Baltic
(Back to Prague)
Friday 7 June (Prague to Stockholm)
Our instructions were: set our luggage outside our door by 5:30am and be on the shuttle by 6am so we could get to the airport in time for our 8am flight to Stockholm.
We arrived at the airport in a timely manner. We had to stand in line for over an Hour to get our boarding passes. The line was really long, and there were only two SAS employees. At 8am, one of them (who was clearly at the end of her shift) packed up and left! Fortunately within 10 minutes, another employee came to replace her. But they were obviously only working for their checks.
In security, the guard said Both lines were equally bad.
At the gate, they were already boarding. But we all made it for the flight.
We sat next to Ed Bagley on the 2-hour flight from Prague to Stockholm. We have much in common. He was also a Scoutmaster of the Montgomery Ward Scout troop, and in fact also worked with Nat Harward as a scout. I shared with him the story of Nat’s Eagle Scout Service project (which is a story for another day, but involves getting everything done, but just in time). Ed knew many of the people we knew.
Interestingly, we were all seated at the back of the plane. When we arrived, they rolled up steps to the Aft exit. We were first off. Yeah!
We collected our luggage and met the Daun’s, who had arrived in Sweden two hours before us. Carol located our Swedish guide and bus.
We enjoyed a driving tour of the city, interrupted by short walking parts.
Stockholm has 2 million people. Sweden has 10 million people total. Sweden is about the same size as California (which has 40 million.) Our guide said if you were walking in Northern Sweden, you’d likely run into Reindeer and Bears, but no people. While we were driving into the city, we learned there is a Congestion Fee. Every vehicle that enters or exits Stockholm pays this fee. At the end of each month you get a bill.
Our guide says they have good medical care, provided by the government for everyone. Everyone pays 30% taxes. Those earning more than 7500 per month have the excess taxed at 51%. She shared that this was a recent change. Some time ago, a famous Swedish writer had made so much money that her tax bill was 102% of what she made. She wrote a ‘story’ to the Swedish newspaper about a prince who made so much money he owed it all plus more for taxes. That story sparked the tax change.
We visited the City Hall. The Nobel Prize banquet is hosted here.
We saw the Royal Residence, which took 55 years to build. It has 1,400 rooms and 700 employees. It was used daily by the royal family until 1982. The king likes to drive himself around. His chauffeur follows behind in another car.
We saw two famous statues: John Baptist Bernadette. In the early 1800’s there was no Swedish heir to the throne. The Swedes asked Napoleon if he could spare one of his Marshals. He said he could. The current king is the 7th generation descendent of Bernadette.
The second statue (Iron Boy) is a tiny metal statue about 6 inches high of a little boy, looking at the moon. People touch his head and leave coins on the 2-foot square base to bring them luck.
Yesterday (6 June) was a national holiday in Sweden. Tomorrow is a weekend, so today is called a Squeeze day.
We joined the Harwards for lunch; Mark had a potato and leek soup and Lynn a pork rind and mashed potatoes. They were very flavorful, but not very large portions. We enjoyed a mango gelato dessert.
After the walking tour during which we went down the thinnest street in town (Alley of Mårten Trotzig), we eventually made it to the Hotel: Collector's Lady Hamilton Hotel, located in a 15th century building just down the street from the Royal Palace. Lady Hamilton was Lord Nelson's mistress. There is a Lord Nelson hotel. Victory was his ship (and there is a Victory hotel, too!)
The rooms are super small, and ours had no air conditioning, which it needed. We were able to open the windows and turn on a little fan, which helped.
After a little rest, we went back out walking. We followed Vasterlanggatan road which apparently goes for 3 kilometers and is a tourist shopping street. It crosses the water passing thru a little island that houses the Department of Public Safety. We eventually stopped at Polette restaurant and had a Swedish Meatballs entree which we shared. We don’t seem to desire full fledged meals these days.
We had a three-scoop gelato for dessert: Tiramisu, Passion Fruit and Chocolate.
Back to the hotel and we fell asleep watching Men in Black with Swedish subtitles. There was a church clock tower that seemed to be right outside our window which chimed every quarter hour. Lynn said she heard just about every quarter chime all night.
Saturday 8 June (Stockholm/Sea Breeze)
We arose early, having gone to bed early. We had the morning free.
Breakfast was nice. They offered watermelon juice, which we initially mistook for tomato juice.
