"more to follow "

I am waiting

I would not have thought and Airbus would be landing in Copenhagen!!!

I'm following also, looking forward to more. We were in that area in August a few years ago - during the heatwave in Europe that was unprecedented there - people dying, fires around Moscow virtually closed the city. What a difference in weather you experienced in June.

Trip to the dock from the hotel was painless. A short line up and we were on board. The Emerald Princess was recently renovated and is pretty well what was expected, similar lay out to other Princess Ships, no big surprises except the Library. The library is small and tugged into a corner. We have always enjoyed the Princess ship’s library as it is one of the nicest place to sit, relax and read. This one is just uninviting.

By and large, the ship is smoke free. The main smoking area is the cigar room and you will be hard pressed to find it. The rear of the ship on an open deck (and only one side) and a portion of the casino and that’s about it. They have banned smoking on your private balcony which is good news as we have experienced downwind smoke and did not get much use out of our balcony on a previous voyage.

They have also changed their “coffee card” policy. You can still use your old coffee cards for espressos, latte and the like, but only the “current” card will get you free special brewed coffee and the specialty teas. They put the dates and the voyage on it now. It closed the loop-hole where people will left one hole un-punched and keep using it to get free special brewed coffee and specialty teas.

We can see cost cutting everywhere. With the price not going up and the rising cost, it was to be expected. The buffet selection is adequate and certain expensive items (such as smoke salmon) only appear on rotation. Missing is the omelette station but they did make omelettes to order if asked.

The dining room menu did not changed all that much and the portion size adequate. Unfortunately, they did not feature any local cuisine. It used to be 2 lobster tails a few years back. Recently, we have been getting only one lobster tail with 2 large scampi on the lobster night. Of course, you can always ask for more. At least it was better than the half lobster tail that we received on our last Celebrity cruise, or “out of Lobster” on the NCL.

My princess pet peeve is that they still can’t do the eggs right at the buffet so we ended up having breakfast in the dining room for my soft boiled or soft poached eggs.

The entertainment around the ship is pretty standard Princess affair with a dance band, a duo, a piano player, a string quartet and so on. They are all adequate but not exceptional. The feature headliners in the Princess theatre were mostly talent show losers (okay, they were finalist but they didn’t win) in the UK you got talent TV program.

The main stage production shows (Princess Singers and Dancers) were disappointing and subpar. I had a comment to say about a particular dancer and how she didn’t quite “fit” into the costumes. DW said if I can’t say anything nice, I shouldn’t say anything at all. So here it is:

Not that we are complaining, as we choose this cruise because of the ports and not the shows on board.

One shining star: the guest lecturer/historian is excellent with his insights into each port. He offered tips as to what you can do on your own, what local restaurants are worth trying (and inexpensive ones to boot!) what are the must see sights, some history, and things to avoid.

Eschew

Very interesting and informative.

Do you know the name of the Guest/ Lecture/ Historian.

Was it John Lawrence ?

How long was the wait in line at the airport with that behemoth ahead of you?

Turkish dancers? I hope there were belly dancers. Beats the view of some old, dumb fountain.

It seems overall cruise ships of all lines have cut back. Its a sign of the times I suppose and also perhaps the Costa tragedy, at least in the short run. After this our Equinox price dripped by $400.00 pp! Then after we booked it dropped another $200.00 pp.

Sorry about the bumpy ride and the less than desirable weather.

Staying tuned.

Hi Percy, It is John Lawrence. And did you know he can sing? What a voice! I don't belief he a staff member of the ship as he was talking about self guided tours ...

Larry, It was about 45 minutes. The line up to the immigration was into the corridors

Oslo: Easy port to get around. Walking distance from the dock to the harbour and the Akerhus Castle and Resistance museum are right there as well. We wander into a restricted area of the Castle (okay, we knew what we were doing) and the sentry politely told us that we should not be here, in English! Although they were in dress uniforms but those were real guns, probably with real bullets …

We also made stops at the Viking ship museum and the Vigeland Sculpture Park. The Ski jump offers a great view of the fjord but I am not sure if it was worth the time spent to get up there as we only stayed up there for a very short time.

Aarhus: The wind was too strong (gale force wind, at least force 7). With consultation with the port authorities and the local pilot, the captain decided that it was too risky to navigate through the channel and cancelled the port. This is highly unusual as the pilot had boarded the ship, and the tug boats were already alongside. An extra sea day was the end result.

