Post Mortem

Finally saying goodbye to get-lag here in San Francisco! We culled and uploaded all the photos we took. For the very patient who don't have much else to do... the whole shebang are up at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sauropics/collections/72157624243903877/

Then for those who just want a brief glimpse of each destination, there's a 30-photo digest of the places we've been at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sauropics/sets/72157624373572590/

Enjoy!

One Last Gasp in Stockholm

Thursday, June 24, 2010. Our final day in Stockholm and the last part of our cruise vacation was a nice relaxing and enjoyable series of walks and visits to some places that I missed seeing on our last visit to this beautiful city.

After an included breakfast at Berns Hotel, we ventured out for a long walk along the waterfront, ending up on Djurgarden Island, which is the home to many great museums and historic buildings here in Stockholm. The Vasa Museum was our destination, and it was fascinating. A 17th century war ship that sunk on its maiden voyage has been brought up from the bottom of the sea and rebuilt in all its glory. (Picture of the ship above.) It was under water for 333 years and at the museum they have created fabulous films, displays and interactive exhibits around this amazing archeological discovery. The museum was built around the ship and it is breathtaking. Turned out the big ship had too little ballast, gun ports too low on the bow, and was basically designed quite poorly by the builders. It sank like a rock the first time in the water! Ronna, Briar and Natalie had visited the Vasa 10 years ago, but I didn't see it. So this was quite special for me.

We had a simple snack lunch in the park near the Vasa comprised of French hot dogs, chips and ice cream! Shopping and walks finished out the day before we had a very nice French dinner at Bistro Berns, right outside our hotel on a gorgeous park. We were able to complete our al fresco dinner before the crowds of smokers arrived.

What is it about this "green" and healthy country. They smoke like crazy and if you are seated next to a bunch of smokers at these outdoor cafes, it is miserable. Hey, how about smokers on this side, non-smokers on that side. But no... they smoke everywhere. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

We have to be up early to catch a 7:30 a.m. cab to the Stockholm Airport for a flight to Frankfurt, then a change to a 747 and then on to SFO.

Great trip... great weather... we're blessed and thankful for this memorable opportunity!

The Stockholm Stretch

We are REALLY enjoying our extended visit to Stockholm. What an amazingly beautiful city, and the weather could not be better. Almost too warm... bright sun and not a cloud in the sky. This has caused the attractive Swedish citizens to don skimpy sundresses, tank-tops and shorts and not much else. It makes for lots more "elbowing" from Ronna as I scan the landscape!

Yesterday, we cruised into Stockholm admiring the hundreds of small islands and elegant vacation homes that seem to be everywhere. At 10 a.m. we arrived at our dock, and it was not quite the same as St. Petersburg or Helsinki... we were moored three miles from the City Center in an industrial port area. But we had shuttle buses and cabs available, so we wasted no time checking out the Old Town area, the Palace with the changing of the guard, the shopping streets and big department stores. The architecture is astonishing and the fact that water is basically a part of almost every view you can have, makes Stockholm a magical place.

Stockholm was recented named the "Greenest" city in the world. Quite a contrast from the days when local lakes and waterways were used as refuse dumps and latrines, causing epidemic cholera and many other diseases. They certainly cleaned up their act during the late 19th century and these days the fresh-water Lake Malaren especially sparkles with crystal clarity.

We finally succumbed to our inner yearning for American food and had lunch at TGI Friday's in a beautiful park setting downtown. Ronna had a cheeseburger and I had baby back ribs, plus ice tea! Someone forgot to tell the Swedes that their money, the Kroner, should be revalued. Our lunch cost $75. Stockholm is clearly the most expensive city we've visited, but I guess that's what happens when your country is super prosperous and has not been in a war for 200+ years. They get to spend their money on free education for all, excellent health care, pensions and 6-week vacations, instead of an Army. (I actually looked it up: Sweden spends 1.3% of its GDP on defense; the US spends 4.3%.) But it still seems strange that they get to be members of the European Union but don't have to use the Euro. Similar to the UK, I guess.

