Cruising at last!

Wednesday
Carol and David dropped us at the station to get a train into London where we needed to get a taxi to Liverpool St Station. We arrived there in plenty of time to collect the tickets for the Harwich train, so had a leisurely coffee before finding Platform 15.

Boarded the train early and watched as others boarded with lots of luggage which was piled up around the doorways – just as well there was no need to evacuate the train in an emergency!

Travelled through Essex to Harwich with one stop at Colchester, a journey of about 1 hour 15 minutes. The train stopped at the International terminal, which was right next to the pier where the ship was moored.

Of course, everyone else was arriving at the same time, so it took quite a while to get through the boarding process. Had to check in to collect sea passes and do the passport thing, then a long queue to go through security before you got on board. Zigzagged up a long ramp to finally reach the ship, where security photos were taken, then finally on to our stateroom on Deck 8. Compact, but with a balcony so it seems a bit bigger.

Went up to the Windjammer restaurant to get some lunch about 3.00pm. Very big selection of food to choose from, but we just had a light lunch as dinner was about 6.30pm. Then we wandered around the ship finding out where things were. At 4.30, we had a compulsory lifeboat drill but did not need the life jackets, nor did we have to get into lifeboats. It would have been interesting seeing some of the people on board struggling into life jackets and lifeboats!! One of the crew who was checking people off for the lifeboat drill fancied himself as a bit of a showman and was trying to be funny as we were waiting for everyone to turn up, but it didn’t come off too well!

The ship departed from Harwich a bit late (due to delays in loading food supplies!) to the sounds of the local pipe band playing “We are Sailing” and a variety of Scottish tunes, including the Skye Boat Song!

Thursday
Today was a sea day and we spent the day relaxing a bit. Used the gym, with a great view of the sea, and more sea, as well as eating, and more eating. They say your clothes shrink when you are cruising – I wonder why?? Went to a craft class, but didn’t do anything as they were just giving out scrapbook layout stuff, but you really couldn’t do anything with it as haven’t any photos yet. I did meet a couple of ladies from Blackburn – a daughter taking her mother on a cruise to celebrate her 80th birthday. The older one was a card maker so we sat down and had a chat about making cards and things.

Have met a few people, mainly at meal times and most have been cruising several times. We have not met anyone from New Zealand or Australia yet. Mostly Americans and Brits on the cruise and are mostly older people.

Tonight was a formal dining night, but because we are doing My Time dining, it wasn’t really a big deal and so far, we have not had to share a table for dinner. Meals are very good – they offer lighter meals that are low calorie as well as other meals and you can pick from whatever menu you want. Roger had escargots for an entrée last night and decided that they were OK but wouldn’t bother with them again as they were swimming with butter. The Atlantic Salmon was very nice and the fillet steak was good too.

Friday
Woke up early and were able to catch the ship’s entry to Copenhagen Harbour about 7.00am. By the time the ship got into the harbour and turned around to dock, it was nearly 8.00am. We had an early breakfast and took our time to get ready to catch the shuttle into the city.

We were dropped off in the Kings Square, a few metres from Nyhavn, which is an older part of the city and has lots of restaurants and cafes and is that part of the city that is often seen in photos of Copenhagen. After a walk around the side of the canal, we decided to take a canal boat tour which was about an hour long and cost about $NZ 7 each - probably the cheapest thing to do in Copenhagen and certainly cheaper than a latte! The boat trip took us around the canals which are near the harbour, past the cruise boat dock, the royal palace, naval yards and through areas of gentrification where warehouses and factories have been converted to apartment blocks and new apartments have been built. Some of the old barges and canal boats have also been converted to floating homes, hotels and restaurants. It was a great way to see some of the city.

After the canal cruise, we walked back to the centre of the city and wandered around some of the shops, through the main pedestrian shopping area, had some lunch at a little café which specialised in great sandwiches, bought some postcards, changed some money then caught the shuttle back to the ship.
By this time, the weather had cleared up a little and the sun was shining a bit, so it was a pleasant stay. The ship left on time and we were on our way to Sweden, the home of IKEA and Nokia.

Saturday
Today was another sea day. It seemed to take ages to go what seemed not too far on the map but then we discovered that the ship had to back track and go around the island that Copenhagen is situated, so for the first time, last night, we got to see a sunset as we were going the opposite direction to what we were normally going. Make sense?

Spent the day reading and catching up on a few zzz’s in the solarium, where it was very warm. The wind was effectively about 30 knots yesterday because of the speed of the ship and the actual wind speed, so it was quite cold, too cold for us to sit outside although some very hardy souls were sitting out with no shirts on!!
Dinner last night was Italian themed, so we enjoyed it very much. Tiramisu for dessert!

Sunday
As I write this, we are making our way through thousands of small islands in the Archipelago on our way to Stockholm. The islands are beautiful, tree covered and some with quite big settlements on them. It is, unfortunately, a bit wet too, so I am guessing the outside photos will not be so good today.

It is now after lunch, and we are back on the ship warming up after a trip around Stockholm by bus and a visit to the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa was a warship built in Stockholm and completed in the summer of 1628 for the King of Sweden. Its greatest claim to fame is that when it began its maiden voyage, it sailed about 300 metres from its berth, then sank in the harbour. It lay on the harbour bed for three centuries before it was found and consequently raised. Over a period of about 30 years, it was preserved and restored and housed in a purpose built museum in Stockholm, only a few hundred metres from where it was first launched. It is an amazing sight and well worth a visit if you are ever in Stockholm.

The bus trip around the central part of Stockholm was informative and we saw the palace, the cathedral (where Crown Princess Victoria is getting married to her physical trainer on 19th June), the Parliament, the Town Hall where the Nobel Prize dinner is held every year on 10 December, the house where Alfred Nobel lived and worked on his dynamite, the centre for local government and other local attractions. Stockholm is a city of islands, with 52 bridges connecting them all. It also is very old, dating back to the 12th century.

We had thought about staying on in the centre of the city for a while after the bus tour, but it was raining quite hard at the end of the tour, so decided to go back to the ship and get some lunch, then rest up for the rest of the day!!