Baltic Cruise and Northern Europe on Sumner Evans

Reflections on Trip 2

Wed, 10 Feb 2016 22:35:00 -0600

Finally, four months after my last one, I have another Reflections on Trip post. Some of these are really deep, while others are definitely not.

Multilingualism

On our trip I encountered many people from many countries. I talked to kids from Israel, France, Spain, Lebanon, Mexico, Kuwait, and a few other places. Everyone used English. Even when the Israelis were talking to the Mexicans or the French with the Spanish, they spoke in English. In some regards, I think it’s awesome that I am a native English speaker because I can communicate with a multitude of people. On the other hand, I feel like I am lacking something in not knowing another language. I would like to be able to carry a semi-sophisticated conversation in another language. I know some Spanish, but I feel that I would need to really focus on learning it to become fully conversational in it.

Reflections on Trip 1

Sat, 10 Oct 2015 08:41:00 -0100

As I said at the end of my last post about our trip to Northern Europe I am going to write about some things that I thought about during the trip. Some of it has to do with the particular events of the trip, but some are more generic. This is the first of many of these posts, so expect more later.

Reykjavík, Iceland to Denver, Colorado

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 11:41:00 -0600

Somewhere over Northern Canada: I am in the plane right now and just got caught up on all my blog posts. Transportation to the airport was fairly easy. The man who took us to the apartments yesterday took us to the bus terminal where we caught an airport shuttle to Keflavik International. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed an hour because the plane was delayed arriving. We walked around the shops and ate lunch just to kill time. We also bought food for the plane. We have a driver set up to pick us up from Denver International Airport so I’ll assume that that will work out fine.

Reykjavík, Iceland

Fri, 21 Aug 2015 11:37:00 -0600

Today we did a tour of the Golden Circle, the main sites in the southwest of Iceland. Getting to the bus terminal was a bit interesting. We were driven by the grandpa of the family from the hotel to some apartments. Then we were picked up by a minibus from the tour company which took us to the main terminal where we boarded a larger tour bus.

London, England to Reykjavík, Iceland

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 10:32:00 -0600

I’m going to make this short because I’m behind on writing. Today was a travel day. We went by car from our apartment to Gatwick International Airport. Then we flew to Reykjavík. It was only a 3 hour flight and 1 hour time difference so it wasn’t bad at all.

We had planned to rent a car and drive to our hotel, but mom’s driver’s license expired on the 17th. The man at the car rental office was very nice and gave us tickets on their bus into town (I guess they are both part of the same company). He said that we would take that bus and then a shuttle would take us to our hotel. The bus ride went fine, but when we arrived at the place where we were supposed to get the shuttle, the lady said that they don’t take people to our hotel. We told her that the man at the car rental place had said we could, so she phoned the car rental office. She came back and said that the man was mistaken, but said that since it was their fault they would pay for a taxi. We were very surprised, especially since we hadn’t even asked for anything, the man at the car rental place had given us the tickets just to be nice. A few minutes later, she came back and said “a taxi would take forever to come so this lady will take you herself”. We got our own private 15 passenger van and she took us to our hotel. Her English was very good and we asked her some questions about Iceland, what things she recommends we do tomorrow and the like. We gave her a hefty tip on arrival at our hotel.

London, England -- Day 11

Wed, 19 Aug 2015 15:37:00 -0600

Today we went to the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre and then to the science museum, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll start with the Globe Theatre.

I’ll start by describing some of the things I learned about the Globe Theatre. The area around the Globe had a long theatrical tradition even before the Globe was built. There were theatres in the area when the original Globe was built according to Shakespeare’s design in 1599 (source of date: Wikipedia). The Globe burned down a few times because of its thatch roof and wooden construction. It lay in ruins for hundreds of years until a reconstruction was made in the late 1900s. The reconstruction used the same materials and construction techniques as the original and is actually the only building in London with a thatched roof.

London, England -- Day 10 -- York

Tue, 18 Aug 2015 14:05:00 -0600

Today we went to York, our furthest day trip so far. It took two hours by express train (120 mph I think). The other trips we’ve made have been on much slower trains with more stops.