Warnemunde (Berlin): I wanted to go to Schwerin Castle but DW wanted to go to Berlin so we ended up in Berlin. We decided to book the ship’s tour as we felt safer with the train (less chance of missing the boat) as it is 3 hours each way to Berlin from the port.

It was an early departure so we were up early and had a light breakfast on the ship. The train ride was okay, the accommodation comfortable. We slept most the way. The train provided hot water and a few packages of instant coffee, tea bags tec. And they served shrink wrap muffin for snack. The muffin was moist and we will leave it at that.

It was a whirl wind tour of Berlin with an hour on the boat, a few hours on the bus, a quick lunch, and then a couple of hours on the bus. Stops were made at the hot spots such as the Berlin Wall, check point Charlie, Brandenburg Gate etc. We were given half hour to shop before returning to the train station for the journey home. Best name for a restaurant that we came across: "Check Point Curry", wonder what they serve...

The train ride back was uneventful. They also served some “food”. It appeared to be a “bread sandwich”. A piece of bread with something (spread?) in between 2 slices of bread so that it appears to be a thicker sandwich. We didn’t even bother to open the package. We slept all the way back and returned to ship a bit after 8:30 p.m., just in time for a late dinner. We were the first train back so we get into the dining room real quick.

Tallinn: Booked Alla Tour and Julia, our guide was friendly, and explains things well. We really have no expectation whatsoever. We went through the old town and we had a couple hours on our own before we took the transfer back to the port. We found out about an old castle ruin that sort of became an amusement park. It was at least an hour’s drive away so we didn’t have time for that.

The ship’s guest lecturer told us about a specific restaurant that we should try and we are glad that we did. The decor is medieval, the staffs are in period costume, utensils are lacking but the food is cheap and good. 1 euro for a bowl of Elk soup or a meat pie, but 2 euros for a coffee. There is a sign on the wall in local language. It can be loosely translated as “those who don’t tip will grow hair on their back”. You are expected to clear your own table. There is a sign above a large wicker basket that read “whatever utensils you don’t steal goes here”. We tried to use the “toilet”. It was an experience as the “setting” was medieval.

Next Stop: St. Petersburg

Hi Eschew.

Yes, I knew John Lawrence could sing, and heard him sing.

I had quite a few chats with him ,as I cornered him several times for added information to some questions I had.

Ahh!! .. You had Julie for your Alla Tour guide in Tallinn.

She is a sweet little thing. We had her in St. Petersburg.

Thanks for the trip report so far. I am following

I'm following also and learning. I think the bread sandwich is also known as a wish sandwich: 2 slices of bread and you wish there was something in between.

We loved Tallinn, spent a few days there so we got to see quite a lot. Never did eat at any of their medieval restaurants - I see I missed out on their good sense of humor. Hope you tipped!

Percy, I don't think it is the same girl. My Julie resides in Estonia, live and worked there. She also liked their independence from the old Soviet Union and makes no bones about Estonia as a country was ran over by the Soviets. With that said, our Julie is a sweet girl (lady) just the same.

It appears Julie is a popular name there, as is Svetlana. We came across 2 of them on the same morning with Alla Tour in St. Petersburg. We were told our guide was Sevtlana and we approached the wrong Svetlana at the dock. Alla had 2 Svetlana working for her on that day!

Yes, I heard him sang too and he likes the Engelbert Humperdick and Tom Jones tunes. John is a nice guy but he is not agreesive enough to flock his books and DVDs. I did chatted with him from time to time.

That's what I like about Princess cruise. They always seems to have good guest lecturers. The best surprise (and I wasn't expecting it) was on a Mexican Riveria crusie and they had someone from the University of Carlton talking about geological formations and super volcanoes. I quite enjoy their Panama canal cruise & Alaskan crusie lecturers as well.

Leslie_S, I wanted to grow hair on my back. Unfortuantely, I tipped already before someone gave me the interpretation. The look of some people's face is priceless.

An older couple walked in, paid for the food and received bowls of soup in clay bowls (chipped bowls, no less) looked at the chipped bowls and looked at the cashier/server, totally speechless.

Then the man asked for spoons. The server/cashier said "Spoons? You didn't bring bring your own? What kind of place you think this is? Travelling knights always bring their own weapons!" The couple looked lost (probably stunned), turned around and look for empty seats in the crowded and very dark restaurant (candle lit only, small windows with wooden shutters that didn't transfer too much light).

They sat down by the counter and was holding the bowls to their lips. The server/cashier bursted out laughing and handed them 2 wooden handle spoons and said "you can use these if you promise you will clean your own table."

