August 3, Sunday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Our final day at the Excellence we meet for breakfast at the buffet.  Chuck met his goal of having caviar for breakfast everyday!

We head back to our rooms and finish last minute packing.  We meet in the lobby at 10:30 to meet our shuttle back to the airport.  There was a little confusion with the name "Taylor"  and the shuttles, but we got that all figured out and were on our way to the airport.  Everything thru the airport went smoothly and we had time to have a pricey snack before boarding.  We had a late take off and were late getting in to Charlotte, but the Charlotte to KC was also delayed so be we have plenty of time to get thru customs and to our gate.  Even had time for another pricy snack before getting on the plane.

We arrive in KC and called for our shuttle from the hotel.  The bags had not even started to come on the belt, so Chuck took the shuttle to get the van.  Brian and Lois collected the bags and Chuck was back from the hotel by the time we got outside with the bags.  When we arrived back home, Laurie and Brian's children was waiting to take them home.

A great time was had by all!

Drink of the Day:  Honeymoon:  Pineapple Juice, lemon juice, orange juice, rum, cherry liquor and triple sec.

August 2, Saturday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

We had our usual breakfast buffet and head for the cascade pool.  This is our pool of choice.  We spend the morning floating and try the drink in the coconut, the coco loco.  For lunch Lois goes to the sports bar for a sandwich and fruit cup, while the others go for buffet.  Lois heads for the beach after lunch, has her chair, drink and kindle all set up and is all settled in for the afternoon when she notices the cabana boys collecting the cushions and chairs.  Next the lifeguard is blowing his whistle and motioning for all to leave the water and beach area.  Then the rain starts and the wind.  It was a drenching rain but didn't last long.  So it is back to the pool for Lois, Chuck and Brian.

We meet at our usual location before dinner and head to Toscana for Italian cuisine.  Laurie had good rosemary chicken.  Brian had breaded steak and , not impressed so ordered the We had a lovely dinner and the waiter was very attentive.  We catch the Michael Jackson Show, again it was all canned music, but Michael did a great job of dancing.

Brian, Chuck and Lois go to the Alegria to "laugh and dance" the night away.  Really we went there to complete our goal of drinking at all 10 bars and eating at all 10 restaurants.  We did not close the place down, but we did open the place up!

Drink of the Day:  Excellence Island: Pineapple juice, Orange juice, rum, blue curaçao and triple sec liquor

August 1, Friday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

We were up at the crack of dawn again, and still clouds on the horizon.  We walked around again and went for early breakfast and then Brian and Laurie met up with us and we ate some more.

Roberto spots us and asks about our dinner plans for the evening.  He tell us he will make a nice table for us. 

Friday is a beach day.  Great waves, but too high for Lois and she has to dive under.  Her sunglasses are probably in Cuba by now.  Chuck and Lois walk thru the surf, while Laurie and Brian rest on their chairs.  Chuck and Lois have pizza for lunch and head to handicrafts.  We string bead necklaces and hear about all the other resorts where the others have been.  It was an interesting lesson.  Chuck and Lois remain for Bingo and Chuck wins a romantic dinner for two.  Laurie and Brian are off for their horseback riding experience.  We all end up in the pool before going back to the room before dinner.  

We meet up at the Martini Bar again and go to dinner at Barcelona, Mediterranean cuisine.  As promised, Roberto had a table reserved for us.  

After dinner, we head to the Burlesque Show.  It was not a favorite, more canned music and a lot of break dancing and acrobatics.  We returned to our rooms to discover Roberto had sent a special treat.....chocolate covered grapes and a bottle of champagne in each room!!

Drink of the Day:  Tropical:  Orange juice, mango juice, rum and banana liquor.  None of us liked this drink, so we had to be creative with other options.

July 31st, Thursday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

The day starts at day break, 6 am to see the sunrise.  There is a storm on the horizon, but the view is still beautiful as the sun reflects off the clouds.  We walk the grounds as this is the best time of day, no humidity.  As soon as it turns 7am the humidity starts in so we head to the buffet for breakfast.  Brian and Laurie join us for phase two of the buffet.

We had lunch at the Grill.  Chuck had cherviche and hamburger, Brian had a salad and hamburger, Laurie a hamburger, and Lois had salad and grilled grouper.  Angel wasn't our waiter and there were no mamajuana shots today.

We went to Bingo in the pool, but no winners in our group today.

We met for drinks at the Martini Bar and dinner at Spice, the Pan-Asian restaurant.  Our waiter tonight is Cristian.  Chuck and Lois started with sushi, four piece variety of the appetizer.  Lois and Laurie had the teriyaki steak.  Brian had fried rice with chicken and Chuck had tempura shrimp and veggies.  For desert Chuck and Laurie had the custard, Lois had the passion fruit pudding custard (the health choice), and Brian had fried ice cream.

