From the London Eye

We have nearly 3,000 photos from our trip, so as we get them reviewed and sorted, I'll be posting some of them here in hopes of sharing visually some of the sights and sites we saw.

Our number one thing we wanted to do while in London was the London Eye (londoneye.com) - or as the locals called it, the Wheel.  The London Eye was built for the year 2000 and became so popular that it has remained a leading attraction in the London area since then.  The London Eye is located right along the River Thames, just a short walk from the Waterloo station.  We took a chance and booked our tickets online using the Flexi- option which allowed us to pick our day but not lock in our time for our "flight" on the Eye.  If we had picked both day and time, we could've saved a few GBPs but because we weren't certain of our plans for that day, we opted to use the Flexi-option.

If you're planning to visit the London Eye, be sure to make your ticket reservation online to save yourself time in the queue.  There is a separate line for picking up pre-ordered tickets and it was quite a bit quicker than the queue for those purchasing their tickets right then.  You just bring your confirmation and whatever you used for payment when you pick up your tickets.

The ride itself is a slow moving one; in fact, it rarely stops - they load it while still in motion, so you just walk on.  About 20 people or so per capsule and it takes about 30 minutes to go all the way around.  The views from the top are amazing.  You can see much of the greater London area which is a great way to get your bearings if you're new to the area.

So here are a few pictures from our half-hour on the London Eye.

Stonehenge, or what to do on an unexpected day in England

The morning dawned with our only plans being to have breakfast
(included with our room) and return for another trip through history
at the British Museum. Our planned tour of Canterbury and Leeds Castle
had been cancelled, and we had "seen and done" all of the highlights
that had made our list. So while the boys were still sleeping, I went
for a chat with Steve, the wonderful concierge.

I had a fleeting thought about a matinee at a theater but of course
the theaters are closed until the evening. I knew the boys would not
endure a whole day at the British Museum even though DH could.
Besides, we had spent time there yesterday and by my count were over
two hours already there.

The concierge gave me a few suggestions and offered a tour booklet to
see if that sparked anything for me. It fell open to an afternoon tour
of Stonehenge... we had both the time and the funds (thanks to the
refund for the cancelled tour), so Steve checked the availability and
was able to make all the arrangements for us!

DH was delighted that one of the pickup points for the tour was at the
Royal National Hotel, just a three minute walk from the British
Museum, so on the way, we dashed through the European rooms and
brought our collective time to past the three hour mark. Which is what
we had negotiated for a time limit so as not to only see the British
Museum on our visit to London.

Our Stonehenge Express tour is through Evan Evans tours. They were
prompt with the pickup times and surprisingly, the motorcoach was full
after our last pickup. It is a warm day, hitting about 80, and
thankfully the air conditioner is working. We didn't always have that
experience on our other tours throughout this journey.

So Stonehenge. Wow. What an amazing site. No way is this just an
ordinary pile of rocks. About seventy miles southwest of the greater
London area through the rolling hills and wide opened fields, this
wonder sits in what seems to be the middle of nowhere. But what a rich
and mysterious history this place has. Stonehenge is an English
Heritage site. They have an audio tour that takes about 45 minutes if
you listen to all the components and explains the site as you stroll
the path around it.

Photos from Helsinki

> I don't know if these pictures will post via an email update to the
> blog, so consider this a test.

> Here are three pictures of us taken by my third-cousin in Helsinki.

Covent Garden, or what to do on a free afternoon in London

We knew we would have to get off the ship eventually, so the
expectation of an afternoon in London filled that hollow feeling I
always get on the last morning of a cruise.

We had booked a post-cruise excursion to Canterbury and Leeds Castle
for Monday, but it was cancelled, so we found ourselves with more time
in London than we originally were expecting.

So we ditched plans to spend the whole afternoon at the British
Museum. Instead, we trekked the ten minute walk to Covent Garden.
There are lots of shops and an open market, several restaurants, and
throngs of people to watch. We found a Disney Store which was a
wonderful surprise, so of course we had to go in!

Today started out overcast in London but by the time we were at Covent
Garden, the skies had cleared. The temperature was mild, much milder
than when we were here two weeks ago. It was a perfect day to people
watch. DH said it had the feel of New Orleans and I agreed.

Days at Sea

Our 12 night Northern European Capitals cruise included seven days in
ports and four full days at sea. The sea days on this itinerary were
spaced out in such a way as to provide a day of rest and relaxation
between intensive port days.

The first day at sea was the day after boarding. As many guests had
been traveling several days prior to embarkation, as we had, we were
glad for a day to get settled in. For those who arrived the day we
left or just before, it was a much needed day to get through their
jetlag.

The second day at sea came between our day in Germany when many people
spent five to six hours traveling to and from Berlin and our days in
St. Petersburg.

Our third and fourth days at sea have come at the end, just in time
for resting and relaxing before the chore of packing.