It was so hard to hold back our laughter. We actually spent an hour there watching people and soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying the show the staff was putting on.

Obviously, we refilled our soups, bought extra meat pies (the wild boar one is interesting, especially with the Elk soup) and more coffee. At only 1 euro a piece, it's good food and it is cheap! John told us about the place but he did not mentioned the price. This place was right at the town hall/market square. You can't miss it.

St. Petersburg: That’s the highlight and the whole reason for this trip. All I can say is that 2 days is not enough. I would love to have stayed a week. We booked Alla Tour for the 2 days. Disembarkation was a breeze and we didn’t have to wait long as we were among the earliest to leave the ship. We have been warned Russian immigration could be interesting and it was.

We have seen couples approaching the “booth” and they went through immigrations together. But at our booth, I was told to step back as our immigration agent can only handle one person as a time. Never pays to argue with bureaucrats. Yes ma’am, anything you say ma’am.

The terminal is new and there were quite a few shops. Souvenir prices were reasonable, and comparable to shops outside the dock. They will accept USD for payment, roughly 30 RUB to 1 USD, which is not a bad rate, especially if you take into account the amount of service fees (gaps on the exchange rate) the bank charges.

There were securities at all the doors. The one located at the exits were “host and hostess” of the port authority. They can speak some English. The one located at the "side" entrance were in military style uniform, and speak no English. If you show your cruise card, they nod and you walk right through. As to everyone else, they had to go through the metal detector and put purses and bags through the x-ray machine.

June 12 is Russia’s Independence Day. The local thinks it is a stupid holiday but gladly takes it. Their point was who did they gain their independence from? Themselves?

With June 12 being a Tuesday, the local opted to work on Saturday and took Monday off so that they have a 3 day weekend. Needless to say, it created traffic issues that were not anticipated as we were there on the Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, we hit rush hour traffic as people trying to make their way to work and on Sunday, on the way to Peterhof, we hit traffic as people are trying to get out of town.

Interesting to note that their work hours are from 10 am to 6 pm, at least that was what we were told. I was surprised at the income level as well. It was much higher than I expected. Monthly average of 1,500 USD for a server and up to 10,000 USD for professionals.

Alla Tour did not disappoint and we had a great guide by the name of Svetlana Shukova. There were a few Svetlana working for Alla. We were guessing that Svetlana was a graduate of Foreign Language Arts and probably destined to be an interpreter or a translator in diplomatic services (or a spy!) if the Soviet empire did not collapse. Her English is perfect Oxford, perfect diction with no accent. The choice of word is impeccable and appropriate. You wouldn’t know she’s Russian just by listening.

She was knowledgeable, quite passionate about the country and care about what she does, and goes out of her way to make our visit a memorable one. She knew the museums and all the tourist hot spot inside out. She took us through back staircases to avoid the crowds. She literally raced another guide (from a different tour company) to the door to get us through the gate first, and she made adjustment along the way because of traffic and crowd. We ended up seeing everything that was promised and more. Kudos to her!

Most of the old Tsarist Palaces were restored or in the process of being restored, and the churches almost returned to their former glory. I was pleasantly surprised that the Soviet atheists did not destroy everything.

Since we have never been there before, everything was interesting. Now that we have been there, I would have preferred to spend more time at the Hermitage and Peterhof, and maybe skipping out on some places. The 3 to 4 hours spent at the Hermitage barely scratched the surface. Mine you, that’s what I said about the Vatican too, that a day is not quite enough.

The upper fountains and the lower gardens were crowded while we were there. We would have loved to stay longer and spent time to admire the place. There was a marching band in period costume wandering through. That added to the atmosphere. We took the hydrofoil back to save travelling time.

One unexpected highlight was the subway ride. We went from the Stadium station to Admiralty. The stations themselves were interesting. I don’t know if all the stations are like this but the two stations that we were at, they were themed (Olympic theme for the Stadium station), marbled floor, and all. The train platform itself was more than 800 feet underground. It was a very long escalator and a very long ride.

The train was quite fast and packed full of people as it was a “work day”. Looking at the crowd, it was non distinguishable from any other subway. The ear bud head phones, reading newspaper, people just go about their everyday life.

We had a packed lunch on the first day and ate outside in a park while visit the church. The boxed lunch was of decent quality but there were too much food. We ended up feeding the birds, which was a nice break. We love those Russian apple juice boxes. We have to figure out how we can get them over here.