After dinner, we went to the circus show.  This was perhaps our favorite of the shows.  The balancing acts and the scarf from the roof acts were excellent.

Drink of the Day: Boro Boro. Passion fruit juice, Pineapple Joice, Peach Liquor, Gin and Blue Curacao.

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July 30, Wednesday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Today was a beach day. Lois and I got up at the crack of dawn, but we missed the crack by about fifteen minutes. We were trying for sunrise. We then walked through the garden. It is really nice at 6:00 am. Low humidity and cool. That all changes by 7:00.

 

We then had the first of our two breakfasts. We clamed our chairs at the beach, read a little and then joined joined Brian and Laurie for breakfast at 10:00.

The ocean was really calm. Lois, Brian and I spend three hours in the surf. Laurie wasn't feeling well and went back to her room.

In the afternoon, Lois and I met at the bar to catch up on the blog. She gets boozed up and can't remember anything, so that probably wasn't a good plan. The internet was horrible all day, so we couldn't post anyway.

We ate lunch at Los Olas. It was rib day. They were excelente. Really tender with a good sauce. I also had french fries topped with spicy beans and cheese sauce. I pigged out a little. Playing in the surf makes you hungrey. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach. It was breezy, but good for napping.

Laurie and Brian stayed in their room. Lois and I hit the manager's cocktail hour.

We ate at the Lobster House. There was a line. It is the first restaurant that we had to wait. There were 13 couples ahead of us...so we went back to the bar. When we finally got seated, the place had pretty much emptied out. We had gone to dinner early, like 7:30 and the place was crammed. By 8:15 there were plenty of tables. Leonnel was our waiter. Food good, service not. I had the octopus on toast, which was a toastado. Lois had the seafood cake. I really liked mine. We both had the grilled lobster. We had to ask for napkins and bread. Certainly not the quality of service of the other restaurants. We didn't even wait for dessert. It didn't help that the people in two of the tables next to us were obnoxiously drunk.

We just went back to the bar and had mud-slides for dessert. We stayed for the Brazil show. It was pretty good.

Drink of the Day: Hot Summer. Passion fruit juice, lemon juice, brandy, amaretto, triple sec, and grenadine.

 

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July 24th, Thursday, On our way to Punta Cana

We stayed overnight at Four Points by Sheraton near the airport. We were hoping that would give us a little more time to sleep. They also let you park your car there, so you do save on parking. I don't know how well the sleep thing worked out, but the parking was great.

We left the hotel at 5:00 am for our 7:00 flight. It is a good thing we did. The line to check bags at U.S. Airways was really, really long. Several flights had been cancelled and they were moving people around. But we were through in plenty of time, it was just atypical of MCI.

Our take-off was delayed, but we weren't going anywhere without returning to the gate to adjust luggage in accordance with American Airlines policy. They made up the time in the air so we arrived in Charlotte and made our next flight without having to run since the departure gate was next to the arrival gate. A break for us.

The airport in Punta Cana is small and open air. It has a thatched roof and is pretty navigatable. The first thing you do is pay your $10.00 tourist tax. Long line, but moves very quickly, same with immigration. Our bags were waiting for us by the time we got to the luggage belts. They weren't marked well, so we just followed the other people from our flight, hoping they knew where they were going.

We didn't find our transportation right away. I didn't read all the directions. I was looking for blue shirts and they were actually green. At any rate we were in the van to the resort in about an hour. And we were at the hotel within another hour.

The greeting at the hotel is, "welcome family". Check-in was quick and painless. The conceirge, Roberto, greeted us and has remembered our names ever since. Pretty impressive. We were handed a glass of champagne to get us warmed up for all the drinking that ensued.

My room is in Building Three on the ground floor. I have a little patio and a hammock. If I look over the hedge, I can see the ocean. But there are flowers on both sides of the patio and palm trees everywhere.

Dinner was a buffet outside at the plaza near the pool. It was just OK. The grouper was really good. And a few of the sides were good, but not overly impressive. We came a little late and the choices were a little sparse. On special buffet nights, several of the main restaurants are closed.

We stayed for the evening entertainmet, which was circus themed. Some of the acts were very impressive. I tried to take some photos, but it was just too dark. The acrobats were very impressive; the jugglers, entertaining; and the trapeze people were good also. It was a nice show.

 

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July 29th, Tuesday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Today was Laurie's birthday. So she was legitamately Queen for the Day. Brian and Laurie had breakfast delivered to their room. Lois and I ate at the buffet in the Toscana.

