Cruising is not relaxing no matter what they say. Your days usually have some activity or shore excursion to get you off the boat and into town. Living with Dan if he has a choice he wants to have an early start to any tour we book. This means getting up 2-3 hours before we have to leave. This is just to get through the morning routines and breakfast ( wouldn’t want to miss a meal)
So to recap: Day 1: Stockholm, Day 2: Stockholm, tour of Drottingholm Castle. The ship was to leave at 2 but delayed to 4PM due to 2 passengers that hadn’t arrived. Day 3: Mariehamn. Quiet little town Dan spent time in the museum after we did a morning bus tour. Day 4. At sea, checked out the Jacuzzi, sat on the deck and finished a novel. I did blog but it was lost in the internet reception. Day 5 Trip to Gdańsk tour of Malbork Castle. This was 2 hours from the port, then lunch and a city tour that was a walking tour. Really enjoyed Malbork able to put some of the history together. Learned a little about amber since Baltic amber is commonly found in this part of Scandinavia. There are so many street vendors selling it you would have a hard time determining what is real and what is processed to look like amber. Since amber is petrified resin that has been found and polished and can millions of years old. Day 6. Today we stopped in Karlstrona. This was an add on stop to replace some of the change in itinerary due to the Putin invasion. We are scheduled for a walking tour It is pouring down rain. This is more rain we have seen since arriving in Europe. We have been caught in thunderstorms and gotten soaked but the weather would clear. Our entire time during the walking tour was real rain sometimes heavy. This town is actually in Sweden and was a naval stronghold. There is a continual presence of the military on the island. There is a naval museum and some unique structures built in 1700’s. This port is actually made up of several islands and one of our options was to view private gardens on the island of bohmholm. Apparently all the houses are painted red and white and these are associated with an allotment garden. We chose not to do this tour and it was in our best interest since it would not be fun in the rain. Our afternoon was free so a visit to the jacuzzi called our name. It is located in the spa area so inside. There is a great hot spa and bigger medium hot spa. A nice way to spend the afternoon.
Day 7 Berlin. Or as known to us a chance to do laundry. Out of the 750 passengers 450 went to Berlin. This was a 12 hour trip about 3 hours each way by train. We had spent 4 days in Berlin. There were a few things I would like to do next time but felt we did do justice to the city. We did do a half day tour to sherwin castle. This was the monarch’s summer home type of castle. It was a great tour and we had a great guide. He was an American who has lived in Germany for 12 years. He was a single dad of adolescents and was totally entertaining the entire 1 hour bus ride and town exploration. When we returned to the ship it was bad if we were the only ones present. Dining room was empty etc. so fairly easy to get some laundry done. There were a lot of people doing the same thing but I was able to get everything done easily. One more day to do a load of laundry before we head home. Dan was watching an old movie on the TV. Dinner that night was at Manfredi. Italian and terrific. This was the only night to get a reservation before 8:30. Tomorrow we head to the town of Aalborg Demark an added on due to the Putin change
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