In search of the Northern Lights

It's 10 past 10 and we're sitting in the Captain's Club cooling down after all the excitement. 

WE'VE SEEN THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!

OK, apparently they were a 3-4 on the scale (I'm assuming the scale goes to 10), but as far as I'm concerned 3-4 is an impressive start.

I have to tell you though, it was b****y freezing out there and the wind was strong enough to push people around.   We stayed as long as we could before the risk of frostbite set in. 

It was absolutely awesome. 

Olden, Norway

To be honest, Olden looks very similar to Eidfjord, except Olden is at the end of Nordfjord, and Eidfjord is at the end of, well, Eidfjord.   I think the reason the little towns look so similar is down to our untrained eyes.  We are not used to spotting the differences in the mountains and the "fingers" of the fjord.  It is no reason to be disappointed though, Olden is beautiful.

Our escort duties today were to go visit a glacier. It was one of the things Peter really wanted to see, and the fairy godmothers in the Shore Excursions team worked this one for him.  Thank you ladies.

The bus follows the river Olden through the village.  Due to the amount of rainfall West Norway has had over the last couple of days (the most for the last 200 years apparently), the rivers are overflowing.  The bus stopped for a photo break and so we could see the river close up.

Then it was on to Lake Olden.  Just beautiful, and you can just see the Melkevoll Glacier from here

 

This picture was taken through the window of the bus

The back into the bus for Briksdal Inn.  Here the buses stop and we were transferred to "Troll Cars" (8 seater buggies) to take us a fair amount of the climb towards the Briksdal Glacier.  You could of course walk this part of the tour, and many people did.  But for the less fit or able the Troll Cars are excellent.   There was a problem where part of the Troll Car route had been washed away in the recent downpours, but the intrepid Norwegians had come up with a transfer system to get the tourists past that bit.

Not the washed away bit, A waterfall en route. 

The Troll Cars can't take you all the way though.  There's a walk of about half a mile to get you to a decent viewing point.  And it's not an easy walk.  The path is rocky, cracked and uneven.  And there's a little bit of a climb to it.  But the view at the top is worth it.  Peter loved it and got as close as possible to the glacier.  I decided it could really only look good when you could see it all on one go, so I stayed back.   

We have been so lucky with the weather.  Rain was forecast, but it held off and we even got the odd patch of sunshine.  Awesome.

Unfortunately for a few of the passengers on my tour bus, the path was a little bit too much for them.   They never did quite make it to the top, and we had to hold the buses a little longer for them, so that once they'd got down, they could at least enjoy a coffee  from the Briksdal Inn. 

For anyone thinking of taking this tour by the way, save yourself for the cakes provided with the tea and coffee at the Inn (they're provided free as part of the tour).  They are GORGEOUS, and if you walked up to the Glacier, then you've easily earnt yourself at least three. 

Once we were back at the ship and had eaten lunch, Peter and I had an amble around Olden.  As I said, it's a beautiful little town.

A wooden church.  The Norwegians are mostly Lutherians it seems. 

Inside a wooden church - all wood, and wonderfully simple.

Tomorrow is a sea day. Peter will do his classes, and I will mebbe read a little more. Good innit?

Northern Lights Cruise - Eidfjord, Norway

We left Tilbury two days ago.  Yesterday was a sea day and Peter ran two painting classes.  Today is Wednesday and we were up early this morning, I wanted to see the fjord as we sailed in, and we were on deck just after sunrise (7.45).

And it's just as lovely as expected.  The mountains rise steeply from the water into the clouds.  Actually, these mountains aren't that high in truth, but they look it from the still water of the fjord.  Stunning

Peter and I had agreed to escort a tour to go see the Sysem Dam and the Voringsfoss Waterfall,  basically a bus trip with a couple of stops.  The scenery we drove through was absolutely stunning, and I regret my decision to be a good escort and sit on the inside seat of the bus.

The Dam was a little bit of a let down to be honest, I sort of expected a dramatic concrete structure I suppose, and it wasn't.  It might be 260ft high, but because of the way it's built of natural rocks and gravel, it's quite tame really.

