The Adventure Continues

What an exciting European vacation we’ve had so far!  Every day is incredible and the weather has been beautiful.  We were a part of history on Friday during our day in Berlin as we had record high temperatures and they recorded the hottest day in decades!  Albeit dripping with sweat, we still loved Berlin.  The city is full of rich history, fantastic sights and great people.  A three hour (non air-conditioned) train ride took us to the heart of Berlin from the port of Warnemunde.  Warnemunde is a quaint port fast becoming a great seaside vacation village.

Olaf, our tour guide, greeted us in Berlin. We didn’t like anyone on our bus – people who continually complained about the lack of air conditioning, but we stuck together.  Olaf was one of the best tour guides we’ve had so far – he even offered to mail our post cards from his house!  We enjoyed a delicious German-fare lunch from the Westin hotel in the heart of the city before seeing more sights in the afternoon.  The day became increasingly longer, as the train that was scheduled to pick us up had some locomotive problems and was delayed by several hours.  During the time we were supposed to be boarding our ship (around 7:30 pm), we were actually just getting on the train.  Needless to say, it was a long (and smelly/sweaty) trip back to port.   We raced to dinner where our fantastic servers, Melroy and Maria greeted us and brought us drinks to fuel our thirst and rehydrate us.  

Thankfully, we had yesterday to catch up on our rest.  Who knew that you could get sunburned on route to Russia?  Thomas and Naaman enjoyed a pub crawl throughout the ship last night after their rum tasting while MT and Molly continued to relax down at Sessions (our favorite martini lounge).  We are fast becoming friends with the bartenders.  J 

We went to bed last night at 2:00 am, and it was still daylight.  This part of Europe records about 44 minutes of “nighttime” each night at this time of year.  As I’m typing this at 11:00 pm, it looks like it could be 6:00 in the evening.  It’s quite incredible!   We are loving it. 

This afternoon we traveled into St. Petersburg, Russia to do shopping.  You can only enter Russia on your own if you have a Russian visa, so all our outings are the ship’s excursions.  After dinner, we went out again on “twilight” boat cruise highlighting some of the great architecture of Russia including the Church of the Spilled Blood – a most beautiful sight!  We are looking forward to tomorrow when we travel throughout St. Petersburg and visit the Hermitage museum – we’ll see how many of the 10,000 rooms and 300,000 pieces we’ll be able to see.

Our servers at dinner (Melroy and Maria) continue to keep us well fed.  Although there are only four of us, we average five to six dinners a night and at least six to seven desserts.  Maria surprises Naaman with a special after-dinner dessert drink every night, and we continue to keep them laughing with our jokes and sarcastic wit.

Until tomorrow, Nakemiin (goodbye in Russian)

London, Oslo, and Copenhagen oh my!

Our European vacation so far has been great.  Spending a few days in London, we did all the “touristy” things you have to do while there – London Eye, Hop On Hop Off Bus, the Tower of London and walking around the city.  Although Molly was a little disappointed with the Tower of London (“I wanted to see Ann Boleyn’s blood!”) we all did enjoy Kensington Park and our delicious English breakfasts every morning.   (P.S. The changing of the guard was also less than expected.  “That’s it?” Molly exclaimed.  “What else did you expect?” answered Thomas).  We moved on from there quite quickly.

Catching the bus from London, we went to Dover.  We never did find the Ernst & Young in London – but did see the KPMG (which is now the new game since we saw one today in Copenhagen as well).  Dover was beautiful – but we didn’t see much of it because we were on the ship.  We set sail around 5:00 on Tuesday evening.

Wednesday was relaxing on the ship – I barely remember what we did.  Something like – breakfast, lying around by the pool….dinner and we ended the night with Cognac tasting. Delicious.  

Yesterday morning we woke up in Oslo, Norway.  After traveling out on our own, Naaman had his first experience being mistaken for a local.  A little rain didn’t dampen our walking tour of Oslo.  Wet and a bit cold, we came back to the ship for a quick change before our guided walking tour.  During the walking tour, our guide started talking to Naaman in Norwegian – thus, Naaman was mistaken for a local the second time. 

Although the sun never went down last night and it was twilight the entire night, we woke up this morning to the sights of Copenhagen, Denmark.  What a delightful city!  So beautiful and clean, we loved our adventures here today.  After taking our own historical walk again in the morning, we took the Carlsberg Brewery excursion this afternoon.  Naaman was in seventh heaven.  (And we’ll just say Molly got a horse a LIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTLE bit excited.  Oops!) 

Tomorrow, we will wake up in Germany and take a three-hour train ride to Berlin for an all day excursion.  We are enjoying our wait staff – Melroy from India and Maria from Argentina.  We have so far enjoyed one extra entrée (Melroy insisted we try the fish) and last night, we didn’t even order our own desserts.  Melroy automatically brought us seven desserts – we each had the apple cobbler with ice cream, and he brought us a chocolate soufflé, strawberry sable and raspberry cheesecake to share.  We almost felt bad for the folks next to us who ordered their desserts and only got one….almost….