We got back to the ship in time to take our final shore excursion: A delightful two-hour tour of the Waterways of Stockholm. What a great way to see this fabulous city. Our glass-sided boat zipped along the Baltic Sea, then went through a lock to bring the ship up to the level of Lake Malaren, then saw many more gorgeous neighborhoods of this water-wonderland city.

This morning we had coffee in our ship suite and breakfast in the Terrace dining room before bidding adieu to the Silver Whisper... a marvelous cruise ship and the perfect size, we decided.

Disembarkation was hassle-free with no lines or delays. We took a cab to the Berns Hotel where we will be staying for two more nights here in Stockholm. It's a stylish, trendy boutique hotel with an Asian restaurant, a French bistro, a nightclub and a concert hall. (Marianne Faithful will be performing here July 14.) All this overlooking a beautiful park with the Lake and boats in the background. There are hundreds of designer shops everywhere you walk, with prices to match yesterday's lunch. We had to kill a couple of hours before our hotel room was ready, so we meandered around this part of Stockholm and found at least 20 restaurants I want to eat at!

For lunch today it was Bistro Jarl a few blocks from our hotel. We got a nice table outside and there were NO SMOKERS nearby, which made for a great hour of eating and people-watching.
Bikes are a big deal here, with tons of them parked everywhere you go. It's also quite a site to see a leggy young Swedish blonde in a mini-skirt getting seated on her bike!

When people say "Hey," instead of "Hello" as a greeting in America, bet you didn't know they're speaking Swedish! "Hej" is Swedish for "Hello!"

One more day, then back to San Francisco.

Finnish Fun!

Monday, June 21, 2010. We awoke for the longest day of the year and we certainly picked a good place for the celebration. Helsinki, Finland is a very vibrant Nordic city at the about the same latitude as St. Petersburg. So that means not very much darkness at this time of year... perhaps two hours of night from 2 to 4 am. (The St. Petersburg graduation celebration fireworks Saturday night were fired at 2 am!)

Our final day in St. Petersburg yesterday was quite fun, although it finally rained. (St Petes have a saying about the weather. "We have nine months of anticipation and three months of disappointment." We took an afternoon coach tour to two splendid palaces very near our ship--Vladimir and Yusupov Palaces. One was originally owned by royalty, the other by the wealthy Yusupov family and where Rasputin was murdered. Now they are both owned by the Russian government. They featured over-the-top gold gilt and huge ballrooms as big as basketball courts. The Yusupov Palace had this amazing performance space with box seats and room for 200 to watch a ballet or symphony performance. It was way cooler than any home theatre we've seen.

We had a fun sail-away party around the pool deck and marveled one more time at the spectacular St. Petersburg skyline.

At 8:30 this morning we docked at another superb city location... in a primo spot downtown just a block from the famous "Esplanade" boulevard of Helsinki. We strolled this clean and historic city finally landing for lunch at Kapelli Restaurant, which looked a bit like a Victorian version of Tavern on the Green. All windows and turrets, plus a typical Finnish menu. Tough choices... Filet of Reindeer, Wild Bear, or German Venison? I chose a dish that was labeled "Fried Game." Turned out to be deer meat and was quite delicious. The market stands adjacent to our ship have huge stalls with immense round fry surfaces filled with reindeer paella. Or reindeer sausage. Or reindeer burgers. You get the idea. In addition to their unusual protein choices, Finns also average 9 cups of coffee a day... tops in the world.

We're not in Finland long as we'll be "finnished" at 6 pm tonight... Helsinki is very cool with lots of English-speaking, friendly people.

Tonight's our third formal night, so it's back into the fancy duds for another overly-rich "gourmet" dinners. Tomorrow night we're opting for the "hot rocks" dinner around the pool... grilled meats, plain and simple.

