Wrap Up

She's Home, she's HOME!!!  My Dorothy is HOME!  I'm happier than a dog with two tails!!!

This is not the actual homecoming, but below I will demonstrate the proper way to welcome home your person (for all dogs reading this post).  BTW, this is the only piece of furniture I'm allowed up on, so ignore the ugly cover.

Here's what she had to say about her return home:

The race to the bottom in airline service continues.  We had a flight attendant who would have done well as a prison warden.

Seat-backs incline a generous 1 1/2" - so what's the use?  It will take two days for your back and neck to recover from the enforced captivity.  I was in agony the first night on the ship - and yes, I've tried the neck cushions, the travel pillow, rolling up my jacket in addition to the neck cushion and pillow.  The fact of the matter is that I'm a lousy sleeper even when I'm horizontal and I'm a non-sleeper sitting up.   I thought about upgrading to the Delta "Economy Comfort" class, only a few dollars more depending on length of flight, which has 3" - 4" more leg room, but their seat backs don't incline any further.  I'm short, I don't need the leg room, I need to recline.  Am thinking of buying a gravity inversion system to un-kink my back.  I did not sleep for nearly 24 hours - from getting up at 6 AM London time to getting home at midnight, Eastern Daylight Savings time.  It was a l-o-n-g day.  Sounds like I need some cheese to go with this whine, huh?

This would be enough to deter some people from traveling.  It will not deter me.

The transatlantic flights have lots of in-flight entertainment on personal screens mounted on the back of the seat in front of you to help pass the time & keep passengers sedated (video games, movies, TV shows, trivia, crosswords, etc.).  They're available in multiple languages.  For those, like me, who can't find the switch for the overhead lights, it's on the video screen, no longer on the arm-rest. I guess the entertainment is a favorable point for the airlines.  I imagine it was part of a settlement agreement with the Flight Attendants' union. (My, how cynical of me.)

They are very good about offering water and other beverages frequently and I was lucky enough to have good seatmates both ways. The beverages are a point in their favor, the seatmates were luck, not a point in the airlines' favor.

They did not lose my luggage - another point in their favor.

People watching in airports can be very interesting.  There was an older woman who was yelling and being VERY nasty to her husband and so he quietly took his roll-aboard suitcase and walked away.  Later she was sitting in the waiting area sobbing heart-brokenly and so another woman (who hadn't been there for the yelling earlier) came over to try to help her.  I heard her crying that her husband had left her, after she raised his three children, and she was all alone and couldn't walk, and so on.  Then she asked this Good Samaritan to watch her bags while she went somewhere (you just don't do that in an airport).  The GS was not comfortable with this (understandably) and so the older woman went off in a huff pulling her carry-ons and walking with a cane.  The husband came back when embarkation was called and I did feel sorry for him.  There seems to be some mental illness there, but it has to be hard to cope with.  On the other end of the flight she was all smiles and light to the porter who met her with a wheelchair.  And I heard her promising to tip him heavily (as he piled up her four enormous Hartmann suitcases, pushed her wheelchair and gave her the undivided attention she seemed to crave).  I hope this doesn't sound hard hearted of me and I hope she gets the help she needs.  It was an interesting drama to watch though.

Thank goodness I don't have to dress up for dinner tonight.  I can eat in my bathing suit, which I just might do after I give Sailor a bath.  Here's one of the dress-up photos.  I think I look fat, but I did my 45-minutes in the gym every day.  Some day someone will develop a camera with a tall/thin lens, and women everywhere will be happier.  Denial is okay.

I promised to look for before and after photos of the damage to the Catherine or Peterhof palaces after WWII and the reconstruction.  Not easy to find, but I think these two photos give an idea of it.  They've been working on the restorations for over 50 years now, and open one or two more rooms each year.  I think the interior restorations are even more impressive, but I couldn't find before & after photos of them.

Catherine Palace Post WWII

Catherine Palace, as it Looks Today .

There was really nothing left at all but a shell of the outside, everything inside was destroyed.  Fortunately many of the treasures were evacuated prior to the war, although not all.  For this reason many of the rooms that you visit have little or no furniture in them.  The German Army was ordered to demolish everything, and treasures were removed before furniture.