The waterfall is not tame.

The bus took us to the Fossli Hotel just above the waterfall, with its fantastic views.

It's a shame the weather wasn't a little better, but then again, if it hadn't been raining for the last two days, we certainly wouldn't have seen the flow that we did. 

Then it was back to the bus to travel once again through the glorious scenery of Norway.   Sadly it was really raining now, and when we got back to the ship, we decided that despite the fact we had an hour's shore time left, it was far too wet.  So we went back on board for lunch

We did take a few pictures of Eidfjord from the ship though

Unfortunately, as the morning had progressed, I realised that the cold that I've been fighting off for weeks was having another go at getting the better of me.  With Peter still coughing as a leftover from his cold, and me with a drippy nose, we decided it was best to hide out in the cabin this afternoon and not breathe all over everyone else.

Amazingly, just about as quickly as it started, my drippy nose dried up at about 6-7pm, Spooky eh?   This was extremely convenient cos we needed to go upstairs for dinner in the Bistro.  I even felt it was safe enough to watch "Bruce Thompson, The Original One Man Band" from the back of the Marco Polo Lounge.   And I'm glad I did, it was an excellent show, full of fun and laughter.

Tomorrow we're in Olden, escorting again and off to see a glacier. Hopefully there'll be no more hints of colds or drippy noses.

Going home through the Kiel Canal

OK

So the 25th and 26th of October are a couple of sea days before we get back to Tilbury.  Peter will run his classes and I will run around Peter, but generally, it's a relaxing couple of days.

On the first day, outside could be presented as a good example of Peter's "Tonal Study".  It's grey.  A grey sky and a deeper grey sea.  It's not warm either.  Peter has managed to pick up the latest cruise cold. (It seems one goes round every cruise), I've fought it off it seems, with no more than a little bit of a tight chest. Trouble is, by the end of the day, he was knackered and not up to formal night.  We did get out for dinner a little later than usual and then were able to stay up just long enough for the next bit.

On the night of the 25th, we travelled through the Kiel Canal.  It's a shame we went through at night, because obviously we couldn't see much, and not only that, we would all be too busy getting a bit of sleep to even try.  The thing is, it's a canal, and we had to go through a lock, which was a whole new experience for me.

Approaching the Lock at the start of the Kiel Canal.  The red lights on the right hand side are the "out" gates which are closed at the moment.  The Marco Polo has to get into the lock using the left hand lane.

Look how close we are to the walls of the canal!   Actually, it's a bit deceptive, because we had a little more space on the other side.  But the ship has to be tied up when the lock gates shut, which is why we are very close to the side.

Another, much smaller ship pulls in behind us and the lock gate closes. 

The Marco Polo was painstakingly manoeuvred very slowly and carefully into the lock, and then the water level probably only changed a few feet.  Never mind I can now say we have sailed down the Kiel Canal, even if the only bit I actually saw was the start.  Peter's cold got the better of him, and it was time to go downstairs.

Our second sea day was relatively uneventful. I decided to get me hair cut whilst I'm on board, I thought I might as well, seeing as I am always waiting for Peter's class to finish.  Once again the ship's hairdresser has done a brilliant job, for no more than I would pay back home.  I've read a book and a half, these last two days and Peter ran his classes again.

The final night of this cruise ended with the Ship's Show Team putting on a fantastic show called "Scenes from the Cutting Room".  The show team are usually pretty good, but I think they excelled themselves last night.  I was very impressed with the Charlie Chaplin routine at the beginning put on by the dance troupe, and then the Wizard of Oz compilation was awesome.

And finally, for this cruise, I have to mention the cooks and the food.  It seems to have improved since the last time we were on board, but that isn't what I wanted to show.  The following pictures are the food art carved out by the various chefs (or maybe it's always the same chef), they are quite awesome.

Chef working at the back of the bistro, look at the fish carved out of a melon on the left. 