Most of us walked down to the dock to take the ferry to the Vasa museum. The ticket booth didn’t open until later, so we had to use the ticket machines. It took a committee to figure out how to process a ticket, and you could only do one person-ticket at a time. Tony Strike finally got the process and he then became the ticketmaster.
The ferry also didn’t come every ten minutes as we were led to believe. Fortunately one of the locals knew it was coming at 9am, so that made us feel better. We needed to be back at the hotel by 11:30am to get on the bus.
It was a short trip over to the next island. On the island was an amusement park, so there were lots of young folks. We walked past the ABBA museum, the Viking museum, the Sea Wrecks museum and the Spirit museum. The last one is not a museum of spirituality, but a museum about wine and beer and alcohol.
Speaking of museums, here and in the Czech republic, every other building seems to be a museum. And speaking of things not-spiritual, in Prague we walked by the Museum of Torture and the Museum of Sex Machines.
There’s a museum for everything!
The Vasa is a 17th century Swedish warship. This strongly armed warship was built in 1628. It had two decks of cannons. It was a new style of construction and the two decks made it too high and too narrow, so it was top-heavy. As it set sail on its inaugural voyage with both decks of cannon ports open for a show, a wind started it heeling to one side. Soon, the lower level cannon ports were under water and the gushing water was too much for the ship. It didn’t capsize, but listed to the side and sunk. Only the three masts were visible above the water.
This was a great embarrassment to the Swedish king, who had the masts cut off. They then forgot where exactly it was.
In 1951 a shipwreck searcher found it. It was raised from the bottom of Stockholm harbor. The brackish water preserved most everything, so the raising was a wonderful archeological find. The ship was cleaned and dry docked. They then built a museum building around it.
They replaced the rusting bolts which were damaging the wood. But those bolts then began to rust, so they replaced the replacement bolts with new stainless steel replacement bolts. They hope the Vasa will last another 500 years.
We left the Vasa and returned to the dock to do the ticket purchase exercise again. Then on to the ferry and back to the hotel. It was just about noon, so some went up the hill to watch the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace. The noontime change includes horses and a marching band.
The bus was finally available, so we made a luggage parade down the hill. They loaded us up, but before we could leave, the bus driver needed to do some intricate maneuvering to get the bus free from its parking place. A small car had parked behind the bus, making it difficult to get out.
Once freed, the trip to the shipyard was pretty quick.
We had to wait for just a bit for them to get ready to process us. But once ready loading went quick. We had to pass thru a security checkpoint, then onboard. They offered us a washtowel to clean ourselves from the dust of travel, and then a Mimosa drink. It looks very much like an Orange Juice drink except it also has champagne. Lynn took one, as did I, except I asked the contents. With this education, turning us into wine connoisseurs, we turned our drinks back in.
Last time we were on a Windstar cruise, on the checkout day we discovered we had a ‘boat credit’ of some $50 that we had not spent. This time, we investigated at checkin and discovered that we each had a boat credit of $150! So we signed up for the 200MB internet ($60) and the unlimited laundry package ($112). We’ll figure out what else to spend the rest on before the last day.
Lynn took a nap while I did the Ship Tour. We finished in time for the mandatory drill.
There is always an Evacuation Drill at the start of each cruise. It’s to help you know how to find your life preserver, how to put it on, and where to go to get on the life boat. That all went easy.
Each evening they have a talk where they describe the next-day’s destination. For the first talk, they also introduced the Spa personnel and held a Spa raffle. You had to be present to win, which is unfortunate because the Jensen, Lowe, Daun, Wallis, and Pesci names were all called. Only the Wallis and Pesci were present.
Finally they did the Sail-away. We gathered at the Aft to watch the backing, and then forward to view the departure. Mark talked with Steve Clark about sailing. Steve was in a fraternity that had a sailboat on the Great Salt Lake. Every Saturday, there was a 20-boat race, the winner of which got a keg of beer. Steve’s fraternity usually won the race.
Carol signed us all up for the Candles Restaurant event, wherein they transform the Veranda into a Steak House restaurant. We both had the Filet which was super tender. A Crème Brule and Lemon Tart dessert made a great evening.
Sunday 9 June (Mariehamn Island)
We got to sleep in today, since we didn’t dock until 7am. And since it is Sunday, nothing is open until 10:00.
We had breakfast and gathered about 9:25am. We all walked into town, about a 15 minute stroll. We were at the Bike rental shop at 9:50, so we had to wait ten minutes.
