Hello from the Baltics, the 3rd and final posting until we return to the states.

Sunday, 8-24-8 Copenhagen, Denmark

Rod has been to Copenhagen before, twice actually. So, he wanted to show me around, taking me to the little coffee shop he went to, walk past his hotel, etc. So, in the morning we walked around the port where we found “The Little Mermaid” statue. This represents the story written my Hans Christian Andersen. This little statue has had a rough life. Quite a few years ago, her head was cut off! The local police treated it as a homicide (honestly) but never found the head or the “murderers.” Then a couple of years later, the newly fixed statue was, once again, attacked. This time her head and a foot were cut off! Those “bad guys” were caught. But, the Little Mermaid was attacked once again, this time someone used dynamite and blew up the statue and the rock it sat on! Now, she sets on a nice rock with a large video camera sitting next to her!
We also walked past the Palace and watched a guard march around. The royal family was not in town since this was their “winter palace.” This was the pattern for every country we went to. The royalty seems to have a summer and winter palaces, with them visiting their summer palace outside the mail city.
We walked down to the downtown/canal area where there are tons of coffee shops and bars that sit on both sides of a canal that was dug by Swedish prisoners to help the ships come into Copenhagen for trading purposes.
After a $5.00 bottle of “Lite Coke” (again, I kid you not!) we took a taxi back to the boat and rested until the afternoon tour.
In the afternoon we took a “Tivoli and Harbor Cruise.” We picked up a bus that drove us by most of the same areas that Rod and I had already walked past, but, this time we were able to hear about the stories behind the statues, etc. We were dropped off at this famous place called “Tivoli.” Tivoli is kind of a combination of amusement park , gardens, restaurants and theaters. We watched a simple, but beautiful ballet at the “Pantomime Theater.” The Queen organizes and choreographs little ballets that tell various stories written by Hans Christian Andersen. We also visited the local Hard Rock Café and had a ridiculously large hot fudge sundae. We later went on the harbor cruise tour where we saw most of the town from the vantage point of the water.

Monday, August 25, 2008- Oslo, Norway

We arrived to Oslo via the beautiful Norway fjords. The forecast was for mostly cloudy skies with a chance of rain. Instead, as we did almost over day of the trip, ended up with beautiful sunny weather! Our ship docked across from a 13th century fortress. I watched a guard march around the fortress as I sat on our room’s deck.
We took a short bus tour of Oslo, making only two stops. The first stop was at the new Oslo opera house that was made from beautiful pink and white granite. The design was such, that you could actually walk around and walk up to the roof. Rod did the little trek as I watched and took photos. (sorry, I’ll be sure to post some when we get back.) Our second stop was at the site of the 1952 Olympics. We went up to the 200 foot high Holmenkollen Ski Jump! Evidently, we were lucky to see it because the ski jump, along with the café and gift shop will be torn down with a new bigger and better ski jump built in it’s place. Evidently, today’s athletes find no challenge in this 50 year old jump.
We returned to the ship, had lunch and took a nap. Later we went down to the casino where we gladly put our $20 towards the “Charity of the Suckers Fund.” (joke, joke, joke, joke, joke)

Tuesday, August 26, 2008. At Sea

This is our last day. We’ve spent the day eating, sleeping and packing. This has been a fun but very long trip and Rod and I are both quite excited to get back home. We will return tomorrow night (Wednesday). Please do not worry if I don’t post for a few days. This trip was significantly harder to handle than the Mediterranean was last fall. I’m going to need a couple of days to get rested up.
Thanks for reading.

Much love
Annette