Thank goodness I checked e-mail fairly regularly while I was gone, it makes the return to my desk a bit easier.  There's still mail piled up and things I promised to do after I got back, but if I had taken a real vacation, and not checked e-mail, it would be brutal.

Some day I hope to take a sabbatical...no e-mail, no phones, no texting.  Unfortunately I'm afraid that would result in no bookings, no revenue, no money in the bank.  C'est la vie.

Stay calm & sail on.  By the way, it's time to book your holiday sailings NOW, give me a call!

Day 8 - Tallinn (The Forgotten Post)

I did forget to post about Tallinn - oh well, so many great places, so few internet minutes!

Here's the Tallinn post:

Day 8 – Tallinn, Estonia

Dear Sailor: 

It is not true that dogs in Russia eat caviar.  What is more likely is that people sell tins of cat food to tourists in Russia claiming it’s caviar.

Anyway, Russia is soooo yesterday! Today Tallinn celebrated my birthday by throwing a lovely summer folk dancing and music festival.  I guess it was for me, though I don’t know when you had time to send word to them that it was my birthday.   You sneaky dog!  These are a couple of very short and very unprofessional videos taken with my cell phone, I took photos too, but the videos give a better idea of how all out they went for me.

Guess you just couldn’t keep it a secret could you?

 

Tallin’s history is one of constant upheaval, they belonged to one duke and then another, then to Russia, then to Sweden, ruled themselves for a couple of years, then another take-over.  Port cities were valuable prizes.  Currently they have been self-ruling since 1991 when they were given freedom from Russia after protesting peacefully by song.  I didn’t get the whole story, I’ll have to look it up, but no blood was shed and they’ve been on their own for over 20 years.  All seems to be going swimmingly as you can see from all the singing and dancing.

Rumor has it that Tallinn is the birthplace of marzipan – what a great invention!  Way back some time in the 12^th or 13^th century it was developed by an apothecary and thought to have medicinal properties.  I think I could become an addict! It seems to me that I should make it a tradition to celebrate my big day with marzipan every year starting now.  So here is a photo of the marzipan taxi I bought – sorry, nothing left but the photo.

At dinner Pamela surprised me with a marzipan angel that she snuck in and bought after we went our separate ways, actually she said she was trying to beat me to the shop (I wasn’t sure where it was, she Googled it on her I-pad); which turned out not to be too hard because I ducked into almost every souvenir shop along the way after I left her in a café.  Pamela doesn’t like to shop, I’m just curious – what can I say? I just need to know that every shop has the same stuff as the others.

Oh, if you should get hungry in Tallinn you can get a decent bowl of elk soup for 2 Euros (just in case you’re wondering).

Anyway, back to the ship and a day at sea.  I’m not blogging about the day at sea, I’m doing my laundry, going to the gym (gotta get those 45 minutes a day in) and just generally floundering about in the ocean.  

More to come from Warnemunde.

Oh, just looking at photos and I remembered this.  We happened to be passing by a church (I think it was St. Mary’s Cathedral, but I wouldn’t swear by it without going back to my cabin and looking at the map), when bells started going off, the church doors flew open and out came all the clergy and half of the town … they paraded around the block the church stands on and then as we were going outside after a peek inside at the altar they came swarming back in, we were crushed up against the wall, - never thought they’d circle the church and come back.  I always thought that when church was over you went to get breakfast!  Incense and altar boys and lots of gold embroidered vestments – it was very ceremonious.

Day 12 – Kristiansand

Sailor, My Dear and Darling Sailor:

I’m on my way home!!!!  Can’t wait to resume our “great, big, long walks” and our important conversations (“sit” and “down”). 

Kristiansand was our final port of call and our luck finally ran out, weather-wise.  That was unfortunate because Kristiansand is primarily a beach resort town (the Norwegian Riviera) and other than moose & beaches there wasn’t a lot to see of historical importance.  As such, I had my picture taken with a moose. 

There were a couple of statues, but as we didn’t do a tour we didn’t know what importance they carried, I think towards the end of the cruise we’ve gotten a little jaded.  The ship’s information (which they put in your cabin the night before you get into port), mentioned several places outside Kristiansand that you can go to do things like hiking and white water rafting, or go to the zoo, but the weather didn’t make any of that appealing.  It was what the Irish describe as “soft weather”, which is not quite spitting rain but more than simply foggy.  Not good for any attempt at making your hair do anything other than what it wants to do. This photo of the ship kind of gives you an idea.

