The Great 30th Birthday Trip page 1 | page 2 | page 3
Thoughts on the MS Nordam
I felt worse the next morning so I made a visit to the ship infirmary and dosed up with Sudafed. Lena and Alexander met us at 9:00 and took us to a local food market. All the produce you can imagine, along with a gruesome display of assorted carcasses filled the cavernous simple building. Every stall was staffed by Russians waving samples. We tried cherries, figs, and several varities of thick rich delicious honey, but had to learn to say "Nyet Spaceba" (No thank you) to the multitude of offers.
We drove a bit through the city next, with a couple "photo stops" before a stop at Peter and Paul's Fortress where we visited a majestic cathedral housing the tombs of many of Russia's czars. This included the last Romanovs, the entire family gunned down in 1917 at the Bolshevik Revolution.
We drove to Church of the Resurrection next - definitely something I was looking forward to. Absolutely magnificent. Not only the eye-popping exterior, but the unbelievable mosaic interior. I could have wandered around slack-jawed all day, just gaping at the exotic beauty, but we still had a lot to do on our last day in Russia. A quick lunch stop for some interesting traditional Russian salads including a tasty carrot, garlic and walnut dish, and it was on to the Hermitage.
What can be said about this behemoth of a treasure trove? We lucked into Museum Day, and got in with no admission charge, and were treated to a whirlwind tour of centuries worth of history and art by Lena. Alexander met us outside the museum, and next drove us to see the Arch commemorating the Russian's defeat of Napoleon - intriguing to me due the irony of wrapping up our trip in Paris, which of course features the massive Arc De Triomphe, honoring Napoleon.
I wanted to experience the St Petersburg Metro, so we took the line nearby the arch, stopping in the subterranean shopping center to buy some conditioner. Not quite like popping into Walgreen's at home and grabbing a bottle of Herbal Essence. Through Lena, I had to tell the shopkeeper what type of hair I have, and what I am looking for in a conditioner. She then selected for me and removed a bottle from behind the glass case. The Metro was amazingly deep, and beautiful chandeliers hung from the ceiling. For the three of us, the cost was 24 roubles - less than a dollar. Mosaics of the hammer and sickle adorned the walls. Although we have traveled on public transportation in many countries, Brian and I agreed there was no way we could have managed this Metro without help. Alexander was of course waiting for us at the next Metro stop, and it was time for our Russian journey to end.
It was definitely with regret and a little sadness that we made the drive back to the port. Russia was intriguing, mysterious, exotic, and a land of contradictions. Meticulously restored grand buildings were surrounded by grimy and a little creepy barbed wire- topped tenements. It will take a long time for this visit to really sink in and absorb. It will need examining from afar.
The day we left Russia was the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen. We all packed into the front of the boat to admire the blazing sun as it dipped into the water.
The next day was Helsinki. I should give it the benefit of the doubt - after all, what could be exciting after having just been to Russia, but it was kind of like the Cincinnati of Europe. I'm being too harsh - it was a lovely waterfront city. The Russian church was lovely, and the service going on inside mystical and beautiful. First I need to backtrack. We walked a little ways from the port with David and Linda, looking for a bus or a cab. Cab came first. He dropped us near the market in Helsinki. The 4 of us hit the Tourist Indo center, and arranged to meet for lunch at the Garlic Restaurant before heading out on our own.
We did the Rick Steves self guided walking tour which was quite brief. Senate Square, with the big white church, then the Russian Orthodox Church. We wandered through the open air market, and stopped for some iced coffee. We took the tram to the rock church. While on the tram, a local, older lady sat down next to me and began to speak in Finnish. I smiled at her in that "I'm sorry, I have no idea what you are saying" way, which, according to my husband caused her to look quite cross. We went inside the rock church. Theoretically it is interesting, blasted out of rock like it is, but that type of architectural style just doesn't do it for me. We walked quite a ways through the town then, stopping in at a local grocery store for drinks. I always love to see what's on the shelves of foreign supermarkets, though it amuses me endlessly to picture a foreign tourist in my local Kroger, wandering the aisles, pointing to his or her spouse at the exotic things on our shelves like Captain Crunch and Karo Syrup. We met David and Linda for lunch, and thoroughly enjoyed consuming mass quantities of garlic. 3 types of garlic were freely available on the table, as well as a pot of garlic mayo, which hour server refilled repeatedly, as we kept lathering generous quantities onto our bread. We went to Stockmans Dept store next to use the internet, then wandered around a bit more, through a wide treed lane between the two sides of the main street, in what was almost like a park. Lots of street performers were entertaining the crowds. We took a bus back to the ship late afternoon, and had a quiet evening on board, as I was still sick with the head cold.
Stockholm was next. We didn't get off to a good start, being unable to locate the bus to take us to town. Rather than argue all morning about it, and spend 25 minutes walking out of our short time, we decided to take the ship shuttle, which dropped us off in the center of Stockholm. It was very quiet when we first arrived in the city, so we were able to explore the cobblestone streets of the Gamla Stan almost to ourselves. After looking around there for a while and getting some Swedish Kroner, we took a bus to the island with the Vasa Musueum. It was a hot day, and the bus was stifling. We took a wuick tour of the Nordic Museum first - we had the Stockholm card, and it sounded interesting. I guess if we had taken the time to get the English audio guides, it would have been more meaningful, but the theme of the day was to go, go, go.
It took us quite a while to get to the entrance of the Vasa next, but it was well worth it to step inside and see that incredible ship. So amazing that this Viking ship sank and was preserved for over 3 centuries. We walked around the whole ship, admiring it from every level in the museum. Quite remarkable. We stopped in the gift shop for a book on the ship, then headed to Skansen, the Open Air Museum. We bought the map, which showed a one hour walking circuit. Unfortunately, there were no signs in the park to correspond to that particular circuit, so we had to rely on Brian's navigational skills. Again, I wish we'd had more time. Ideally, about 2-3 hours for Skansen, so we could actually look into the many buildings from around the country. But once we made it up the seeming never-ending hill, and fortified ourselves with a pastry from the old bakers house, we were content to wander around and take it in. A pleasant surprise after seeing the brown bears was a free water fountain. We drank down our bottle of Vitel, and refilled it for free. In this insanely expensive city, that was a treat!
We took the bus back off the island and walked back into Gamla Stan, which was much busier by bow, and had lunch at a Mission that donates proceeds to the hungry. We toured the Royal Palace next, and missed having Lena there to explain everything like we had in Russia. We strolled the Gamla Stan until it was time to catch the shuttle back to the ship. It was a lovely sailaway that evening through the Archipelago - all these wonderful forested islands scattered throughout the sea. page 1 | page 3