Lynn and Mark rented three-speed bikes, as did most others. Except Tony Strike, who rented a scooter! After the usual: Someone went to the WC, someone went to look for them, they came back but the searcher was still missing, etc, we finally took off.
It was fun. You really do remember how to ride a bike you’ve once learned.
We didn’t have a clear map of how to get to where we wanted to go, although we did know where we wanted to go. So we had to stop and recalibrate from time to time. We veered off course at one point and ended up visiting some lovely homes right next to the sea. We got back on track but were starting to worry about the time. Michael Harward really wanted to cross at least one bridge, so we road out to the Lemland bridge crossing. It took some time for us to situate everyone for the group photograph. We then turned around and headed back.
On the way out, there was a pretty good headwind blowing in our faces off the starboard bow of our bikes. But on the way back, it blew our bikes up the hill. So that was fortuitous.
At one point, we stopped for a break. I came up behind Ed Bagley, and fumbled the stop. Over I went, crashing into Ed and landing in the brush.
Ouch.
Fortunately, only my pride was damaged. So off we started again.
Lynn took us thru the town before we returned to the Bike Rental shop. But then Tony rode up on his scooter to report that Ed was walking his broken bike back because of the collision we had.
Double-Ouch
We walked on back to find Ed not only walking the bike, but having to balance the bike on the front wheel, since the back wheel had disconnected itself from the frame. Three of us engineered the wheel back on, and Ed was able to ride the rest of the way.
We walked back to the ship, meeting the Jensen’s and Pesci’s. They reported their experience in the local Maritime Museum.
The most noteworthy activity being a movie screen area where they all sat and watched as nothing happened. Then finally someone got up, and that caused some action on the screen. Apparently, the screen reacted to the audience dancing. So as you danced more vigorously, the screen characters became more animated. The ‘goal’ was to get a shy sailor to smile, then move, and finally join in the dancing.
With that endorsement, we all decided we did not need to see the Maritime Museum.
It seems that when we returned to the ship, so did everyone else. The lunch area was swamped. It was still quite windy, and all the inside tables were occupied. So we had to take our lunch out on the veranda or to the outside lounge. Our hot food got cold right away. Still good but not as nice.
After lunch we went to some ship presentations. We started with the Cruise Consultant talking about the Windstar Alaska cruise. It was really nice, but seemed to have too much ‘high adventure’ activities for us. We think the Square Dance Alaska cruise might be more befitting for us.
Next we listened to the Destination Manager talk about the various tours available from the ship at the upcoming cities we will visit. It was a nice way to find out about what are the neat things to see in the upcoming cities. We will be using the Gee’s tour arrangements, but at least we know what Windstar considers important to see.
We left early to join our group having a Come Follow Me discussion about John 13-15. It was held in the Compass Rose lounge, which we virtually had to ourselves. At the end, we summarized that our Montgomery Ward friendships encouraged us to be better.
We caught the tail end of enrichment lecturer Elena Ikonorova, who talked about the Carl Faberge’ eggs. We picked up our passports which are required for visiting Helsinki, St Petersburg and Tallinn.
We had our first dinner in the large dining room and ate with the Daun’s. They shared their cruise experiences as well as their retirement concerns.
After dinner, we went up to the Compass Rose lounge to hear the pianist play some Great American Songbook tunes. As we arrived he went on break so we went back to our room, watched The Great and Powerful Oz DVD and fell asleep.
Monday 10 June (Helsinki Finland)
We woke later than usual (about 8am). We rushed thru breakfast and prepared to visit Helsinki.
They let us know we needed to have our passports to visit Helsinki. But existing and returning, all they cared about was our Windstar room card. How easy is that!
Our Finish tour guide Lola (who is half Swedish) met us at the gate and we boarded our Double Decker bus. We sat right in the front with a full window. It was just like being in the front of a roller coaster; we had a great view.
Finland was part of Sweden for 600 years. There were several wars between Sweden and Russia. Sweden lost, which is how the Finland area became part of Russia. The Tsars of Russia ruled for 110 years. The Finish people saw their opportunity during the breakup of Russia. Finland became an independent country in 6 December 1917. Unfortunately right after they declared independence, the country had a civil war between the working class and the upper class. 37,000 people died during the civil war. The upper class eventually won.
The northern part of the country (north of the arctic circle), known as Lapland, has almost two months of total darkness each year.
Finland boasts the cleanest air in the world, and has been voted the happiest nation in the world two years in a row. There are about 188,000 islands in Finland.