Lunch on the second day was a sit down lunch on our way to Peterhof. It was at a banquet hall. I am not sure if I get the name right but it was called the “Summer Palace”. Let just say that all of us were underdressed for the occasion. The hostess was a young lady dressed in period costumes. I can’t put words together that can explain the place properly, so you will just have to wait for my pictures on webshot.

The place can seat probably a thousand people, the ceiling is about 50 or 60 feet high and the ceiling is “painted” a la Vegas’ Venetian Hotel. The manicured lawn is as big as a football field. I was told the hall rental is $3,000 USD and $130 USD per person for plated meals.

Alla must be doing good business as there were almost 100 people from Alla tour in the hall. We also saw tour groups from other tour company including SPC. In all, there maybe 2 to 300 people, occupying probably less than half the room. There were no Princess tour groups though.

Actually, here is their web page photo link: http://www.summerpalace.ru/m3/foto
and their video link: http://www.summerpalace.ru/m3/video

I bought a “print” from the Hermitage. It is a water color on canvass. I paid about 80USD. That print put the ship‘s art auction stuff to shame.

The souvenir books are quite cheap. 7USD. Beats trying to take pictures of the place with choke full of people. I did take some pictures but not as much as usual.

Russia is a relatively young country by European standard. It is only a few hundred years old. One thing that we didn’t get to see all that much was defence of the Leningrad.

We caught a lucky break in St. Petersburg. The weather was actually seasonable in comparison to the earlier stops. St. Petersburg is quite far north. It is still bright outside at midnight and I can take pictures of the terminal building without flash.

Next up: Helsinki & Stockholm

Very nice that you had a subway ride.

I agree they are very deep underground.

They are all lovely ...

( but the one in Moscow are even nicer and are refered to as "Palaces Underground".)

That Summer Palace you are referring to , could it be the

Konstantinovsky Palace ?.

Nice report. Thank You

We asked to ride the subway so Svetlana took us just for a quick ride, sort of along the way, but the poor driver ended up driving around as tehre was no parking near the subway. We went from Stadium and Admiralty. We got off. Looked around, took the opposite train back. Took about 45 minutes in total looking at the 2 stations plus riding the train. Well worth the time spent.

I have not seen the subway stations in Moscow but the one in St. Petersburg is pretty swanky. I have photos so I will post on webshot later.

The "Summer Palace" that I refered is the business' English name. I can't type the Russian name here unless I find myself a Russian keybaord. It is not Konstantinovsky Palace.
This building looks relatively new. I had their web link on the last post. You should click on it and see for yourself.

When you travel with Alla on your trip, what did they do for your lunches on the 2 days?

For lunches , Alla had some places planned out for us and the lunches would take about 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.

I told her that just a simple lunch at Peterhof and then again at the Hermitage is all we would need.

But I did ask her that I wanted to go inside the Astoria Hotel ,kitty corner from St. Issac's Cathedral to sample some red and black Caviar.

It was at the Hotel Astoria that Hilter was going to have is Victory Banquet after he conquered St.Petersburg.

My reason was that I did not want to waste 3 hours having meals when I had many places on the list I wanted to see ( over and above what Alla had for the tour).....even if just for a photo op.!

Obviosuly Alla had amde adjustments.

Day 1 was a boxed lunch, picked up the driver while we were inside. It was a hot lunch and since the weather was great, we ate at the Park and took about 20 minutes to half an hour.

Day 2 we had lunch in the banquet hall (Summer Palace). It took an hour but no one was complaining about wasted time as people were taking pictures of the place in between courses, taking pictures with the period costyumed hostess and admiring the palce.

The final installment ...

Helsinki: We also booked Alla Tour for Helsinki and it was disappointing. The guide, Michael, was inexperienced and clueless. The drivers drove around looking for parking spaces instead of letting us off real quick and drove around the blocks and pick us up later. The guide didn’t know the Orthodox church was closed and spent time walking round looking for a way to get in while mumbling to himself that the place should be open, and some people followed him trying every side door and see if they were open.

We would have been better off to take a cab to the Market Square and explore on our own. Everything is easily accessible from Market Square. The ferry to the island is right there and runs every 15 minutes. The only real place Michael took us to that were not walking distance from the market square were the church in the rock and the Sibelius Park.

A pleasant surprise was the Helsinki City Hall. It is located right across from the market square. We had lunch at the various vendors/tents/stalls at the market square trying the various local specialties such as reindeer and fried smelts. After lunch, we were looking for a place to relieve ourselves and were told by the vendors to use the City Hall’s facilities.

We ended up spending over an hour there looking around. They have an exhibit called “FLUSH”. The exhibits are gender specific so the men won’t be able to visit the women’s exhibit and vice versa, as the exhibit is located right inside the individual gender specific facilities.

