Northern European Cruise May 19-31

I finally talked Kent into taking a cruise! This cruise was perfect for us--two stops in Sweden and two days in St. Petersburg. We flew Kent's parents out to stay with the kids and our friends Trent and Katrina Listello came with us. It was so fabulous. We sailed with Royal Caribbean leaving out of Harwich, England. We just drove about1.5hoursto the port, parked, and walked on the ship!The first night was a formal dinner--Kentdidn't like being told what to wear for dinner--but he sure looks handsome! We had a full day of cruising on our way to Copenhagen. We got to workout at the gym, play bridge with some lovely older couples, and enjoy the shows.

Copenhagen was alovely city. We enjoyed walking through along the port where the Little Mermaid used to be. She is currently on loan to China, and they had a live feed of people admiring her. We walked through the government buildings, including the palaces where the current and future Kings of Denmark live. There was a fairly extensive exhibit about Queen Margrethe II, and her son,Frederick

who will become King. We took our picture with Hans Christian

Anderson, whose influence is seen everywhere. We enjoyed some of the tastiest Wienerbrod (pastries) EVER and a yummy Danish hot dog. Then, it was time to head back to the sh

ip for our next port--Stockholm.

Stockholm is another lovely

Scandanavian city. We enjoyed walking around the old parts of thetown, with the town hall and government palaces. We got to go into the treasury, where they keep some of the old weaponry, cavalry pieces, clothing, and carriages. Some of them were pretty elaborate.

The port of Stockholm was far from the center, so we had to take a shuttle.

We had another day of cruising on our way to Helsinki, Finland. We were assigned

to late dinner--8:30, so then we had to go to the late show. Then, we would chat or play games, so every night was for night owls. We slept in as much as we could, and got to read, relax, and gear up for our next day of touring.

Helsinki was full of interesting churches. We visited the "Rock Church," carved out of roc

k with an amazing copper wire ceiling, a Finnish/Russian Orthodox Church, and a Protestant church near the president's palace.