Hanging on ship in Helsinki

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Since John’s making the most of his sore toe I was left to take the Helsinki City and Sibelius tour on my own. I sat with the women from our Trivia Team in the World Stage while we waited for our tours. They were taking the Helsinki by Land and Sea tour. The person calling the tours is very good and having a good time this morning. Someone left their bag on the stage (a big flowered one) so he checked inside to see if he could identify anything but it contained a smaller bag labeled Big Secrets so he wasn’t about to touch it. Much later a woman did go up front to get it but she didn’t seem to understand his joke about secrets and was trying to find Bob but he didn’t show up so he told her she was on her own and she started wandering around. Not sure she had any idea what she was doing. Anyway, my tour was finally called and I was assigned Red 10 so got off the ship and found my bus easily.

We had a very nice older woman tour guide (most of the tour guides on this trip have been older women) and we headed for our first stop at the Sibelius Monument. There was a competition for who would do the monument and the woman that won took 4 years to plan it and then 2 years to build it. However many locals weren’t happy with it since he was a composer for Piano and violin and the monument looks like Organ pipes. Eventually she added his bust to it. All I can say it is indeed strange looking as most of us came back to the bus shaking our heads. Though maybe a couple of people like it since they were late getting back to the bus. We then headed to the Concert Hall and parked in Senate Square which left us with a bit of a hike. There was an older gentleman at the door who greeted each one of us with a warm good morning and handshake as we went upstairs to the room for the concert. We were all given a CD with some of the music they played at the concert. He then gave us a short description of the composer before introducing the pianist and violinist that would be performing. Each song was accompanied by a slide show above them on scenes of Finland or films of the composer’s life. The artists were excellent and the concert seemed to be enjoyed by everyone. Funny story which was apparently true from concert host – a couple was complaining at the Visitor information Center about not being able to find anything on their map. They were told it was because it was a map of Stockholm. The couple then asked if they were sure.



We then headed back to the bus so our guide could explain where things were around the square and set up a meeting time after our 30 minutes of free time. I headed to the open market and North Harbor for a few photos stopping at a shop on the way to buy some chocolate for John. Not that he brought me anything from Berlin last week. Just saying…

2 couples were late getting back misunderstand the 30 minutes from 10 of 12 to be 12:30. We then drove to another part of town and parked for our hike to the Rock Church. I’d been there 16 years ago and it’s still an odd but interesting church. It was supposed to be built on top of the ground but they ended up using the granite bedrock as the walls and added a round copper roof. Other than that it is a very plain looking church with almost no artwork. But she had told us earlier that the church in Senate Square was also very plain inside with just 3 statues. So maybe that’s a Lutheran thing?

We then headed back to the ship. Other things mentioned during the trip were that is it is their 100 year anniversary of freedom from Russia. They still have a very secure closed border with Russia but are friendly. They do not belong to the EU and seem a bit jealous of Norway and their oil. It’s too expensive from them so they have to import it from OPEC.

Onboard, I had a nice leisurely toe-healing day. I popped up to the Crow’s Nest to do the Daily Puzzle. It’s now dispensed in a sheet holder at the beginning of the line to place an order in the Exploration Café. And there is just one Sudoku Puzzle, usually an Easy one. And with print much to small for Sharon to bother with. After completing the puzzle with purposely not using any annotations, which I admit wasn’t all that straight forward, I put the puzzle down and took a brief nap on the forward looking loungers in the Crow’s Nest. The cabin had been serviced when I returned, and I took advantage of the renewed ice in our ice bucket to get a cold drink of San Pellegrino. I also checked on the damage that Irma was inflicting on Florida.

I ate lunch up on Deck 10 enjoying another pizza. I’d offered to wait for Sharon to return from her tour; but, she said that she’d just catch a quick bite in the Lido when she got back, probably around 1PM. When she did finally return, I was finishing up watching an action film, and of course she came in right during the action packed climax of the movie. I stopped the movie and finished watching it later; but, it just wasn’t the same. Sharon was going to mass today, and I went up to save a spot for our Team Trivia. I was the first to arrive and when I went up to get a score sheet, another couple had tried to claim my table, despite my leaving a cap and a pen and a glass of water and a bottle of bar nuts. They took the table in the far corner instead; which I had thought that our team would also need, but it looked like they would be no shows. They asked if I was there to play trivia, and if I would like to join them. I said that I was waiting for my team, but that it looked like they weren’t coming. They said that they also expected their team to join them. With two minutes to go, I agreed to join them. That’s when Tina appeared, and I introduced them to our new teammates. Tina said, “It’s not like Jackie and Joan to miss Trivia”. A bit later Steve showed up as well, as Trivia started. Our new teammates were Canadians. Our new teammates were pretty adept at answering questions. Steve knew what gemstone will dissolve in vinegar. That would be the pearl. I was stumped by what the delicate ornamental work using gold and silver threads is called; but, again our Canadians came through with “Filligree”. However, we were all (and I mean everyone in the Crow’s Nest) stumped by “Where was the West Nile virus first identified?” So you know that the answer wasn’t Egypt. Christina was looking for Uganda. We also didn’t know what it is that a “spermologist” collects. Steve guessed pollen, which was close, but no cigar. It is seeds. And our Canadian friends were able to rather easily identify what country is home to Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes. It was of course their homeland: Canada. “We’d get thrown out of Canada if we missed that question,” she uttered to her husband. Christina then identified two European princes as the two richest people in European royalty, and wanted to know who the next three wealthiest were. This was the 3-point bonus question with an extra half-point to have them in the right order. We all of course guessed Queen Elizabeth II. And we were agreed on Prince Albert of Monaco. There was some discussion of the other royals; but, we then settled on Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. And we got all three right; except that Queen Elizabeth II was fourth on the list. Nobody got the bonus. But we did wind up with 16 out of 18 and one-half possible points, tying for first. For the tie-breaker: Christina gave us some background: On the list of royal wealthiest: Number 1 had 5 billion dollars, Number 2 was worth 2 billion, Prince Albert had 1 billion. She wanted to know how wealthy was Queen Elizabeth II. We settled on 900 million; although I was thinking closer to half-a-billion. The other team must not have heard the question properly because their guess was 1.8 billion dollars. But Christina only had the plastic pins for us, so we let some others have those.

