Kids Club

One of the benefits of cruising for a vacation is that ships offer something called a Kids Club.  A place where you can drop your kids off, while you go and have a drink/dinner/dance/go to the gym, without them.  It is a win/win because you have some kid free time and the kids get to play with their friends in a safe environment.  And, if I must tell you the truth, the kids prefer to be there making crafts and having pillow fights, to having another boring dinner with Mom and Dad.  At least, I know my girls do.

On this particular cruise the Kids Club also spent their time putting together a show.  Each day they would practice and rehearse for a bit of time so that on our final sea day, they could perform for family and friends up on stage in the big theater.  This week's theme - The circus.

We dropped MadHatter and Stinkerbell off at 10 am for their final practice.  We picked them up for lunch but then it was right back for costumes and final staging.  Finally, it was show time.  B and I made our way down to the theatre a bit before 4, so that we could get good seats.

After introducing all the groups that would be performing, from the 3-5 year old Lions, to the 6-8 year old clowns, they all paraded past and then sat quietly until it was their turn.  Stinkerbell never made it off stage as her group of clowns was first.  They started the show off with a public service announcement of what to do in an emergency...(Stinkerbell is on the far right)

We saw a few more acts and then it was MadHatter and Stinkerbell's turn to do their feather balancing act... (MadHatter is in the red, white and blue striped dress.  Stinkerbell the pink and green sparkly tutu)

A few more acts and suddenly Stinkerbell and her clown buddies were back on stage.  This time with Stinkerbell the main participant!  She was so cute and such a natural on stage.

Another Stinkerbell skit (this time she is on the left side of the screen).  Stinkerbell sure had a lot of stage time in this production.  Which was ok with MadHatter as she isn't one to be the center of attention.

After about an hour, we hit the closing ceremonies.

It was a great way to end our 9 days on the ship.  I know we enjoyed watching the show and I hope you do to.  We took them out for a treat afterwards, played a game of Yahtzee and put them back in kids club for their slumber party.  And we all slept soundly after the whirlwind of the day.

The cruise was coming to an end in the morning but we still had one more full day of vacation, and a big surprise for the kids when we got to Copenhagen.

Stunning Stockholm

We sailed through the Archipelago Sea in the middle of the night.  Somewhere around 2 am, we welcomed a Swedish captain on board our ship and had him navigate us through the largest island group in the world.  Because it is against the law for anyone other than a Swedish or Finnish captain to navigate such complicated waters if the boat is as large as ours.  I will take their word for it because I was not about to wake at 2:30 to watch the pitch black seas drift by.  But when I did awake - I was mesmerized.  There are so many tiny islands, each with a house or two, lined up on the water.  And each one was more incredible than the last.  The girls were as stunned as I was, and we sat for a good 1/2 hour, not speaking, just watching as the islands passed by.

Finally, we had to head up to breakfast and I took a quick picture of us pulling in to Stockholm.

We dragged ourselves away to fill our tummies, and get ready to head out into the streets.  It was a bright day (as you can see Stinkerbell has a tough time with bright days) and we were so happy to just wander around the sea front until we turned into the alley's of Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town)

Bur first we did some cartwheels.  Because Stinkerbell does them every chance she gets.

Gamla Stan is where Stockholm was founded in 1252.  It is also one of the most well preserved of all European cities centers.  Walking its alleyways and cobblestones streets is almost like walking through an outdoor museum.  It has quaint stores hidden in between homes, and cafes around every corner, and attractions that you seem to just stumble upon.   We were there on a Sunday, before anyone was up, or anything was open, so we had the streets mostly to ourselves to just wander and explore.  Fabulous.

After winding our way around and through the city, we found ourselves outside of the Nobel Museum.  Though it was not open yet, and we weren't sure that it was something the girls would be very interested in, we did stop to marvel at the outside, and then play in the fountain out front.

The Royal Palace wasn't open yet, so we wandered back out of the square and over to Storkyrkan, or the Stockholm Cathedral.  Built some time in the 13th century (1279 is it's first notation in literature) it is the oldest church in Sweden and, for about 400 years, was the only church in Stockholm.  Obviously there are now many more churches around, but the Storkyrkan is still plays an important part in Swedish history as many of the Royal family have been married within it's halls (most recently Crown Princess Victoria in 2010).

The royal boxes that dominate on each side of the aisle.

Outside we found these fun telephone boxes.  They don't work, but they were fun to hide in...

It was just about time for the Royal Palace to open, so we took the short walk back through the courtyard.  About 5 minutes before the official opening, there is a changing of the guard ceremony.  Of course, we stayed to watch.

We were one of the first to enter for the day, so we got right to it.  Up the stairs and into one of the largest palaces in Europe (over 1,430 rooms.  We didn't have time to visit them all but we did get to see the Treasury (no photos), the Apartments and the Royal Chapel (where the Prince got married in June).

The Kings throne when receiving visitors.

This is a recreation of the dinner table that you would not be able to sit and eat at.  Yep, the King would invite you to dinner, and then make you stand around and watch him and his family eat.  For hours.  He would serve upwards of 32 different dishes while you had the honor of standing near.

This is the chapel the was most recently used for the marriage of Prince Carl Philip to Sofia Hellqvist on June 13, 2015.

And that was the last bit of our touring in Stockholm.  We decided to stop for a snack and shop for a few souvenirs.  It was a shame that our shortest day in port was Stockholm because there are so many places we still wanted to see.  I guess it just means that we will have to make a trip back.  Perhaps next summer we can rent one of those beautiful houses in the Archipelago (hint, hint).