We began by going to a museum on the history of York. The area around York is full of fossils from various small snail-like sea creatures. There were a few rooms dedicated to the dinosaur age with lots of evolution junk that didn’t really have to do with York

London, England -- Day 9

Mon, 17 Aug 2015 12:30:00 -0600

We started the day by going to the Royal Air Force Museum. It took a while to get there because we had to get off the underground and walk a little ways and then get on a different line and go for another while. Then we had to walk for about 15–20 minutes to get to the actual museum. The museum consisted of four large buildings with lots of planes. Lots of planes.

London, England -- Day 8 -- Warwick

Sun, 16 Aug 2015 01:12:00 -0600

Today we went to Warwick (pronounced war-ick). Warwick is the site of a very old medieval castle. Today, the castle grounds are what I’d call a Renaissance Festival mixed with a real castle. There were all sorts of activities that you could do on the grounds, most of the activities were a bit young or costed additional money. The castle became a palace at some point and changed hands many times. We were able to walk through the palace and learn about the various owners. I found it interesting how many of the royalty in Europe were intermarried at the outbreak of WWI, yet it didn’t prevent the war. Talk about a family feud…

London, England -- Day 7

Sat, 15 Aug 2015 14:01:00 -0600

Today was another full day in London. We started out by going to Greenwich, the location of the Prime Meridian and the location where Greenwich Mean Time is calculated.

Before going to the observatory, we went to the Cutty Sark museum. The Cutty Sark was one of the fastest clippers in its day. It primarily transported tea from Shanghai to London but also made trips to Australia. The boat is elevated so that you can view the underside of the vessel. It is also elevated to relieve the unnatural pressure on the bottom of the boat which was damaging the ship.

London, England -- Day 6 -- Stonehenge

Fri, 14 Aug 2015 11:35:00 -0600

Today we went to Stonehenge. The journey took over two hours. We went by underground to the train station, and took the train to Salisbury. From there we boarded a bus to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre. The displays explained some of the archaeological features of the area. Stonehenge is part of a vast complex of mounds, ditches and other (less impressive) structures. The stones of Stonehenge were erected around 2600 BC, about the same time that the Great Pyramid was built. The structure is an engineering wonder for a people who didn’t have the wheel. As the people who built Stonehenge didn’t have a written language, it is unknown exactly what the structure was used for. There are some clues however, for example, the sun is aligned through the stones on the Spring Equinox. It is likely that Stonehenge was a religious-scientific centre where the ancient people of the area worshipped, gave sacrifices to their gods, and observed the heavens.

London, England -- Day 5

Thu, 13 Aug 2015 13:41:00 -0600

Today we got up fairly early to go to the Tower of London, the castle around which London was built. We began by going to see the Crown Jewels, the Royal collection of precious metals, gems and other Royal items. Many crowns worn by various royalty and some other things like sceptres are on display. The movies sure don’t exaggerate the brilliance of the crowns worn by royalty, One interesting thing about the things on display in the Crown Jewels exhibit is that they are still used today.

London, England -- Day 4

Wed, 12 Aug 2015 12:30:00 -0600

Today we had a late start, about 9:00. We began by riding the underground to Tower Bridge, the drawbridge that everyone thinks is London Bridge. We did the Tower Bridge Experience which took up to the bridge walkways, the ones above the drawbridge opening. The displays talked some about the history and making of the bridge. They had a glass floor where you could look down on all of the people and cars down below. It wasn’t very scary because the glass had little black dots on it at regular intervals.

London, England -- Day 3 -- Bath, England

Tue, 11 Aug 2015 12:29:00 -0600

Today we went on an excursion to Bath, the town built around the only hot spring in Great Britain. To get there, we had to ride the underground to Paddington Station where we got a train to Bath Spa. The ride took two hours. I slept most of the way so I don’t remember much of it.

We started by going to the main attraction in Bath: the Roman Baths. Built by the Romans staring in AD 43, the site was forgotten and silt from the nearby river gradually covered the area after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Baths were not discovered again until the late 1800’s. The hot springs didn’t cease to function and the area had a lot of activity in between those periods. Initially it was mainly poor people who used the waters for healing purposes, but then the Queen came and was healed of her rheumatism and suddenly, Bath was the place to be if you were anybody. An entire structure was built around the hot spring, but the Roman Baths were not discovered for another few hundred years. After it was discovered excavations commenced. The best preserved Roman ruins north of the Alps (or so claimed our the guide) were unearthed.

