dgarvin

Sept 1 – Disembark in Southampton Today the ship arrived in the port of Southampton and our cruise was over. Well there were a couple of things left to do. We got up about 6:30 and got dressed for today. Everything remaining in the cabin had to go into our 2 hand-carry bags, but it actually fit fairly well. Then we went up to the Horizon Court buffet for our last meal on the ship. Just about everyone is leaving today so the tables in the Court were in high demand. But we got our breakfast and found a table in the back with a nice couple from Yorkshire. We were able to eat a little more leisurely than many others since we have a later departure time, so we enjoyed our final shipboard meal. We ... read more

Today we woke up in Oslo. This is our last port of call before getting off the ship, so we want to have one really good day again today. The alarm went off at 6:00 AM. We got up and dressed, and had breakfast in the Horizon Court. Each time we seem to meet new people and start comparing stories of previous excursions or our plans for the day, just like we were old friends. Frankly we don’t especially even remember most of their names, but everyone is friendly and we are all sharing the same remarkable experience. Our tour met in the Explorer Lounge (a first for us) and we discovered it would be another nice place to just sit and rest some time when we had free minutes. We got on the bus and ... read more

Hello from Poland. Our ship docked in Gdynia Harbor, on the Gulf of Gdansk, just off the Baltic Sea. We arrived at 9:30, so we had a leisurely morning today (especially with an extra hour on the clock last night too). The view from our balcony is of a very scenic port. We had plenty of time today to go to breakfast, return to our cabin to publish the Estonia blog with pictures, and report for our tour at 10:40. According to the ship’s description of this port: Gdansk, previously called Danzig was recognized by many as the starting place of World War II. The city is over a thousand years old with its founding in the year 997. As member of the Hanseatic League, Gdansk was the richest port on the Baltic and became a ... read more

The St Petersburg story continues at about 30 minutes past midnight (nominally thought of as "last night"). That’s when we got back to the cabin, set the wake-up call for 5:30 in the morning, and went straight to bed. That first day had been phenomenal, but was really exhausting. The alarm went off as scheduled and we sprang spryly out of bed (if you believe that we should talk about some hot investments), got dressed and the carry-bag repacked for another day. We went up for a quick breakfast and headed off the ship again. We got through immigration quickly this time (everyone seemed to have been ashore the day before so the line went fast) and found the right place for our tour bus. All this was before the 7:00 AM departure time. And once ... read more

CONGRATULATIONS to Rebecca and Brendan on their new son, Loyd William Hurley!!! He arrived on Aug 22, weighing in at 8 pounds 10 ounces. Mom, Baby and Dad are all doing well, and probably very glad to be started on this next wonderful step in their family even if they have to give us sleeping for the foreseeable future. Today we are in Helsinki Finland. We got up about 8:00 and found another bright sunny day with slight winds but a bit chilly temperature. This far north, the sun has been up for a long time and will still be in the sky late into the evening (not as much if we were here in June, but it is still more than back in St Louis). However it was an hour earlier than when we went ... read more