Final port tomorrow: Stockholm. We've already cranked up our AABA tunes on our suite's music player.

St Petersburg--Sauro Style

Day two in Russia's second largest city was a combination of decadent leisure and over-the-top fun! We had a nice morning lounging in our suite, and then headed out for one of our "see what happens" walks. We ended up back at the city's main drag, Nevskiy Prospekt, and enjoyed seeing all the set-up for what was apparently the biggest night of the year in St. Petersburg... a combination of Graduation Night for all the colleges and high schools in the City, plus the finale of the Euro Economic Summit. We even ran into two nice young men from Mesa, AZ... one wearing an ASU t-shirt.

While looking for the Russian Vodka Museum, we discovered this interesting restaurant overlooking the Nikolaevsky Palace gardens with a classic exterior, fabulous logo, and impressive entry way. I went inside and checked it out... an amazingly grand interior space that looked like the Mirror Room at Versailles! The gorgeous hostess didn't discourage my interest. I took their business card (terrific thick black card stock with silver printing) and said we might be back later in the evening. I checked it out on the Internet... "Gimnazya" is the English translation of their Russian name, and it sounded very interesting. Russian cuisine, combined with Italian dishes and tons of sushi! Talk about restaurant schizophrenia! We called and made 8 pm reservations.

Upon arrival, we found the place catered to primarily very large parties, but they had a nice table for two in the rear middle of the room. The main dining hall was at least 200 feet long, with grand pillars, chandeliers and marble everywhere. It was quintessential Russian "opulent extravagance." On the sides were private anti-rooms where food was also served, and perhaps more! At the far end of this grand space was a stage with a huge video wall with a DJ behind a podium. To the right, a crow's nest/choir loft lighting and sound center up near the ceiling that was reached by a ladder. High quality speakers were mounted along the walls every 10 feet.

We ordered dinner serenaded by a great sound-track of American light dance tunes. Suddenly nearly 100 young graduates and their dates descended upon the huge tables near the DJ stage, pre-covered with food, snacks and vodka. It was a parade of interesting Russian young people! Many young women challenged the laws of physics concerning how short a skirt can actually be while covering one's critical anatomy. In many cases their heels were higher than the length of their skirts.

As our excellent dinner progressed, the music tempo increased. Soon, a very talented young female vocalist emerged and began singing beautifully to instrumental disco tracks being spun by the DJ. Absolutely fabulous! The video screen featured appropriate generic montages of music groups and the volume started pumping. Guests started danced in various parts of the room, and it turned into a "dinner disco." My favorite combination!

But the only downside... the smokers started puffing away. No laws against it here. So we said goodbye at about 11 and had some great memories of old-school Euro dance places, this one in a spectacular room with tasty food. And all this just three blocks from our ship!

A great second evening in St. Pete!

Land of White Nights

<--- View from our ship balony at 11:19 PM.

Saturday morning, June 19, 2010. We began our second day in St. Petersburg still marveling at our good fortune. When we awoke in this beautiful city yesterday, we pulled open the drapery in our suite to discover our ship was docked practically the middle of downtown St. Pete on the "English Embankment on the Neva River!" I can throw a ruble from our balcony into the 15th century buildings across the street! This is another amazing advantage of a smaller cruise ship. When our whole family was here 10 years ago aboard the Celebrity Millennium, we were docked in an industrial port area, and it took 30 minutes by cab to get anywhere. This is heaven... we stroll off the ship with our Russian Visas and can wander around without the hassles of tour groups and motor coaches. Only a handful of our fellow cruisers went to the trouble of getting their own Russian Visas... and are we ever happy we did!

Yesterday, we had a great walk along the Neva River through beautiful parks and along streets filled with interesting architecture. St. Petersburg is a city of superlatives: 250 museums; palaces and cathedrals around every corner; more waterways and bridges than Venice; the coolest subway system in the world... the list goes on and on.

