June 24, 2013 - Tallin, Eastonia

We ventured into town this morning to find ourselves a beer and a wifi hot spot and ended up at this little place just outside of the old town area. There was a really, really drunk guy who moved our camera bag and sat down with us. Not sure what he was drinking but it was only 11 a.m. He gave us hell for playing on the Internet and not touring the town and told us multiple times how much he likes women. Needless to say, the visit to that establishment was cut way short. The waitress yelled at him but they continued to serve him and he kept moving from table to table. It's midsummer celebration all over this area and each country seems to celebrate it on a different day, we've been following it through the Baltic where every day has been a holiday since Visby.

We did a great tour today with a small group that I booked through AAA. We were joined by a family from NCL (Norwegian star I believe), what a bunch of uptight assholes, they were traveling with Mom, Dad, kids and grandparents - nobody seemed to care that though Grandpa was in great shape all the walking and cobblestones and step were a pretty hard on him. Our tour girl was a skinny blonde and she kept saying 'so, yea' during every story she was sharing. She gave us great information and neat little stories.

The tour started at the presidential home (white house) which is actually pink. The flag of the President of Estonia flies whenever the President is in Estonia, it was flying today. Behind the presidential home is Catherine's Valley which is an English garden founded by Peter the Great and contains Kadroirg Palace built in 1718 as one of the summer palaces. Unfortunately, the palace was getting a face lift and not easily viewed.

Stopped by the amphitheater where many American musicians have performed....Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and many more. Next was a stop by the Olympic village and a dip in the Baltic Sea!! The water temperature was 19 degrees centigrade, and though I only dipped my toes in, I was wading in the Baltic Sea!

Old city was definitely our favorite with many old and interesting buildings and stories. Maidens Tower next to the Dutch Kings Garden dates to the 14th Century. Naming it Maidens or Virgins tower is another example of the wacky Medieval irony because this building used to house a prison for prostitutes.

We walked up the 158 steps up the side of the cliff to visit the upper side of town where we had a fabulous view of both old and new Tallinn.

We toured numerous old churches including the cathedral of St. Mary which has an incredible display of coats of arms from the wealthy residents. Pictures were not allowed inside the churches but there were dozens of beautiful displays.

Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built by the Russians in the 1900's when they were occupying that area. This was a traditional looking onion dome church that was absolutely gilded in gold inside. What a site!

The oldest business in Tallinn is a pharmacy from 1422 and is still in business today. Nearby, tombstones from 14th and 15th century St. Catherine's Dominican Friary were on display along the one walkway. Interesting to see that rebuilding from WWII devastation is still in process throughout the Baltic region.

June 23, 2013 Riga, Latvia

Riga, founded in 1201, is the geographical center of the Baltic States.  Tourism is just now beginning to boom so it does not feel like a tourist town...where is Diamonds International?!?!.

The city of 800,000 on the Daugava River is the capital of Latvia, a country finding its place in a new world after being occupied for 50 years (1941 to 1991), first by the Nazis and then by the Soviet Union. Today, school kids are learning English as a second language instead of Russian. Most intriguing is how the city still feels like a bridge between what I would imagine the Old Soviet feels like and modern Europe. The old women were shuffling down the street, on the way to church and we stumbled upon an old man using a very crude broom to sweep the church steps - this reminded me of the Billy Joel song, Vienna.

We spent hours exploring the twisting cobblestone streets and alleyways, viewing historic buildings that have for the most part been restored from bombings during World War II. We ventured out today on our own with no tours scheduled. 

Old Riga was the Center of commerce during the middle ages. We entered Dome Square in the very middle of Old Riga. The massive 13th century red brick Dome Cathedral is situated on the square.  We also looked at House of Cats which is famous for the cat sculptures perched on the roof as well as the story that is associated with them. Not only did the beasts curse their first sculptor, he fatally fell while putting them up, but their purpose was to cause trouble. As legend has it, roughly 100 years ago, the Latvian owner of the building was excluded from the powerful Big Guild across the road by its ethnocentric German occupants. He ordered the cats to be turned around, backside up, as an insult to his enemies. They were turned around after a lengthy court battle and he was eventually admitted to the Guild.

It was an awesome day wondering through these areas. We stopped for a little wifi (and pizza and beer) at one of the beautiful sidewalk eateries. The weather was perfect for relaxing in the cafe. 

June 22, 2013 - Visby, Sweden

Visby, Sweden. Visby is the largest city on the west coast of Gotland. Gotland is situated in the middle of the Baltic Sea about 50 miles from mainland Sweden. Visby is considered the best preserved medieval town in Scandinavia with a population of 58,000 residents. You must also have a job in order to live here. If you go off to University on the mainland, you are not allowed to come back unless you have employment. Our tour guide graduated with 22 in his class in the 60's and he is the only one who currently lives in Gotland because the others could not find work.

