Day 21
Alarm at 4am and our transfer was for 4.45am. A quick trip to Vienna airport at that hour - it's only about 20 mins. We checked in and had lukewarm scrambled eggs for brekky in the lounge, then onto the plane - its Austrian airlines, they are so-so, but get you there.
Landed after 1 1/2 hrs - was interesting as we flew in, you could see the big wind farms out in the water and the bridge that connects Sweden to Denmark. The bridge is on either side, then it goes under the sea in the middle into a tunnel -pretty cool stuff.
Through Copenhagen airport again! Found the NCL cruise rep who directed us with a lot of others cruising, outside to wait for the transfer bus - about 40 mins. In that time it went from sunny and 24C to driving rain?! Everyone was kind of half covered but it got a tad wet and they covered the suitcases with tarps after about 20 mins. Lucky we have hard shell bags!
Transferred to the port - think it was $67 aud for 2, so an ok charge as it was about 40 mins away. Checked in at the port at 12pm and onto the Norwegian 'Getaway' ship which is their biggest ship with 4000 passengers and only 5 yrs old I think? The rooms weren't ready until 1.30pm so we went up to the top deck and had lunch, then wandered around getting our bearings. It's great we have the ultimate drinks package as well as port credits and 3 speciality dining evenings where we can go to specific restaurants without the big surcharges. The drinks package is any drink, any time free - up to usd$15.
We found a mojito bar and tried one of those each - very nice, despite being pretty tired from our early start and travel, we managed them haha.
Got our room on deck 10- very nice with a balcony and mooched around until dinner. We had a booking at the Teppanayki restaurant tonight which we've always wanted to do. We had booked in for one in Vanuatu years ago but that was the night I cut my knee open and ended up in hospital, so this was a treat tonight. Our Phillipino 'Japanese'! Chef was amazing - so funny while he cooked and what an amazing meal - fillet Mignon, giant prawns, calamari and scallops with all sort of rice and sauces. Great experience, plus I tried Sake for the 1st time and wasn't allergic like I am to wine! Also had Shaku Shaku and Wasabi with lychee, cocktails!!
Back up to our room at 8pm as the cold Ive been fighting from the coach tour is catching up, so showers and into bed - this room is great as the shower has a full glass door rather than a curtain and you can see the sea while you are showering if you leave the door open!
Day 22
A bit of a fitful night with this bot but so nice to lay in until we wanted to this morning after the last couple of weeks of busy travel and early starts on the coach tour. Had brekky upstairs on deck 15 - crowded but not bad and then we had the Wismar Germany and Brewery tour from the port. We were picked up by a coach and were told a few interesting facts - it costs approx 2000 euros to get your drivers license in Germany - phew! But then there is an open speed limit in the passing lane. Surprisingly, they have very few accidents as Germans are so law abiding in every way they told us!
The tour was good - we left at 2pm and it took about an hour to get to Wismar ("Vis-mar"). The guide Kevin was quite funny and took us walking around this picturesque place, which is a world heritage unesco town. We saw quite a few churches that were really old then went to the Wismar Brewery - the building was built in 1410- 40 years before Christopher Columbus discovered America!! They explained that the legal drinking age in Germany is only 16 and that the average German drinks about 150 litres of beer p.p annually, but back in the olden days the average was 350 litres p.p as water was not clean, so they drank a lot of beer.
Back onto the ship at 7pm and we went to have a light dinner and another couple of cocktails 😊. We move 1 hr ahead tomorrow time wise and an at-sea day. It's Sammys birthday - 31! So got online tonight and posted to her as NZ is 10 hrs ahead and don't want to post at the end of her birthday in NZ.
Day 23
A day at sea today- we lay in bed and mooched around, had a late brunch. We didn't do a lot today and was great to take it easy and see off this cold. There is food food food here and unlimited drinks. A nice life!
We p.m. video to Sam for her birthday, Was lovely to see her and talk to her and little Indie waving and saying bye-bye to us! She used her birthday money for some nice facial stuff which was great for her to have something just for herself!
Day 24
We were up at 6:45am today to get ready for our Estonia tour. We were still at sea when we woke but slowly came into Tallinn at 8:15am. 16C and the sun coming out. We’ve halved our temps from last week and while we don’t have many warm clothes, it’s much easier to handle than the scorching aug temps!
It’s Grays bday today too- a great way to spend it and somewhere he will remember for sure!
The tour - Tallinn is a well preserved town, it was very pretty. There were a lot of embassies in the upper part and down in the bottom - old town square, it was like so many of the others we have visited. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable but talked forever and held us in place talking history. Would have been good to have some free time but she knew her stuff.
We had lunch included and some medieval music in a church that was a little weird! But found fantastic wifi inside, so was able to catch up with photos on fb haha!
Back on the ship, had showers then out for cocktails, so good to have an endless bar tab included!! We went to the speciality restaurant ‘cagneys steakhouse’ for dinner and it was amazing - the fillet Mignon with a lobster tail was the best most tender meat! Then more cocktails along with a cake I had arranged, which fin ally showed up! and then we rolled upstairs to deck 10 and to bed😊- graeme had a great 56 th birthday.
Day 25
Had a lay in this am then upstairs for lunch and then down at 1 pm for our ‘ through the eyes of the Russian people’ tour. We were told not to smile at immigration and that it’s all very serious. You can only go ashore through ncl in Russia as they give you a blanket visa for single entry. It was fine though and they don’t even look at you.
Sergei our 28 yr old uni student guide was good. First though we were dumped at a weird smelly food hall for half an hour?! Then into town and down into the subway which is way, way below! We rode 2 lines and looked at the architecture which was stalinesque ( looked flash on the outside but rough concrete on the inside). They revere Lenin but aren’t proud of Stalin.
We were hen taken to a vodka tasting of 3 vodkas. They weren’t as strong or nice as the Polish tasting we had but nice to add to our vodka tours!
Then they took us to the usual tourist shop, we got a fe things then back through immigration and onto the ship. Quick turn around the. Out for dinner at savour restaurant then some cocktails.
Tonight is a local Cossack group coming onboard. The men’s dancing was really good but it was mainly the ladies singing very loudly in Russian, waving hankies for 45 mins!
2 comments:
The hanky-waving ladies reminded me of “ blow your nose, Denise!” !! They probably knew you had a cold and it wasn’t part of their culture at all!
There seems to be a lot of cocktails going down at the moment. Can we expect much experimenting by Graeme when you get home?
Well
My go to has been mojitos which Graeme is quite adept at already! But the Mojito bar had every variety you could think of. The pineapple coconut Mojito was rather nice too!
Post a Comment