London, England -- Day 2

Mon, 10 Aug 2015 14:16:00 -0600

Today was our second day in London. We spent our morning at St. Paul’s Cathedral and went to the British Museum in the afternoon.

After a breakfast of bread, cheese, and prosciutto we went to Shepherd’s Bush station and caught the Central Line to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was pretty obvious where to go from there since the dome of St. Paul’s loomed overhead. We started by using Rick Steve’s audio guide through the cathedral. We began at the entrance and proceeded down the knave (the place where you sit during services). Then we went around the Quire (the area where the choir sits) to the main altar. Behind the main altar is a memorial to the American soldiers who fought to defend Britain during WWII. We then came back around and went up the stairs into the dome itself. The first level is called the whispering gallery because you can whisper to the wall and someone all the way across the dome can hear you. It’s really cool. Then dad and I climbed up to the next level where there’s a good view of London. I climbed all the way to the top and there was an even more spectacular view. I could see all of the main sights of London. We then went back down and got the audio guides provided by the church. We listened to some of that commentary and then proceeded to the crypt. Many famous people were buried down there. The remains of Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of the cathedral, are down there along with memorials to many fallen soldiers and heroes of war.

London, England -- Day 1

Sun, 09 Aug 2015 13:16:00 -0600

Today was our first full day in London, England. We decided to start with a panoramic hop on-hop off bus tour. To get to the bus tour we had to go to Trafalgar Square to get tickets. We went to the Shepherd’s Bush metro/tube/underground station and bought passes. The man that assisted us was very helpful. To get into the subway, you have to touch your card on a sensor (I’m guessing it uses NFC) and a gate opens for you. We took the Central Line to Oxford Circus (which apparently doesn’t have anything to do with a circus) and then transferred to the Bakerloo line to Charing Cross. It was a neat experience, especially for a suburbs boy like me.

Copenhagen, Denmark to London, England

Sat, 08 Aug 2015 22:16:00 -0600

Today was entirely travel. We woke up early, ate breakfast, and headed out to the shuttle to the airport. We flew directly to London, Gatwick airport (not Heathrow). Then a driver who we had hired picked us up and took us an hour and a half to the apartment we had rented using HomeAway (which is like Airbnb). Our dad, who had flown in a few hours earlier, met us at the apartment. After leaving our stuff in the flat, we headed to the grocery store, Tesco, to get foodstuffs for our stay in London.

Copenhagen, Denmark

Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:08:00 -0600

Today we were in Copenhagen, Denmark. This is our last port on the cruise. We fly out of Copenhagen to London tomorrow.

We began our day by doing a MeMover tour. MeMovers are kinda like a mobile elliptical, but not. I can’t really describe it, so I’ll post a picture that our guide took when we were parked in front of a water feature. Our guide had virtually perfect English and his son, Otto, who made the caboose of our caravan, had terrific English also.

Fredericia, Denmark

Thu, 06 Aug 2015 13:21:00 -0600

Today we were in Fredericia (fred-er-esh-eeuh), Denmark. We got off the boat late because we didn’t have anything scheduled until the afternoon. When we did make it into town, we walked around for a little bit. It is a very nice town, but there isn’t much to see. There were a lot of pedestrian streets and I liked the water features along and in the street. We did manage to buy a new SIM card that will work in Denmark so we can call dad. We bought it from a Sri Lankan in Denmark.

Warnemunde, Germany (Berlin, Germany)

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 12:57:00 -0600

Today we docked at the port in Warnemunde, Germany. We had to go out earlier than normal because 1) we docked earlier and 2) we drove into Berlin which is a 3.5 hr drive. We didn’t have much trouble finding our driver, and the ride into Berlin wasn’t very interesting. We stayed mostly on the autobahn, the (basically) no speed limit highways. The driver didn’t seem to be very experienced, but we didn’t die. He did drive us to the wrong spot in Berlin though. It was his second time in Berlin, so he didn’t know the city very well. Our guide had told the driving company to take us to a certain part of the Berlin Wall, but the company had told our driver the wrong place. It took half an hour or so to find the right spot.