Now that the cruise is coming to a close I guess I could describe some of my likes and dislikes, these are just my opinions however and who knows, if I reflect back next week I may have a change of heart. 

The Ship: 

• The Queen Victoria is lovely and well maintained (I watched them sand and oil the teak in the Winter Garden – one of my favorite rooms – one night).   
• You do not want an interior room on the starboard side, midship because it’s under the Queen’s Court which is where the dancing to a live band is held every night.  
•  I loved the two story library and the comprehensive selection of books – I guess if you do round the world voyages a good selection of reading materials is important.   
• The “Gentlemen Hosts” are wonderful for women who love to dance but don’t have a dancing partner.  They seemed to put a smile on many a woman’s face and these guys just enjoy the heck out of ballroom dancing. I’m not sure if Cunard is the only ship to still have them, Holland America might … I’ll have to check.  
•  I don’t particularly care for the class system that is still adhered to on Cunard, but that may well be because I was not sailing in the exclusive Princess’ Grill or Queen’s Grill class.  They had better food, cushier chaise lounges and exclusive access to certain areas of the ship.   I would recommend to my clients who are interested in Cunard that they consider going in a Princess’ Grill or Queen’s Grill cabin.

The Ports:   

• Well anyone who has read my blogs knows that I was bewitched by Stockholm.  I’d like to go back for a week and still if it still held all its charms after more time there.  Watching the video of the cruise that is for sale I still see the enchantment of Stockholm.
• St. Petersburg was fascinating, a shame about the crowds.  I would recommend to anyone visiting  St. Petersburg at this time of year that they might want to consider a private tour.  Our best tour guide, by far, was Elena in St. Petersburg.  I got her e-mail address in case anyone wants to do a private tour with her.  She was funny though in that she kept addressing us as “Dear Guests”.  “Dear Guests welcome to St. Petersburg”, “Dear Guests we will be having lunch shortly”, “Dear Guests, please meet in the main lobby” it was cute.
• I would have liked to do some more exploring in Copenhagen, and visited some of the museums. I'm so glad, though that I finally had my picture taken with the little mermaid.
• Tallinn was an absolute gem, giving you many good examples of the Hanseatic period – and the festival they threw for my birthday was over the top!  
• I probably would have gotten more out of Helsinki if I’d done a more formalized tour, but the Hop On, Hop Off bus tour was a good compromise between budget and in-depth information.
• Warnemunde & Kristiansand – had the sun been shining and the weather hot I would have spent time at the beach, even though as a Floridian I have certainly had my share of beaches!

Sailor, I just am so excited to see you!!! I think I may have forgotten to post my blog about Tallinn, but if I did I'll post it when I get home, I definitely wrote it!

Keep calm and Sail on!!

Day 11 – Copenhagen

Hi Sailor-baby! 

We’re coming into the home stretch!  A great trip, but I’m ready to pack my bags and come home to you pretty soon, I just need a few more souvenirs! 

Copenhagen is a terrific city (you thought I was going to say “wonderful, wonderful” didn’t you?)!  It’s as clean as a city can get, even the canals are hardly polluted.  The number of bicycles outnumbers the number of citizens, and nobody seems to lock their bikes, they just stand them over to the side of the road; we even saw a bicycle standing there with groceries in the basket and nobody (except us tourists) gave it a second look.  What a nice surprise – wish we could all live like that! 

Well I did it, I finally had my picture taken with The Little Mermaid, and a good thing too – they are talking about moving the statue further out into the water because right now it’s located on the banks of the harbor (very close to where the ship was berthed) and the rocks can be very slippery and dangerous.  If they put it farther out people won’t try to stand next to it and get hurt in the attempt.  It’s not a great photo, but it’s another thing to cross off my list!  Copenhagen is building a new cruise ship port – due to open next year – so I don’t know if cruises will continue to berth so close to the famous statue honoring Hans Christian Anderson.  According to our guide the statue was commissioned by a former prince of Denmark who fell in love with a ballet dancer.  He wanted her to pose for the statue but she was shy, so the statue has her head, but the body of the sculptor’s wife.