So that was it, our Baltic Cities Cruise.  I think I would like to do it again and see all the things I didn't get a chance to see last time, particularly in St Petersburg.

We'll stay on the ship when we get to Tilbury, and go out again on it's next cruise "Land of the Northern Lights".  We're off to Norway and another load of new experiences.  Just absolutely FANTASTIC!

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Where?

Yep, like you, I have never heard of the place.  But that doesn't matter.  It's a lovely city and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here.

An emblem of the city, except I can't remember what it's called.

It started with a late start.  So late in fact that we missed breakfast, but we did get to see our Comedy Legends play "Just a minute".  PS - if I haven't told you, the entertainment for this cruise has included Frank Williams (Dad's Army), Nikki Kelly, (Hi de Hi), Arthur Bostrum (Allo Allo), Jeffrey Holland (Hi de Hi) and Melvyn Hayes, (It ain't half hot mum).  That was really good fun.

After that it was an early lunch, cos we'd missed breakfast, then downstairs to get sorted to get off ship because it was supposed to be docked by 12.30.

'Cept it wasn't.  I can only compare the efforts to get the ship into the free space available to it to my attempts at parallel parking.  I can't!  And neither could the ship.  After several attempts to negotiate into a slot only just big enough between a little tanker and a battleship, the Pilot gave up and a tug was called in to push the ship sideways into the available space.

So, an hour after intended, we were off the ship and heading for the tourist information centre.  The map we were provided showed a walking route to encompass all the sights.  Since we didn't have anything else planned, we thought we might as well follow it. 

Klaipeda could be described as a city of modern art.  It was everywhere, and our little map took us to a fair amount.  Here are the pictures. 

Mid 18th Century buildings.  There are quite a few old buildings in the city

Art pieces in the Sculpture Park.  There are mo

A war memorial

Other bronze sculptures from around the city. 

Rub the cats tail for good luckj

Whisper int the mouses ear to make a wish come true

Helsinki, Capital of Finland

Before you read the rest of this, just to let you know that when you get to the bottom, you can go on to read all about St Petersburg Day 1, (you lucky people you).  This was because I forgot to post it yesterday.  Sorry 'bout that.

We woke up to the announcement that the temperature outside was -5^o C, and that it had been snowing.  Things were going to improve though, the temperature was expected to rise to -2^o C.

After breakfast we had a quick look out on deck to see the snow.  Anyone would think we'd never seen the stuff.  Well, we have of course, just not in October.

Then we down on the quayside, grabbing a map from the tourist information lady and setting off into the city to see what was about. 

The map was good, telling us where to see what, the only thing we got confused about was the Rock Church.  I couldn't find it on the map, even though I know the TI lady had pointed it out earlier.  Turns out it's called The Temppeliaukio Church....... so  I was close, but not close enough

So today we saw the Uspensky Cathedral

The Bad, Bad, Boy,

 and the Senate Square and Cathedral.  We would have taken a look at the Station, except it was covered in scaffolding, and the Kiasma Museum of Modern Art, but that was closed with loads of boards around it. 

No worries, we went until we got to the Rock Church, which was something completely different.  The space has been hewn out of the rock and left unfinished.  Apparently the acoustics are fantastic and it hosts classical concerts and other musical events throughout the year.  I really liked the place, and thought how I would be very happy to listen to a concert there.

We had plenty of time, so we went to have a look at the Sibelius Monument, quite unusual

We started to make our way back to the ship, first passing the Toliviken Lake and then the Finnish National Opera House.  As we walked, we approached a hooded crow on the path ahead of us.  He obviously didn't want to fly today, (mebbe it was too cold, ice on the wings or something), so he walked along the path ahead of us.  Then, we he got to a zebra crossing, he paused, checked for traffic and crossed the road.  (OK, mebbe the checking for traffic bit was a bit of an exaggeration, but it did seem like that was what he was doing).

But then, just to prove a point, he turned left ahead of us, checked for traffic, and walked across the road again, at a zebra crossing!  A coincidence? Or was it a crow that has learnt his green cross code?  I prefer the latter.