We ended up on Nevskiy Prospekt--St. Petersburg's main drag--window-shopping at fancy shops, side-stepping crazy drivers, and marvelling at how young Russian women get so "dolled up!" Lots of make-up, super short skirts and high heels that would break most people's ankles! It's quite a site and Ronna elbowed me so many times, my ribs are sore. Along our route we passed the municipal "Wedding Palace," where couple after couple were getting married, with the wedding attendees dressed to the nines and bottles of Vodka flowing on the sidewalks between obscenely long stretch limos and Hummers.

We heard about a good sidewalk cafe at the Grand Hotel Europa off Nevskiy Prospeckt and we had a fine lunch at one of their six gourmet restaurants' outside patios. What a gorgeous hotel... we might end up back there for dinner tonight. After lunch, we were able to snag a driver and a car at the hotel for a quick trip back to the ship and our 2 pm departure of a ship tour called "Through the Eyes of Russians." Instead of museums and art galleries, we went to a typical Russian shopping mall, the famous food hall market, and then a fabulous two-line ride on St. Petersburg's fabulous subway. The underground trains were constructed up to 500 feet deep, to go under all the canals and rivers and to double as Cold War bomb shelters! The fast-moving escalators are so long you can barely see the end from the entrance. Inside, the three subway stations we visited were incredibly beautiful. Marble, artwork, carvings, art deco lighting, and not one spot of graffiti anywhere! The Communists wanted this transit system to be "Art for The People" and they sure accomplished that! After the subway excursion, we had a shopping stop and did a vodka tasting at the Hotel St. Petersburg.

We returned to the ship in time to change clothes and head back out for a "Billy Walk," as Ronna calls them. I tell her a restaurant or store is just a short walk away. We walk, and we walk, and we walk and I basically trick her into miles of exercise. We heard good things about a restaurant called "1913." And on the map it looked only a few blocks from our ship. It turned into a major "Billy Walk" through some rather rough neighborhoods and perilous crossings of streets and canals. (Pedestrians do not have any rights in Russia and they have very few crosswalks.)

Dinner was quite good with very cute and attentive waitresses with a fair command of English. The restaurant had a violinist, guitar player and vocalist who did mostly Russian classic folk tunes. When they took their break, the restaurants switched on a CD... Dave Koz in a St. Petersburg restaurant! Cool!

The restaurant was able to call a cab for us. They are hard to get this weekend in St. Pete. There is a World Economic Summit here this weekend, and streets are blocked and traffic is terrible. In addition, our "Evening at the Hermitage" tour was cancelled because the President of France is a guest at a big formal dinner at the Hermitage! We were quite upset about that! Our restaurant server told us our cab would be there at 10:05 and it was a "yellow Russian car." OK. Just on time, this rusted, broken down old Volta sedan pulled up. It must have been 40 or 50 years old! But the driver was charming and we ended up safely back at our ship to see a marginally-entertaining trumpet player show. (He was no Rick Braun or Chris Botti, shall we say.)

In bed at about midnight, and the sun was still shining and the City bright as daytime. Only a few more days until the "longest day of the year," and up here that means virtually no evening darkness with sunrise at 4 am! The land of the White Nights.

Today's it's a boat tour on our own, a trip to the Vodka Museum and more independent strolling and sightseeing of St Petersburg.

Terrific Tallinn

We enjoyed our visit to Tallinn, Estonia during our family Baltic Cruise 10 years ago , but this time our excursion to this quaint medieval capital was far more comprehensive.

We left the ship at 9 am to join a motor coach with local guide for a six-hour tour of Tallinn. "Old Town" is a very picturesque fairytale village of steeples, towers, red-tiled roofs, cobblestone lanes and blind alleys. It is the best preserved medieval city in Northern Europe. Estonian, the local language, is closest to Finnish, but is in the same family as Hungarian. The nearby other Baltic countries of Latvia, and Lithuania use a completely different type of language... no wonder these three countries have had their issues! Throughout the tour, we were reminded of the various times in history when Estonia was a free country, as it is now. It bounced around from being controlled by the Danes, the Germans, the Soviets, and finally in 1991 truly free when the Soviet Union dissolved.

