We are back home safe and sound and I'm pooped. I'll update in a day or two.
Thanks for checking in.
Annette
Hello from the Baltics, the 3rd and final posting until we return to the states.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
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
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
Getting Closer to the End...
Monday, August 25, 2008
Hello again! Hopefully, this will be a bit more of an uplifting entry!
Tuesday, August 18th, 2008. We arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia and went on a tour of Catherine The Great’s Palace and gardens and the Hermitage Museum. Catherine’s Palace included a room considered to be the “8th Wonder of the World,” the “Amber Room.” It is an 11 foot square hall walled with amber and other semi-precious stones. Most of this palace, including “The Amber Room” were mostly destroyed in World War 2 and painstakingly restored.
We lunched at the Pvlovsk Restaurant which was considered the favorite restaurant of Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladamir Putin. Rod and I enjoyed a lunch of beef stroganov served with french fries!
After lunch our guide took us to the famous Heritage Museum. The Hermitage was the winter palace of the Catherine the Great. To give you an idea of how large the Hermitage is, it comprises over 1800 doors, 1900 windows and 114 staircases. And, yes, I was extremely tired after the tour. We saw famous works from Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Rubens. There was also this amazing moving golden peacock clock. I promise to add some pictures when we get back home. Rod bought a new camera that hasn’t been synched up with my computer.
Wednesday, August 19, 2008. Day 2 in St. Petersburg. The sites of the day included the Peter and Paul Fortress, the cruiser Aurora, the Bronze Horseman and, my favorite, The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. This church was built on the assassination site of Tsar Alexander the 2nd. It is one of those traditional Russian colorful “onion dome” churches. It took 30 years to build. It was also partially destroyed during WWII and restored. Again, pictures will be coming later. Sorry.
Thursday, August 20, 2008. Helsinki, Finland. We took another bus tour to see the sites of Helsinki. The absolute highlight was the Temppeliakio, The Rock Church. It is a church that was built by, basically, blowing up this giant rock! I wish I could show you pictures right now, but, just believe me when I say it is beautiful. The funniest thing we heard today was from our guide. She said that if you are “pale, Lutheran and middle class, that you know you are from Finland!” By the way, I’m sick and tired of having to pay to use a bathroom!
Friday, August 21, 2008. Stockholm, Sweden. The traveling kind of caught up with me so we slept in today and took an afternoon bus tour and shopping excursion. The craziest part of the day happened while Rod and I were playing the slot machines on the boat. For some reason, I decided to take a peek at my Flolan pump. It showed the word “low” which means I don’t have a lot of medicine left in the pump. It was so loud in the casino that I didn’t hear the alarm. Oh well, I just ran back up to the room, switched it out and went back to watch Rod lose all of our $20.00 gambling money!
Saturday, August 22, 2008. Sea Day. We spent the day sailing to the next port, which will be Oslo, Norway. We spent the day sleeping, eating, reading and knitting.
OK, one more after this one.
Thanks for reading.
Annette
Tuesday, August 18th, 2008. We arrived in St. Petersburg, Russia and went on a tour of Catherine The Great’s Palace and gardens and the Hermitage Museum. Catherine’s Palace included a room considered to be the “8th Wonder of the World,” the “Amber Room.” It is an 11 foot square hall walled with amber and other semi-precious stones. Most of this palace, including “The Amber Room” were mostly destroyed in World War 2 and painstakingly restored.
We lunched at the Pvlovsk Restaurant which was considered the favorite restaurant of Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladamir Putin. Rod and I enjoyed a lunch of beef stroganov served with french fries!
After lunch our guide took us to the famous Heritage Museum. The Hermitage was the winter palace of the Catherine the Great. To give you an idea of how large the Hermitage is, it comprises over 1800 doors, 1900 windows and 114 staircases. And, yes, I was extremely tired after the tour. We saw famous works from Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and Rubens. There was also this amazing moving golden peacock clock. I promise to add some pictures when we get back home. Rod bought a new camera that hasn’t been synched up with my computer.