There is no word for “Please” in the Finish language. That, the lack of social skills, and the shyness of the people make it seem as if the Finish people are rude. Come here. Sit there. There isn’t a way to make it like a request.
The people have free health care and free schooling including the university level. 15% of the people are immigrants, particularly from Estonia (which is two hours away by ferry). To become a citizen, you must pass a language test. There are two official languages: Swedish and Finish. The country is 73% Lutheran. There are 35,000 Muslims, but no Mosques yet. Everyone speaks English, which is taught starting in the first grade. There is high taxation: 30-60% of income. Children of working parents receive free lunches in the parks during the summer; all they need to bring is a plate and eating utensils.
During the school year, all the students receive a free lunch.
Our guide let us know there are about 5 million people in Finland and about 3 million Saunas. Saunas are a big deal in Finland.
The first thing we saw getting off the boat was a ferris wheel. Imagine that, one of the ferris wheel cars is a sauna.
We passed by the US Embassy, and a most interesting building that looked like the bottom of a boat (upside down).
As we drove along the marina, we saw some flat tables on a dock. These are used (historically) for washing carpets. The water is brackish (meaning low salt content), so in the morning the folks bring their carpets down to the dock, wash them in the water, and leave them to dry until they return in the evening.
We then bussed to the John Sibelius memorial. He is the most well known Finish composer. We know him as the composer who wrote Finlandia. The memorial is a bunch of pipes, kind of like a church organ. That’s ironic in that he never wrote any church music. There are 600 steel pipes. The sculptor and her assistant had serious health illnesses because of their work with the metal.
We then traveled to the oldest part of Helsinki (although the buildings were quite new, since everything was made of wood and it all burned). There we saw a Power Station museum.
Next, the Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Church). This is the second-most visited place in Finland. It is build inside a rock. There is no alter, no bells. There is a metal cross on the outside. It’s known for the great acoustics and hosts 200 concerts a year.
Then on to Odia, the new library. It’s only been open three or four months. It has a unique shape and some great resources, including 3-D printers and a robotics workshop. It has a circular staircase inscribed with over 300 adjectives to describe people. This is to indicate that all people are welcome. We were able to use the WiFi to check some emails; unfortunately, no email saying we had an offer on our Loveland home. :-(
Then on to the area, near the dock, where the Senate and Parliament buildings are. There are 23 harbors and a fleet of 9 icebreaker ships in Finland.
There is an open market across the street. We saw some interesting items (like reindeer skins and fur hats), but nothing we couldn’t live without. Having just moved, we appreciate even more the value of things and not having them.
Then, back on board for a 4pm sail-away to St Petersburg.
While Lynn slept, Mark went to a lecture on Vasa: the king and the ship. New information we hadn’t heard was that there were two construction crews (Dutch and German) working on opposite sides of the ship. And that their rulers were not the same size. This made the ship lopsided. In its current state, the stanchions holding it up are putting pressure on the hull, and the whole ship is shrinking 1mm per year. They are worried it might not last.
The dining room steward was able to create two large tables to hold all 22 of our group. Which was nice, except many of those at our table were too far away for us to hear and converse.
After dinner, we went to the lounge, and the two singer/performers were just starting. We had the place to ourselves. We danced a slow dance and a cha-cha and then decided to go out on the deck for a romantic stroll. The performers thanked us for visiting. As we were leaving, the Wallis’ poked their heads in.
Up on the deck, we found the ladies doing laps on deck 7. We stopped by the bridge to hear how ships communicate, just like airplanes, using English. They showed us the radar and talked about a shipwrecked container ship we noticed off the starboard bow.
When you come to a port (at least in Europe), you have to take on a local pilot. This is someone that has been a Master Pilot for at least 10 years and is currently active. They navigate the craft into port.
Lynn joined the gals doing laps while Mark sat with the guys out on deck 8 and ordered Hot Chocolate. We watched a couple Carnival and Viking cruise ships pass us. The navigator said they would beat us to St Petersburg, but we would be docked much closer to shore.
We left them sitting with blankets and went back to our cabin with an admonition: “Don’t stay out past midnight!”
Tuesday 11 June (St Petersburg)
St Petersburg is recognized as the Northern or Cultural capital of Russia. We crossed Annunciation Bridge, saw Annunciation Cathedral which was built in the 19th century.
We went to the Neva river which freezes over every year and floods every 100 years usually XX24. So in 5 years, watch the news!
Peter the Great invited architects from Europe; thus the buildings look European.
