What's the Collective Noun for Neckties?

For much of my teaching career, I wore neckties daily. I did throw out a whole bunch of them after I retired. What's left of my collection still dates back over three decades. Therefore, some ties are thin while others wide. For the most part, I never touch this collection now. After all, it isn't every day that someone I know gets married or dies. I did get a chance to pick through them though. I don't want to save all my packing for our cruise from Rome to the last moment.

We have been fans of Princess, but also appreciate how Holland America maintains certain aspects of traditional cruising. Recently, the only times that Jay and I wear suits is for our formal nights aboard cruises. I think Holland America Lines calls these special evenings, Gala Nights nowadays. I've picked out four neckties to put in the luggage.


Aboard the Regal Princess on the Baltic Sea - June 2016

We Can Review Our Cruise

I'm glad I didn't catch or feel the effects of this cold until after we got back from our recent Baltic cruise. I guess my sloth was okay as I didn't feel it was necessary to accomplish much today. I did take the time to post all the missing blog entries from our recent cruise. I did not buy expensive Internet onboard the boat and just typed out some text each night. It took more work than I anticipated simply pasting it all in here and adding the photos.

Rather than doing any new significant entry today, I will point to the day before boarding in Copenhagen. I don't know why you might wish to recount our journey, but it is possible to step through the days until our return.

At bottom of each entry one can press the "NEWER POST" text to advance to the next day. (On the mobile version of the website, it is a little left-facing arrow.)

Click the image below, to start at June 2, 2016.

Stats

I scanned the ship's log given out at the end of our Baltic Cruise on the Regal Princess. If you click the image of the first page, it should load a PDF file of the four page document. I have to remember to make more use of paper that might be of interest to me later on. By getting into e-form I needn't worry about where to store.

I generally like stats and numbers.

However, a slightly mortifying stat involves our weights. Both Jay and I measured before and after our 11-night cruise. Each of us weighs-in as 5 lbs heavier now!

Heading Back to a Routine

What a long, long day!


We got up this morning in Copenhagen, Denmark and will momentarily go to bed in New Westminster, BC Canada. In betweeen these events we were on a bus, in two airplanes, and on two lines of our local SkyTrain.

I'd be remiss if I didn't complain a little about British Airways. Our first flight was struck by lightening but that is hardly the airline's fault. BA 085 was our direct flight from Heathrow to Vancouver. I notice that B and A are also the first two letters of the word BAD.

British Airways started flying an Airbus A380 on this route at the beginning of May. On most days we can watch it from afar as it generally flies to the Fraser River before making the final approach to YVR airport. Over this time we saw that it was on time just once or twice.

Today it was supposed to leave at 5:15 PM and arrive here at 6:45 PM. Let's just say we got into Vancouver at 9:15 PM. First we spent a hour waiting to load the 469 passengers. They had to fix a wheel. Then we waited more time than that on the side of the runway. There was a "trim issue" although I think it had to do more with taking off the loaded luggage of passengers who didn't make connections.


We took the SkyTrain downtown and then the Expo Line here. We're home, finally! It's 11:15. It really was a long, long day.

A Final Day at Sea for Packing!

Monday: The weather was a bit cloudy and the temperature not much different than what is probably happening at home. I don't think I would have made a very good Viking for I found sitting on our balcony for a few minutes a little uncomfortable.


A day at sea really seems to signify that it's entirely okay to eat too much. The food on this cruise has been copious and quite amazing. Of course, food is one reason to look forward to a cruise vacation and Princess didn't disappoint.

After the four recent port days, it was very nice to kick back a little today. Did I spot Jay at a slot machine in the casino?


Sadly, our departure tomorrow cannot be ignored. For example, we’ll need to have our luggage in front of our room when we go to bed in a few minutes. Passing under the Great Belt Bridge was a sure indication that we were heading westward.


We had our final scheduled dinner. We swapped email and postal addresses with the lovely people with whom we'd dined during the cruise. It was sad knowing that Carlito and Paulo will not be serving us three course dinnersfrom tomorrow. That's a creature comfort I could live with, but my waistline probably couldn't. It was "Baked Alaska" night although LED lights now play an important role as live flame has been deemed dangerous. (Sigh.)

Hopping On and Off in Sweden

Sunday: We did Sweden! For some reason as I'm typing this I can't get Uma Thurman out of my head. I'm picturing her in the 2005 movie version of The Producers!

Today, we had quite a long day. Although we've been playing tag at recent ports with the Holland America's MS Prinsedam over the last few days, it was was not near us. The reason is it is a small ship and got to park right in Stockholm. This monster ship had to sit at Nynashamn, nearly 60 KM south of the capital. At least starting this year, there is a floating dock that expands out to reach the ship; whereas the port used to be tender only.



Months ago, we bought Hop on/Hop off bus tickets for Stockholm. We learned that there is train service that takes about an hour and a half to the city from Nynashamn. Yet, we discovered that the company ran special buses down specifically for our ship. We were able to get on a little before 9:00 AM. It took 45 minutes to reach the initial downtown stop.





The city of Stockholm is spread out over 14 islands. We were dropped off close to Galma Stan, the 13th century old town with medieval alleyways. We chose to walk around a bit before re-boarding a bus.