Wednesday, August 19, 2008. Day 2 in St. Petersburg. The sites of the day included the Peter and Paul Fortress, the cruiser Aurora, the Bronze Horseman and, my favorite, The Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood. This church was built on the assassination site of Tsar Alexander the 2nd. It is one of those traditional Russian colorful “onion dome” churches. It took 30 years to build. It was also partially destroyed during WWII and restored. Again, pictures will be coming later. Sorry.
Thursday, August 20, 2008. Helsinki, Finland. We took another bus tour to see the sites of Helsinki. The absolute highlight was the Temppeliakio, The Rock Church. It is a church that was built by, basically, blowing up this giant rock! I wish I could show you pictures right now, but, just believe me when I say it is beautiful. The funniest thing we heard today was from our guide. She said that if you are “pale, Lutheran and middle class, that you know you are from Finland!” By the way, I’m sick and tired of having to pay to use a bathroom!
Friday, August 21, 2008. Stockholm, Sweden. The traveling kind of caught up with me so we slept in today and took an afternoon bus tour and shopping excursion. The craziest part of the day happened while Rod and I were playing the slot machines on the boat. For some reason, I decided to take a peek at my Flolan pump. It showed the word “low” which means I don’t have a lot of medicine left in the pump. It was so loud in the casino that I didn’t hear the alarm. Oh well, I just ran back up to the room, switched it out and went back to watch Rod lose all of our $20.00 gambling money!
Saturday, August 22, 2008. Sea Day. We spent the day sailing to the next port, which will be Oslo, Norway. We spent the day sleeping, eating, reading and knitting.
OK, one more after this one.
Thanks for reading.
Annette
Hello Again!!
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Hello from the Baltics!
Well, it’s taken me a while to get my act together in order to bring you all along on this wonderful vacation! It’s been a bit difficult to get online, to be rested enough to figure out what to write, and, actually , just to be awake!
Anyway, it is now Saturday, August 23rd and we’ve been traveling since Wednesday, the 13th. We left Omaha, Wednesday evening and flew to Detroit. Detroit is a HUGE airport and we had an extremely long distance to travel to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate. Rod had been to Detroit before and decided that the best way this was going to work was to get a wheelchair for me. I hate getting special treatment and I really hate doing anything that will bring extra attention to myself and my problems. But, I was really, really glad to have that wheelchair because we had a very, very long way to go and not much time to get there.
We flew from Detroit to London, sleeping the entire time thanks to Ambien! After arriving in London, (it was Thursday) we took a taxi to a Holiday Inn that was about an hour away from the airport. We were in a nice little trendy area where we found a perfect little London pub that served typical fish and chips! We had another good night’s sleep, due to Ambien, and left the next morning for the cruise ship. It was suppose to be about a 2 hour drive (we had a driver) but turned into a 3 ½ hour trip due to some goofy man dressed up as Batman, and hanging from some bridge by the airport! He was supposed to be protesting something. Our driver didn’t know what it was, but, he said there is a group of men that dress up as Batman, Superman or any other “super-hero” then hold up traffic while they protest ridiculous things.
Anyway, we eventually made it to the cruise terminal, got on board and immediately fell asleep! (It was now Friday, the 15th) Luckily we woke in time to get to dinner! (We hate to miss a meal, especially on a cruise ship!) We lucked out by having 4 nice “table-mates.” One couple is from Canada and the other is from the Washington, D.C. area.
The first two days of the cruise were spent at sea. Each day we lost an hour of sleep due to the direction and speed in which we were moving. So, by the time Sunday night came along we were 9 hours ahead of our “home” time. As you can imagine, if we weren’t eating, we were sleeping!
