Tallinn and Copenhagen

After leaving St. Petersburg (which, incidentally, is three hours ahead of us) we sailed to Tallinn, in Estonia, arriving on May the 25th. The good weather held and we had another hot day exploring ashore. This time we didn't do an organised trip but availed of the shuttle bus to take us from the port to the old town. We were given a map on the bus and then we were on our own. We noticed a shopping centre across the street with a nice looking coffee shop so we headed straight over there for a cappuccino.

Coffee break over, we started off to find the sights of the old town. But everywhere we looked we were surrounded by modern shops and offices. We stopped and examined the map, back-tracked, re-tracked and stopped again to consult the map. I complained to the husband that we should have been left closer to the old town by the shuttle bus. Now, I am totally useless at reading maps but finally I saw where we were and how we should proceed to get to where we wanted to be. And, of course, it was right beside the spot we had been dropped off by the shuttle bus.

Tallinn is another lovely place to visit. Here are a few photos of the old town. There were lots of nice buildings and market stalls.

A lot of the shops had almost life-sized stuffed dolls sitting at the entrance.

We even spotted Johnny Depp! Well, his wax impression standing outside the House of Wax Figures.

We bought a hand made cast iron bell at this market stall. That's them at the very left hand side of the stall.

I also bought some linen in a lovely wee shop. A lot of the market stalls were selling tea towels, table runners, bags and so on made from exactly the same linen but a lot more expensive.

There were lots of stalls selling knitted and crocheted items. I liked this blanket; just noticed, though, that there's a red end not sewn in!

The flower market was amazing. So many beautiful flowers in every colour you can think of. This is just a very small selection.

After seeing all we could in the old town we headed back to our ship on the shuttle bus. There were four cruise ships docked one beside the other; it was an impressive sight. Ours is the second from the right. The photo was taken from the shuttle bus. The second photo gives you more of an idea of scale.

As we were sailing away from Estonia we had a thunder storm; it was over quickly; the only rain (actually hail) we had during the two weeks.

It took us until the 27th of May to sail to Copenhagen. This time we did a guided walking trip to see the main sights. There was plenty to see, especially as we were on foot. We stopped for a break and refreshments; coffee and, of course, Danish pastries. As you can see, there weren't many left!

I'll just let you scroll down through the photos to get an idea of what Copenhagen is like. The Little Mermaid is first in this group of photos.

We were taken to see the four royal palaces which are located in a large open court yard. Members of the public are welcome to walk about and sometimes catch a glimpse of one or other of the royal family. There are guards but they let you take pictures and look round so long as you don't touch the palace walls.

Our trip in Copenhagen ended with a canal boat ride. It was very hard to take photos from the boat and really the only one worth showing you is of the Danish royal yacht. The canal boat guide told us he'd seen a swan earlier in the day and that she had swanlings with her. He couldn't remember the correct word but he made a good attempt!!

Unfortunately that was our cruise over, apart from sailing back to Southampton. We really enjoyed it and can't wait to do another one, though it won't be for a while yet! Here are a few photos of my desserts and some of our cabin steward's towel art.

I did this block, made up of two-round Granny squares, to remind me of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg.

It has taken me such a long time to do these posts about our cruise but now I can get back to some sort of normality. Here's something I did earlier today - picked some of our strawberries. Can't wait to eat them later.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the final installment of the cruise posts. Come back again soon for some more mundane stuff!

St. Petersburg

It took another two full days' sailing to take us from Klaipeda to St. Petersburg. The sea was soooooo calm. It was actually very uncanny. The water looked black (presumably because it is so deep) and the only movement on it was the little ripples we made as we glided along. There wasn't even another ship to be seen; it was like we were the only vessel sailing. Have a look at the lovely sunsets we had as they were reflected on the water.

We arrived in St. Petersburg on May the 23rd. The weather was glorious - definitely not what you would expect at this time of year. We were to stay two days in St. Petersburg and, as it happened, President Putin was also in town. There were extra security measures in place which affected us slightly on our trips but nothing much.

It isn't possible to go into Russia without a visa so we opted to do the organised trips for which a group visa is provided (meaning we didn't need to do anything). There aren't enough superlatives to describe St. Petersburg; it is truly magnificent.

On our first day we visited the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral, both on the same site, and also had a boat cruise on the Neva,Fontanka and Moyka rivers and various canals.

 The Peter and Paul Fortress housed part of the city's garrison and served as a high security political jail. Among the inmates was Peter's own rebellious son, Alexei, plus Gorky, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother, Alexander.

That's a real person dressed as an executioner. I don't know how they stuck the heat, completely dressed in black!

The Peter and Paul Cathedral is the burial place of all the Russian Emperors and Empresses from Peter the Great to Alexander III. On top of the Cathedral's gilded spire (i.e. it is covered with gold leaf - yes, real gold not just something gold-coloured) stands a golden angel holding a cross. My photos don't show it very well unfortunately.

It's hard to explain how impressive this cathedral is. Our group was treated to a rendition of the Lord's Prayer sung acapella by five members of the Russian the resident Russian Orthodox choir. We were so enthralled that we bought one their CDs even though it cost 1000 rubles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked away from the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral through this impressive gate, heading to the pier where our canal boat trip was to start.

It was a great way to get a look at St. Petersburg, seeing as many of the landmarks as possible. It was also nice and cool!

Troitsky Bridge



St. Isaac's Cathedral

A blast from the past?
 

Salt store

Peter and Paul Cathedral from the river. See all the sunbathers on the shore?

After a great day of sightseeing we spent that night onboard, still docked in St. Petersburg. We were treated to a beautiful sunset.

 

The next day, the 24th of May, we started off bright and early to do our second trip. This started with another canal cruise - basically the same as before but leaving from a different pier.

 

The Winter Palace isn't really on a slope - that's just me trying to take a photo from the canal boat!

Next stop was The Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood which was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated and is dedicated to his memory. No photo can do this place justice; it is breathtakingly spectactular. Look at those onion domes!

Inside, the walls and ceiling (all 7500 square metres) are made up of intricately detailed mosaics, depicting mainly Biblical scenes and figures with patterned borders setting off each picture.

Here's a final picture of the outside.

To finish off our trip we were taken to a souvenir shop where they had beautiful Russian dolls, lacquer boxes, paintings, furs and eggs. Everything was very expensive so we just bought a small egg. It is hinged and when opened there is a tiny replica of the Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood inside.

Well that was the end of our stay in St. Petersburg. It has certainly whet our appetite and we'd love to go back again to see inside some of the palaces and art galleries. Anyway, we sailed off into the sunset (sorry, yet another sunset photo!). This time we actually passed another ship.

 

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed St. Petersburg. My next post will be about Tallinn and Copenhagen and then that's the end of the cruiselog posts (I think).

Oh, I nearly forgot; I managed to make some progress on my cotton blanket. See what you think.

I'm using the 200 Crochet Blocks book by Jan Eaton though not always using the colour schemes in the book. I crocheted the St. Petersburg block before we had visited it and used more or less the colours shown in the pattern.

However, once I'd seen St. Petersburg, I decided to do another block with a different colour scheme. As I'm sure you noticed from my photos, the majority of the buildings in St. Petersburg are painted cream/buff/sand colours.

 

And finally, just so you know, this is the Arcadia block done in colours to suit our cruise ship.

Bye for now.