Long time, no blog!!
We have been out having the time of our lives!! We just returned from our summer vacation
where we cruised the Baltic. This will
be a rather lengthy blog, in order to get the whole vacation in, so to sum it
up for those who don’t want to waste their time reading, here goes:
Total number of days vacationing: 14
Total number of cities visited: 8, if you include Dover. The rest being London, Copenhagen,
Warnemunde, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallin, and Amsterdam.
Total number of phone calls from work: 0
Total number of Euros spent:
Dan doesn’t know yet, so I’m keeping it a secret; and spending time with
my parents was priceless.
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This was a magician on the boat.
He came around to the tables
during dinner to do tricks for the kids.
This was the one and only
person Danyon does not like.
He would see him across the room
and cry every time he saw him.
The poor magician couldn't come
to our table when Danyon was awake. |
Total number of dishes we washed: Just bottles, and a few spoons
Total number of laundry loads done: 5
Total number of midnight buffets: 1
Total number of workouts:
3
Total number of days we didn’t have to workout, but should
have: 12
Total number of pounds gained: 14.5
Total number of miles walked: it was a lot.
Total number of chocolate bars we bought from different
countries: 10
Total number of hours spent being sea sick: 4
Total number of hours spent having fun: all but the 4, before mentioned
Total number of churches, palaces, and art museums visited: 11
Total number of ice cream cones and pizzas consumed from the 24 hour ice cream
machine and pizza parlour: I think it
was 42, but Dane’s whereabouts were unknown for a few hours on the boat. And come to think of it, Dan left a few times
in the evening after everyone had gone to bed, and came back with pepperoni and
blue cheese breath.
Total amount of romance going on while sharing a room with
the kids: Dan says not enough.
Total number of trips to the bathroom: stopped counting after we hit 45 during
dinner alone, guessing in the thousands—I think they must have discovered
something like catnip for kids and they kept it in the bathroom.
Total number of chilled fruit soups consumed: 58, I think.—and no, not just by me.
Total number of people who ate alligator for the first
time: 5
Total number of people ready to go on another cruise
tomorrow: 6
For those who want all the rest of the gory, small details,
you can continue reading. In short, we
saw a whole lot of neat places and cool things, had a great time, and are
dreading getting back into reality tomorrow.
Day 1: We were really
excited to finish up the packing and to get Dan back from the U.S. We were very jealous of the time that he got
to spend with friends, shopping in American stores, and eating all the American
foods we miss. Luckily, he brought home
lots of care packages for us, so we feel stocked up on a few things. He got home in the morning, and got to work
packing his bag for the trip. We
finished up all the last minute packing and chores, just in time to meet the
taxi driver to take us to the airport at 4:00pm. We were leaving a bit early to make sure we
had plenty of time to catch our flight. We
checked in to our flight, and were so excited to finally be on our way!! Then they told us that our flight was delayed
at least 2 hours because they were having trouble with the plane. As much as I don’t want to be on a
malfunctioning plane, it was difficult to keep the kids occupied in the airport
for the extra time. Not just Dan, but I
was even stressing out because we were leaving on an evening flight as it
was. It didn’t leave much time for
error. We needed to be in London and at
the hotel in time to catch the taxi to the cruise port by morning, and I didn’t
know if we were going to make it out that night. Luckily 2 ½ hours later, we had a plane and
were boarding. We considered it a
blessing that we arrived safely and we managed to catch the last bus that
evening that dropped us off at the hotel.
We checked into our room. Dan
tried the key several times. The key was
just not working. We couldn’t figure it
out. It was already about midnight and
we were tired and ready to see mom and dad.
And since we were in England and were having trouble communicating with
all the thick accents, we weren’t too excited to make our way back to the front
desk. Mom and dad had gotten there early
that day and had already checked in. Our
instructions were to wake them up when we got there, but we couldn’t even get
in our room. Then the door to our room
opened, and there was mom in her nightgown.
The desk had given us the wrong room number, we were trying to break
into their room instead of our own. We
got it all sorted and were glad that everyone had arrived and was safe.
