Germany warnemunde and Rostock

Day 13

Surprisingly Very Nice

we woke in the morning and it was gloriously sunny outside, this meant I could work on the old tan as we walked round Germany. We had read the P&O brief on warnemunde and it said there was not much there, so it was best to go stariaght to Rostock on the train. After a 40 minute train and tram ride (absolutely gratis!), we made it into the centre of Rostock.

It was a very pleasent place, quite quiet but with a variety of shops and markets. After ages looking round the city centre taking the standard photos of all the tourist attractions, we headed into a local bar for some local German beer.

After riding around on public transport all day, we decided to go back to Warnemunde via a local ferry. On route to catching the boat we came across a street vendor selling currywurst (curried sausage), trust me it tastes better than it looks.

Eventually the boat reached Warnemunde and we decided to to have a look round the village. The place was amazing and had a real buzz about it, loads of shops, bars, coffee shops and floating markets. We should have stayed here all day, it was so much nicer than Rostock. We can only assume that the P&O brochure had slammed the place because they had wanted to sell Tours to Rostock.

some cool sandsculptures we came across

In the evening we ate at Sindu, this is a Indian restaurant onboard that we had to pay exra for (£15 per head). The food was absolutely amazing, we all had 5 coures and we were absolutely stuffed by the end of it. Even though the food was great, It is only a place you would at once while you are on board.

Sea Day

Day 12

Still no sun


We awoke to find it was cloudy outside, I could almost feel my tan fading by the second. Wth no sunbathing to be done I headed to the gym again!!!!!!!!!! for a very very long workout, followed by a sauna and thena dip in the heated outdoor pool. After feeling very refreshed I headed to the Buffet zone and absolutely stuffed my self full of food.

　
after a quick game of deck quoits, which I won!!!!! In fact I destroyed the opposition. A couple of us headed to the planet bar, where I helped self to couple of beers and typed up the old blog.

The Planet Bar

　
In the evening it was another black tie event, I had to dig out another shirt tie combo. In fact, the clothes situation is getting pretty bad now, especially in the sock department. May have to do some laundry soon, or I could be really really lazy and just buy some more!

Estonia - Tallin

Day 11


Where has the sun gone?
　
After another early start, we headed onto th deck to find we were in the middle of thunderstorm and it was absolutely lashing down. After a full english beakfast we caught the shuttle bus into the old town of Tallin.
　

The Old town was very beautiful, with multiple coloured houses and variety of buildings. Lots of the women were dressed in traditonal dress, trying to tempt you into the local bars. After wandering around for about a hour we ended up in the old town centre.
　

As we passed through the narrow winding streets there were plenty of nice churches and buildings.
　

After stopping for a taste of the local beer saku (really good quality beer and pretty cheap too), we headed to the city view points take some more photos.
　

After several hours looking round the city in pouring rain, it finally ground us down and we headed back to the shuttle bus. As we walked back I came across a local shop selling cheap alcohol and cigarrettes. After purchasing some saku I had a look for some menthol and super king blue smokes for some people at work, however there were none anywhere.

　
In the evening we went to watch another comedian called Peter Piper, he was not my type of comedy. However, everyone else qiute liked him.

Ship Day

Very lazy Day

Day 10

Today we are curently anchored in St Petersberg in the glorious hot sunny weather. Unfortunately not having a visa to get into russia and with no decent tours on offer it meant we all spent the day on the ship.
The hot weather meant it was probably meant it was my lasiest day yet. After a quick trip to the gym in the morning I basically basked in the sun till about 8 and had a couple of beers as well.


In the evening we al headed to the buffet and then on to watch a comedy magician called Manuel Martinez.

Here are some pics of St Petersberg as we sailed from the harbour.

Russia - St Petersberg

Day 9


Midnight Sun

Prior to arriving in St Petersberg you had to book on to a organised tour if you wanted to visit the city. The russians are very tight on visas and they dont let every tom, dick and harry into the country, that is unless you are willing to pay £100 for a visa. Anyway, the whole familiy was booked on a walking tour of St Petersberg. After negotiating customs we all headed to the tour bus.