At Sea

Tue, 04 Aug 2015 12:56:00 -0600

Today we were at sea, only sailing. I really don’t want to write all about it, so I won’t. I will tell you that it was fun. Just combine what I’ve described to you about the last few evenings on the ship and add some swimming to that and you have a good idea of what happened today.

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Mon, 03 Aug 2015 12:55:00 -0600

Today we were in Klaipeda, Lithuania. Unlike Tallinn and Riga, Klaipeda is not the capitol of Lithuania. The capitol, Vilnius is 300 km (186 mi) away and the second largest city is in between Vilnius and Klaipeda. Klaipeda is the industrial centre of Lithuania. The large number of container ships was an indicator of this economic status.

Klaipeda was historically German, specifically East Prussian. It was not until the Soviets came after WWII that it became part of Lithuania. All of the German population left Klaipeda (which was at that time known as Memelis) and the Soviets renamed the city to its current name. The Soviets then incorporated the city into Lithuania. During WWII, like all of the Baltic States, Germany invaded and occupied Lithuania. Then, the Soviets came back and reoccupied Lithuania.

Riga, Latvia

Sun, 02 Aug 2015 12:50:00 -0600

Today we took it a little easier than the other days. We didn’t do any tour of the city, but we did ride the shuttle into Riga and walked around. The shuttle dropped us off at the main square called Town Hall Square. The architecture of Riga is a mix of old, Soviet, and modern and the buildings of Town Hall Square demonstrates that perfectly. There was an old structure, the House of the Blackheads, that was built in the 1300s, an ugly Soviet building that housed a museum, and just around the corner was a modern (post-Soviet) building. There is a statue in the middle of the square of a man holding a sword. In ancient times, the sword was used as the geographical centre of the city and all measurements were based off of that point. We then wandered to St. Paul’s church (I think it was Paul’s, it might have been Peter’s though, I can’t remember). It was like many other small town Germanic churches. We continued to wander through various streets and eventually made it to Dome Square named after the domed church which is the dominant landmark in the square. We walked around, took some pictures and ate some Latvian ice cream. Then we headed back to the Town Hall Square.

Tallinn, Estonia

Sat, 01 Aug 2015 12:49:00 -0600

Today we were in Tallinn, Estonia. We arrived in port at about 7:00 and, after breakfast, we went out to meet our guide at about 8:30. Unlike Russia, there was no passport control or anything (which was quite refreshing). Our guide’s name was Siljva (or something like that) it was pronounced like Sill-vuh. Her English was very good and she was very well educated (she is writing her thesis to become a information technology lawyer). She was able to answer our questions much more easily than Maria in St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Day 3

Fri, 31 Jul 2015 12:47:00 -0600

Today we were again in St. Petersburg. I will start describing today from when we met our guide outside the cruise terminal. We first drove to a souvenir shop where the travel company headquarters was located (it appeared that the sublet space from the souvenir shop). The lady who was accepting payments for the tour said that all of the kids could get 15 Euro credit for anything in the store. (I think that that was so that the parents would stay and spend money.) I got a cool knife with a CCCP (USSR in Russian) symbol on it. It doesn’t seem very high quality, but it is cool.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Day 2

Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:26:00 -0600

Today is our second day in St. Petersburg. After the normal morning activities, we went out to our guide and she took us to a hydrofoil which we rode out to Peterhov (that’s probably very incorrect spelling), the island where the official summer residence of the Czar is located. The boat ride was fine. I don’t remember much but the back of my eyelids though. The first thing we saw on the island was the canal leading up to the palace. We got some very good pictures of the palace from a distance. I will try to post some of them here.

St. Petersburg, Russia -- Day 1

Wed, 29 Jul 2015 12:25:00 -0600

The stereotypes are true. Russia was pretty much as I expected.

If you like Russia, Putin, Socialism, Communism or Obama (specifically his foreign policy or, really, lack thereof), you should probably not read my posts about Russia.