Like all of the countries we've visited thus far, American music is played everywhere you go. Mostly Bee gees, Queen, really a 50's, 60's, 70's variety - interesting to hear these familiar songs wherever we go.

Our first stop was at Almedalen which is a park where the actual medieval sea port was once located in Visby. When Visby was a trading partner with the Hanseatic League, the harbor was the trading center of the Baltic. Today, Almedelan is a peaceful park where a little child was trying valiantly to catch herself a duck.

We drove through the beautiful countryside and made a stop at a very old church. There are many old churches in Gotland, most with a very similar history and almost all of them were Lutheran. The alter was built in 722 and the cross was created in 1200. Most churches have the original building in the center with additions in the front and back. The church cemetery had water spigots and watering cans and gardening tools scattered around so people could maintain the graves. The graves were only 50 year leases then someone else was buried in that plot. The old headstones were placed against the wall.

Next we climbed a ladder over a fence (these ladders appear everywhere) to view a boat shaped grave. Graves of the Late Bronze Age were arranged in the shape of large ships, outlined by rocks. Bodies were cremated then the bones were crushed and cleaned and place in an earthenware urn and buried either in the boat or just outside. There have been 350 graves identified in Gotland.

We ventured down to a fishing station where bygone days Gotlanders gathered during a few intense weeks in spring and autumn to catch fish. There are many poles for drying nets and the village currently is used as summer houses near the sea. There were tiny huts where the fisherman stored their tackle and equipment and sometime slept. I found the wooden roofs very interesting, they are said to last for 50 years and are a common roofing material on the island.

Hogklint nature preserve was our next stop, this is basically a beautiful cliff side location with stunning views of Visby and the shore lines. We named the one rock formation bear head because, we'll, it’s a very obvious reason.

No beers here, the locals make their own beer for their own consumption. We didn't see any pubs, but maybe we didn't walk around the port city enough, ended up with homemade ice cream instead and it was wonderful!

Journal - June 18-19, 2013 - Copenhagen, Denmark

Off to Copenhagen!

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

We had a close call with the luggage, the flight from Boston (with our bags) was delayed and landed 10 minutes prior our scheduled departure from Iceland. Fortunately we were delayed slightly and we met up with our bags in Copenhagen.

We checked into the Opera Hotel, one of Copenhagen’s oldest hotels. Originally built as a guest house in 1869 and converted to a hotel in 1950, Hotel Opera is decorated in a cozy yet classical style, creating a charming and peaceful atmosphere that really reigns throughout the hotel.  At the hotel entrance, you are welcomed by the Little Mermaid – one of the sculptures upon which the famed original version was based. The neighboring Royal Danish Theatre also makes its artistic presence felt at Hotel Opera.  During check in we noticed the room keys with brass tags, engraved with the room number, hanging from cup hooks behind the front desk – it somehow reminds us of the tower of terror.  The elevator holds 4 and only 4 people and there is a bedroom door like entrance. The Spiral staircase ascends from the 0 to 5th floor; the walls are lined with many photos of famous people who have stayed here. Definitely not a modern facility but has a great 20's like charm! The windows are open to the courtyard - and yes, they actually open!

This afternoon and evening we went out roaming around the area, lots of historic buildings and great architecture! The main mode of transportation seems to be by bike, thousands of them wheeling around the city – they are very old fashioned looking bikes, with baskets on the front - they remind me of the ones our parents had when we were kids.

We had dinner at this tiny restaurant called Restaurant Krebsegaarden that I had found in my research. It definitely lived up to the reviews. The owners base their menus on the latest gallery artist opening - the gallery is directly behind the restaurant. This week the artist was from Estonia so the menu was influenced by that region. I had a fantastic meal of pike perch and Glenn had wild boar. Add in the appetizers and desserts and it was yet another great meal on this adventure.

Across the street from the restaurant was a gay bar called the jail house. Our chef told us that if straight men were brave enough to enter, they would be locked up in cells. I could just see Glenn and his friends going there for the hell of it.

Tomorrow we board Vision of the Sea

Wednesday, June 19, 2013



Boarded the ship and did the normal ship things – time to chill out from the whirl wind trip so far and most importantly, rest up for the remainder of the journey. Vision of the Seas is an Enchantment size ship with the diamond lounge off of the Viking crown lounge.  She is a very tired looking ship, in desperate need of the refurbishment that’s scheduled to take place in 2-3 months.  

The Captain and the crew on this ship were wonderful.  Never have I had so many conversations with officers as we had onboard this ship.  Every night while we were relaxing in the Diamond lounge multiple officers would stop by to chat about our day or check up on the food and/or service.  Multiple times throughout this voyage I observed the Captain interacting with all levels of personnel; it was plain to see that he was a true leader.     

