Our Summer Vacation

About a month ago, Scott and I found a great deal on a 12-day Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. Scott had been wanting to see the Baltic countries and both of us wanted to see Russia. After going back and forth on it for a few days we decided to book it...and boy are we glad we did. This was by far our BEST vacation ever!

Here's how we spent our last 12 days:

Our cruise left from Dover, England so we drove to the port in Dunquerke, France and drove our car on a ferry and cruised an hour and 45 minutes to Dover. We've previously taken the Eurotunnel (the train that goes under the Channel) but b/c of price and time we took the ferry this time. We've been to Dover but this time was completely different b/c we were able to see the famed white cliffs of Dover from the water. Absolutely breathtaking! Blah, Blah, Blah...parked the car...boarded the ship and away we went!

A few days into the cruise we traveled through the Kiel Canal. It's a tiny canal separating the northern part of Germany with the the other side of Germany. The ship we were on is the largest vessel that goes through it. Our ship actually had to take down its bow and the engine stacks had to unfold. It's a big ordeal for the Germany people. Everyone was out and waving and playing music for us. I can only imagine being on the other side and seeing this huge cruise-liner go through a tiny canal. It took about 8 hours to do the entire canal.

Our first stop was Warnemunde, Germany. To be honest I didn't expect much from this town so I really didn't plan much. Walk around..get back on the boat. But, much to my surprise I loved this city. It was a port city so lots a boats (big and small) and a pier/boardwalk leading to the beach. The weather was wonderful this day so we decided to take a stroll along the beach.

Funny story: All of a sudden we stopped in our tracks and our jaws dropped....it was a nude beach. Yes, we've been to a nude beach before...but not at 5 o'clock when everyone was packing to go home (and drying off) in the nude...men and women!

Earlier that day, we took the city train 15 minutes away to a city called Rostock. We took in a few Churches, a museum, a few pretzels (Germany has the best pretzels..ever!) and then headed back to Warnemunde. All in all we were please with northern Germany. Very different than eastern and southern Germany.

On the beach in Warnemunde, Germany

Our next stop was Tallinn, Estonia. Again, I wasn't expecting much from this city either...and again I was amazed! I would definitely recommend this city to anyone who is in the area. What history this city has! We toured around on our own and found the city very safe. We both had reservations on if we should do a shore excursion here or not but in the end toured ourselves. This city is very Russian influenced (seeing that it used to be part of Russia) but still had a very old feel to it. The downtown area was all cobblestone. (the worst cobblestone I've ever seen.) Everywhere you look it was one great view after another. Very clean city as well. In beautiful Tallinn, Estonia

Our favorite stop of the entire trip was....ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. This cruise gave us the ability to go into Russia without a Visa. We had to do shore excursions here instead of wondering around on our own (the non-visa cruise ship rule) but it was great. We took a canal tour one day, a city tour w/ photo stops one day and then a church tour which went into several churches the other day. Our pictures do not the city justice. The colors are very vibrant and the Russian architect is very detailed. We stopped at several markets and stores along the way and we were able to get great souvies - Russian doll everything and Russian hats. Scott got a black one and I got a white one. I'll post pics of them once I've uploaded them to Kodak later on this week. We have 100's of pictures from the city but the one below is from our favorite church, the Church on Spilled Blood.

Our next stop was Helsinki, Finland. I'm not quite sure what I pictured Helsinki to be before we got there, but it was completely different than I pictured. Very clean, very metropolitan, very chic, very trendy. Lots of restaurants, shopping and young people. There wasn't too many touristy things to do but we still enjoyed the city. Scott even found a Mountain Dew.

Below is the famous Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki.

Stockholm, Sweden was very beautiful as well. We decided to walk the city instead of public transportation this day (I'm not sure what we were thinking but after 5 miles we were exhausted! ) Stockholm is a lot of islands, some connected some not. We walked to one island that held the Vasa museum. The Vasa is a ship from the 1600's that sank a few minutes after it left the dock for the first time. It was rediscovered in the 1950's and put back together with most of the original pieces. Then we headed back to the old town. Lots of Swedish shops. We saw lots of candy shops as we were walking and then it hit us...Swedish fish candies. We passed the Royal Palace (the largest working palace in the world) saw the guards and then made it back to the ship and passed out from walking too much on uneven cobblestone. Gotta love Europe and the cobblestone!

The Vasa ship in Stockholm

Our final stop was Copenhagen, Denmark. We were only here for a few hours one night and then a few hours the next day so we did everything the first night. We saw the Little Mermaid Statue that was from Hans Christian Anderson's, Little Mermaid. Next we saw their Royal Palace and guards, and then on to there pedestrian shopping street. We ended the night at Tivoli Amusement Park. Mr. Walt Disney traveled here and went to the amusement park and decided the U.S. needed one..hence...Disney World. I had the tallest cotton candy ever! We listened to live jazz (jazz festival was going on) and then we went on the scariest ride ever. Ask me about it sometime.

Below: Copenhagen and the Little Mermaid Statue in Copenhagen

We had a great time in the short period we were in each city. We wouldn't hesitate to go back to any of them!

We took the cruise knowing we'd be the youngest couple on the cruise but we decided to make the most of it. We participated in karaoke, open mic comedy, ping pong tournaments, and magic lessons. We did all of the shows every night. I was actually called up on stage for the magic act...twice.

I hope to have all of our pics up on kodak later on during the week. I'll post them next week.