The Estonian people are very friendly and hospitable, with an attractive Scandinavian demeanor. They are really into folk singing and dancing. Our tour group had coffee in the "Blackhead's Fraternity House," a 15th century building that was the home of guild workers who were not able to find wives! We were treated to authentic Estonian folk dancing, and Ronna and other guests of our cruise got pulled into dance with the "pros." Ronna was "thrilled?" to be waltzing, clapping & getting very dizzy at the rough early hour of 10 am! And is so excited that Bill was able to catch it all on film -- not.

We had lunch at Peppersack, a typical restaurant with tourist-driven Estonian cuisine... we ate chicken salad with yogurt, pork cutlets with dill gravy, sauerkraut and pickles.

Several old monasteries have been converted to craft shops, featuring locally made linens, leather goods, hand-blown glass and amber jewelry. We bought some really beautiful glass candlestick holders for Dillon.

We're now back on the ship and getting ready to sail away to our three-day visit to St. Petersburg.

Best one-liner we heard so far: A women on our cruise from Memphis said at dinner last night.... "I hope my husband makes enough money someday so that he can afford a mistress."

Ich Bin Ein Berliner

On Monday evening, June 14, 2010 we enjoyed an interesting cocktail party attended by other experienced "Virtuoso" cruisers, including a whole gaggle of Australians. Very friendly and fun, but boy can they talk! For dinner, we joined a table for six and found out that the Aussies are mere pikers when it comes to the gift of the gab... we discovered the Scots not only have a charming accent, they can spin a yarn till the cows come home! What a talk-fest between these residents of Edinburgh and Glasgow! Ronna and I were exhausted from all the banter and retired relatively early since we had a 7:50 am boarding time for our motor coach ride to Berlin.

Despite a three-hour journey, Berlin was more than worth the travel effort. We had been there before while on a cruise with the whole family 10 years ago and really wanted to visit again. It's a magical city with gorgeous wide boulevards, immense parks, a sophisticated food scene, exciting entertainment options, amazing history and much more. We totally agree with John Kennedy's speech on June 26, 1963... "Ich bin ein Berliner," even though it is grammatically incorrect. (He should have said, "Ich bin Berliner.")

We weren't planning on doing that much shopping, but once we visited Berlin's KaDeWe we were completely mesmerized by what we consider the most fabulous department store on earth! KaDeWe is short for the German translation of "North American Department Store," but they have taken our humble Macy's and reinvented the whole category! KaDeWe's huge size is moderated by incredible merchandising displays for every conceivable product you could imagine. I was looking for an across the shoulder "man bag" to carry my iPad. They must have had 200 different types in all price ranges. Every major designer brand on earth has a separate boutique area, tastefully laid out with gorgeous display cases, lighting and ambiance. Then the ultimate: KaDeWe's Food Hall... it beats Harrod's or any other food emporium we have ever visited. Hundreds of thousands of food products from all over the world... like 200 different kinds of sausages, 500 types of teas and coffees, exotic produce, chocolates from 30 countries... and a wine shop featuring 100-year old vintages. It was five football fields of gastronomic glory! We could have spent days in this place.

But alas our time in Berlin was limited because we had a 3+ hour bus ride back to our ship in 5 o'clock traffic. We made it back in time for our evening departure and today's "Day at Sea."

We said this 10 years ago... "We need to spend a week in Berlin!" To me, it's right up there with New York, London and Paris for fabulous urban fun.

An interesting observation made during our bus rides: We could learn some lessons from the Germans when it comes to sustainable energy production. On our trip to Berlin we saw hundreds and hundreds of huge wind turbines along the motorway. Germany has more than 20,000 such electricity-generating machines and some German territories get nearly half their power from the wind. They're not pretty, but these huge three-blade turbines make sense in areas that have plenty of wind. We need more of this kind of energy production in the US.