We arrived in Tallinn, Estonia on Monday morning. Tallinn has only been an independent, democratic country since the 1990’s, when they won their independence from Russia. It was actually a somewhat sad little country. It’s history is filled with fighting, killing and invasion. Having the situation with Russia and Georgia did not help lighten the mood of our tour guide. She also told us that Estonia has the highest rate of AIDS of all the European countries. Alcoholism is also a very common disease. The “panoramic tour” unfortunately involved quite a bit of walking, with much of that being uphill and/or over cobblestone roads. It was a tough day. But, a very comfortable bed and some delicious food was waiting for us back on board!
OK, that’s it for now. I’ll add more later.
Thanks for reading.
Annette
ps (I just reread this entry…it is very depressing! I promise to try to lighten things up for the next entry.)
Sorry for another quick and boring post....
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
But, I have to go to bed. But, I needed any of you reading this to know that Rod and I were NOT in Spain, we were not on the plane in Spain that crashed. We were in St. Petersburg, Russia and are now floating on to Helsinki, Finland. I just wanted you to know if anyone heard the news and was worried.
more later
thanks for reading
annette
more later
thanks for reading
annette
From Russia with Love
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
I just want you to know that we've made it as far as St. Petersburg. We've visited Tallin, Estonia and have now had one day here in St. Petersburg. We're having fun, but I'm really, really tired. I'm not handling the traveling and touring anywhere near as well as I did when we went to the Mediterrian (crap? spelling?) I might just need a good night's sleep. Our time zones are really off, plus, we've lost an hour each of the last two nights.
Anyway, just wanted you to know that we are here safe and sound. Now that I've figured out how to get on line, I'll try to get posting something exciting.
Take care all of you.
Thanks for reading.
annette
Anyway, just wanted you to know that we are here safe and sound. Now that I've figured out how to get on line, I'll try to get posting something exciting.
Take care all of you.
Thanks for reading.
annette
OK folks, time to pack your virtual suitcases...
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Rod and I are heading out on another cruise! This time, I'll be taking you on a tour of the Baltics!
We are leaving today, Wednesday the 13th, and will get back on the 27th. We are going on the Royal Caribbean cruise lines again. This time we'll be going on the "Jewel of the Seas."
We are flying to London this afternoon, staying a day to sleep and get somewhat adjusted to the time zone change. Then, we get on the boat and start cruising!!
So, give me a couple of days to get settled, then you can start CRUISING!!
Have fun and behave yourselves while I'm gone. Oh, and please, please, please say many, many prayers for my good friend (at least she still is.....hopefully will still be by the time we get back!)Tammy! She has dog, fish, horse and house duty! Yes, we are bringing her a big, big present....maybe we'll just bring her back a castle or art museum....
Thanks for reading.
Annette
Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering...I have a large, hard-sided suitcase that is just filled with stuff for my Flolan medicine for 14 days. I also have part of another suitcase filled with charging things for my portable oxygen concentrator, plus a couple of chargers in my carry-on, plus additional batteries (8 in all). It's a good thing that Rod has been working out. He's going to need it!
We are leaving today, Wednesday the 13th, and will get back on the 27th. We are going on the Royal Caribbean cruise lines again. This time we'll be going on the "Jewel of the Seas."
We are flying to London this afternoon, staying a day to sleep and get somewhat adjusted to the time zone change. Then, we get on the boat and start cruising!!
So, give me a couple of days to get settled, then you can start CRUISING!!
Have fun and behave yourselves while I'm gone. Oh, and please, please, please say many, many prayers for my good friend (at least she still is.....hopefully will still be by the time we get back!)Tammy! She has dog, fish, horse and house duty! Yes, we are bringing her a big, big present....maybe we'll just bring her back a castle or art museum....
Thanks for reading.
Annette
Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering...I have a large, hard-sided suitcase that is just filled with stuff for my Flolan medicine for 14 days. I also have part of another suitcase filled with charging things for my portable oxygen concentrator, plus a couple of chargers in my carry-on, plus additional batteries (8 in all). It's a good thing that Rod has been working out. He's going to need it!
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