of Denmark. At the end of the street is a magificent church where the queen goes to worship, and which is open to the public.  An exterior picture is included in today's blog.

Tomorrow, we leave Copenhagen and board The Vision of The Seas to start our Baltic Cruise, and as we did yesterday, we will end today with a cabernet!..............Cheers

Roskilde Side Trip

After visiting the Viking museum we walked to the quaint old town of Roskilde, to tour a famous old gothic cathedral.  Before going into the cathedral we participated in a tourism survey and were given a bottle of red wine as a thankyou.- a South Eastern Australia Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon. (GN)  The interior of the cathedral was breathtakingly beautiful. It was commissioned in the 1200s by Bishop Absalon, the founder of Copenhagen, and contains the tombs of most Danish royals from 1536 to the present. There is a picture of the exterior, but the interior pictures will need a little lightening to do them justice.

This day ended with a glass of fine Australian Shiraz/Cabernet!

Our viking Adventure

Today was the day we set aside to visit the Viking museum.  The day started with a half hours train ride and then a 1 hour bus ride through the beautiful Danish countryside, something we would not have experienced if we had stayed  only in Copenhagen.  The bus driver took us past the usual bus stop and let us out at the entrance to the museum grounds.This area is a real education!  Although I taught about the Vikings as an elementary school teacher, actually seeing the reconstructed boats and other artifacts gave me a much better appreciation of their skills as a sea faring nation.  Archeologists discovered the ruins of 5 Viking boats under water, that had been deliberately scuttled and sunk as protection agains other tribes. The various pieces of the boats have been painstakingly  preserved and carefully re-assembled to restore the actual boats. Today's pictures include a partial reconstruction, and a picture of a real old Viking!

Karen Has a Free Carlsberg Beer

The Missing Little Mermaid

One of the great attractions in Copenhagen is the world famous Little Mermaid. Just our luck, it was gone ...on loan to the far east for some special exhibition. The  best we could do was view a small replica in the garden of the Carlsberg museum.  So here is something resembling The Little Mermaid.

Day 2 In Copenhagen

Today we did a lot of walking...like, a helluva lot of walking!  (Helluva is an old Viking word meaning mega strides)  We walked from our hotel to Tivoli Gardens, which was a little disappointiing as it was "off season" and some  of the attractions were not available even though they still charged regular admission. Although the gardens and fountains were nice to see, we felt the whole experience was not worth the money at this time of the year.  I have included a picture of one of the fountains.  From Tivoli we decide to walk to the Carlsberg Brewery - A Danish institution!  The museum was exellent and very well presented - this was well worth the money, especially since the  price of admission included two free beers!  I am not a beer lover but Karen took advantage of the brew.  I settled for a Carlsberg lemon flavoured carbonated spring water.  I bet you didn't know that Carlsberg also made soft drinks. After Carlsberg we hit the pavement again, walking back to our hotel to rest our weary feet.

The Windjammer

Arrived In Copenhagen

Well, we arrived safely in Copenhagen, Denmark, at 7:35 a.m. Denmark time (1:30 a.m. Toronto time) with no sleep and determined to stay awake for the entire first day. Our flight was a combination of Good News (GN) and Bad News (BN).  The Park N' Fly shuttle bus arrived just as we were taking our luggage out of the car (GN)  We had downloaded our boarding passes at home so check-in was very fast. (GN) Security check was also almost instantaneous! (GN)  The flight was delayed for about 30 minutes (bn) Our assigned seats were directly over the wing and engines. (BN) My view during most of the flight was a line of black arrows on white paint, with a warning sign "Do Not Step" - (Not that I was thinking of stepping there!)
The on-board meal was good (roast beef) and wine was FREE! (GN)

Shortly after arriving here in Copenhagen we bought an all day pass for the canal tours and water taxis and had a great day of sight-seeing by water.This is one very beautiful city and almost everyone can speakEnglish.(GN) I have hopefully been able to upload  some pictures of our tour. Some of you may recognize the tall ship as the Windjammer from the movie of years past. Other shots show the canal with many yachts and colourful buildings. It is now 6:30 p.m. and we are feeling the effects of no sleep, so it will be a quick meal and early to bed. (GN)

More Pictures Of Copenhagen

Well, it's just a couple of days before we take off for our Baltic Cruise, which starts with 4 days of sightseeing in Copenhagen, Denmark before we set sail on Royal Caribbean's Vision of The Seas.  Of course we are not yet fully prepared, but all the last minute preparations are coming together.  We will try to add daily updates to this blog (if we can figure out how to do it!) and hopefully upload some pictures (if we can figure out how to do that!!) Since we are going to travel across "The Big Pond" I thought I would start the blog with a picture of our small pond at Willowbrook, as a farwell photo.