We saw two Egyptian Sphinx circa 13 century BC. France gave these to the Russian Ambassador, and they are across the street from the Academy of Fine Arts.
We saw the Green winter palace and the yellow Admiralty building. To protect themselves from the Swedish navy, the Russians created a shipbuilding industry. We saw some Rostrum columns with ship bows. These are usually victory spoils of ships you have defeated, but these columns just have decorative bows.
Near the Admiralty building is a fake 17th century ship, which houses a restaurant and gym.
We visited the church of the Savior of the Spilt Blood. This church commemorates the location where Alexander the second was killed. It’s all mosaics; it took 20 years to construct. It was opened and consecrated in 1907.
Next we visited St Isaac's cathedral. It has stained glass, which is not common is Russia.
Then, we visited the Hermitage. It starts with the Summer Palace Peter the Great built for Elizabeth. She died before it was completed. It has a great illusion of space because two of the walls were windows and mirrors. The ceiling is very high.
We entered the main throne room, the hall of St George. The ceilings were decorated to reflect the patterns on the floors. Throughout, we saw double-headed eagles, particularly on the throne and chandeliers. There was a section with a collection of armor. Mark was in hobby heaven!
In 1764, Catherine obtained 224 canvases of Dutch master collection, which is the foundation of the Hermitage. There were also Raphael bible scenes as well as Rembrandt's last work: The Prodigal Son.
We returned to the ship for dinner, and then back in town to the new Mariinsky theater to see the Bronze Horseman, a ballet in three acts about an eponymous poem by Alexander Pushkin. The performers are mostly ballet students except for the primaries.
The theater was very nice, but it was hard to keep our eyes open because we were so tired. Mark feared it would be boring ballerinas prancing across the stage, but instead it was more like folk ballet with a story line.
A lovely evening in St Petersburg.
Wednesday 12 June (St Petersburg)
Our goal today is Peterhof, the summer residence.
First, we stopped at a souvenir store. We saw some lovely (read: Expensive-more that $200!) Babushka dolls, lacquered boxes, eggs and furs.
St Petersburg is often called Northern Venice because it has 42 islands. There was a height restriction on houses; nothing can be higher than the winter palace. Around the river area are 18th century buildings. Some were destroyed in wars and were rebuilt in the same mode.
We drove past St Nickolas cathedral. This is the same St Nick as we celebrate, but he doesn’t do Christmas in Russia.
In Russia, Grandfather Frost brings Christmas gifts. He is accompanied by a Snow maiden, who is his granddaughter. In Russia, the Christmas tree is replaced by the New Years tree, topped with a Red Star.
As we were driving we saw 19th century houses and tenements. Stores are usually on the ground level and the most expensive apartments are on the top level. We drove past the Triumphal Arch, built in 1812 commemorating Russia’s success against Napoleon. There was a large housing area built by the Chinese with a large new shopping center.
There are more than 300 bridges.
Then about 1 hour ride out of town to Peterhof.
It was built in 1705 with 150 fountains powered by gravity.
One of the fountains depicted Samson slaying the lion which is symbolic of Peter the first defeating Charles the 12th of Sweden. There were also many mythological statues to glorify Russia.
There are a couple ‘trick’ fountains. One has cobblestone-activated sprays that blast you when you walk by. Mark bravely walked the cobblestones. Another was manually controlled to spray people as they walk by.
Lunch: Russian salad, Borsch, Chicken Kiev and mashed potatoes, with Ice Cream for Dessert.
We went down into the Obtober subway station to see the elegance. The walls still have symbols of the communist era.
We took the subway for two stops. The escalator up was the longest we had ever seen. It’s probably in violation of some OSHA safety rules.
We visited the Cathedral of Peter and Paul, which is a fortress on the smallest island of St Petersburg. It was originally a political prison. It is a burial place of the Tsars including Alexander the Great and Peter the Great (founder of the Russian Navy). This is the oldest cathedral in St Petersburg. Inside is more like a palace than a church. Peter the Great saw pulpits in Europe and brought the idea to Russia, placing the first one in this cathedral.
We returned to the ship in time for the on-deck BBQ. We sat with the Bagleys and enjoyed reminiscing on Saudi Arabia. Later, the crew played dance music; Only the Harwards were brave enough to get out on the deck.
To end the evening, we gathered in the lounge for a game of Name That Song. NJ Pesci and Ed Bagley knew titles and artists like nobodies business, although Lynn identified one songs’ artist as Sergeant Barry Sadler, to the surprise and delight of the experts.