We had another special dinner scheduled for tonight, and HAL surprised us by having the second Gala Night on a non-sea-day! Sharon still made me dress up for dinner, which seemed like total overkill to dress up to go to eat sushi and such. Our server Dhana was extremely cheerful, and clearly enjoying her job and having a chance to see the world. I think she was most upset about not getting to go to Estonia where she was looking forward to seeing changes from her only visit a year ago when many changes were in progress. I started with the Indonesian Style Laksa; but, Sharon decided to forgo the first course. Then I had the trail of spices satay sampler which started to fill me up. I ordered the sashimi from the “Sushi Offerings” and again Sharon was going to pass; but, Dhana suggested the lobster sushi roll and at my urging Sharon got that dish. Dhana gets kudos for suggesting this dish because it wasn’t shown on the in-room menu that we can check. It was reminiscent of “Ken’s Special” that my mom and our friends Ron and Linda used to get back in California; except, of course this dish had big pieces of lobster. These six (or was it eight, I stopped counting after the first three) sushi rolls really filled me up and Sharon was worried that I might be overdoing it (again). I chose from the “Water Menu” for my main course of garlic and ginger lobster. Sharon chose form the “Wood Menu” the Wasabi and Herb crusted Tenderloin. We decided on two Tamarind Chocolate desserts; although, we really probably should have split one. I ate more than half, and so did Sharon; but, neither of us finished our whole dessert.

I went up and was able to secure “our original homestead” in the Crow’s Nest. Joan showed up and told me that they’d been in the Medical Center this afternoon (instead of trivia) because Joan had been feeling dizzy. She was feeling better now and joined us this evening. Steve arrived, and Sharon came up after a brief dalliance with Bob. Becka wanted to know “Zanzibar Island is part of what country?” I think we started with Morocco and wound up guessing India. We heard our neighbors shout out “Tanzania” and we probably should have gone with that. After the “Shout It Out” round we knew that we definitely should have listened to our chatty neighbors. You need to be careful though. Sometimes a team will try to mislead you (especially if you’ve won the past few trivia games). Our teammates knew the name of the valley that separates East Africa from West Africa… the “Rift Valley”! Becka wanted to know how many stars Australia has on its flag. I know: “Four for New Zealand, Six for Australia”; but, we Joan had already written that down. The funny thing is, there was an Aussie Team that wrote down 5. We didn’t no which performer held a look-alike contest, and came in third in that contest. I forget what we finally went with; but, the right answer was Charlie Chaplin. The final regular question was the token Catholic question. A few days ago I was reviewing my spreadsheet, and I told Sharon, “Okay, here is the Catholic Question that we’ve missed on two previous cruises… it’s your job to remember: What was Mother Theresa’s given (first) name?” Sharon got this panicked look on her face, you know the one: “OMG, she’s actually asking THAT question, AGAIN!” I wrote down “Agnes” and my other teammates were doubting me. I could hear our neighbors talking, “Oh, it must be something like Maria…” Sharon assured Jackie that it was indeed Agnes. The bonus question: “How many years of marriage is the Diamond Anniversary?” Our neighbors weren’t being helpful when they suggested “Too many”. We wrote down “75”; but, had the sense to change it to “60” before the Shout-It-Out round began. This is the first cruise I’ve been on were teams grade their own papers at Team Trivia (for the most part). We got 14 points out of a possible 17, and won with a two-point margin over one other team. Sharon went down to get us a couple seats at the 8:30 show which was starting in five minutes. I stayed to get our prize. Becka came over and was going to skip the prizes because she thought that we had enough of them. I suggested, “We need to make you run out of those cheap plastic ones.” She’d been looking to set aside “the good ones” for us if she came across them. She confided at an event earlier that day she felt a thick one slip through her fingers; but, the happy recipient had already gotten their hands on it. Say levee. She did give out some pins and when she was getting to me I thought the pin looked particularly brassy and thick, and I think I shouted something akin to “Eureka”. And Becka thought that she’d carefully scoured her whole stash. So I’m glad I stayed to get the pin, but, now I was running late for the show.

Kenny Martyn was performing with his “Licorice Stick” in a clarinet tribute to Benny Goodman. Evidently the airline failed to get his luggage and other horns to Amsterdam, so he’d only be playing his clarinet this evening. His show was riveting, and the band was having fun playing behind him.

We went to the Billboard Onboard Lounge to listen to the Dueling Pianos play music from the 1960’s; but, it turns out that show didn’t start for another hour or so. I went back to the cabin, and Sharon had another rendezvous with Bob. When she came back to the cabin she was strangely smiling. “Bob likes me again,” she said. She won four rapid-fire “baby-jackpots” of twenty-five bucks each, and I think that she’s now back in the black.

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