Day 2: The next
morning we had enough time to eat the breakfast that mom packed for everyone
(despite the fact that she was traveling for 2 weeks out of 1 carry-on bag, she
still had room for breakfast). After
being properly nourished, we headed down to meet the taxi who would bring us to
our luxury liner (wink, wink), the Carnival Legend! We were advised that the smallest lines would
be in the morning (sail time was 5:00pm).
It was a 2 ½ hour drive to Dover.
We visited and caught up on all the family news while traveling (you wouldn’t believe all the
things mom is saying about all of you). We got to Dover and were dropped off right at
the door to the cruise terminal. We
picked up a wheel chair for mom, as she has a hard time standing for long
periods of time. We walked right in and
were whisked up to the front of the line (the line wasn’t particularly long
anyway). We got all checked-in and we
moved on. We thought that we would then
go to a holding room to wait for them to call our section to board. However, we found ourselves walking right
onto the boat. There was not a single
line to wait in!! Once onboard, we
acquainted ourselves with the layout of the boat and of course, headed for the
buffet. We had plenty of time to take
pictures of the white cliffs of Dover and to get to know the boat and memorize
room numbers so all children could find their way back to our room if they got
lost. There was also plenty of talk of
all the shark infested waters we would be crossing so that Deagan did not get
any ideas about jumping off the boat.
The biggest hit of the day was the fact that there was real Ranch
dressing on the boat (which we all ate) and regular yellow mustard, which we
hoarded to our table and which no one actually used for that meal. The bon voyage party was nothing to speak of
really, but we were excited to be off on another adventure. We throughly enjoyed our dinner meal. Afterwards, the kids were ready to call it a
night. I stayed with them, while Dan
ventured out to the late show. He came
home with wet streaks down his face from laughing so hard that he cried. It was either from the show or from the fact
that the pizza parlour is open 24 hours a day, and naturally all you can eat.
Day 3-We had a full day at sea. We let the kids go to the kids’ activities
for the day, while the adults went to a meeting explaining about all the procedures
for all the ports we would go to, we relaxed, and we went to a photography
class. Dan managed to get a medal from
the bean bag competition. After dinner,
we went to a comedy show and the evening show after that. It was the dancing/singing group from the
ship. We enjoyed the night.
Day 4-We arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark! This was the port that I was the most excited
for. I was excited to see the country
where my ancestors were from and also where Dad served his mission. After walking several feet, we realized
that mom was not going to make it all day on the walking tour. We signed up for a city bus and boat tour. We got a general overview of the city and
enjoyed the scenery from our canal boat tour.
We made our way to the major shopping street in Copenhagen where mom
found the Royal Copenhagen porcelain shop (opted not to buy anything) and Dane
found the Lego shop (where he also, opted not to buy anything as it was priced
far higher than in Austria.)
We
continued walking and found the Lutheran church, Church of Our Lady, where the
original Christus statue by Bertl Thorvaldsen is located.
(A replica is in the Salt Lake Temple visitor’s
center and is a well known statue for Mormons-- as we use it because it depicts
the resurrected Christ, the center of our faith).
There are also statues of the apostles as
well.
It was neat to see them and to
spend some time there.
After that, we
headed to another touristy part of town.
It is the main drag with all the little cafes and colorful buildings
along the canal.
We stopped for ice
cream and found that Copenhagen is not for the poor.
We read that Copenhagen is one of the most
expensive European cities, but we were not prepared for exactly how
expensive.
We stopped for ice cream and
ended up paying the equivalent of 50 Euros for everyone to have an ice cream
treat.
But, while eating our treat, we
discovered a very neat thing about Copenhagen.
We were sitting along the canal eating our treats.
We dropped our trash in a nearby trash
can.
A few seconds later, we heard a
loud “whoosh” and the trash in the trash can was vacuumed out to somewhere down
below the street.
I presume that if we followed
the canal and went down the line of trashcans, each one would have been sucked
out in order.
The trash men must have
sewer/catacomb type passage ways where they can suck garbage out of cans and into
the tunnels to a compacting station, without ever having to lift a can.
Dane had another piece of garbage to throw
away.