I have been taking different pictures of WCs for the last little while and they have never failed to amuse. It appears WCs could be culture specific. When I get around to it, my webshot posts will have a new album entitled “WCs around the world”. Pictures taken in the Helsinki City Hall’s facilities along with the FLUSH exhibits will be part of it.

Stockholm: The Princess docked so far away from everything that it took forever to get to where we wanted to go. Traffic congestion was terrible. If we had bikes, or walk, we could probably get there faster than by car.

Vasa Museum was interesting. As the story goes, it never pays to meddle if you do not have the expertise and that sunken ship, after only 20 minutes of sailing on the maiden voyage, would be a perfect example.

The Royal Armory could be interesting if you are interested in those kinds of things. Lots of belongings from the Royal family including a stuffed horse (taxidermy), children’s toys and clothing that the Royals had worn. Various medieval and 19th century weapons etc. There is a separate exhibit with all the Royal Carriages through the years in the “basement”.

They blocked off the crowd for the changing of the guards at the Royal Palace and we were sort of trapped there, which maybe a good thing as we cannot leave and ended up watching the whole changing of the guards, which was about half an hour. For whatever reason, the port visit was cut short by 2 hours so that we can have “scenic cruising” through the channel at the ship’s departure from Stockholm. We didn’t really have a lot of time in Stockholm.

Currency: We bought local currencies before we left so we had Denmark Krone, Swedish Krona, and Euros etc. We were surprised that quite a few places accept Euros and USD; and in Russia, they accept USD quite readily in many tourist places. Almost in all cases, the shop’s exchange rate is reasonable and competitive. You have to know the going rate so you can figure out which is a better deal as deals can be had based on varying exchange rates. Sometimes Euros gets you a better deal, sometimes USD will get you a better deal. It all depends on the rate the shop is using, plus the round up and round down. Best deals, always, is using the local currencies. But then, if you add in the fee and surcharge on the exchange rate the bank charges, I am not so sure.

We have seen people paid for meals in Euros and USD in Denmark. We paid for the souvenirs in Norway with Euros, and they accept USD as well. I bought a print at the Hermitage Museum with USD. I bought souvenirs at the Russian port authority shops with USD as well. Stockholm street vendors advertise their prices in Krona and Euro. We paid for our purchases in the Vasa museum with Euro as we did not have enough Krona.

If you are adventurous, and willing to take chances with the exchange rate, you can probably get away with carrying only USD and Euros, and won’t get into too much trouble; with the exception of maybe cab fares, but most cab drivers accept credit cards though they all preferred cash.

That is too bad about the guide in Helinski.

As a guide he has to know better.

At least he took you to Sebelius Park and then to the Rock Church.

( From the Rock Church did the guide , swing over a few block and come on to Mannerheiminte Street...the main street...and point all the major places to you as he drove you to the Market Square.?)

Very interesting about the FLUSH exhibit.!! I never saw that, they did not have it then .

Re: Stockholm:

Yes, they block you off to watch the changing of the guards.

But a half hour is not bad.

I do not know why they would cut short Stockholm by two hours.
Our cruise ship was delayed almost 2 hours coming into Stockholm ( due to winds) but the ship added 2 hours more to our departure

...so that was okay.

helpful hints about the currency, Thanks.

Ah Gee !!!..is the Trip Report over

We had a short cab ride to the Vasa. You could see it from the dock. Perhaps you docked at a different spot from where we did.

Have they painted it? When we were there I 2007 they said they were researching the original color schemes.

Too bad about that guide. Did you tell Alla? I would hope they would be concerned about thins.

@Percy, he took us through the main drag, pointed out the bus stop where we could take the bus back to the dock and that's about it. There are major places along Mannerheiminte Street other than shops and hotels?

Michael didn't say very much throughout the tour. At the church in the rock, all he said was this is the building, this is the year it was built. Who built it. And you have 12 minutes to look around on your own and he wandered off by himself. Pretty well the same at the Sebelius Park. One will have to ask question and he will answer.

Just to be fair, Michael is a nice enough guy but really he is not cut out to be a tour guide. On one stop, he disappeared and came back with 2 bottles of water for someone who had asked him about bottled water. He didn't ask if anyone else wanted anything, he didn't told people where tehy can buy the water, he didn't even tell us where the heck we were. It seems his favorite saying is "you have x minutes to explore onm your own." and the x is never 5 or 10. It was 8 minutes, 7 minutes, 12 minutes. Huh? I guess the expectation is that we have all sycronise our watches.