Journal - June 17-18 - Iceland

Sunday, June 16, 2013





We're beat! Up very early this morning after a very late night last night. Still no official word on our luggage this morning, maybe tomorrow. They did find it in Boston from what we understand so that is a good thing.
When driving in from the airport last night we noticed some unique patterns with traffic. First off, there are NO STOP signs, just lots of yields and lots of circles-almost like being in Jersey, but not quite. Additionally, the red lights light red and yellow prior to turning green. It's very similar to the start off of a drag race. Fortunately people stop for red lights because everyone jumps the greens.

We started the day in Hveragerdi, 28 miles east of Reykjavik.  This town was struck hard by an earthquake in 2008.  In the middle of one all-purpose area (store, post office, museum, café, bakery…) they have installed a glass floor where you can stand on top of the fissure in the earth from the quake.  It’s this long divide, not terribly wide but very deep.  Next we went hiking and I must say that after about 1.5 miles straight up, I quit - it ceased to be fun when gasping for air. Glenn and I broke off from the group and had a really cool, beautiful and leisurely hike back down the mountain. Lots of cool pictures! The hot springs were incredible. What a site to see waters that are actually boiling and churning with the steam rising in 40-50 degree outside temperatures. The guide strongly cautioned us to stay on the trails so we would not fall and get burned by the waters. We hung out at the cafe drinking a few beers and waiting for the rest of the group (the cafe owner comes to Orlando occasionally to buy shoes with her husband - apparently he has really big feet; doesn't amazon deliver here?)...very nice afternoon.

When we got back to the hotel we walked a mile or so to a Target/K Mart like store to buy some essentials. Over 18k Iceland Krons later we have some new socks, etc.

We had this amazing dinner in the downtown area which reminded me a little of some of the Canada places we had visited previously. Dinner was at Sjavargrillid which means seafood grill - all I can say is amazing! The food and service was impeccable.

We played a little Emily wins after dinner, she got a children's book on puffins, we won't tell her that was also on the menu at Sjavargrillid.

Ok, one more note...all I can say about the toilets is weird! I've been in about 6 restrooms and EVERY one had a different flushing mechanism...pull up the ball on top, push the large pad on the wall, push one or both of the two buttons on top of the tank, it takes me a few minutes each time to figure out the flush...where is consistency !?!!?

Tomorrow we hope to go to the Blue Lagoon (assuming luggage and swim suits arrive).

Monday, June 17, 2013

So we got great news on our luggage today, NOT! Apparently the luggage was not checked all the way through to Reykjavik and our bags are being held by customs - still in Boston! We leave here tomorrow morning for Copenhagen then Wednesday for the ship. I've now got AAA, and the insurance we purchased trying to get our bags out of hostage and on a plane here today. Don't know if it will happen or not, nobody has a high sense of urgency in this matter but us. We’re canceling our trip to the hot springs today to deal with this and to shop for some clothes. 

Our second day in Iceland pretty much sucked. We spent the day trying to locate our luggage and trying to find some clothes and toiletry items to pull us through another day or two, so 38k kron later more new clothes that don't fit correctly. The bras were size 75, 80, 85, 90's - who knows?  The rest of the sizing was in European so had to figure out my size. We really wanted to hit the hot springs but had no swimsuits and needed to give priority to securing our luggage. Worth the investment if the luggage actually shows up tonight - we think finally it may.

We finally ventured out late this afternoon for a little fun. Went to a little sports bar for another Iceland beer and then ventured off to a sandwich shop called Lemon. Everything on the menu was in Icelandic but near as I could tell I ended up with a pressed sandwich with prosciutto and mozzarella and tomato with a pesto like sauce on whole grain bread (which seems to be the norm here). It was incredibly good! Glenn even liked it and he somehow ordered his without the tomato. 

This evening was the golden circle tour. The weather could have been much better it was very windy, cold and rainy but the tour was magnificent! We started with a stop in Þingvellir which means where parliament thinks. This is the site of a Rift Valley that marks the crest of the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The natural environment is unique in the world.  It is also home to Pingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland. Here it is said to be no man’s land...that space between the Europe and the Americas continents at the junction of the two tectonic plates.  No man’s land is sinking into the ocean a little each year. The craters marking the divide are clearly visible as these tectonic plates that continually shift are leaving violent scars on the landscape.

We then stopped at Gulfoos where I mailed postcards...I'd say to look for them in 2014 sometime.  The post box was at the rest stop for Gulfoos.  It was a small box, like one would have mounted by the front door in a city home, and it was stuffed full with postcards to be picked up!  Gullfoss (English: Golden Falls) is a waterfall located in the canyon of Hvítá river in southwest Iceland. The wide Hvítá rushes southward. This is a two-step waterfall that is absolutely magnificent! As one first approaches the falls, the crevice is obscured from view, so that it appears that a mighty river simply vanishes into the earth.

