Copenhagen and The Scandanivian Countries

For our second vacation of the year, we flew into Copenhagen and took a cruise through the Northern Sea.  On the cruise we had four stops in four different countries. But before getting on the cruise we spent the day in Copenhagen.  As with most places that we visit we enjoyed just wondering the streets, taking in the scenes, and people as we stolled through Stroget.  We of course went to Nyhavn, which is a famous old canal with beautiful buildings lining the waterfront many with outdoor restaurants.

Nyhavn harbor, beautiful colors against the sky.

The Marble Church in Frederiksstaden.

Copenhagen City Hall.

Hans Christian Anderson in City Hall Square

We also wandered central Copenhagen, seeing Trivoli Gardens, Stroget pedestrian path, and the Round Tower attached to Trinitatis Church.   At Amalienborg, a group of four palaces that face each other, we watched some of the changing of the guards.

Tivoli Gardens Entrance, more like an amusement park than gardens.

The Round Tower 17th Century Tower and Observatory.

Royal Danish Guards Marching to their Changing of the Guards Ceremony.

Then we headed to Rosenborg Castle.  The castle is more like a Victorian house, not huge but yet very lovely.  The bottom of the building houses the royal treasury which includes the crown jewels.  They were quite beautiful.

The Danish Royal Crown, Part of the extensive Royal Jewels we saw.

One of the reasons the castle seemed like a good idea is that it looked like it was about to rain and we hoped we would miss the rain while inside exploring.  Unfortunately the rain waited for us, but it was a very quick storm so we didn't get too wet.  We made our way back to the hotel to collect our luggage and head for the cruise.  The public transportation in Copenhagen is very easy to use which is fantastic.

Once on the cruise, we spent the first evening relaxing at the indoor pool followed by a show and a lovely dinner with some new friends: Mandy, Rachel, & Gram (our table mates).  We then had another whole day to continue relaxing while at sea before making it to our first port.

Our first port was Tallinn, Estonia.  The city is only a short walk from the pier and was easy to explore on our own.  First we headed out along the walls and then up the stairs to Toompea, the town on top of Tallinn.

View of St Olav's Church from Toompea.

Medieval Walls surrounding Tallin and a view of Epping Tower.

In Toompea there are two churches: Cathedral of Saint Marys the Virgin which is your average cathedral on the outside with many wooden coats of arms on the inside.  The second is St. Alexander Nevsky, which dominates a square and the attention of all with its Russian exterior.  Toompea is also home to Pikk Hermann tower which unfortunately we were not allowed to climb.  However, we were able to walk up and along part of the wall around the city.

St. Alexander Nevsky Church

Pikk Hermann Tower with the Estonian Flag Flying high.

Inside of the Medieval Walls, covered walking route

Back down the hill we saw two more churches St. Nicholas's Church (only from the outside), and St. Clav's Church.  Then went into the town hall which houses a museum.  It was very interesting and offered great views of the town square.  The square like most European squares offered people watching galore along with a few eateries.  We chose one to enjoy some beer and a nice meat plate at.  We had perfect timing, because shortly after our meal arrived it started to rain.  Unfortunately when it was time for us to move on, we had delayed quite a bit, it was still raining.

Market and town square (Raekoja Plats) of Tallinn

View from the attic of the Town Hall (Raekoja Plats).

Tallinn Town Hall and Town Hall square.

We thought we would be ok though, as our next stop was an old Pharmacy just across the street from the restaurant.  Again we were left a little disappointed as the pharmacy is closed on Mondays, so that also left us out in the rain.  We tried to make the most of this stopping in a few small shops and another Church before heading back toward the ship.  To our dismay we were caught in the dead middle of the town and port when it started to POUR combined with the wind despite my raincoat and an umbrella we were quite wet by the time we arrived at the ship.  Good thing we had an indoor hot tub to warm us up :)

Sleepy pedestrian street in the Old Town.