Since we are at sea today (Wednesday) we slept in and then attended a terrific seminar on food and wine hosted by the ship's exec chef and none other than Larry Stone, well-known Bay Area Master Sommelier and currently the head of Francis Ford Coppola's Rubicon Estates Winery in Napa. He gave us all kinds of great tips about food parings, aerating and properly tasting wine, history of Inglenook/Coppola wineries, etc. Much fun and we had no clue he and his family were on board until we read today's schedule! A much-appreciated surprise!

We, of course, have met lots of very interesting people. One couple next door introduced themselves after dinner a few nights ago. He said he was head of an aerospace parts company. Thanks to our satellite Internet connection and Google, we have since discovered he made $5,500,000 in salary and benefits last year and has $45,000,000 in pending stock options. Thanks Forbes.com and welcome to high-net-worth cruising (and snooping)!

Tomorrow: Tallin, Estonia.

Trans-navigating the Kiel Canal

There are quite a few advantages to a small cruise ship... better service, more chances to make friends, shorter lines, etc. But one I didn't consider until this voyage is the fact that a small cruise ship can get places the monster ships can't. Like thru the shortcut between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea... the Kiel Canal. This waterway has an amazing history... it's construction was started in 1887 by Emperor Kaiser Wilhelm. It took 8 years and 8,000 construction workers to build. This critical shipping route was crucial to the Germans in both World Wars and now is a Euro asset, but managed by the Germans. It cuts a day off the travel between the North and Baltic Seas.

We just went through one the many locks that equalize the water levels on the canal which vary from 3 meters below sea level to 25 meters above!

This has been a nice relaxing day-at-sea and tonight we're attending the Virtuoso Cocktail Party at 6 pm, a perk for frequent cruisers. Virtuoso Club also is giving us a free tour of Tallinn Estonia on June 17. We took a break from the super-fancy gourmet food on board and had hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch outside around the pool.

Tomorrow: Rostock Germany with an all-day side trip to Berlin.

Aboard the Silver Whisper

Yesterday, Saturday, June 12, 2010 was a day filled with interesting contrasts. We woke up--as usual--way too early in London, but I found a McDonald's that had pretty good coffee and opened at 5 am. Brought back some "take away" lattes and Ronna and I waited until 7 am breakfast at our hotel. Saturday, at that hour, we were the only people in the lavish dining room at The Goring. We had a leisurely breakfast, then went back to our cozy room to chill and pack up.

At 11:30 we checked out of The Goring and remarked that the only thing we would really have liked improved was WiFi in the rooms. The GM said, "We start installing wireless internet next week." Our timing was just a bit off on that amenity!

We wandered around Belgravia and finally fell into a cute Italian delicatessan for a light lunch. We returned to the hotel just in time to meet up with the driver of our car service vehicle who would take us the 60 miles to Southampton where we would embark the Silver Whisper. We used an internet-based car service that was much more reasonable than the rate quoted by the hotel, and of course far less than a taxi would cost. Only one problem... the driver got us to Southampton, but had no clue where our ship was berthed. We drove around lost for a half hour looking for "Berth 38." Turns out our ship was indeed at Berth 38, but that's at Pier 4, and that's what we should have been looking for! But we made it and boarded our stylish little cruise ship of about 375 passengers and 250 crew.

Southampton cruise ship facilities are not much to write home about... about the same as San Francisco... but nothing like new facilities in Ft. Lauderdale or Vancouver. We entered an old shed of a pier building with marginal entry points and delapidated gang-ways. Not an auspicious first impression for a line billing itself as "ultra-luxury."

