Sailing Away!

A view of the Edinburgh Castle.

It was raining the day we were going to Edinburgh for our pre-flight sleepover so we left in the afternoon to head over the “Beef Tub”.  It’s such a lovely drive on the road from Edinburgh to Moffat, much better when you are not a post-flight zombie!  We arrived at the Marriott near the airport, checked into our room and then headed downtown via bus, on what was now a cloudy day, and worked our way up to the Royal Mile.  It was wonderful that the rain had stopped so it was just your typical gloomy and gray day in Edinburgh.  Gray skies, gray buildings, gray streets, gray attitudes!  We stopped in to Mary King’s Close and purchased tickets to take Jillie to the underground and original old city and had an hour to kill so we walked over to the Grass Market for a pint before our appointed tour at 5:00pm

Jillie in an ancient pub!

The underground city tour has changed since we first took it years ago.  They’ve got many more visual aids which helps and the guides are still interesting, funny and knowledgeable.  Pretty damn smelly patrons though and the three of us were ready to GET OUT FAST upon completion.  What’s with the lack of showering and horrible body odor of Europeans?  I’m not talking the Scots, it’s the non-English speaking Europeans!  Not all, but some and lots on our tour!

We met up with Gordon’s friend “big” Mike and his girlfriend Sue at Deacon Bodies Pub at 6:00pm and then headed to our dinner reservation at 7:00 at the Witchery at the Castle.  Drinks were fun dinner was fabulous.  Gordon and I had the duck over risotto; Jill had a vegetarian terrine – all delicious.  Gordon’s friend is a nice guy and mostly talked guy stuff with Gordon about old friends, golf, soccer, er, I mean football, etc.  Sue and Jillian and I never stopped talking about universities (her son is just starting this fall), raising kids, Jill’s film and Sue’s B&B in downtown Edinburgh just off the Royal Mile.  It looks fabulous and is rated #1 on Tripadvisor!  Quite the accomplishment.  Sue was delightful.  We said our goodbyes about 10:30 and went to sleep!

Next morning we were off to Stockholm and arrived, very smoothly, around 1:00 pm and found our way to our next hotel before 2:00. 

Sweden!

Our river walk

The Coast Guard!

We loved Stockholm.  It’s clean, it’s beautiful, young and friendly and the average age seems to be in the 30’s.  Lots of good-looking men and women and TONS of baby carriages.  It seems like everyone had a baby under the age of 3!  Our hotel was right on a river that was serene and again, so clean.  So we grabbed a bite to eat and then walked along the river right up to the old medieval part of town, about 2 miles, where we were meant to catch a canal cruise.  Unfortunately it was 5:00pm then and apparently, though we were told differently, the cruises END at 5:30 instead of the last cruise being at 5:30.  So we got turned away but that’s okay cause we were feeling a little tired so we walked up a shopping esplanade for many blocks poking into shops, stopping for a little “sweetie” of local made something-or-other, and then had a glass of wine before heading back to the hotel.  I don’t know why you get so zapped after flying, even as short a flight as 2 hours!  The next day we had a leisurely morning, went down for breakfast, packed up and left the hotel by 11:30 to drive to the port and board our cruise ship.  Ahhhhh the luxuries of Oceania Cruises!

A beautiful square

The Opera House

Lovely outdoor cafes.

Yummy sweet shoppes.  Jill and Gordon had a try!

A glass of wine out a "ground" level wine bar before checking out for the night!

Approaching our ship, the Marina.

And the port of Stockholm.

Peewee golf anyone?

Gordon and Jill try paddle ball!

Got on board at noon, our room was ready, our luggage arrived very shortly after that and we unpacked then went for a browse around the ship and went for a bite to eat in the Terrace Café.    All before 3:00.  Perfect.

The ship, the Marina, is lovely though a lot bigger ship than we are used to.  This ship holds 1,250 people, twice the size of Oceania’s smaller ships that we’ve been on. We enjoyed our sail away from Stockholm but we regret that we didn’t have more time in this beautiful city.

Gordon and Jill played some paddleball in a netted court on the top deck.  We checked out the spa and fitness center; the croquet and putt-putt golf course; driving range and shuffleboard and fitness track which Jill and I put to good use the first morning!  30 laps equal 3 miles!

The first night, after martinis in, well, “Martini’s” bar, we dined in Toscana, a specialty Italian restaurant that has excellent food.  Gordon LOVED his Osso Bucco and Jillian and I had excellent meal choices too of soup and pasta for Jill and Caprese and Veal Limón for me.  Afterward, feeling quite good and with a little wine buzz, we explored more of the ship and walked out on to the pool deck where our sunny day had turned into a very foggy night.  We happened upon the ping-pong table and whipped our heels off for a little table tennis.  While we were volleying the ships horned nearly deafened us blasting it’s fog warning!  So loud and exciting!

Sailing away from Stockholm

On a sunny day

It's a long narrow channel leaving the city of Stockholm.

Tiny summer homes on the islands leaving Stockholm.

The shadow of a large Marina passing through the islands.

 Early to bed and early to rise to workout on deck on another beautiful sunny day and then a visit to Helsinki was in store for Saturday.  Unfortunately Jillie woke this morning with a cold so we got off the ship and did a double-decker bus tour right from the port stopping at various locations throughout the small town of Helsinki.  One of the highlights was the Olympic stadium built back in the 1940’s.  It still looks modern and is used for all types of concerts and sporting events. 

90% of all ice-breaking ships and hundreds of cruise ships are made in Helsinki.  Obviously the coastline is dotted with ships building equipment and ports of all sizes.

Finland is home to Nokia and the whole freakin’ town is an electronic “hotspot”!  Every tour bus and café offers free wifi and fortunately here at the port too!  Internet on the ship is very expensive and we are trying not to overspend on minutes.  The first night I received text messages from Natalie from 8,000 miles away as easy as pie which is amazing to me, however, incoming and outgoing messages are pretty expensive so we were excited to have a few hours of connectivity…rather sad eh, our addiction to our “toys”?

Senate Square in Helsinki

A clean, beautiful square in Helsinki.

We finished our three days in Helsinki with a yummy dinner in the Grand Dining Room with another Osso Bucco for Gordon, pasta for Jillie and I had Jacques Pepin roasted chicken.  A delicious fortification for our next adventure!