Amalienborg Square

The tour this morning was just exteriors – with the exception of a stop for coffee and Danish (yes I’ve now eaten a danish in Denmark)!  We saw several royal palaces (there are four of them just around ­­Amalienborg Square for various members of the royal family), the “Marble Church” (as our tour guide called it, I think it was the “Church of Our Lady” – Copenhagen’s Cathedral), stock exchange, Tivoli Gardens and had a canal-boat ride where we saw lots of houseboats, the Opera House, the royal yacht, naval buildings, etc.  

Denmark doesn’t seem like a particularly religious country, although it was actually founded by a bishop (Bishop Absalon in 1167), there were far fewer churches than I’ve seen at other stops, but they do require one thing of their queen (or king) – that she be Lutheran - as she is head of the Danish Lutheran church.  

The first king to make Copenhagen his capital was Christopher the Bavarian in 1443, and a succession of strong kings after him waged war against the traditional enemy – Sweden - for the best part of 200 years.  Growing up in the US I never thought of Sweden as menacing or threatening, but it seems that most of this part of the world was under their control or fighting to keep from being under their control for hundreds of years. Russia and Sweden were the two super-powers on Northern Europe.  

The most popular king – historically – was Christian IV (1588-1648), known as the Renaissance King for all his contributions to town planning and architecture.  Copenhagen didn’t fare so well in the 18^th century; a third of its residents died from plague and fires destroyed a great number of buildings.  I think this was about the first tour on this cruise where they didn’t speak extensively about WWII, but there is a museum dedicated to the resistance movement.  Our tour simply pointed it out, we did not get to see the museum, I understand it can be pretty grim.

According to our guide the social welfare system is so strong in Denmark that about 50% of people don’t work; those who do work pay something like 51% in taxes to support all this welfare, and there is a 25% VAT tax in addition on all items you purchase.  I think she was trying to work on our sympathies as I overheard another English-speaking tour guide later telling HER group that unemployment was at about 10%. 

Submarine plant turned apartment building.

A couple of other interesting sites – this apartment building which used to be a submarine building plant, the royal yacht, a private yacht that looks like a gun ship and the Copenhagen’s version of a school bus! 

Sailor, I’m heading down to my cabin to start organizing my things: one more port, then one sea day and I’ll be back on a plane coming home to you!!!  Get ready to race me to the couch!!!

Private Yacht - Interesting Exterior

Royal Yacht

School Bus!

Day 10 – Warnemunde

Sailor, Sailor, Sailor: 

Once again, I did not run off with a Dachshund to eat weinerschnitzel. Yes I am in Germany, but for goodness sakes, I have been here before and did not come home with a German Shepard!  I am loyal to you (you needn’t know about Ziggie, the German Short-haired Pointer who lives in Key Biscayne, but I knew him for several years before I met you).  

Warnemunde is a lovely little seaside town.  Not a lot of historic places to see here ... it was a major U-boat center thus it was heavily bombed in WWII.  Most of the houses were built in the 40’s and 50’s and it’s sometimes called the German Riviera.  You can see why from the photo. 

Warnemunde, the German Riviera

I would have more pictures of Warnemunde, but I thought I forgot my camera in my cabin.  I was lugging my notebook computer around all day because I imagined I’d find an internet café where I could go over e-mails and send out my blog.  All I achieved was a sore shoulder and a new backpack to carry my computer in.  Had I dug down to the bottom of my tote bag I would have found my camera, but it’s too late now.

With the exception of one 18^th century (I think) church, this was like a Northern European version of seaside towns I’ve seen all over the US.  T-shirt shops, souvenir shops and cafes, maritime themed antiques and some children’s stores.  A very cute lighthouse out on the point, great beaches when the sun is shining, (which it did in the afternoon, but it was hazy and a bit chilly when I first stepped off the ship in the morning).  A nice marina or two.

The only wi-fi I was able to find was at the McDonald’s and I wasn’t able to log on.  I wasn’t willing to wait in line to order a diet coke on the off chance they would give me the password in thanks for my grand purchase.  I figured there would have been ship’s crew hanging around to contact loved ones back home if internet was available, and I didn’t see any crew – they’ve been everywhere else that internet service was offered.

This was the Queen Victoria’s maiden call in Warnemunde and you should have seen the crowds waving the British flag when we sailed off!  What a sight it was to see a couple of thousand Germans waving the Union Jack!  And we were escorted out of the harbor by a number of ships all tooting their horns with crowds of people on board waving.  (I have to get the photos from Pamela, I had the binoculars, but she had the camera.) 