Our last brief touristy thing on the way back was to look at this sculpture outside the National Theatre

Then it was a quick cup of tea in the local M&S. (Yep, we've managed to export Marks n Spencer's to the Finns).  The Finnish don't really do tea, not Tetley's or PG Tips anyway, so we ended up with Red Bush, something I've not tasted before.

It's a short day in Helsinki, so we were back on board by 3pm.  Peter decided to do a painting this afternoon, of the Church on the Spilled Blood.  It's really good.

The ship has decided to make a diversion due to bad weather.  We were due to go to Nynsham in Sweden, but it's going to be a bit rocky, and Nynsham is a tender port.  The crew have worked out that they ain't gonna be able to get all these old fogies (meant in a nice way), onto the lifeboats in rough weather.  They've opted for the safer option and we're going to a port in Lithuania.  Apparently it's really nice there.  I'll tell you tomorrow. 

St Petersburg, Russia, Day 2

Early up this morning, because we have to be ready outside to escort the tour to the Hermitage Musuem.  And it was freezing! 

We loaded up the buses, and then sat listening to the tour guides as they explained how things were going to work out for the tour.  You can't take back packs, large bags, coats or bottles of water into the museum.  Why? Cos some numpty in the past tried to damage the paintings.  They do provide a very good cloakroom service, so it's not so bad and once we'd discarded all the excess, we set off for a 2 hour wander around what used to be the Winter Palace to the Russian Royal Family.

The palace itself is absolutely outstanding.  I would describe it as a feast for the eyes, but that is an understatement.  It didn't matter which direction you looked, the walls, floors and ceilings were covered in beautiful ornate decoration.  It could be a painting, or a mosaic, marble or plaster, it didn't matter as it was all just stunning.

And then there were the paintings and sculptures throughout.  In the two hours, we whizzed past so much - and there was so much that we didn't have time to even see, never mind stop to admire for a minute or so. 

A person would need months, if not years, to look properly at all the exhibits in the museum and we only had a couple of hours.  Words can't really describe it so here are a few pictures.  I didn't bother to photograph the paintings, I wouldn't be able to do them justice. (Except one, that I couldn't resist, and I don't even know who painted it!)

After the Hermitage Museum, we went back to the ship for a quick lunch, and then we were out again on a trip we'd booked ourselves on, rather than escorting.  We wanted a few hours to walk around St Petersburg just to see what we could see, so this trip was basically a bus to the city centre, where we left for a couple of hours to wander.

We set off to see St Isaacs Cathedral, but sadly, it turns out that it's closed on Wednesdays (as is the Church of the Spilled Blood by the way).  We were a little disappointed, but decided to make the most of it anyway and headed towards the River Neva to have a look at the Monument to Peter I

St Isaacs Cathedral

Monument to Peter I

Looking across the River Neva to the St Apostles Peter and Paul Cathedral

From there, it was only a short walk past The Admiralty Arch to the Winter Palace, the Alexander Column and the General Staff Building.

The Winter Palace

The Alexander Column and the General Staff Building.

Then we popped into one of the jewellers for a souvenir from the trip.  I'd particularly wanted a small amber pendant and chain and I'm dead chuffed with the one I now have around my neck.

After a little retail therapy, we started back down Nevskiy Prospect for the bus, with a little diversion to have a look inside the Cathedral of the Icon of Our Lady of Kazan.  It was the building we saw yesterday and didn't know what it was.  It doesn't look like a cathedral. 

But it is, and it was very much in use.  I didn't take any pictures as it just seemed wrong to photograph this place of worship whilst people were praying.  It was lovely though, the altar was quite stunning.  I recommend it.

Then it was back on the bus, back to the ship and back to the cabin - absolutely shattered.  Looking out the windows at dinner time and this evening, we can see large flakes of snow.  It seems quite fitting as we leave the city.

That doesn't mean we have any time to catch up on ourselves though, we have Helsinki tomorrow.  Another place I'm looking forward to.  Awesome.