Tuesday we arrived in St. Petersburg.  First I should say that you had two choices for St. Petersburg get a visa for Russia on your own, or take an excursion sponsored by the ship.  Despite our best efforts we failed at the visa thing - mostly because we travel too much and could not afford to give up our passports for any length of time.  Therefore, we were left with taking an excursion.  The one we really wanted to go on was booked - so we took another called The Hermitage & Grand St. Petersburg.

Our first stop the Hermitage is a museum with an extensive collection of Art. I would dare to say that it rivals that of the Louvre. We were told that if you spent 1 minute on each piece it would take 11 years to see the whole museum. We didn't have 11 years, and while there are some pieces I could spend a few minutes at there are also some I don't think I want to see for a full minute. Either way though, we only had 2 hours here so we saw only the highlights. Since we were with a group we also had the benefit of learning a little more history of some of the pieces that we ordinarily would.

The Hermitage Royal Stairs
we were the first ones in the museum!

View of the gardens inside The Hermitage.

Painted ceilings of the Hermitage

Blue Marble collection in The Hermitage.

Monet Painting at the Hermitage.

Yes that is Silver all of it

After that we headed to lunch at Nikolaeskiy Palace, another of St. Petersburg palaces.

Nikolaevskiy Palace our lunch destination

St. Petersburg really is a city  of palaces, everywhere you look!

Palace Square in St. Petersburg.

View of the Winter Palace.

The lunch was very nice and included a taste of Russian Vodka as well as a glass of wine.  After that we headed to St. Isaacs church.  The best part of the church was the mosaics.  Having traveled quite a bit, we have seen our fair share of churches and mosaics but these were among the best as many you could barely tell were mosaics.  We really had to examine them to see the lines between the tiles.

St. Issac's Cathedral Dome.

Phil and I in the square near St. Issac's Cathedral.

St. Issac's Cathedral Mosaics, can't even see the breaks in the tiles.

Inside the Dome of St. Issac's Cathedral.

Then we did a spin tour around the rest of the city stopping to see the Church of Spilled Blood and Peter & Paul's Palace (these are two of the sites that we really wanted to go in but could not because we had to take a different tour).  There are so many other wonderful things to see in St. Petersburg and simply not enough time.  So I guess it will remain on the list of places to visit again in the future.

Domes of the Church of Splilled Blood.

Phil and I in front of the Church of Spilled Blood.

Church of Spilled Blood

Peter and Paul Fortress from across the River Neva.

St. Petersburg stock exchange on Split of Vasilievsky Island.

Hand Painted sea shell

Although we had to head back to the ship, we were able to enjoy a Russian Dance show.

Local Russian dance show on the ship in the evening.

Wednesday we headed to Helsinki.  Helsinki is much smaller than many of the other European capitals that we have visited.  It was easy to get around and see most of the main sites in just the day.  We started with a walk down the Esplanade - or a park in the middle of the street that ends at the waterfront where there is a daily market of crafts as well as delicious treats.  We then walked up to Helsinki Senate Square to see the Helsinki Cathedral.  The church inside is very simple yet lovely.  We also enjoyed going to a free museum about the city - there are numerous free museums in the city which is a nice change.

The Helsinki Cathedral.

After this we headed back to the waterfront for a short boat ride out to Venestama Island. The boat ride offered great views of the numerous small islands off the coast.  Ventestama Island is home to a HUGE fort that is very well preserved.  We wandered around the ramparts, saw a few canons, as well as King's Gate and a very old dry dock.  The island also has a church of course but we were only able to view it from the exterior.

Kings Gate on Venestama Island.

Venestama Island Coastal Artillery.

Phil and I walking around the fortifications on the island.

Taking the boat back to the main land of Helsinki we had a great lunch at a waterside stand - salmon and vedace before heading to the church at the other side of the city to see Uspenski Orthodox Church. The outside of this church is stunning from near and afar sitting on top of the hill it also offers great views of nearby sites - also free to enter.

Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral.

Coming down off the hill we made our way to the train station square and then wandered for a bit looking for a reasonably priced beer.  These are not easy to come by! So after wandering a few streets we found a small street of restaurants drank an expensive beer and then headed on our way.

Thursday was our fourth and final stop of the cruise in Stockholm.  First of all I should say that arriving into Stockholm was beautiful and amazing!  It felt like we could reach out and touch the islands as we slowly navigated through the Swedish Angso archipelagos. The scenery was breathtaking.

Swedish archipelagos approaching Stockholm.

Despite having VERY limited time, it was easy to figure out that Stockholm is one of my favorite cities. Unfortunately with only a few hours (one of which we spent sitting in a tunnel thanks for Obama's motorcade) we were limited on what we could do.  We started with a walk along the water toward city hall, then we went into Old Town where we saw Riddarholmskykan Church as well as the Royal Palace.

Stockholm Central Station.

At the palace we watched the changing of the guards.  The best part of this was the band on horseback which was quite talented and the Swedish double time/fast march.  However, if you go to Stockholm, no need to arrive early as it lasts almost a full hour so you have plenty of time to catch it.

Changing of the Swedish Guards at The Royal Palace.

Swedish Fast March!

Phil & I left a little early and headed toward the rest of old town where we saw the German Church, a few statutes on the water and a lot of great little streets to wander.


Stockholm Stadshus or City Hall.

Stortorget Square in front of the Nobel Library.

Clock Tower on the Stockholm Cathedral.

One of the narrow streets in the Old Town.

Another small colorful square in Old Town.

Phil and I on Skepsbron with the Grand Hotel of Stockholm in the Background.

After a quick bite we decided to take a boat back to the ship (given the tunnel fiasco earlier in the day).  The boat tour was a great idea: first of all there is no traffic and second it offered views of the other parts of Stockholm which we unfortunately did no have time to visit.  Top of the list for next time is Vasa museum followed by a bike ride around Skeppsholmen.

St. Jacobs Kyrka Church from the water taxi.

Standvagen Street from the water.

Nordic Museum home to the Vassa Viking Ship.

View of Strandvagen Street from the Water taxi.

Sadly we had to leave Stockholm with lots left to do - but we did have one more day at sea and a day  in Copenhagen left before we had to go home.  So while at sea we decided to hang out a little with our dining mates.  We played a little shuffleboard, a game of bingo, a little gambling, and even cards.  It was a fun and relaxing day that lasted well into the early morning with drinks in the Viking Crown Lodge.

Our boat docked in Copenhagen very early and we were up and off exploring the city by 9am.  We started with the Kastellet Fort and the little mermaid which were just a short walk from our hotel.  

Warehouse row outside the fortifications in Copenhagen.

Windmill inside the Kastellet fortifications.

St. Alban's Anglican Church outside the fortifications.

The Little Mermaid, 100 years old.

Then we rented bikes and headed out to the other side of town for the Carlsberg Brewery tour.  I could instantly tell that Phil was not at his best when I was drinking more beer than he was.  So we took the rest of the day a little easy while still seeing quite a bit.  We rode our bikes to Chistianton, where Phil napped by the canal while I read a little.  Then we headed to Christianborg Palace where Phil napped while I wandered and took some pictures.  Then we headed back to Nordhavn where we decided to take a boat cruise of the area. Again this was a good choice because it was relaxing and offered another view of the different parts of the city.  Then we found a place to have dinner before heading home.

Carlsburg Beer Wagon at the factory.

Copper Beer fermentors and Distilling equipment at Carlsberg.

Carlsberg Brewery Entrance, Glorious!

Largest Beer Bottle collection.

As always we had an amazing time and as always would love to have had more time exploring some of these amazing cities - most of all St. Petersburg and Stockholm; but it was time to head back to reality for a bit until our next adventure which is really just around the corner!