At the Catheral square (?), below teh steps and in front of the main monument, he was so busy explaining to one person how to take the bus back to the dock and what other sights he won't be taking the group to see and how to get to all those places, that he took the time to draw a map and writing directions etc, all for one person, and totally ignored eveyrone else.

Needness to say, there were a lot of unhappy people but no one seems willing to interupt their private conversation. I guess we were all waiting for them to stop so the tour guide can actually "guide" the tour. We all stood there watching them and wondering what all the buidlings and everything else were.

I fincally decided to interupt and told the fellow who was monopolising the guide's time (on something that could be done at the end of tour) that he should hire a private guide if he wanted 100% of the guide's time as it is unfair to the group. You could almost here applause at the background.

This is probably the first and only time that I failed to tip a tour guide. I hope that person tipped him well as I don't beleif anyone else tipped the guide either. When the bus stopped at the market sqaure, everybody just left.

@Larry, I did sent an email to Alla complimenting Svetlana and mentioned what had happended at Helsinki. Alla sent me back a reply and thanked me for my comemnt. All she said was she will have to look at changing times in Helsinki.

There were quite a few ships in Stockholm that day. We were at the dock that was furthest away, at the end of the harbor. We drove pass quite a few ships along the way and there were two smaller cruise ships anchored near the bridge and tender people ashore. They seemed to be at a much better location.

It took us more half an hour to get to the bridge from the dock. I knew bikes were faster as we saw people on bicycles passing the bus and we never caught up to them.

The Vasa museum was on the other side of the harbor. You can see it but can't get there quick enough. If only we can just tender or ferry over ...

I don't believe they painted it. It was preserved in it's original state as they had put a coating of soemthing on it.
The building was quite dark.

<" Are there major places along Mannerheimintie other than shops and hotels"> ?

Eschew , yes there are many key sites along Mannerheimintie Street, and I was thinking that Michael pointed these out to you.

From the Rock Church, which is only 3-4 blocks off Mannerheimintie, if you start from the Olympic Tower and heading all the way down to the Market Square these are the places.

1. Olympic Tower.
2. Paavo Nurmi Statue (Olympic hero won 9 Gold and 3 Silver medals)
3 Toolo Sports Hall
4. National Opera House
5. National Museum ( Presdient Clinton was here)

6. Finlandia Hall across Mannerheimintie from the National Museum... this is a lovely Concert Hall
7. Parliament Building
8. Little Parliament Building
9. Several Statues of past Presidents of Finland
10.Sebelius Academy ...named for Sebelius ( of course)

11. History Museum ..very lovely building to take a picture of.

From here the Rock Church is 2 1/2 blocks away.!

12. The Kiasma Museum, very lovely modern curved building right along Mannerheimintie.

13. Statue of Marshal Mannerheimintie in front of Kiasma
14. Kamppi Square Shopping Centre.
15. Forum Shopping Centre

And here half a block off Mannerheimintie is the famous Railway Station Building and Square which has....

the Finnish National Gallery ( very nice old Building
and also on Station Square is the Finnish National Theatre...

again a very nice building.

Now 2 1/2 block from here is the Cathedral Square or Senate Square .....

so you see I assumed Michael drove you down Mannerheimintie and pointed all these places out to you.

Like you said he is a nice guy but perhaps not cut out to be a tour guide.

Just catching up here today. I agree the Hermitage and Peterhof need at least a full day each, or more. We only did the outside of Peterhof and spent many hours. Lovely.

One thing I was remembering about the Hermitage - we were there during a major heat wave and they had windows open. Some of the rooms sit right on the water and there was such a feeling of humidity - such amazing paintings being subjected to awful conditions. You're used to seeing climate control boxes in rooms at museums to make sure the paintings are protected - not wide open windows out onto the bay (sea? river? can't remember).

What a cruddy guide you had in Helsinki - really a shame. I guess Alla did not offer a refund or even apology?

Looking forward to seeing your pictures especially the WCs!

Yep, it's picture time!!!!!

I do recall it being pretty dark in there. Its surprising to me that after 7 yrs. they have not begun to paint it to its original scheme. Maybe they abandonded that project.

I would be a litle upset inre to a guide who did not do too well, esp. at those prices.

@Percy, I should correct what I said about Michael. I had originally said that he did not said anything while we went through the main drag. I should rephrase that to say he didn't say much.