He almost got sucked into the can
itself, as his trash was ripped from his hand and sucked down the hole.
We made it back to the port with enough time
to stop at the mermaid statue.
I couldn’t
believe how many people were here.
I
know that it is a major tourist stop, but none of the pictures that I had seen
had any people in it.
It was impossible
to actually get a picture of her without several people in it.
We saw her though, and even made it back to
the ship in time.
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| Warnemunde |
Day 4- We arrived in
Warnemunde, Germany. This is a port that
the cruise line expects you to take an excursion to Berlin. Since the train ride to Berlin was priced at
about 200 dollars per person and took about 3 hours one way, we decided not to
go, but to stay in the resort town of Warnemunde. We were glad we did. We all enjoyed strolling through the
picturesque, quaint German town. We bought
fresh strawberries that tasted very sweet
and good from a fruit stand. We ate them
while relaxing at the beach. The kids
had fun playing in the sand and surf.
The water was cold, but we all put at least our feet in, to say that we
had been in the Baltic Sea. Dan and I
ventured back into town to pick up some lunch from the grocery store. We had a picnic lunch and enjoyed watching
the thunderstorm travel by without getting us wet.
By the afternoon, everyone was in full swing
at the beach—especially the topless women.
Dan and I have been to several beaches around the world and we’ve seen a
lot of women sunbathing topless, but this was different. There were topless women all around us,
running through the waves, playing with their kids, and building sand castles
with their teenage sons. I have looked
through all the pictures and can’t believe that not one of us inadvertently got
a shot of any of them. Mom and I were
also disappointed by the fact that it was all one-sided. The only naked man was the 70 year old guy
changing out of his bathing suit right on the beach—no, it wasn’t Dad.
We walked a bit more through the town and did
a little window shopping. It was the
perfectly paced day for a vacation—until Dan realized that he was so sunburned
that he needed aloe and the ship stores were closed. He and I had to hurry back to shore and grab
some aloe at the pharmacy so that Dan wasn’t too miserable. We about walked mom off her feet again
today. Dinner was very good. I don’t know how they get their beef so
tender. They didn’t have a major show
that evening because several people were still on their way back from Berlin,
so it was just a fun night with family.
 |
Danyon didn't find it hard to get comfy
in a different bed. |
Day 5- Mom was
relieved to have another day at sea before having to walk so much again through
the next 3 ports. Dan and I went for a
run. We went to a seminar and had our
body fat percentage tested. They said that
not much can change in 4 days, but I sure felt like I was packing on the pounds
already. Dan and I were surprised at the
quality of food on the ship. We had
heard rumors and stories about how Carnival was not as good as other cruise
lines. We were pleasantly surprised. Although some things were different, we were
not disappointed and we would cruise with Carnival again. We attended other activities on the ship,
there were sales at the gift shops, there were ice carving demonstrations, they
had cooking demonstrations, shows, games (I won a medal in Yahtzee), and other
fun things to do. Most of our time on
board though, we spent eating.
Day 6- We arrived in
Helsinki, Finland. The weather report
on the boat said that there would be a slight chance of afternoon showers. We arrived and it was raining. We walked along the streets and out to the
gulf. There was an open market selling
fresh produce and lots of souvenirs. We
walked along all the booths. Dan found a
food booth that sold little tiny deep fried fish. They were about the size of a French fry and
were served as “Finnish Fries”. None of
the kids would try them, except Danyon.
He loved them. He probably ate 5
or 6. Dan and Dad loved them as well. It was the highlight of the day for Dan. The rest of us enjoyed cherries.
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| Helsinki |
We walked along the streets some more and
found a beautiful church. As we went
inside, they had a service going on. I
thought that they had recorded music playing, but as I got closer, I realized
that there were 4 people in the front singing.
I couldn’t believe that much sound could be coming from 4 people—they sounded
great. The acoustics in the church must
be awesome! There was another church a
few blocks away, but mom was having a hard time with all the walking, so we
decided to take a ferry across to an island.