We headed to the Cascade Pool and scored a couple of beds...somedays not easy to do. I attemped a towel swan for her. It wasn't too bad for ad libbing.

We had arranged with Roberto, who is in charge of customer relations to decorate her room sometime during the day and then arrange a cake for dinner that night. Planning necessitated Brian and I spending a lot of time going to the bathroom to try to surprise Laurie, which isn't easy.

For lunch we went to the Las Olsas. It was Rock and Burger day. Avila was our waiter. The burgers were a little spicy for Lois and Laurie but Brian and I thought they were good. We both added more jalapeños.

We moved to the Lazy Rive pool for the afternoon. More drinks. We also wanted to play bingo again. Didn't win. Brian did the pineapple toss. That was the "fun game" of the day.

For dinner, again after a lot of time in the bathroom, we went to Agave, the Mexican restaurant for dinner. I wasn't quite sure which name Roberto had used for our table, so the surpise somewhat was diminished. They had the table decorated with rose petels and balloons. We started our with pico de gallo, guacamole and chips. The guacamole was really good. Our waiters were Elias and Miguel. We started with Margaritas. The passion fruit margarita was really good, and Elias kept bringing us mango margaritas, which Lois and Brian hogged.

Laure had the three-color enchiladas, Brian had the beef fajitas. They must have had a starter, because I had two: the squid and shrimp cerviche and the squide rings in garlic, both good. Lois thinks we shared those, but she must have been in an alcohol induced stupor, because she can't remember. I had the Rice a la Tumbada and because I couldn't decide, I also had the Grouper Veracruz. Too many choices. Lois had the arracharra.

We had birthday cake for dessert. The staff sang some version of Happy Birthday.

We ended the evening by attending the Star Show, which was dancing to popular musicians.

Drink of the Day: Caribbean Sunrise. Lemon juice, Pineapple juice, Melon Liquor and Tequila.

 

 

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July 28th, Monday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

We spent the day at the Lazy River Pool, which runs almost the length of the property. It really has several areas. There is an upper level, which is pretty quiet, it has the same amenities as the Cascade Pool: a large bar, nice restrooms and towels nearby. The next area is the swim up bar, which is always lively (and where we spend most of the day). Gets a little congested with floaties. We were the envy of the pool since we had our own and our insulated cups with lids and straws.

The last section is for activites...volleyball, bingo, the "fun" pool games. A lady that runs Bingo is Luz. So Bingo has never had so much attitude. If you call Bingo, she gives you the choice of going Naky, Naky and show your stuff or get out of the pool and dance with her. But if you have Bingo, every one clappy, clappies. Bingo is difficult as she has trouble with the work eight. It comes out AAAAEEEEEET. She usually just says twenty-ocho. Lois won an Excellence polo shirt. She didn't even have to dance. And she didn't cheaty, cheaty.

We had lunch, because we never miss a meal. I think it was the buffet at the Toscana. They have a pasta bar at lunch and a carving station. There must have been a salad bar, because I vaguely remember it. The key point is that it is the only lunch restaurant that is air-conditioned, a small price to pay for changing out of your wet swimsuit. They also have good desserts, don't know how I forgot that...I tried (Lois says 7) I think it was only 5. Oh yeah, they had ice-cream. I don't remember if that was one of my five.
For dinner we went to the Grill. It is one of the three restaurants you don't have to wear long pants to. The Lobster House and Oregano, being the other two. We shared the fried provelone. Brian, Laurie and I all had salads, Lois had the Creamy Seafood Soup (she says it was delicious). I think we had the Artisian Salad which had apples and blue cheese. Brian had the bone-in strip steak with a baked potatoe, Lauri had the Sirloin with mashed potatoes, Lois and I had the skirt steak. I had creamed spinach, she had grilled veggies. We shared an order of farfalle carbonara, which was very good. The good thing about the restaurants is that if you can't decide, they just bring you one of each. Thank God, I dieted before I got here.

The entertainment for the evening was the Dominican Show. There was also a Dominican Dinner on the beach, but none of us felt like eating on the sand. The show was mainly a chronological dance show, starting with folk dances and ending with a very lively break dance. I am sure there were drinks involved.
Drink of the Day: Dominican Dream (Lemon juice, mango juice, pineapple juice, rum, peach liquor and grenadine).

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July 27th, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Today we hung out at the cascade pool. It is the smaller of the two pools and somewhat undiscovered. It is quieter than the main pool and has some shaded areas. But when you spend hours at the pool, a little shade is welcome. This isn't the best photo. Everytime I leave my room, my camera fogs up. Sometimes, it is a good effect, sometimes, not so much.

For lunch we ate at the Grill. We had great hamburgers and mamajuanas. Angel was our waiter, a character, who recommended the mamajuanas. He likes them a lot.