But that was compensated for when we got on board our ship. Gorgeous public spaces and our suite is the most lavish we've ever experienced. We learned early on that Sivlersea had a pricing abberation. There are 16 "Silver Suites" on the ship, that are priced just a bit more than the next lower-priced suite, but are over TWICE as large. "The best bang for the buck at sea," we've read on cruise message boards, and indeed is it ever!

You enter our suite through a long bookcase-filled entryway which has a beautiful wood desk module, hidden refrigerator, glassware and bar amenities. Walking through brings you to our large living room area with a full couch, two arm chairs and two lighted end tables, plus a media cabinet with a 30-inch Phillips flat-panel TV. On the cocktail table was an iced-bottle of French Champagne. On the bar, full bottles of Dewer's Scotch and Grey Goose Vodka, which Ronna mentioned in our pre-cruise on-line "notes" section that we preferred. They also stocked the mini-fridge with Chardonnay in addition to soft drinks. To the left is our dining room area, with a table and four chairs and a built-in buffet counter with cabinets, drawers and scounce lighting. On the counter is a new Bang and Olufsen BEO CD/Radio and also an older Nagamichi wall-mounted stereo, that fortunately has jacks to hook my iPod (unlike the fussy and proprietary BEO unit.) The rear wall of the suite is all windows and includes two large sliding patio doors leading to a double outdoor veranda with lounges, chairs and tables. Adjacent to the dining room our diagonally-positioned bedroom is enclosed with walls of glass and French doors. Floor to ceiling drapes can be pulled for light control and privacy. In the bedroom to the left side of the bed is a sit-down vanity for Ronna with three sections of mirrors and a separate make-up mirror. On the right another 30-inch Phillips flat-panel TV sits on a built-in cabinet. A door at the rear of the bedroom leads to huge walk-in closet with more than 12 feet of hanging space, and a built-in dresser with 10 drawers and a safe. The closet in turns leads to the fully marbled bathroom with double sinks, a full-size bathtub, large walk-in shower and storage space everywhere. Another door leads to the toilet room with its own sink and a second door that leads out to the suite's entry way. So the bath toilet area can be used like a powder room for visiting guests! It's truly amazing!

We dressed for dinner and had a pre-dinner drink in The Bar. We arrived at the spacious Dining Room at about 8 pm asking for a table for six so we could meet new friends. We had a lavish dinner with more choices than I've ever seen on a cruise menu and had fun conversations with a transplanted Manhattan couple who now live in Florida and two older women from Perth, Australia. We passed on the after-dinner dancing or shows and went to bed relatively early, proud of ourselves for not having an afternoon nap!

At 9 am we landed in Zeebrugge, Belgium, the port town about 10 miles north of Bruges. We had pre-booked a shore excursion billed as "Romantic Bruges" and had to be ready to board our bus at 10:15 am. We had a too-chatty Dutch tour director who seemed to have hosted one-too-many shore excursions. But Bruges was so spectacular it didn't matter. Amazing medieval architecture, picturesque alleys and streets and an active network of canals bordered with fabulous private homes, hotels, churches and museums. (Ronna kept hoping to bump into Colin Farrell--remember the quirky movie "In Bruges?") After walking through several neighborhoods, we boarded little motor boats for a half-hour waterway tour. Then on our own (finally) for some lunch and shopping. I must have taken 200 photos and it's such a photogenic little city, I'm sure they all will be award-winners!

We were back on the ship at 5 pm and at sea by 6. Dinner is formal tonight (one of three formal nights) but we might pass on the fineries and enjoy room-service dinner in our own suite's dining room or in the more casual restaurant option! And perhaps we'll take in the late evening show "Broadway Rocks" to assess the corniness-factor!

Tomorrow: A trip across Nothern Germany's Kiel Canal... a waterway too narrow for most cruise ships.

London Town

I always seem to underestimate that nasty little travel annoyance
known as jet lag. Despite Ambien, Simply Sleep and Tylenol PM... it
still hits you like a ton of bricks mid-afternoon, when a "tiny nap"
turns into a comatose journey into the depths of unconsciousness!