Military Building

On entering the city we were greeted with typical eastern european high rise flats, that looked very dodgy and somewhat intimidating. As we entered the heart of the city it was getting more and more beautiful and you could see why the city was known as the jewel of the baltic. There are lots of wide open waterways and palaces on every corner.

We began our walking tour at Palace Square . The place was litterally filled with newly married couples in their wedding gear. Apparently it is good marital luck to walk round the various mouments of the city. However, our Russian guide said it was a load of nonesense, because in all marriages there are three rings, the engagment ring, the wedding ring and the suffering!

The Bronze Horseman

　
St Isaacs Cathedral ( Gold Dome)

　
The next place we visited was the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, quite magficicent building full of colour.

　
Not far from the Cathedral was the local flea market. As well as selliing the usual tourist nonesense, it was also full of weaponary ( knives and replica guns)

　
The final place we visited was a old Russian Warship, unfortunately we had just arrived too late to have a look round it.

　




As we headed back to the ship, we thought that th days fun was over however we were wrong. All of a sudden a voice from the middle of the bus (i was sat on the back seats, because I am seriously cool! or more likely the back seats were a far walk for all the elderly on board and they where the only ones left when I got on the bus) said we are on fire!!!! Sure enough there was black smoke billowing from a water machine. My mum was in full blown panic mode and was ready smash the back window of the bus with a hammer. The driver quickly sorted the problem out and we were on our way again, with all the bus windows intact.


During the summer months Russia basks in daylight pretty much all night. Here are some photos of the mdnight sun
　

A couple of hours later here it is rising again.



　

I can honestly say that St Petersbergh is one of the greatest cities that I have ever visited. I just wish I could have explored the city more, I get the feeling you could spend weeks looking round and never getting board. It is definitely somewhere I would like to come again.

Sea Day

Day 8

Mid Holiday Weigh In

At the beggining of the cruise there was a introductionary talk, and peraphs the most interestinrwng fact was 'the average person puts on between 1 and 2 stone over the course of the holiday'. So today i headed to the gym for a weigh in. I have managed to put on 4pounds so far, it looks like a upgrade to brown scrubs will be inevitable when I get back to work.

As for the days goings on, it consisted of the usual sea day activites, deck quoits (usual poor performance), gym, tanning ,swimming. and couple of beers

Here are some pics of the boat in the evening time.

The Sea Screen, where they play movies on deck

One of the three pool areas



Finland - Helsinki

Day 7

Another Scorcher

After another very early start we all headed into Helsinki to hire some bikes. However, due to the very hot temperatures we decided this would be a bad idea as it would be far too exhausting. The first stop was the local market. The place was full of the usual tourist crap you find at all the port markets " i love finland’ type stuff!

Next on the agenda was some obligatory photo snaps of the local attractions

The presidential palace

　
The Rock Church



　
Senaatintori Tuomiokirkko ( senate square), home of the lutheran Cathedral of St Nicholas



　
After walking through a beautiful park ( kaivopusito park) and a variety of shops we stopped in a small cafe that had free wi-fi. This gave me the opportunity to update my blog finally. I have been unable to put anything on it so far due to the extortionate cost of satellite wi-fi on the ship (£100 for 60 minutes). Anyway, after sampling a couple of the local beers we headed back into town. You have to be careful wandering around Helsinki due to all the trams; you literally cannot hear them. After a couple of near misses we headed back to the ship for some relaxation and a bit of tanning.

One of the rules of the boat is no throwing anything overboard, this obviously includes throwing food. However, after raiding the buffet cart I noticed there was one digestive biscuit left on my plate that I could not stomach. So I thought it would be a good idea to throw it overboard to the seagulls. After launching it with some effort, it looked like a Frisbee heading to open water. However, much to my horror a gust of wind brought it back towards the boat right towards the balcony decks several floors below. Luckily it landed on a unoccupied deck and I thought I had got away with it. Unfortunately every seagull in the dock had spotted the digestive and they descended on some poor sods balcony! People in surrounding headed for cover because they did not want to get crapped on. I made a sharp exit, having learnt my lesson, make sure you throw it harder next time!

After In the evening the whole family headed out for a couple of beers and into the casino. I did the usual and lost all my chips, I am down to my last £10 now.