Hej-Hej (Goodbye from Denmark!

Time to Get Going!

Well, 20 months after booking this journey, it is finally time to head on out.  We're leaving at 7 PM EDT for MARTA to ride down to the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport for our flight to London Heathrow.

Our flight is scheduled to depart at 10:55 Eastern and arrive in London at 12 Noon GMT (7 AM on the East Coast, 6 AM Central)...  Our packing?  Well...  It's done.  We have 3 large bags to check and our usual 1+1 carry on. 

Our travel partners, however, have gotten off to a bit of a sluggish start.  Their flight was supposed to depart Milwaukee at 6:30 Central time, fly to Atlanta to meet up with our flight.  But because of the greatness that the Delta-Northwest conglomerate, they are now flying to London via Minneapolis and not with us.  What the heck are we gonna do with all this Chex Mix and the chocolate chip cookies?? 

Oh well...  Hopefully we can find a Hotspot in London to post from.  We can't believe it's time for our honeymoon! 

For you to follow along with the cruise ship (if you want)...  Here is a link...  Disney Magic - Current Position

We're ready to have a "magical" time ;)

Where Are We and What Time Is It?

A very interesting component of this trip is time.

Obviously, we will be traveling in and out of a number of European Time zones along the way. However, another item we will be experiencing is the White Night phenomenon. Since we will be so far North, the night sky will only truly 'look' like night for an hour or so... Sunsets at 11PM, sunrises at 4 AM and twilight all night... Sounds wonderful and unique.

For those wanting to keep track of time.. Here is a list of the TZ differential from Eastern and Central US time at 12 Noon (EDT)...

                      Central     Eastern    Local Time
London          11:00AM 12:00PM    5:00PM

Oslo               11:00AM 12:00PM    6:00PM

Copenhagen   11:00AM 12:00PM    6:00PM

Berlin              11:00AM 12:00PM   6:00PM

St. Petersburg 11:00AM 12:00PM   8:00PM

Helsinki          11:00AM 12:00PM    7:00PM

Stockholm      11:00AM 12:00PM    6:00PM

Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm is the Capital of Sweden and the final Port of Call on our Northern European Capitals Cruise.

Stockholm itself is the cultural, financial and political heart of Finland. It is nestled along the Baltic Sea and surrounded by an archipelago of islands.

We will going on an excursion to visit Gamla Stan, the Old Town and take a drink or two at the Ice Bar.

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki is the Capital of Finland. It is located in Southern Finland, along the Baltic Sea.

Helsinki is Finland's major political, educational, financial, cultural and research center. Helsinki is also an important regional city on the Baltic Sea and northern Europe. Approximately 70% of foreign companies operating in Finland have settled in the Helsinki region.

We will be participating in a walking tour of historic Helsinki.

St. Petersburg, Russia

St. Petersburg is a Federal City of Russia located at the Eastern end of the Baltic Sea. It was most famously known as Leningrad during the years of the Soviet Union, but has since reclaimed the name it was given as capital of the Russian Empire under Tsar Peter I.

We will be spending 2 days docked in Russia. Our first day, we will be going on a shopping excursion and taking an evening canal cruise. On our second day, we will be touring the City and its famous Hermitage Museum.

Warnemunde, Germany, Gateway to Berlin

Warnemunde, Germany is not really a 'gateway' to Berlin, per se, but for a large number of Cruise ship travelers, it is the way to get there.

Berlin is located approximately 2 hours and 45 minutes by train from this seaside resort community. Berlin, is of course, the Capital of Germany, former Capital of East Germany, while under Soviet rule. It is chock full of history, especially that of World War II and the Cold War.

We will be touring Berlin and stopping at a number of historic WWII and Cold War sites.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen is the Capital City of Denmark.

Copenhagen is known as one of the World's 'Greenest' cities, with one of the highest qualities of life in the World. In 2000, a bridge was constructed connecting Copenhagen with Malmo, Sewden, creating an even larger Metropolitan area.

We will be going on an overview tour of Copenhagen and then a tour of the Carlsberg Brewery.

Oslo, Norway

Oslo is the capital of Norway.

The city is a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is also an important center for maritime industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to many companies within the maritime sector, some of them are amongst the world's largest shipping companies, shipbrokers and maritime insurance brokers.

We will be taking a walking tour of Oslo, including visiting the historic City Hall, seen in the photo above.

London, UK

London is, of course, the capital of England and the United Kingdom.  It rivals New York for Financial Capital of the World. 

London contains 4 World Heritage Sites:

The Tower of London

Kew Gardens

The Palace of Westminster

the Settlement of Greenwich (with the Royal Observatory, marking the Greenwich Meridian 0 degrees Longitude)

London will be the Host City of the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.

We will be in London from Saturday, July 3 through Tuesday, July 6.