And with a serious afternoon nap, you wake up pretty early in the
morning. But getting up at 4 am does have some advantages. Plenty of
time to write about what we've been doing here...

I think the eight-hour time difference is hitting home because on
prior trips to Europe in the last few years, we would fly to NY first,
visit the family, then head across the pond. Not so this time.

The flight from SFO to Heathrow was quite marvelous, though. The
British Airways 747 Business Class sleeper pods allowed you to have a
completely flat surface on which to sleep. And we had used
SeatGuru.com to move to a pair of pods near the upper deck emergency
exit, allowing much easier access to our seats. Ronna faced forward,
and I flew backward facing her. Fortunately there was a privacy panel
that could be raised so I couldn't annoy her for all nine hours of the
flight. Only bummer was BA offered "limited food sevice," and it was
pretty mundane for what people had to pay for Business Class. I think
BA was using the flight attendant strike as an excuse to pinch pennies
and save money on food service.

Our hotel here in London is The Goring--a 70-room jewel of historic
rooms and grand public spaces. Our room has way too much furniture,
but it is quite comfy and has a fabulous audio system...can't live
without my music! The Goring's claim to fame is that it was the first
hotel in the world to have private bathrooms for each room. Since it
opened in 1910, we are getting a special 100th Anniversary rate of £37
for one of our three night's stays! And full "order anything on the
menu" breakfast is included in our room rate.

The Goring is just a few blocks from Victoria Station. Hundreds of
shops, restaurants and pubs dot the landscape. Great location and
good amenities. Small annoyance: No WiFi in the rooms, but available
in the public areas around the lobby.

I didn't realize that my iPad has amazing GPS abilities. Even with no
WiFi signal, the map system shows you your exact location as you ride
in a cab or walk around... Very cool! And it's been a wonderful travel
companion... especially the iBooks app. I've polished off "Innocent"
by Scott Turow, "Storm Prey" by John Sandford, and now working on
"Deliver Us From Evil" by David Baldacci.

On our arrival day, Wednesday, June 9, 2010, we got into our room
about 1 pm, unpacked and of course took a "tiny nap." At about 7pm, we
walked the area and fell into a non-descript little Italian restaurant
that primarily catered to bleary-eyed tourists. Nothing to blog about,
shall we say.

On Thursday, we woke up at our customary 4 am. By 6, I badly nededed
some coffee, but the hotel doesn't serve breakfast until 7, so I
scored some to-go cups at a coffee stand inside the Victoria Tube
station. After a huge English breakfast, we took a cab to the
terrific Victoria and Albert Museum. Ronna had noticed billboards
promoting a new exhibit featuring the clothes, jewelry and accessories
of Grace Kelly. It was very well-presented and quite fascinating.

We walked back to our hotel thru marvelous and trendy Belgravia, amid
an oh-so-typical London drizzle, window-shopping at stylish boutiques,
interior design shops and kitchen remodeling showrooms. Got back to
the hotel just in time to take a "tiny nap."

We had a recommendation from our friend Tim Smith for a good dinner
spot a cab ride away, but instead decided to try another well-rated
spot just a few blocks from our hotel, Santini. Excellent all around,
and with the Pound down in value against the dollar, not crazily
expensive, either-- by London standards anyway.

Today, we had another big "part of the deal" English breakfast and
will be going to Marks and Spencer and Harrod's for some retail
therapy in a few hours. At 4 pm, we're meeting up with Catriona and
Michael Burns' son, Alex, who is in London for a San Diego State
University Summer Program. We found a cool-looking pub to take him to,
which should be quite chaotic with the World Cup matches starting
tonight. Too bad we won't be here Saturday when USA plays England...
that will be insane!

We'll be taking a car for the two-hour ride to Southampton tomorrow at
noon and getting aboard the Silversea Silver Whisper for our 11-day
Baltic cruise. Can't wait!