Days at sea offer plenty of activites as well as the opportunity to do
absolutely nothing. The youth programs are scheduled in such a way as
to keep the children occupied giving parents time for their own
pursuits. There are movies, including the just released The Sorceror's
Apprentice, Toy Story 3, The Prince of Persia, and Alice in
Wonderland. While we had seen two of these in the local theater, we
had not seen them in 3D so we were able to experience that. They
showed the more recent releases on the big screen in the Walt Disney
Theater which had good attendance. Other movies, like When in Rome,
were shown in the Buena Vista theater.

In addition to movies, there were entertainment classes, port
lectures, art auctions, shopping guides, and game shows such as Who
Wants to be a Mouseketeer? and Mickey Mania.

Dinners each evening were themed and had a decent variety of food,
usually with a choice of fish, chicken, beef, or vegetarian entrees.
If you didn't want to eat in the main dining rooms (you rotated
between the three each day), you could still get table service in
Topsiders with mostly the same menu that was served elsewhere. A
couple of nights, Topsiders was opened as a buffet, but usually it is
not a buffet in the evenings, although many people have put that on
their comment card to offer a buffet at night.

The Disney ships have self-service laundry rooms on board so this
makes packing easier. However, they can get really busy on a sea day.
I lucked out and woke up early enough two sea mornings to get ours
done without a wait. You can meet some wonderful people in the laundry
room, especially on the first day or two when people are arriving with
a suitcase full of dirty laundry from pre-cruise travel. Of course the
cruiseline also offers a laundry service.

Our first two sea days were beautiful and most guests were outdoors.
The third one was a bit cooler so a few less people braved the
weather, and our last day at sea was chilly and had a strong wind that
could easily toss a small child around. There was a rainshower too
that drove everyone indoors. You could tell that we had left the
Baltic region with its record-breaking temperatures for the more
normal temperatures of the North Sea.

Re: Stockholm and Sigtuna

> This is our last port day and we got an early start on our tour of
> Stockholm and Sigtuna. We rode around the main areas of Stockholm
> and, after a photo stop at the "balcony" where we had a beautiful
> view of eight of the 14 islands that Stockholm is situated on, we
> went to Old Town which was interesting.
>
> Next we boarded the bus for the ride out to Sigtuna. It was a 45
> minute drive to the small town that is several centuries old. We
> took a 20 minute guided walk through the town and searched for
> runes. We visited St. Olaf's church which was very cool.

> We had a group lunch at Stora Brannbo which is a bed and breakfast
> near Sigtuna. We had a chicken lunch that was very good. Then we
> made our way back to the ship.

After we set sail, a local guide from the archipelago preservation
society narrated our passage through the fjorden.

Next stop, Dover on Sunday. This will be my last post from onboard but
I will have more on Sunday after we are back in London. We still have
a tour of Canterbury and Leeds Castle.

Our day in Helsinki

As you may remember, I was most excited about our stop in Helsinki as
my third cousin lives there and we had plans to meet him and his family.

After being in St. Petersburg for two long and hot days, it was nice
to have a bit of sea before porting again. We arrived near Helsinki
around 8 AM when the pilot came aboard to guide us in. I happened to
be on the verandah and watched him literally walk into the side of the
ship. That was so cool.

We agreed to meet around 9:45 as that is what tome our ashore time was
set for. We got off the ship a little earlier than that and waited for
him to arrive. The parking area was small and it became apparent that
it was not easy for anyone to get to where we were without experience
in getting there. We met a woman and her children who were there to
catch a glimpse of characters and she offered to let me call with her
phone. He was very near so that was nice. I had a pair of new DVC
caps in my bag so I gave them to her kids.

We took the shuttle into town and then walked through a central park
and up to the Senate Square. We bought our souvenirs and then went up
to see the large Lutheran church that was there and afforded a nice
view. Then we met his wife for lunch at a lovely restaurant where the
boys had chocolate cake for lunch while DH had a salmon soup ad did my
cousin, and his wife and I had Caesar salad with shrimp. They also
have an adorable son who is two and very sweet.

After lunch we walked her to her tram / streetcar stop and then back
to the shuttle. We so enjoyed meeting them and are very glad we were
able to. This was definitely the highlight of our trip. Or one of the
top ones anyway.

We had a brief rest and then were out again for the afternoon for a
bus trip around Helsinki. We saw some of the same things as before but
with additional but less personal information. We saw many of the
important sites in Helsinki.

They said yesterday hit a record high at 93.5 degres farenheit.
Highest in 76 years. Today was a bit milder and thankfully there was
enough breeze to keep it bearable. It reminded us of home.

When we got back to the ship, the family from this morning had cone
back for sailaway so we talked to them and thanked her again for
letting us use her phone. They stayed until the ship left. They spied
us on Deck 10 (well it was easy because we were waving at them) and
that was fun.

Tonight is Pirate night onboard and also at 10:45, they are premearing
the Sorcerors Apprentice. We have an early day in Stockholm so no late
movies for us.