Sweden Stockholm

Day 6

Hot Hot Hot

We arrived in Stockholm nice and early and much to my surprise some seriously hot weather. After leaving the ship nice and early, Claire, Stuart and my sister headed into town via the free shuttle bus. My first impression was that Stockholm had a big city vibe, however not the manic crowds that greeted us in Copenhagen. However, the Swedish shop opening times were 11 till 5, not sure if I could cope with that in the UK.

The first destination was Gamlastan, the old part of Stockholm, situated on a small island. This part of the city was full narrow winding streets, with houses painted in a variety of colours. Gamlastan is also home to the Royal Palace, and Stockholme Cathedral after taking the obligatory pictures we all headed back over the bridge into the modern area of the city.

Back in the main area of the city, there were lots of shops. After being dragged around many shops, Stuart and I decided to stop off in a nice little pub and have a couple of beers, very expensive ones! After about an hour the girls returned with their multiple purchases and we headed back to the coach pick up point. Where there was a giant queue and we almost missed the boat back!

One of the best parts of visiting Stockholm is the scenery sailing out. The surrounding sea consists of over 24,000 islands which makes for some picturesque scenes.

There is always one island that spoils the show though! In the picture below, the islands has been taken over by cormorants. They all nest together and due to the amount of bird waste they produce it destroys all the plants on the island. Apparently after about 10 years they move to a new island and then destroy that. I bet some Swedish millionaires are hoping the birds don’t nest of their island.

After another god meal we headed out to see the evening’s entertainment, a comedian called Ray Turner. He was excellent, he was taking the Mickey out of all the elderly on board the ship.

Denmark - Copenhagen

Day 5

Another early start, the weather was cloudy and humid.  As the boat pulled into Copenhagen you could see it was a huge industrial city, nothing lke Oslo.  We were off the ship for about 8am and began the long walk into the city centre. The capatin said it would be about a 20 minute walk,  this however was totally inaccurate as it took more like a hour.

Anyway, the first sight was the little mermaid.  A famous statue that is situated in Copenhagen harbour.   I am not quite sure what  I was expecting, however, it was a quite small but quite pretty never the less.  After fighting through the crowds of tourists I managed to take a photo, and then we were on our way.

The amount of cyclist in Copenhagen was unbelievable, there were literally hundreds of them.  Every road had a wide cycle lane, often much lager than the pavement for the pedestrians. The cycle lanes even had their own traffic lights.  The UK should have a long hard look at Copenhagen,  I can honestly say that if Preston had the same facilites I would be out on my bike more often.

 After a long  walk through the backstreets we arrived at the Vor Frelsers Kirke, a large church in a area known as Christianshavn.  After paying roughly £3 each to get in, we climbed 400 steps to the summit (encountering many rude foreign tourists on the way. Who just barge past, no sorry or excuse me).  Despite wanting to throw a couple of rude tourists off the top of the tower,  I was more interested in my own safety.  I do not have a head for heights, so I clung to the inner sides of the tower and took a couple of photos before getting out of there!

The next stop was freetown, the centre of Christianhavn. This is suppose to be a hippy commune, and has tried to separate itself from Copenhagen.  The area has tried promote itself as a more liberated zone especially were soft drugs are concerned.  All the walls in the small section are full of graffitti (art!) and there is rubbish everywhere and lots of signs saying  'no phot'. The reasons for the signs became quite clear,  loads of people were smoking cannibis, with cakes of the stuff on the tables for all to see.  Rather than a hippy retreat, it looked more like a hangout for Denmarks most wanted .  I can imagine, it is not the sort of place you would want to visit after dark.

After a carlsberg (the home of the beer. ps, it tasted much better over here than in the uk), we headed back to the ship.  In the evening we went and had a delicious italian, and then back to the cabin because we were exhausted.

Norway - Oslo

Norway

Oslo

In the morning we all decided to play a game of deck quoits, basically you have to throw a  small rope disc into a circle.  This was suppose to be a friendly game, however some of the older generation, who have been on about a million cruises took it very seriously!  One woman in particular, seemed to be judge, jury and executioner in deciding who scored what, and whether or not a particular shot was a foul.  However, despite being a old dragon, she was particually good at this game and made it all the way to the final (i got knocked out in the first round, it was not my finest performance!). Despite her never say die attitude, she just was not up to the job and lost. She is now public enemy number one, well she is where deck quoits is concerned.