Brian and Laurie, Lois and I met for our 7:00 cocktail hour followed by dinner at the Oregano. It is a little pizza and pasta place. We ate outside and it was without a breeze, so I was hot. We shared a Margarita pizza for a starter, it was pretty good. I had the El Carnival salad, followed by the lasagna Bolognese. Both Brian and Laurie also had the lasagna. Brian had the ensalada di Campo. Lois had the green field salad with stuffed cannalloni. Brian and I had the tiramisu for dessert, Lois had the Baked Alaska.
Drink of the Day: The Honeymoon. Pineapple juice, lemon juice, orange juice, Rum, Cherry liquor, and Triple Sec.

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July 26th, Saturday on the Beach, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

After a cup of coffee on my patio, it was off to breakfast. It is hard starting off the day with making so many decisions, like how many drops of Tabasco should go in my Bloody Mary? or do I want red or black caviar with my bagel? and What do I want in my omelet. ...3 drops, black and everything. The day has started!
I did take a short walk into the ecological garden. It is well manicured, with a series of ponds. There were ducks, flamingos, cranes...and an elusive parrot that I will have to go look for. I didn't stay long.

Today was a beach day. The surf right in front of the resort is pretty strong, but people do go in. I walked the beach to the right, past Macy's, J.C. Penney, Walmart, Kohls and K-mart: the creatively named little shops on the beach. The sand is so soft, it make walking almost hard. A good problem. I went about 3/4 of a mile to a horn of the crescent. Laurie and Brian met me on the return. After a little rest, Lois and I walked the other way. Again, thanks to Trip Advisor, someone wrote that the ocean was smoother to the right of the resort. We passed the Target store and sure enough there was a little area where the wave break much further out. It was free from sea weed and really nice...so we got in the water and walked (maybe East) for over a half-hour before we turned back.

There are several options for lunch. One is Las Olas which is on the beach. You can go in there as you are. It makes pizzas that you can take back to you palapas or you can eat there. They have tacos and the like. One day they were having paella. So there is a variety. There is also the Grill and Toscana. The Grill is open air.

For Dinner we ate at the Flavor Market. It is a tapas restaurant. The waiter suggested we each order three. However, with four of us that proved to be a lot of food. We had olives, fried cheese, steak sliders and beef sliders, beef stew, lamb and rice (which was like risotto), a bruschetta with eggplant, peppers and anchovies, a surf and turf with crab and oxtail (really good), calamari (some of the best I have ever had). I had the rice foam for dessert. It was the worst thing I have every tasted. I think they scorched the milk, it tasted like charcoal. Lois had the custard, which was really good. Laurie had the cake...she wasn't impressed. I could go back...just because there were so many other things to try. I had wine with dinner, another Cab I think.
Drink of the Day: Excellence Island. Pineapple juice, orange juice, rum, blue Curacao & Triple sec liquor.

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July 25th, Friday, Excellence, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Somehow they think it is my anniversary. Of what, I am not sure. I did have swans on my bed with a rose between their beaks...and rose petals all over. Interesting. Tonight, I have a single swan with hibiscus. And yesterday the Happy Anniversary banner fell off my door. I wonder if that was an omen.

I really like my room. It is in building three, on the corner. I can see the ocean over the hedge. It has a king bed, a spa tub and a shower with a window that looks into the room. Ok, that is weird. The bar is stocked with vodka, bourbon and rum. There is also a bottle of wine, Presidente beer and soda. There are also crackers, cookies and peanuts for snacks. Nice touch, even though we eat constantly.

We hit the breakfast buffet at 9:00. That seemed to be a good time, as it go busier by 10:00. There is a expansive buffet. As you walk in the door there is a place to create you own Bloody Mary, Mimosa or Screw Driver. Good sign. They had two omelet bars, a variety of yogurts, cereals, some local dishes (which were good), many kinds of breads, pancakes, waffles, french toast and fruit. It is vacation so I started with smoked salmon and caviar.
At 10:30 we met with Hugo, who represents a number of travel agencies. He is here everyday to make sure that our vacation is hassle-free. He suggested several excursions and will arrange our return to the airport.
Roberto, who is in charge of guest relations, saw us on our way to breakfast and greeted us by name. Really impressed by that.

We spent our day at the Cascade pool, the smaller of the two pools here. I can't remember all of the drinks I tried. The Electric Lemonade was good. The drink of the day was the Tropical. It had orange juice, mango juice, rum and banana liquor. A little sweet. I needed a couple of gin and tonics to wash it down.

We are the envy of the resort. Thanks to Trip Advisor, I packed our own inflatable pool lounges and lidded cups with straws.