The city tour lasted quite some time, perhaps an hour and a half. By the end, we were getting tired. After all, we have been doing a lot of sightseeing since the beginning of the month. We found that the bus line folks were sending passengers back towards our ship at 4:30. As it was early, we decided to try the train back.



It was interesting, although longer, to return to the ship on the train. As we had to purchase the plastic fare cards we spent 120 Swedish Krona (about $US 8 each.) It took nearly and hour and twenty minutes but they were useful as we got to see a better view of the countryside. We were travelling with Swedes rather than tourists and that is always a welcomed priority during our travels. Jay even spotted a moose from the train's window.



The Regal Princess sailed towards Copenhagen at round 8:30 PM. It was a beautiful evening on the deck, sunny but a bit chilly. Of course, the excellent sound system and enormous screen for the "Movies Under the Stars" screen was showing ABBA videos as we sailed between the islands back towards the shipping lanes. Tomorrow is at sea and our final day aboard. It doesn't feel as though tonight will be the eleventh night in this stateroom.

It’s Saturday; it must be Helsinki!

Saturday: Today was one of our shortest shore stays. We were docked in Helsinki for just nine hours. We were pretty close to downtown but many smaller ships were parked much closer than we were. If there's one trouble with ships holding 3,500 passengers and 1,200 staff it is that they are big, too big for old ports. We were docked on newly reclaimed land today and in Russia too.


We had purchased Hop-on/Hop-off bus tickets prior to arriving. The directions on our vouchers said to look for the green-top buses near Senate Square. We only saw red-coloured buses out front at the port. So, we started walking towards the Helsinki tram lines. The driver seemed a little exasperated with we only had a €10 note. He just waved us aboard and we got the 10-minute trip gratis. (On this trip, only Estonia and Finland adopted and use the Euro.)





We got off at the Central Station and everything seemed short walk from there. Helsinki is a clean, attractive, little city.


We found that we could have used any on the buses with our vouchers, as they run special trips to the port on days when big cruise ships are there. In the end, that was how we returned to the Regal Princess.

From the bus we saw the whole city but didn't get off at the major stops as they really aren't that special: a rock church (cave) and the old, 1952 Olypmic Grounds. Yet, getting a sense of the geography and the city was immensely satisfying for me.




My father's side of the family had Finnish roots. My grandparents were children or born soon after arriving in North America. I once flew through Helsinki and stopped overnight but never really had a chance to learn about the city. Today, we managed to walk a lot through a central park area and around the main harbour.






I'd have to say that the time outside today was delightful. Oh, and it was the second of two formal nights aboard. Occasionally, who doesn't love wearing a necktie?

Day Two in St. Petersburg - Opulence

Friday: Our delightful day was a bit outside the city center. We visited both Catherine Palace and the fountains at Petershoff. The weather cooperated somewhat as most rain occurred when we were in our van. Before leaving on this trip we watched the 2016 BBC's War & Peace mini-series. The ballroom in Catherine Palace was more impressive in person! Petershoff was remarkable as well especially since Peter the Great was a rather humble man in his own living arrangements. That palace was to put Russia on the map.





One other unique experience of our tour was a trip into the St. Petersburg subway system. Being a small group, we entered in one station, stopped at an impressive station and exited to our waiting bus at the third. Built in the 1950's, it was a working man's shrine to the 'religion' of the State. We found it immaculately clean and completely free from vagrants and graffiti. One car we boaded was decorated as a library as a tribute to the days when people didn't stare at their little screens when on public transport. They are trying to revive reading on the trains. The people from this city respect public spaces and seem to have a real love for their city.





It was fun with pretty much the same passengers as yesterday, save two who completed their tours. Svetlana was very professional and personable. Our driver navigated safely whether on the crowded city streets or on the Interstate-like highways. We are very pleased with these two days in her native city. We tipped $25 with a thank-you card that Jay’d brought along.

Day One in St. Petersburg - Going Baroque

Thursday: Wow. What an amazing city! When young, Russia's most probably a country I wouldn't have guessed I'd one day visit. Preparing for this trip had given me background on a part of the world I’d never known much about. It's fascinating.

We started planning this trip back when we were in Egypt for the winter. Getting a visa to enter Russia is relatively easy for cruise ship passengers. As long as one has a tour with an official agency, the visa is automatic. We did NOT want to go with the Princess tour groups as they pack their buses with forty people. We shopped on viator.com and selected a full two days as we overnight tonight here. We decided not to skimp and chose this one described in this PDF.

It was an amazing day.




We had only about 30 minutes to grab something at lunch time. Having cappuccino and tiramisu was probably not all that Russian, but the Rubles went through on the Mastercard just fine.


At first I was skeptical about spending much time in The Hermitage, one of the world’s prime museums. Given that it was housed in a series of palaces facing the river. It was quite blustery today. The river boat trip was a little rough and the wind cool. Our group had just 14 tourists which was a perfect size as we were able to zip into crowded areas between tour groups of forty.





When we got back to the ship at nearly 5:00 PM and were pretty tired. After dinner there was a Russian Folkloric show in the main theatre. After some sleep, we'll be ready to re-enter the country a little later at 8:00 AM. We're looking forward to our second day.