The boat trip into oslo was amazing we passed through STRAIGHTS which were littered with islands and amazing landscape.  I am not sure how a boat this size could even fit through some of the gaps, we were literally a couple of metres  from the rocks.

Anyway, we eventually docked in oslo and it was very humid.  After a quick look round the dock we headed into town, which was very beautiful and quiet.  There were plenty of old buildings, everything was tidy and the people were friendly enough.  It did not feel like a big city, it felt like a very relaxing place and nobody was in a hurry.  However, it was extremely quiet and that is despite the 6,000 tourists that had just descended on the place. After a good look around in the heavy downpours we went to the sculpture Vigeland Sculpture Park. The place was full of weird and wonderful monuments and was defintitely worth the effort of walking there.

Maybe Michael Jackson took some inspiration from oslo!

After several hours of looking around we went back to the ship and had our usual gym fix and then organised lunch with everyone.  After a good thai curry, we all went and played some cards and then Claire went to the roulette table and won all the money back that had been lost from the night before.

The Royal Palace

A Day At Sea

Day 2

Feeling very young!

After a good look round the ship,  I came to the conclusion that i must be one of the youngest people on it!  The average age range is between 70 to 90, most people look like they could keel over at any minute.  I expect the amount of people that start the cruise will be considerably higher than at the end.  This may explain why so many people were out on deck the previous day, waving their flags and drinking champagne as we left the UK, because I expect some of the people may never see it again.

Anyway, today was a bit of a lazy day, we all just chilled out, went to the gym and did very little.  In the evening however, it was a black tie night.  This meant we all had to get suited and booted to go out to dinner.  Prior to dinner, we all attended a dancing show.  To be honest it was not my sort of thing, apart from the woman dressed as G.I Jane (sadly no photo)!

Dinner was it usual high standard, however my dad had a bit too much to drink.  So there was a bit of a laugh at his expense as he could not find his key card to get into the room (you would have to be there to see the funny side).

After tea we headed to the casino, my Nan got very lucky on the casino table and practically doubled her money.  Unfortunately I lost most of mine, but at least I had some fun.

Azura Baltic Cruise

Day 1    Preston to Southampton

Bad Start

The day started very early about 0630 if my memory serves me correct,  after a quick shower we were up and ready for the taxi.  The taxi was due at 7am so we could get to the bus station for 730 to catch our bus down to Southampton.  However, as the clocked passed 0715 I had a frantic call from my dad saying that the taxi had not turned up and they had been given a lift with a next door neighbour  and we had to make our own way to the station.  I was not impressed, they had basically left us with no time at all to sort out alternative transport.  After a couple of phone calls, a local taxi firm picked us up and we got to the station just in time!  We were he last people on the bus, everyone was waiting for our arrival.  After a short walk of shame to the back of the bus, we soon set off and were on our merry way to Southampton.

After a 6 hour journey we arrived at the port, and i can not begin to tell you how big the boat is. As soon as we entered the ferry terminal we joined a massive queue,  after reaching the front we were all given cards and told to wait for the number on the card to be read out.  After waiting about a hour we joined another queue to check in,  then another queue to go through security and then eventually we made it on board.

Our suitcases were already in our room,  so we quickly unpacked and headed outside to see the ship leave Southampton harbor.  All the posh totti (i am sure they were 50 years ago) were drinking champagne and waving flags.

After a nice 3 course meal evening, we all went to the bar and had a couple of drinks and played some comedy pool.  The reason farcical pool play was because the ship rocks back and forth, which gives the balls a mind of their own.

Below, a picture of the room.

Cruise Tommorrow

I am off on a two week cruise tommorow, not just myself but the entire family. It should be a great trip, I will post a blog entry for each day of the journey. We will be visiting Norway, Sweden, Finland (one of my favourite coutries), Denmark, Russia, Estonia, Germany and Belgium! However, we start with a epic bus journey from Preston to Southampton on what is meant to be the hottest day of the year,  Cant wait!!