For dinner we went to Chez Isabelle, the French restaurant. I had the duck pate for an appetizer. Strong, but good. Lois had the vol au vent de fruits de mar, which was very good. Brian had some kind of quiche. Laurie and I had the Chateaubriand et son gratin dauphinoise, Brian had the Entrecote "Cafe de Paris" and Lois had filet de saumon a la vanille. (Sorry for the lack of accents, but just the spelling is driving me nuts.) Brian had the strawberry mousse for dessert, Laurie the apple Wellington and Lois and I had the creme brulee.
The wine at dinner was very good. I think it was a Cab. I had a glass of Frangelico for a little after-dinner sweetness.
Drink of the Day: Bora Bora. Passion fruit, pineapple juice, rum, peach liquor, gin and blue Curacao.

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On our way to Punta Cana

We stayed overnight at Four Points by Sheraton near the airport. We were hoping that would give us a little more time to sleep. They also let you park you car there, so you do save parking. I don't know how well the sleep thing worked out, but the parking was great.

We left the hotel at 5:00 am for our 7:00 flight. It is a good thing we did. The line to check bags at U.S. Airways was really, really long. Several flights had been cancelled and they were moving people around. But we were through in plenty of time, it was just atypical of MCI.

Our take-off was delayed, but it wouldn't be flying if we were. We actually had to return to the gate to adjust luggage in accordance with American Airlines policy. They made up the time in the air so we arrived in Charlotte and made our next flight without having to run since the departure gate was next to the arrival gate. A break for us.

The airport in Punta Cana is small and open air. It has a thatched roof and is pretty navigatable. The first thing you do is pay your $10.00 tourist tax. Long line, but moves very quickly, same with immigration. Our bags were waiting for us by the time we got to the luggage belts. They weren't marked well, so we just followed the other people from our flight, hoping they knew where they were going.

We didn't find our transportation right away. I didn't read all the directions. I was looking for blue shirts and they were actually green. At any rate we were in the van to the resort in about an hour. And we were at the hotel within another hour.

The greeting at the hotel is, "welcome family". Check-in was quick and painless. The conceirge, Roberto, greeted us and has remembered our names ever since. Pretty impressive. We were handed a glass of champagne to get us warmed up for all the drinking that ensued.

My room is in Building Three on the ground floor. I have a little patio and a hammock. If I look over the hedge, I can see the ocean. But there are flowers are on both side and palm trees everywhere.

Dinner was a buffet. It was just OK. The grouper was really good. And a few of the sides were good, but not overly impressive.

We stayed for the evening entertainmet, which was circus themed. So of the acts were very impressive. I tried to take so photos, but it was just too dark. The acrobats were very impressive; the jugglers, entertaining; and the trapesse people were good also. It was a nice show.

Wednesday, July 10, Coppenhagen, Denmark

Ship arrived at 7:00 am in Copenhagen.  We had a nice breakfast in our room and waited for our time to disembark.

We left the ship and traveled by bus through the streets of Copenhagen to the airport, about a 40 minute drive.  We found our way through the hundreds of people and got checked in, deposited "our" luggage and found our gate.  We had a couple of hours in the airport for window shopping and people watching.  We left Copenhagen at 12:55 PM for Munich, Germany. 

We landed out on the tarmac and were bussed to the terminal.  We had to quickly find our way through security to our gate.  Our plane was loading as we arrived at the gate.  We left Munich at 3:35 pm for our 9 hour flight to Chicago.

It was an ok flight, they kept us drinking and eating most of the way.  We arrived a little late in Chicago so had to hurry through customs and security.  Here we had to retrieve our bags and recheck them.  Both bags were placed on the conveyor built at the same time, I tell you this because this will be an important point later!  We arrived at our gate, tired and out of breath, to find out that the flight was delayed to Kansas City.  We went and found a place to have some food and a REAL COLD diet coke and iced water!  We returned to our gate as they were loading the plane. 

We arrived in Kansas City at about midnight and headed to claim the bags and head to the car.  Here is the important part, only one bag showed up!  Lois was without luggage again!  She put in another claim for lost luggage and we headed for the car.  We made it to the house and headed straight to bed.  It was a long 25-hour end to our wonderful adventure to the Baltic Sea.

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Tuesday, July 9, Kiel (Hamburg), Germany

Ship arrived at 7:00 am in Kiel, Germany.  It is warm and sunny today, about 73 degrees.

Our excursion is to Schleswig-Holstein: Castles, Lakes and Churches with our guide, Angela. Stunning countryside, charming castles, gardens and churches plus a boat ride on a beautiful lake created a fairytale atmosphere.  We began, via bus, through the countryside to the town of Eutin.  We visited the Eutin Castle and Gardens.  The interior was not open to the public, but the exterior was nice.  The brochure says, "Great hall, tower room or chapel can be rented for events like marriages, concerts or executions."  Our guide ensured us that no executions took place in Germany, that is was a "typo" on the brochure, but you know those guide can tell us anything! 

