Summary June 2, 2012

After three weeks cruising fourteen countries Rome seems so long ago. We had a fantastic time and were so fortunate with the weather. Only one day of rough seas and no rain.

We left Civitavecchia Port for our vacation with wonder and excitement for our new adventures ahead of us. We were not disappointed in the least and I know I will want to travel this way again. I'm thankful for the blog so we can return and enjoy the memories whenever we want. Isn't technology grand? :)

Stockholm, Sweden May 2012

  The Captain brought the ship in very close to the shore and would move it farther out once the passengers were unloaded for their excursions. This tender ride was much smoother than the one in Monaco!
   This is our last day of excursions and we are all looking forward to getting home. We have two sea days to relax and pack. 
 
 

We took a bus ride through the countryside to Stockholm and headed toward the Vasa Museum.

There were several stops for picture taking. I think we got lucky to see this beauty in the water.

Beautiful waterways all around.

Once again I'm trying to catch certain pictures while being on a bus. I thought the water runoff was interesting on the little building with the light. Also love all the colors Europeans use.

See how the tiles are "upside down" for runoff? At least they would be considered upside down in our area of the USA.

Kathie and I really wanted off the bus to do some farmer's market shopping. :)

Bikes everywhere once again. No wonder there were hardly any over weight people. We saw zero obese people. Everyone knew who the American tourists were, that's for sure.

Biggest dog we have seen the entire trip. Beautiful!

Even caught the bird in the picture. I loved this statue and would love to have it for my yard. ha!

Awwwww...our cute guys and some ugly pelvis type art sculpture. ha! Sorry, just not a fan. Wait..it could be a fan with a thumb hole to hold on to it. ? Nah, just ugly.

Shopping area into a palace area I think. Cool arches.

I'm getting tired of the bus picture taking thing but at least my camera has a "through glass" setting. 

OK, I take everything back about the pelvis fan art thing earlier. I'm sure I'm missing a memory of what this is suppose to be...maybe a memorial which in that case I'm truly sorry for my rude comments. But SERIOUSLY!

On August 10, 1628, Vasa set sail on her maiden voyage and sank in the Stockholm harbor.

Salvaged in 1961 after 333 years under the sea and reconstructed. 95% original due to the water in the harbor being natural rather than salt water. She was top heavy.

Model of what she looked like that fateful day.

As you can see, she was just gorgeous.

Remarkable detail after 333 years under water. Sorry this is blurry! I obviously moved my hand.

Samples of the details and bright colors.

The beautiful canons were not secured and caused death for some of the sailors.

The ugliest building in Sweden, I'm sure. The American Consulate building lined with tons of barbed wire and electrical fences. A reminder that we are heading home in two days time but wishing we had a prettier building representing us rather than this ugly thing being pointed out to all the tourists returning from the Vasa.

Helsinki, Finland May 29, 2012

We are now in Helsinki, Finland and heading to /Rock Church. These were typical apartment buildings with enclosed balconies due to harsh winters. Everything was landscaped and very clean. 

This is Temppeliaukio Rock Church. Large rock that was blasted and built into a church.

Three guesses what this box is for. If you said offering you're are right.

Beautiful color in the rocks.

This path actually had a pattern. Nice!

Top of the church next to the roof.

Still taking pictures on the bus and getting a little better now that we are almost at the end of our bus rides. We are heading to the Ice Bar and Hotel. 

It was really bright out so I couldn't really see Kathie! I think she was talking to me. ha! Can see the white hat from Monaco! Senate Square and Lutheran Cathedral.

Cool! The bus pulled into a parking lot with a large warehouse type building. We went in and got boots, gloves and snow suits on and entered the ice land.  

The first thing we see are the dog runners. They are much smaller than one would expect. 

 The Ice Bar with vodka served to us in ice shot glasses. It was lime flavored vodka. I learned that I really don't like vodka alone. The rest of the gang liked it.

I was starting to sweat in all the clothes not due to the vodka. :)

Still too cold for me to consider sleeping here! I'm sure it really isn't for sleeping. Just poses.

Not quite like Stone Mountain picnic area but this was pretty fun.

 

Tandem skiing does not seem to be a good idea but the guys are always game for trying new things. 

Everyone was laughing except poor Terry. He hurt his ankle/foot the way he fell. It took a while to get the skis off!

If anything looked silly it was sledding down a slope on very small pieces of plastic. We were yelling like a bunch of teenagers. :)

Jeff kept going sideways.

"Where's the wall?"

OK, the reason I took a picture of this building is because it was a landmark for where Kathie and I needed to catch a bus back to the ship. Terry and Jeff went back on their own and Kathie and I went shopping. I wanted something from Finland for our new house. Kathie was a great sport going with me. Of course, we are very much alike and didn't want to miss anything, including the department stores.

We saw a lot of these on the ladies in the Baltic area. Maybe when I was younger I could have pulled these off with a short skirt.

I'm happy now! I bought towels from Stockman's. Couldn't find lace valances or curtains.

Our time is up and we headed out of Helsinki, Finland. There are thousands of islands and most appeared to be rock with trees. Very pretty!

I would have loved to camp somewhere like this place!

Would have loved to visit this little place.   A bit exposed and isolated but way cool. For now I'll have to settle for the views on our way to Nynashamm, Sweden to visit the Vasa Museum.