There were a lot of museums on the island, so we went exploring. By the time we got there, the rain really
started to come down. Not expecting the
rain from the weather report, I was not mentally prepared for down pour
conditions. That made the exploring on
this island not as fun. We finally got
to a museum and watched a video that told of the history of the old ruins and
how they were a military strong hold for the country. It was actually very interesting and a good
video. We saw other artifacts and things there as well. By the time we
finished at the museum, the rain had stopped!
We made our way back to the ferry station and rode back to the
mainland. We shopped some more at the
market, snacking on fresh peas and yellow raspberries, and headed back towards
the ship. We wanted to find a grocery
store where we could buy chocolate. We
left mom sitting and resting her legs at the shuttle stop, and we continued
on. We finally found one and were able
to stock up on both Swedish and Finnish chocolate. They had interesting flavors: dark chocolate with orange rind pieces, dark
chocolate with pear, regular chocolate with dried strawberries. We tried one that was chocolate covered
salted black licorice. We bought one
that was liquid filled, dad bought one that had pieces of the licorice. On the way back to mom, we found a McDonalds
that had a Nacho Jr. burger advertised in front. I don’t know if you have it there or if it is
just in Finland, but it is a small burger with tortilla chips and nacho cheese
on it. The kids begged us to try
one. I wouldn’t run out and buy one
again, but it wasn’t bad.
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| Helsinki Island |
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| In the ballroom, with our dancing shoes on! |
Day 7- St.
Petersburg, Russia. We had a great time
in St. Petersburg. In order to get off
the ship here, it is required to either have a visa or to have a guided
tour. We arranged to have the guided
tour. We met our tour guide, Mark. He and the driver, Victor, showed us around
the city. We got a general overview of
the city and stopped at a few places. There
are 24 bridges over the Neva river in the city.
At night, 23 of them lift up to let boats go through. Getting around the city at night can be
tricky. It was raining lightly, but we were
more prepared for the rain today. We
drove to a Russian Orthodox church, it had been newly renovated and was interesting. There was a service going on while we were
there. The most interesting thing to me
is that there are no chairs. People
stand for the entire service which is usually about an hour, but can be upwards of 2-3 hours at New Years or other holidays. Next we went to
Catherine’s Palace. There were huge
lines all over the palace and people everywhere. Our guide took us to the front of all the
lines and budged right in. He said this
was very normal. Inside, the palace was
more ornate than any of the palaces in Vienna.
There was a lot of gold—everywhere.
One of the rooms we saw was the Amber room. Pictures are not allowed in this room, but it was absolutely unbelievable! I am not a big fan of amber jewelry, but I could go for an amber room in my house. It was all mosaic amber covering all the walls. Incredible. Catherine’s daughter, Elizabeth, was not very wise with her money, and
spent it wildly. We learned that she was
very worldly and would not wear the same dress twice. They found 15,000 dresses that belonged to
her. The people were very poor during
her years.
Next we stopped for
lunch. We ate very traditional Russian
soups: mushroom (not cream of mushroom,
but had other vegetables in a clear broth with dill and a dallop of sour cream)
and shee. We also tried the Belini, a
thick crepe filled with all kinds of things.
We tried several, both savory and sweet.
They were good. Next we drove out
to Peterhof Gardens. The rain stopped
and we were able to explore the gardens with sunshine. This was my favorite part of St.
Petersburg. There are 150 fountains with
over 2,000 jets in the gardens. We were
not able to even see all of them! We
strolled around and had a great time. The
kids enjoyed the squirrels and the trick fountains. It was
interesting to me that we saw a total of 9 brides throughout the park that
day. Either it was a good day to get
married, or that is the place to have wedding photos done. We felt bad for them because with the earlier
rain, the bottoms of all their dresses were gray and black from the mud. After exploring, it was time to get back to
the ship.
Day 8- Another day in
St. Petersburg. Today was sunny and a
beautiful day. We walked down the main
street in town. We went to the Church of
the Spilt Blood. It is a beautiful
church. All of the walls are entirely covered
with mosaics. The pieces to the mosaics
are very small. It is really cool. This church was built as a monument, not
really for religious purposes, although it was used for 11 actual religious services prior to the revolution. After it was turned into a potato storage barn during communism. It is an
amazing building though.