From Eutin we continued by bus to Plon to view another castle and to board our boat for Dersau.  It was about a 40 minute ride to the other side of the lake.  It was very picturesque and the lake had many swans.  There were many houses with thatched roofs and beautiful flowers. We arrived in Dersau and had lunch at a local café.  We were served salad, meatloaf and potatoes, and fruit sauce with vanilla cream, and a beer.  After lunch, we toured an old church and cemetery.

We returned to the ship just in time to taste the Obazda, a cheese spread infused with various spices served with German breads, made by Samantha the culinary host.  She was so nice, she gave us a butter-filled pretzel also. 

From here we hurried to the disembarkation briefing.  Cruise Director Eric told us what would be happening the rest of the trip and entertained us with a comical dance routine followed by a farewell song by a large group of the staff.

Our final dinner in the dining room was just wonderful.  The staff was entertaining and the food was served by special locations the cruise line serves.  Lois had  Scandinavian-Style Seafood and Potato Chowder, Asparagus and Fontina Cheese Risotto with Sautéed Cod, and the Mohr Im Hemd (chocolate nut sponge cake, coated with cognac laced chocolate sauce and topped with whipped cream).  I had the Brie in Phyllo with Apple-Cranberry Chutney, Chilled Pumpkin Soup, Orecchiette with Italian Sausage and Escarole, and the Baked Alaska. 

The show for this evening was the finale of the Dancing with the Stars at Sea.  We headed for our room to finishing packing for the trip home.

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Monday, July 8, Warnemunde (Berlin) Germany

We arrived in port at 7:00 am with a mostly sunny and warm 79 degrees. We had a quick breakfast on the Lido deck before departing for our 9:00 am excursion.

Our excursion today was highlights of Rostock, River Cruise, and Microbrewery with our guide, Kati.   We started with a walking tour in the Old Town. The old town is not exactly old, as most of it had been rebuilt after the war destroyed it.  We were given "free time" for shopping in the village, but the shopping was drug stores, shoes and apparel, and as always, McDonalds.  We did tour St. Marien Church, Rostock's most beautiful and important church, which was built from 1230 onwards.  The Gothic church's nave and transept are the same length.  Valuable furnishings from every century included the astronomical clock from 1472, a bronze font from 1290, and a Renaissance style pulpit.  We then traveled to a local brewery for a beer and a pretzel.  The excursion ended with a scenic harbor cruise back to the seaside resort of Warnemunde. 

As we approached the Baltic, we were just in time to see many sailboats leaving the marina for a regatta.  Because of the regatta and festival, the small village was hopping with people and vendors.  We headed back to the ship for a quick lunch and then we strolled along the sea promenade, past the lighthouse and Teepott.  The Teepott was a unique building, a round building with a curved roof built in the 1960's.  We made our way through the town to the Warnemunde church.  It was a neo-Gothic church built from 1866 to 1872.  Inside, parts of the original church remain, among them the carved alter (1475) and larger-than-life St. Christopher statue. 

We returned to the ship in time for the German Bierfest!!  The ship served up traditional German delicacies and wide selection of German Beer, but best of all were the butter-stuffed pretzels!!!  The best we had ever tasted.  We ate in the dining room for dinner.  Lois had the Seared Ahi Tuna Carpaccio, Chilled Strawberry Bisque, Braised Beef Roulade with Creamed Potatoes, and Queen of Pudding (baked lemon custard topped with meringue and a dollop of raspberry sauce.  I had the Sweet Tomato and Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella, Chilled Strawberry Bisque, Farfalle Affumicato, and the Esterel Cake (cake layers sandwiching chocolate and sweet raspberry preserves).  We are sailing again toward Kiel, Germany.  Off to bed to get ready for another full day of adventure.

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Sunday, July 7, at Sea

We are at sea today sailing toward Germany. It is sunny and 72 degrees, but feels pretty chilly. We slept in and made our way to cooking demonstration. Today, Chef Thomas demonstrated Kaiserschmarrn. This is German crepe/pancake with fruit on it. We had a sample and liked it very much.

Our next event was a tour of the kitchen. It is just amazing to see such a small space they have to prepare meals for 2,100 guests and almost 850 crew members. The galley consists of 150 persons and 223 service staff. Each station in the kitchen is very small, but very well organized. The food on the ship is excellent!