From there we visited the Geysie, sometimes known as The Great Geysir (pronounced gay-sir) located in southwestern Iceland. It was the first geyser described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans and they are very proud to say that we mis-pronounce the word when speaking about 'old faithful'! The nearby geyser Strokkur erupts much more frequently than Geysir which has been affected by several earthquakes throughout history.  Strokkur's activity has also been affected by earthquakes, although to a lesser extent than the Great Geysir. Essentially this is eruptions of boiling water hurling up to 80 feet in the air every 5-10 minutes. Overall it was an incredible display. There are around thirty much smaller geysers and hot pools churning boiling water in the area, including one called Litli Geysir ('Little Geysir'). Did I mention that while surrounded by boiling waters, we were freezing, in the wind and rain at this point? 

On the return trip we stopped to visit with some of the 80,000 horses that roam the area - except for Fabio, I have never seen such flowing manes, these were beautiful animals! The Icelandic people go to great extents to protect this breed of horse.  If any horse leaves Iceland for a completion or any reason, it can never return to Iceland.  Additionally, our driver made a side trip to a dormant erupted volcano which was nothing but a crater in the ground, the lava fields went on for miles in this area. We stood on the rim of a volcano! 

The final stop of the evening was to another smaller waterfall but also very beautiful. There was a man made salmon ladder on the side of the waterfall to allow the salmon to migrate further into Iceland. I'd bet it is an inspiring site to see the salmon climbing the ladder in the spring to find a place to spawn. 

Have to say our driver was very scary! He showed us a video documentary of the 2010 volcano and Glenn finally pulled to the front of the bus to operate the DVD before the dude killed us...there were many such moments on this tour as the guide read the spiel he had to give while weaving back and forth on the road! 

We got back to the hotel at about 1 a.m., we need to be up at 5 for our flight to Copenhagen. 

Journal - Saturday, June 15 - Journey to Iceland

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Up bright and early to start our adventure. Considering that we moved into our new house less than a week ago, Glenn started a new job two weeks ago, and Glenn has been out of town all week, we're in pretty good shape to get started. We dropped our dog Marvin off at Moms then Uncle Pat drove us to the airport for a long day of flights. Our departure was at 8:50 and connecting in Boston for the 5 hour flight to Iceland.

We made it to Iceland safe and sound...its 1:30a.m. Local time and still light out. We're at our hotel; the same cannot be said for our luggage which is either in Boston or the Bahamas.

Cruising in Europe - June, 2013

I decided to write about our Europe Cruise from June 16 - July 1, 2013.  I'm not sure that enough can be said to reinforce how critical research and planning are to a trip of this size.  We hit 9 countries in 15 days!

Our itinerary began in Iceland.  How we ended up in Iceland is an artifact of said research.  I was looking for business class airfare at a reasonable price - an oxymoron, right?  Not so much!  Iceland air has great prices on business class airfare; granted 'business class' on Icelandair is more reminiscent to 'first class' on domestic flights and not the cushy reclining seats offered by the mainstream airlines.  It was, however, exactly what we were looking for - extra leg room, wider seats (so you can tuck your legs up), and foot rests so there is some level of elevation for your legs.  Food and service was great, as was the 'Saga Lounge' access at the airports. The clincher; Icelandair offers all passengers to other Icelandair destinations in Europe a Stopover in Iceland – up to seven nights – at no additional airfare.  The appeal - Fire and ice, volcanoes and glaciers - these are the inescapable dichotomies of life on this North Atlantic island - home of the Northern Lights (which I will see someday) and the awesome Midnight Sun (which we saw this trip).

Once we landed on the destinations, research, research, research!  How do you narrow it down when you want to "see everything"!  What do we really want to do and see - prioritize a list each destination?  What experiences are we interested in?  What restaurants do we want to try?  What tours are available - both from within the cruise lines and externally.  What are the must see things, what are the 'been there, done that' things?  I'd heard that external tours are typically smaller, more intimate tour groups that add an extra level of flexibility and personalization in your overall experience.  When do the external vendors make sense and when do you want to stick with the cruise tours?  In our experience, long tours that push the boundaries of your time in a country are probably best served by the cruise line - mostly because, if the tour runs over the time allotted, the cruise line is responsible for ensuring you are back on the ship prior to departure.  I must also add, we booked through AAA for our trip from start to finish and we used only AAA recommended tours or tours from the cruise line itself.

Be sure to plan on dedicating 80-100 hours or more when coordinating a trip where you want to see and do as much as possible.  Also, don't forget about general logistics - passports valid at least 6 months after your trip, registering with the Department of State, providing copies of your passports to someone at home, taking copies of your passports with you in the event the real deal is lost or stolen, immunization requirements, etc...

Upcoming posts will detail the individual countries and ports we saw along the way.