We also stopped
at the Hermitage. This is really 5
buildings, all connected, dedicated to art.
We went through and saw some amazing things. The throne room has some ornate gold work all
over the ceiling, but the cool thing about it is that the exact design is also
on the floor, carved in the wood. It is
a mirror image. We saw all sorts of art—Monet,
Cezanne, Rembrandt, and they have 2 of only 11 DaVinci paintings in the world. We saw the cool gold peacock clock, too. Since we were able to get a wheel chair for
mom to glide through the museum, we were all ready to do some souvenir shopping
afterwards. First we stopped for lunch
and had more great Russian food. We ate
Borsht, meat and sweet pies, and Pelmeni (despite what Dan says, I’m still
calling them wontons—they eat them boiled and dipped in sour cream.) So far, we have found most of the shopping to
be very expensive. These are not the
places to go to find great deals. After
that, we went to a grocery store to pick up some Russian chocolate, then we
were back to the ship before we knew it.
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| It's impossible to show the exact grandeur of this church. To give you an idea, the pupil of the eye of Christ in the cupola is about 12 inches wide. It doesn't look that big because it is so high up. The mosaic pieces used were very small. The mosaics covered every surface of every wall and started at about chair rail height. |
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Doorways were short,
statues were fat;
Dad said we come by our
shape naturally. |
Day 9- Tallin,
Estonia. This was by far, our favorite
city on the trip. We took a bus tour to
get an overview of the city. Then we
spent time in the downtown just walking around.
The architecture is very neat. It
is still very medieval. Some of the
streets were so narrow that you couldn’t get more than 2 people down them at
one time. This city was also not as
expensive as the others. We did most of
our souvenir shopping here. We found
neat winter hats that had long tails that wrap around you for your
scarf. We had to pick some up! The people were fun, the city was fun, and we
would all like to come back here. We
didn’t have a long time in this city and wished that we could have stayed
longer. We had a long walk back to the
ship and mom was wearing out after 4 days of continually walking. We did make it back to the ship before it
left.
Day 10 and 11- We had
two full days at sea in a row. It was
perfect for mom who needed to rest her legs.
We took the kids to the waterslide and we spent some time in the hot
tub. There were more on board activities
and we ate and ate and ate. They had a
chocolate buffet and they served tea both afternoons. This turned our days in constant eating
fests. What more could you ask for in a
vacation?? The only problem was that one
night, just before dinner, the sea got very rough. The kids all got a little sea sick, and even
I took a Dramamine. I felt great after
about 20 minutes and continued my eating fest.
It took a little longer for the kids, so they missed dinner and we
ordered dinner through room service for them later. They weren’t too disappointed when they
brought a plate of about 25 cookies for them.
The entertainment on board was good.
They had comedians, a juggler, a hypnotist, magic acts, song and dance
shows, singers, musicians, etc. Dan and
I got to dance a couple of nights. It
was a ton of fun. We also had some fun
onboard experiences. Just before getting
to Holland, we traveled through a lock.
There wasn’t much clearance on either side of the boat and it was cool
to see how the lock worked. We got to do
it twice—on the way in and on the way out.
We also passed under a bridge that spans from Denmark to Sweden. We passed under this twice as well. It was cool to see the bridge lit up at night
and there wasn’t a whole lot of clearance between the top of the boat and the
bottom of the bridge.
Day 12- Amsterdam,
Netherlands. Amsterdam was probably our
least favorite city on the trip. The
canal boat rides were very cool and the flower market was very neat, but it was
raining again and I think we were all very tired by this point. The kids had no desire to see any more
buildings or churches, so we split up from mom and dad and let them go to the
art museums while we traveled around the city exploring. We wandered around and had fun. We boated by the Anne Frank house and the art
museums and diamond cutting tours, but we just found it to be a dirty city and
not one particularly for children.
Although we avoided the red light district, there were still about a
thousand sex shops and full on pornography everywhere. People were shoulder to shoulder on every
street, and we had a harder time maneuvering all the kids through it.
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| Vending machines |
We did pick up some delicious cheeses and we
found vending machines that sell hot food.