Of all the "landmarks" you pointed out, he did mention the Parliemnt building. There is an Olympic tower? And there is the Olympic hero? Hmm ... I think I did catch a glimps of the Opera House/Concert Hall. Are they the same building? There were a bunch of statutes all over, so they are past presidents? Intersting ...

Needless to say, Michael did not do a good job. I think he was still busy pointing out the bus stops. lol!

Don't get me wrong. We had a great time in Helsinki after we get off the bus. We walked around market square, sample various local food and look at all the handicrafts. We stopped at the City Hall, spend more than an hour there (and it was suppose to be just a pit stop). Beauitiful exhibits, plus the bonus "FLUSH" exhibitsd in the WC ... We walked along Mannerheimintie after that and window shopped, and when it was time, we took a cab back to the dock, it was around 12 Euros, and took maybe 15 to 20 minutes.

Regardless of the situation, we always made the best out of each situation. No point in getting upset and be msierable. You said to yourself "next", and move on. That's probably why there wasn't too much ink on the Helsinki tour originally on my TR.

@Leslie, now that you mentioned it, despite the fact that it was a cool day, windows were openned. Some paintings were behind glass covers but a lot of them were just hanging there. There were security (ok, old ladies sitting on a chair) in every room and there were stentions so that you can't get too close. I wonder if all those "paintings" on the wall were actually "prints on canvas".

I bought a "print on canvas" at the Hermitage museum and from a distance, it looked real enough. I would imagine the sun would fade the color of the paintings if the originals were actually hanging there all this time. They did mentioned a "terrorist" splashed acid on one of the paintings and it has been painstakingly repaired and Svetlanan even pointed out the "patch job".

@Larry, We heard nothing about "re-painting" but I did heard about possible expansion of the building. From a preservation point of view, a protective coat would better preserve it than painting it to the original color.

Too funny. You're right maybe all of the real art is hidden away or hanging in Putin's house and those are just very good reproductions being exposed to the elements so recklessly.

That's the right attitude to make the best of a bad situation with a guide or whatever else. I'm glad you were able to see a good bit on your own.

Speaking of WCs - my favorite one ever is in a restaurant on the main square in Tallinn. Of course I forget the name. But it's built inside the original chimney - so it is almost pitch black and with soot-covered brick walls. Well, it sounds hellish but it really was fascinating. I should've gone back in with my camera - I regret that to this day!

Hi Eschew and Everyone

The National Opera House ( opened 1991)and the Finlandia Hall ( 1971) are two separate buildings about 5 blocks apart.

Yes, Finland honored their Olympic heroes and well they should, there is another satue by the Olypic Stadium , next to Paavo Nurmi , ...

this one is of Lasse Viren , he won 4 Gold Medals in the 1972 and 1976 Olympics. ( so it says in my notes ).

One of the past Presidentail statues at the Parliament buildng is of Kysto Kallio ( there are 4 statues in total that I have pictures of).

Sure looking forward to that WC FLUSH Exhibit.

Leslie:

I am going to see if I can track donw that restaurant for you!!! in Tallinn

Percy -- I think this is it from a tripadvisor review that mentions the interesting washroom on the 2nd floor.

Kaerajaan

It also gets good reviews for the food not just the bathroom!

@Percy, I doubt that I will be heading back to Helsinki anytime soon, not with what we have committed for the rest of this year and the next, plus the bucket list.

We sort of snapped photoes along the way so I might have some of the places youmentioned captured digitally. In all hoensty, it was all a blur.

If we ever head back to Helsinki again, that's what we would do. Take a cab to Market Sqaure. Take the ferry to the island (a World Heritage Site). Spend a few hours there and get back to Market Sqaure for lunch. WC at City Hall and see if the FLUSH exhibit is still going. Visit the Orthodox church and that would be almost time to head back to the ship.

@Leslie, the restaurant with the Elk Soup and Meat Pie is right at the Town Hall building by the square. Their WC is quite intersting as it is also very dark and literally a hole in a wall. Unfortuanetly, I don't have the name of the restaurant. I will check my pictures and see if I managed to capture the restaurant sign anywhere.

It will be a few days before I have a chance to look at the pictures, never mind looking through all of them. We snapped a couple hundreds of pictures a day (with much more than that in St. Petersburg) so after 2 weeks, it would be in the thousands. We typically would post only a handful of pictures per stop, unless we managed to have a bunch of really nice one.

That's one reason why we haven't post any picrures from our Europe trip from 2 years ago yet. We took literally thousands of pictures in Rome. We may have a record of over 12,000 pictures in the course of 2 weeks between me nad DW. Just very trigger happy, I guess. I have to get to them one of these days ...