We rushed up to the "side walk" sale before heading to the main dining room for the special champagne brunch with the Captain. The brunch is held for all passengers in the Mariner Society, that's us! We were greeted by a hearty good morning from the dining staff. The brunch was delicious. Lois had Scandinavian Style White Vegetable Soup and I had Graved Salmon with Shrimp Stuffed Egg. We both had Risotto with Forrest Mushrooms and Fontina, followed by Swedish Pancakes with Fresh Berries.

We spent the afternoon lounging around the room watching the sea and the boats go by. Lois made another shopping trip as this a big sale day on the ship. She came back with Baltic Amber jewelry. We took a walk around the ship and stopped to see the future cruise planner. We don't know where we are going, but know we want to continue to cruise before we have to use our canes! Tonight was a formal evening in the dining room and we not feeling in the dress up mood. We ate on the Lido deck and opted out of the show on the Mainstage called Nightlife, mainly because the last show was so awful.
 

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Saturday, July 6, Stockholm, Sweden

We arrived in Stockholm at 8:00 am. It was a partly cloudy day, but a warm 72 degrees. We had breakfast in the dining room and a 9:00 am excursion.

We left by bus to the old town area where we met Ivor. We set off on foot to walk through the area. Ivor was a very informative guide and told us must about the islands of Stockholm and about it's architecture.

We finished our walking tour and headed for the roof! Yes, the roof. We boarded an elevator and headed for the 7th floor. We put on our helmets and were strapped in our harnesses and climbed a small ladder to the roof. We hooked our harness to a small cable and "walked our dog," a small device that hooked to the cable for stability. The view was spectacular, but the cat walk was a little scary where there was no railing, on an incline, and on the steps. We made it all the way around the top of the roof, Ivor told us about the sites, but Lois was too busy trying not to die to know what he said! We made our way down and back to the street.

We were given the option to return with our bus or stay in Stockholm. We decided to be brave and stay in old town. We went back to old town and looked in the shops. We bought a ticket on the Hop On Hop Off bus. The bus took us all around the city and provided tour information as we rode. The bus brought us back directly in front of the ship, so convenient and we didn't get lost! Most everyone in all the places we have been speak English and are very helpful, except for the Russian Immigration Officers.

We boarded the ship and had a late lunch on the Lido Deck. Of course, that was followed by a nap. We headed down to the Culinary Arts demo by Samantha. She made Swedish meatballs the size of baseballs. We didn't stay for the entire demo.

We had before dinner drinks in the room and dinner in the dining room. Lois had the Salmon-Red Bell Pepper Terrine, Italian Wedding Soup, and the Greek-Style Beef Salad. I had the Mussels a la Mariniere, Chilled Roasted Peach Soup, and the Calf's Liver with Apples and Pancetta. Dessert for Lois was Strawberry Crisp with ice cream and I had Tom Pouce. The man at the table next to us had four entrees...guess he was really hungry!

We sailed through the Stockholm Archipelago as we left Stockholm. There are approximately 30,000 islands. The views were beautiful. Most of the islands have houses, saunas, and a boat or two.
After dinner, we went to the main stage show. It was the BB King Blues Club Presents: Memphis Sounds. It was a great and we stayed for the entire show. We then went to the Lido Deck for the Dessert Extravaganza. The desserts are spectacular and very beautiful. They were making cotton candy and candied apples. It was very close to being in Heaven!
Off to bed, but it is never dark!

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Friday, July 5th, Helsinki

Clocks went back an hour as we sail toward Helsinki, Finland. We arrived at port at 8:00, had breakfast in our room.

We left at 9:30 for our Helsinki by Land and Sea Tour. There was a light drizzle as we left but it cleared quickly and the temperature was about 74 degrees. We toured the Helsinki archipelago for 1 1/2 hours. We viewed many highlights included the Suomenlina Fortress. The land portion of the tour included a stop at Market Square. The food smelled delicious and the fruits and vegetables were just beautiful. I bought a flag of Finland at the market and then headed back to the bus. The tour continued around the city with stops at the Senate Square, where we saw a military band playing, and at Sibelius Park to see the sculpture which looked like a pipe organ.

We returned to the ship, had lunch at the Lido, and went to our room for a nap. We got up to see Samantha make a marzipan rose. The rose was not pretty and poor Samantha is not a great demonstrator. We left and went back to napping.

We had drinks in our room and dinner in the dining room. Tonight I had Double Baked Cheese Soufflé, Chilled Coconut Nutmeg Soup, and Lamb Loin with Artichokes and Red Wine Kalamata Olive Sauce. Lois had the Seafood Louis, Roasted Shallot and Butternut Squash Soup, and Quail with Apricot Bread Stuffing. For dessert I had Sacher Torte and Lois had the Master Chef Rudi's "Premiere," a white chocolate chef's "toque" filled with sweetly delicate milk chocolate mousse and decorated with macerated berries.