Pamela, on her way to visit her daughter.

There was a sense of going back in time to the days of grand send-offs where families and friends came to wish you bon voyage and waved from the pier until you were out of sight.  Pamela’s daughter (Pamela is the friend from New Zealand who is traveling with me) lives just outside of Warnemunde and she spent the day visiting with her daughter and 1-year old granddaughter.  After their visit her daughter drove her back to the pier and they were waving goodbye to us with the rest of the crowd.  Although this is the jet age, they don’t know just when they’ll see each other again.  Pamela hung a red sweater over the rail on Deck 3 so they could spot us and we all waved goodbye for a good long time … it gave me a chill thinking how our ancestors left their countries just the same way (well not quite this elegantly, but they sailed out of sight by ship), with families and friends probably waving goodbye to them forever.   I felt a ghost of how wrenching that had to have been. 

Well … on our way to Copenhagen where I am sure more wonderful sights await.  I’m taking a half day tour so should be full of all sorts of information tomorrow night.  Bit of a sore throat now, so I’m going to have a cup of tea and go to bed.   

Goodnight dearest, doggiest, bestest dog, I’ll be back soon – I MISS YOU!!!

Day 7 – St. Petersburg – Again

Dear Sailor: 

Where do you get these rumors from?  I am not leaving you to defect to Russia and adopt a Russian wolfhound.  Totally unfounded. I will come home and I expect a big, sloppy greeting when I do. A VERY big sloppy greeting!

Today in St. Petersburg we had a half-day tour of the Hermitage, something of a continuation of the "gilt trip".  I think I’m going to have to paint all the ceilings when I get back home, plain old white ceilings will seem so vanilla, after all this.  I guess I can do that after I install the new fountains I’ll have to order for the garden (s); once those are finished I can tackle the parquet for the floors. 

Here’s some inspiration for my new ceilings, but I don't know if I Michael's has enough gold leaf to do the entire ceiling.

The Hermitage is one of the world’s great museums, the problem with the ship’s tours however, is that you get herded through the museum like cattle.  It’s the only option unless you hold an individual visa  - like most passengers we were under the ship’s visa which only allows you ashore as part of the ship sponsored tours.  Since we didn’t have a tour this morning we had to stay on board, border control is very strict.   

Anyway, while you wouldn’t want to miss seeing it, the Hermitage in the summer is hot, crowded and rushed.  You come away with a general impression of  the wonder of it, but there’s not time to really learn about anything in depth.  The commentary was along the lines of:  “Important visitors came up this staircase, here’s the throne, here’s a picture of Alexander the Great (no it’s not Napolean), now we’re going to see Tintoretto – please move to the right, we have to squeeze in with this other group.” Like a high-speed car chase through Manhattan and then you can say "There!  I've seen New York!"

I’m kind of surprised at the museum; not having climate control, allowing works by famous painters like Raphael to hang in direct sunlight, the crowding in front of the most renowned works by painters like Tintoretto, Reuben and Davinci.    They don’t make you wear shoe coverings, and the priceless parquet floors are getting worn and pitted.  There were many people even taking flash photos, although the signs say not to … nobody stops them!  I guess the government has more critical issues to address than art preservation, but it was surprising after being in museums like the Smithsonian or the British Museum in the past.

Don’t get me wrong, the Hermitage is spectacular – I just hope they get a bit better at crowd control in the future.  About 5 million people live in St. Petersburg (20% or so are illegal immigrants, which is hard to understand with the tight border controls), but about 10 million a year visit as tourists.  Especially by cruise ship.   Makes for some real chaos when there are six or seven ships in port at the same time.

We also swung past the Sts. Peter and Paul Fortress, but there wasn’t time to go inside – at least I saw the exterior.  There are so many great works of art & architecture in St. Petersburg that you just can’t see it all in a short trip, but you do get a sense of the importance of this city on the Neva and it’s place in Russian history.  (Did you know that EVERY Tsar was assassinated? They lived well, but paid a high price for it in the end.)

 

Finally got around to the weird souvenir of the day.  Don’t know what a gorilla walking stick has to do with Russia, but it’s for sale.