This is the link to my webshot page:
http://community.webshots.com/user/e_s_c_h_e_w

Eschew:

I know what you mean

I have a bucket list also, that is why I try not to return to the same place, unless it is part of another trip!

going to check out your pictures.

Leslie_S

Hey, That is exactly the restaurant I was thinking about..

Guess I am the opposite.. I am not very trigger happy !!

I took 80 pictures in St. Petersburg for example and about 15 , 1-2 minute movies.

On my Africa Safari where people usually go "crazy " taking pictures ,I took 478 and about 30 , 1-3 minute movies.

I do so much research for a trip, that I see many of the places ahead of time.

Percy, I am getting better. I am less trigger happy now. But I would still say I have a long way to go.

I was trigger happy even back in the non-digital days.

Without the fear of dating myself, I still remember my first camera (a half frame camera) so I can take 72 shots with a roll of 36, and that was back in the early 60's!

Wow !!!!! 72 shots , amazing

I have a "PHD " camera with 12 optical zoom.

I get by okay with it, for what I need.

Digital photography - I think the ability to take so many pictures without worrying about the cost of film & developing is a double-edged sword. It's hard to find time to ever edit out the bad or duplicative shots once you dump them on your computer. My DH is good about backing up to an external hard-drive but I think a lot of people don't realize they can lose their whole history of photos in one fell swoop if their computer crashes or gets stolen.

Also, I feel like sometimes I'm worrying too much about lining up the next shot and not living in the moment. I've tried to cut back on shots and not spend every bit of each trip looking through a viewfinder.

FWIW!

Agree about not doubling back to the same country. Too many to go on my list still before I can start repeating!

I guess my point about not being trigger happy is that when I do my research, I see many of the major places.

Let's say I was going to London England for a week..and in my research folder for London I would have about 5-6 great pictures of Buckingham Palace....

then when I am in front of the gates of the Palace...I may take one picture only.....maybe two of I am in the second one .)

But what I do is at the next lunch or coffee/beer break I go over the pictures I just took that morning and delete those I do not want right away.!

Many times I quickly view them within minutes of taking them and delete right away those I do not want!!!

That is the pattern I follow for myself and it works for me.

Then by the time I get home, the pictures I have on my digital camera are those I am going to keep, I do not have to edit, as I have been editing all along

I am saving my battery. I don't look at the pictures until I got home. Time while on the road is precious. Only exception is to check and make sure I got the shot. Don't want to go home and find out that I didn't get the shot.

My habit is typically dumped all the pictures on the computer. Backed up to an external drive. Quick browse and delete antything that didn't turn out properly such as blurry or blocked shots.

I would look for duplicates and keep only one. The challenge now is that I carried a camera (or two) and DW also carried a
camera and after we loaded the pictures, they are all in the same folder but on separate sequences.

After that, backed up a second time, and overwrite the original back up.

There was a time that I took hundreds of shots and afetr all the deletions, I ended up with keeping less than 20.

I chuckled when I read, " I am saving my battery " !!

Since my digital does not have the conventional batteries, I bring along a battery charger.
It is very small and my camera battery fits into the slot.

I also have those tiny adapters for almost every country.

I always go with two batteries. One in the camera and another fully charged in my camera case which is always with me.

I am sure we all have a pattern which of storing and editing pictures which works best for us .

Yep, everyone has a system that works for them!

I saw one woman in the Galapagos taking her pictures with a disposable Kodak. Very much in contrast to the many fancy cameras and people who are taking hundreds or thousands of shots and consider that a once in a lifetime photo opportunity. Her system worked for her needs I guess!

Leslie, I saw one lady doing that in the Galapagoes too. Beleive it or not, they sell them down there, and they are waterproof underwater disposable cameras.

Percy, true story. My SIL took the battery out of the camera to charge overnight and forgot to put the battery back in the camera next day ... she was complaing her camera wasn't working ...

Depdniung on which camera I took with me, I have 2 spare batteries on my DSLR but on my pocket point n shoot, I don't carry any spare so I don't preview. An original battery is $50+ when the camera does not worth all that much more; and I don't want to chance it on a "clone" battery as I have seen them overheat and blown up before.

Very intreresting Eschew!

I have a Canon Point and Shoot with 12 zoom.

It was okay even on the Safari because my friend had a Camcorder with 120 Zoom!... so he could zoom in on movies from much futher away .

I call it my Phd Camera ( "Push Here Dummy ")

Ah, that's what PHD means. I like it!