French fries are a local specialty and they serve them with mayo.
Bicycles abound in this city and they have at
least one 2 level parking garage for just bikes.
Bikes get ticketed just as cars and there was
even a truck that came around impounding bikes that had been parked too
long.
We made it back to the ship and
learned that mom and dad had to get a bike taxi in order to make it back to the
boat in time!
That night at dinner, we
had our dinner crew sing “Happy Birthday” to Deagan.
He was excited to get sung to, even if it was
a day early, and the boisterously loud song was completely out of tune!
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The line was about an hour long
to get your picture going
to Hogwarts, so we figured just the
cart would be okay |
 |
At the library. No pictures were allowed
for the other cool stuff. |
Day 13- Well, it had
to come to an end. We were saddened, a
little, to see the white cliffs of Dover again.
The realization hit that from then on, everything that we put into our
mouths we had to pay for. It wasn’t too
sad though, because we still had a couple of days left to explore London. We got to our hotel, left our baggage, and we
were off exploring again. First up, was
Fish and chips and a local pub. Then we
went to the British Library where we saw all kinds of cool stuff. We saw the Magna Carta. We saw the first editions of the Bible. We saw original song lyrics from the Beatles
written on the backs of birthday cards and other scrap pieces of paper. We saw an original piece of music written by
Beethoven while he was living next door to us in Vienna. We saw the original Handel’s Messiah and the
original first performance book. We also
saw first editions of some of Shakespere’s works.
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Westminster Abbey; no signs of royalty
here or at the Palace, until we arrived.
Princess Dyllie and King Bubba-que
were the closest we got. |
From there, we went to see Big Ben and the
Houses of Parliament. And off to
Westminster Abbey. We were all pretty
tired after that. We sent mom and dad
back to the hotel to rest. We went on to
Buckingham Palace and St. James Park.
After that, we returned to the hotel.
We were so used to seeing all our cities in one day, that we didn’t
really know what to do with our other days.
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| Not another church! |
Day 14- We did go to the
Tower of London and saw the crown jewels.
We met up with mom and dad at St. Martin in the Fields and ate lunch in
the crypt on tombstones. After we walked
down Portebello Road and did some shopping.
London is also an expensive city, for any of you wondering. We didn’t buy much. Mom was again pushed to her limits with
walking, so we headed back to the hotel.
Day 15- The next day,
we had to say our goodbyes to mom and dad.
We sent them to the airport, but we still had a few hours before our
flights. We went to a museum, walked
around Kensington Gardens, went to Harrods for lunch and took a bus ride
through the city. Then it was time to say
goodbye and we were off to the airport. We
returned home late that night and found it very nice to be in our own home
again.
It has taken a couple of days to recover from our
travels. The kids are still tired and we’re
moving slowly around here. School starts
next week and I can’t believe that summer is over. It seems to get shorter and shorter every
year.
Dyllan surprised us this week. We were at the rink, and Dyllan decided that instead of choosing some of the other after school activities, she wanted to play hockey. The last time she played hockey, she told us that she hated it. We were very surprised by her decision, and got her signed up as well. I'm secretly grateful though because it means easier scheduling on my part. She will practice at the same time as Deagan. I can just assume that I will spend all my evenings at the ice rink.
Over the weekend, there was a Festival called Kirtag. It is a festival put on by the local heurigen that celebrates this year's wine. They close down one street for 4 days. They set up booths, mainly food booths, but also some other wares as well. They had a couple of carnival rides for the kids. It was fun to walk down the street and see all the people wearing their traditional dress. The Austrians sure are proud of their heritage and they wear their traditional dress (Dirnldles and Liederhosen) every chance they get. I would say that at the festival at least fifty percent of the people attending were wearing some form of the traditional dress. There was music playing and other fun activities. It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. We tried some really good treats. Our favorite was Loganos. This is fry bread (similar to a Navajo taco--only bigger--much bigger and deep fried. Then they put garlic on it. You can also get it covered with garlic, sour cream, and cheese. They were very yummy. You could smell the garlic wafting throughout the entire festival. They are a local favorite--and now one of mine!