We followed the little blue line back to the boat - literally,..

and looked forward to our last day at sea tomorrow.  Dreams of the pool, kids club and lots of ice cream dancing in our heads...

Hello Helsinki

Because we had just been to Helsinki in December, and B is there almost every other week, we didn't have anything planned for when we docked there the morning after we left Russia.  So we did what we do best on vacation - relaxed and took it easy.  We talked about just staying aboard all day and enjoying the empty pool and weight room, but we had been out of touch with the world for the past 3 days and decided to check in.  So we wandered into the port and along the Gulf of Finland in search of wi-fi.  We took some time to check in with everyone, have a beer and a snack and continued on our way.  We played at the park, we threw stones in the water, we jumped and ran and laughed.  Generally, we just had fun.

We were back on the boat early and took advantage of that empty pool.  We cleaned up in time to feed the girls and put them in kids club for the night while we had dinner, drinks and a relaxing time watching the singers in the lounge.

The epitome of relaxation and family time!

 

 

St. Petersburg - Day 2

Our first day in St. Petersburg was incredible.  We learned a lot (and then I promptly forgot a bunch of it because history was never my strong suit) and we saw some beautiful palaces (those I will never forget).  Day two, would be no less incredible.  In fact, I would say I was even more stunned by the beauty and history of the city at every turn.  And that included our first stop - the Subway system.

The St. Petersburg metro system is one of the most attractive and elegant underground rail systems in the world.  You will find no graffiti here, just Russian art and decorations at every turn.  It is also one of the deepest rail stations, with its lowest station at 86 meters (282 feet) below ground, and one of the busiest, carrying 2.15 million passengers a day.

We got on, rode one stop and then got off, but we did get a great tour of the halls and escalators housed within.  I tried to figure out where we were and were we were heading but this just isn't a language I even know the letters too...

Back out in the sunshine, we boarded a small boat to get a different perspective on the city.  With over 300 km of waterways and about 800 bridges in and around St. Petersburg, the rivers become a part of the city in a the same way that some of their most historic buildings do.  We spent about half of an hour exploring the River Neva and some of its canals with our guide.

Once we docked, we were quickly off to our next stop.  We were on a tight schedule, as we had a lot to pack into two days.  And, as we found out later, the tour groups get preference on getting to to locations but that does not mean there would not be a wait if we were late to a stop.  Add that to the fact that we had to be back on board the ship before it left without us, we were pretty hurry up and go most of the time.  Luckily, the girls are used to this, because they did not complain once the entire time we were in Russia.  I think they were enthralled with the sparkle.  I was.

Our next stop was one I had been waiting for the whole day (maybe since I saw my very first picture of it) - The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood.  Built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, it is literally a church on top of where his blood was spilled.  It is a memorial built almost entirely by private funding from the imperial family and in the style of medieval Russian architecture, and thus varies greatly from the mostly predominant Baroque and neoclassical architecture in St. Petersburg.

I don't care what it is called - it is perhaps the most impressive and visually stimulating church I have ever seen.  The pictures I took (and there were many) can't do it justice.  The colors are brighter in person, the walls and ceilings more detailed and the arches and domes much loftier and impressive.  It truly has to be seen in person to be really admired.  That does not mean I will not bore you with my photos...

I was happy.  I had now added another checkmark to my bucket list and I still wasn't done.  Our next stop was the Hermitage Museum.  Founded in 1764, it is one of the oldest and largest museums in the world.  It houses over 3 million pieces of art, in six buildings, and would take you months to walk through with stopping to look at each piece for just a few seconds.  Obviously, our two hours inside was not nearly enough to see it all, but we did get to see some of the most famous works.

Two of Da Vinci's most famous paintings (above and below)

What they call a 3-D painting.  The above photo was taken while standing on the right side of the frame.  The photo below was taken standing on the left.  See how the scale of the building and boats change in each photo.

A painting of the God of Wine,  I couldn't resist.

After a quick stop for lunch, we were off again.  This time to Yusupov Palace, the site of Rasputins murder.  Though the palace was owned by the Yusupov family and not the imperial family, their residence rivaled that of the official palaces.  Though the family had a vast collection of art (now mostly housed at the Hermitage), the palace is most famous for the murder that took place in its basement.

Prince Felix Yusupov, heir to the Yusupov fortune, conspired with two other high ranking men, invited Grigori Rasputin to dinner in December of 1916.  Inviting him into the wine cellar, Yusupov fed Rasputin tea cakes and wine laced with cyanide and waited for the effects.  When he though Rasputin was unable to fight back, he shot him in the side.  Leaving Rasputin for dead Felix went back upstairs to his co-conspirators to celebrate.  Rasputin was wounded but still managed to flee out a side door, into the courtyard, where Yusupov shot him in the back.  Dragging his body inside, they found he was still not dead and had to shoot him 2 more times before mortally wounding him.  They then wrapped him in a rug and drove him to the river where they disposed of the body.  All because a peasant had somehow gotten close to the Imperial family.  And it is all conjecture, because no one knows what really happened and how, except those that were there.  And because the Tsar called an end to the investigations after just a few weeks, no one was ever tried.  Why is this important?  Because many think that Rasputin's murder and the fact that it was covered up so quickly and throughly by the Imperial family, pushed the citizens into the first of the two revolutions in 1917 that officially ended the Romanov dynasty.

A staging of the rooms where Rasputin was murdered.

That concluded our tour of Russia.  We saw some fabulous sights and had a great time with our small group, but we were exhausted.  We hopped back on our big boat, had some dinner and headed off to dream land.  For tomorrow we would be in Helsinki.