Thursday 13 June (Tallinn)
We slept in, so much so that we missed breakfast! The ship was running at its fastest speed: 13 knots. We arrived at 11am, and All-Aboard is 4:30pm, so we don’t really have that much time to enjoy Tallinn. Fortunately we visited Estonia during our Poland trip.
After debarking, we had to walk outside the control area to get to our guide and bus. You can’t drive in the Old City, so we started with a drive about the outside.
We expect the city to be very busy because there are 5 super large cruise ships in port, with another arriving at 1pm. These ships hold about 4-5,000 passengers each.
The area was inhabited 10,000 years ago with Viking/pagan people. In 1219 the Danish and German crusaders came. This then became a major trading point between eastern and western Europe. They were very prosperous during the 13th and 14th centuries. In the 16th century Tsar Ivan the Terrible attacked for access to the sea. Then Sweden, Poland and Denmark fought for the land. It became part of Sweden for 150 years.
Peter the Great made Estonia part of the Russian empire. In 1918, Estonia became an independent country.
Tallinn was bombed for several days because the Germans were here. Fortunately most of the old town was saved.
We drove past the Park of Catherine which was built by Peter the Great for his wife. This was a luxury area where the nobility of Russia would come. We saw several monuments. The first was Rusalka: An angel with a cross blessing the sailors of the Russian battleship of that name that sank nearby.
We saw areas built for the 1980 Olympics: Estonia hosted the Sailing portion of the Russia-hosted Olympics that year.
We visited the exterior of the Estonia History museum. In back was a Russian Monument cemetery where they gathered the old Soviet statues (like Lenin and Stalin). Most of the statues were supposed to be destroyed, but they were gathered and discarded here. One year ago, they decided to turn them into a museum because it is part of their history.
Estonia fought on both sides in WW2. There was a large memorial to victims of Communism, consisting of two parallel black walls on which names were written.
There is one large hotel, built by the communists just outside the old town. The Russians built it because of the visitors to Estonia, but they dedicated one floor to the KGB to spy on them. All the other high-rising buildings are away from the Old Town. Nothing can be higher than the old town steeple.
We learned that the people from Helsinki ferry to Tallinn to shop because the prices are much better. The ferry crossing takes two hours.
The Estonia and Finish languages are somewhat similar. But the Russian and Estonian languages are very different and have different alphabets.
There was just one memorial we saw in the old city to Boris Yelsen to honor his role in the peaceful restoration of this city.
We started with the upper-old town and visited the palace/parliament. There are 8 political parties. 5 are currently seated. There are 101 members. The government was very liberal until the last election, when conservatives took 18 seats.
Across the street was a Russian Orthodox church (called the Alexander Neesqui cathedral) built at the top of the hill to show everyone Russia’s the boss. It was the only church to survive the fire 300 years ago. It was converted to a Lutheran church.
We went into a Medieval Merchant house built in the 15th century, now converted to the city art performance theatre.
We finally arrived at the town square. There is a town hall that is the only one in Europe built in the Gothic style. They also featured the oldest continuously operating Pharmacy. It has been operated by one family for 11 generations.
While walking around the old city, we came across a strange warning/problem sign. Apparently the city property owners (just like those in San Francisco) have trouble with vagrants. This sign warns them if they misbehave, their feat with be immortalized on Youtube.
We walked back to the ship, a 30 minute stroll, past the floating cities, to our ship. Mark went up on deck and relaxed in the hot tub pool while Lynn took a rest.
After dinner we attended the crew talent show. There was some fun and talented performers (particularly the South Pacific dancers), except for one act that was raunchy.
Friday 14 June (at sea)
Breakfast was leisurely. The sea was quite calm, and it was really foggy. You could barely see the water.
Lynn went to the morning stretch class with Jan and Budge. We both attended the Towel Folding Demonstration, where the housekeeping staff showed us how they make the towel animals that populate our cabins each day.
We also visited the ship store; the Russian items they had were lovely, but much more expensive than what we saw on shore.
Lynn then went to the Posture class while Mark took a nap. The right posture depends on having the right foundation under your feet. There are four arches that need support. Lynn played the guinea pig. They demonstrated how she couldn’t keep her balance while standing barefoot. When they placed a pair of ‘Good Feet’ under her feet, she had no problem staying balanced.
Several members of our group decided to purchase some.
We had dinner together at 7pm, followed by our group photo shot on the deck. Many of us then met at the spa to pick up our purchases.
Next: Scandinavia
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