The evening show was the Moscow Magic Show. It was a husband and wife team that performed very well. After the main stage show, the Filipino Crew performed several folk dances and sang songs from their country. Very nice evening of entertainment.

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Thursday, July 4th, St. Petersburg

It is another beautiful day, sunny and 79 degrees. We went to the dining room for a late brunch before leaving at 1:00.

As we leave the ship we are required to go through Russian Immigration. The officers do not smile or acknowledge you are even there. It seems to be the thing to talk about, we were told on the ship by Destination Specialist Ian and also by all of our tour guides over the two-day stay in Russia.

Today our excursions was St. Petersburg Waterways and Church of the Spilled Blood. Tania was our tour guide today. The boat had interior and exterior seating, we chose exterior. We travelled the waterways of St Petersburg viewing the beautiful buildings and sites. As we travelled along, a young man was running. He ran from bridge to bridge and would wave to us and do flips now and again. He made the trip very entertaining along the way. We went by the Peter and Paul Fortress which has a beach. Unbelievably there were people swimming in the water which I imagine was very cold.

Our next stop was the Church of the Spilled Blood. This beautiful church has mosaics inside and out. The church was packed with tour groups, but it was spectacular.

We returned to the ship about 5. We left port about 6 and went to the Crows Nest to listen to the "sail away" commentary. Ian was so bad and we couldn't get a drink so we went to our Neptune Lounge for snacks and to our room for drinks. We went down to the Hudson Room (along with everyone else on the ship) for the Grand Russian Bazaar. I bought a Nativity ornament set and Lois won the free prize....a chocolate candy bar!

Dinner was at 9 in the dining room. The waiters talked Lois into two appetizers so I had them also. We had the Smoked Hot Salmon with Lentils and Apple-Horseradish and the Corn Pancakes with Dill-Orange and Cured Salmon. Have to say the waiters recommendation of the Smoked Salmon was the better choice. Lois had the Garden Bounty Salad and I had the Dutch Green Pea Soup. For the entrée Lois had the Grilled Tuna and Haricots Verts and I had the Prime Rib of Beef au Jus. Lois picked the Crème Brulee and I had the Banana and Coconut Cream Trifle.

We headed to the stage show "Dream Park" but it was so terrible we just left and went to bed.

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Wednesday, July 3, Saint Petersburg

During the night we set the clocks forward another hour. It was sunny at about 76 degrees. We docked about 7:00.

We had an early breakfast in room and left for the Glories or St. Petersburg at 7:45 for 9 hour tour which included travel to the czar's village in Pushkin an hour South of St. Petersburg on a bus with Catherine our guide.

We toured 30 restored rooms of Catherine's summer palace. Most of the palace was destroyed by the Nazis as our guide spit out several times, they still have hundreds of rooms to restore, but the architecture was beautiful. We had a short walk through some of the fifty acres of gardens.

Lunch at Hunter's Lodge was Borscht, Chicken, Rice, corn and peas, bad wine and ice cream. It was a typical tourist menu. The borscht was the best part of the meal.

We then headed back to town for a forced march through the Hermitage which is not air-conditioned and wall-to-wall people. Catherine, as well as all the guides mentioned that if you stood by each work of art 8 seconds, 8 hours a day, every day, it would take you 8 years to see them all. The emphasis was certainly on quantity and not quality. It seems that in an attempt to look civilized Catherine would send buyers to Europe and buy whole galleries. They do have an impressive collection of Rembrandts, 25 of them. The collection is so large they lost a Van Gogh for years. However, it was poorly lit and many painting had glass over them, which made for poor viewing because of the glare.

We drug ourselves back to the ship for a quick dinner in the Rembrandt Dining Room. Appetizers were Garden Symphony with Montrachet (fancy name for salad) and Salmon Tartare with Baby Zucchini. Lois had the White Asparagus Soup with Salmon Dill and I had the Chilled Cranberry Soup followed the Seafood Cobb Salad for the Entree. Lois had the Grilled Halibut with Lemon Foam. For dessert Lois had the healthy choice of Dark Chocolate Ring, while I had the Italian Ricotta Cheesecake.

We had to depart the ship at 7pm for an Evening Folkloric Spectacular. A fascinating journey through different regions of Russia. We enjoyed the energetic dances of Don Cossacks, melodic Russian, Ukrainian and Gypsy songs. The costumes were beautiful. Sparkling wine was served during the intermission, however, it was so hot in the theater we all wanted water. The facilities are not air conditioned and the temperatures were unseasonably hot. It was a hot, crowded, and hard seated event.

We arrived back at the ship and quickly went to bed to prepare for another day of site seeing in St. Petersburg.

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