Hello - here we are in Ireland - love the Irish lilt in their voices - lovely. Today we found the hop on hop off bus and headed off to the tourist spots with a great tour guide - he sang as he went along - especially the song about Molly Malone!! First stop was Trinity College founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 - this was spectacular and walking around on the original cobble stones. Love the humour of the tourist bus drivers - kept us all laughing. We continued to look at the highlights of Dublin and got off at the Guiness Storehouse - how fantastic was that - even for a non beer drinker but was worth going to and seeing how it's all made - very well organised and automated for the ... read more

Helsinki. Caught a hop on and hop off tourist bus - did a bit of retail therapy - had lunch in a market place - there was a band playing in the park in the rotunda - think it may have been a naval band as they were all in smart white and navy blue uniforms. Not a lot to see there but enjoyed it all the same and did heaps of walking - John got us lost once...... so more walking.... Came back to the ship for dinner and another show - after a power nap of course. Nynashamn - Sweden We chose not to go on to Stockholm and just have a look around at the local town - given the limited time in Stockholm. We weren't able to dock in at Nynashamn and ... read more

Day 2 in St Petersburg. Oh what a hot day again - Russian immigration was a breeze today - just straight through and off we went in a bus with air conditioned and a tourist guide with a sense of humour! Off to The Hermitage - pronounced Hermitaaaaaaaaaaarrge - which is Catherine the Great's Winter Palace which is on the main river in St Petersburg and during the siege of Leningrad it was covered by netting and painted to look like domestic housing which was missed by the german bombers - now a museum and a magnificent one at that. An unbelievable variety of major artists - Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Picasso , Rembrandt and other notables.... incredible being so close to them all and photos we took of them.... naughty us didn't pay ... read more

Hi everyone and thank you for your comments - we haven't responded individually to them for several reasons.... one - having too good a time, two - no FREE WiFi on board ship and have limited time... yes good excuses!!! A couple of things I haven't mentioned earlier - it is daylight in this part of the world until around 10pm!!!! even better than daylight saving - it's really amazing for it to be light for so long and the sun rises at 5am!! Loving it. We met some Americans at breakfast one morning and the lady started singing 'I come from a land down under' - there's a line there about a vegemite sandwich... this lady had never seen vegemite but we had brought a tube of it & had it on the table. Anyway ... read more

We docked early in the morning at Copenhagen -where John's son, Drew, has been studying (partying) for the last 6 months - he was in Portugal while we were in London and then heading to London while we went to Copenhagen from London! Copenhagen is a very old city with mainly drab typical European buildings - at least in the main part of the city and small cottages throughout the countryside. We visited the palace where Prince Frederick and Princess Mary - along with their children, will be living - it was in the process of being renovated and refurbished. Prior to the furniture being put in place, the state apartments were open to the public. Many of the paintings on the walls were meaningful to the couple and of course Tasmania and Australia featured in ... read more