When we looked out into the city from the 11th deck where the Windjammer Cafe is the buildings (they were a kilometer or so away) just screamed communist block housing. They were tall, white, ugly buildings made out of cement. It appeared that they were still making apartments like that in the area because we saw one under construction.

Helsinki, Finland

Tue, 28 Jul 2015 12:22:00 -0600

We woke up at about 8:00 today, ate breakfast, and got ready to get off the ship. Mrs. Coco had booked a kayak tour for us to go see the city by boat. So after the ship docked at about 10:30 we all walked out and met the guide for our kayaking tour. His name was Marti (with a rolled R). We rode by car to the shore of an inlet to the bay where they had already put the kayaks. I went with mom, Hannah and Sebastian (the oldest Coco boy) went together, and Mr. and Mrs. each went with one of the twins: Nico and Sergio.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 4 and Set Sail

Mon, 27 Jul 2015 09:21:00 -0600

We started today earlier than any of the other days at around 8:00. We headed up to breakfast at the Windjammer Cafe. The food selection was good for a breakfast and the bacon was cooked to my liking, unlike the bacon at the hotel which wasn’t that good. After breakfast, we got ready to go back into Stockholm for the last time.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 5 and Beginning of Cruise

Sun, 26 Jul 2015 08:28:00 -0600

Today we embarked on our cruise. We woke up and had breakfast at the hotel and then had the hotel staff order us a taxi to the cruise port. The ride was fine and went without an issue. To check in to the cruise ship, it’s like airport check in and security. We had to “check” our bags and at a little stand, it was very easy because we’d already printed our luggage tags. Then we went into another line to go through security. It isn’t quite as rigorous as airport security (we were able to take water bottles through) but it still took a while. Then we got in a new line to get our key cards for the ship. After these three lines (in total they took an hour or so) we boarded the boat. Then we waited forever for the elevator. Eventually we made it in to an elevator and went to the 11th floor where the Windjammer Cafe is. (The Windjammer is the lunch buffet.) By the time we were done with lunch our stateroom was ready to be occupied so we went to check it out and drop off our “cary ons”. We then went back into Stockholm for the afternoon.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 3

Sat, 25 Jul 2015 12:42:00 -0600

Someone didn’t get up until 9:15 today. I won’t mention his name. (Oh wait, I’m the only guy, oops.)

After breakfast in the hotel, we got ready and went out to the bus stop which was about 100 metres from the hotel. We got on bus line 69 which took us straight to the Historiska Museet, the Swedish History Museum.

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 2

Fri, 24 Jul 2015 11:19:00 -0600

We started this day very late. (I’m sure it had nothing to do with some individuals sleeping in till 9:30… oh wait, that was me.) We ate breakfast which luckily ran until 10:30 and then got ready to go.

We walked down to the central tram station and got on the 7 tram which took us to our first destination: Scansen, an open air museum featuring various Swedish buildings and animals. We started out by walking around a reconstruction of a Swedish village around the 1840s. There was a glass blowing shop, a woodworking shop, a factory, a few houses and a school. One interesting thing about school during that period was that the amount of light dictated the amount of school done because they only used natural lighting. In one of the houses we went into, the guy said that it was the house of a middle class family. There were only three rooms in the house, but the room we were in was the one where you would entertain guests. It had a piano, nice furniture, and wallpaper so that you could make it look like you were wealthy, even if you really weren’t. Things really haven’t changed much have they…

Stockholm, Sweden -- Day 1

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 12:26:00 -0600

We arrived in Stockholm at around 12:30 local time. Unfortunately I did doze off in the plane on our way here for about an hour, so I didn’t succeed in my original goal of not sleeping on they flight. I’m going to try and make up for it by staying up until 21:00 tonight.

Two of our bags took forever to come out, but we finally got them and found the train into Stockholm. We had gotten the wrong tickets (Hannah had a pensioner’s ticket) but the lady was nice and told us that both Hannah and I were free and that we should just ask for a refund once we got to the station in Stockholm. The guy at the station didn’t ask any questions and gave us the refund. It was a good introduction to Stockholm.

On Our Way - Reykjavík, Iceland to Stockholm, Sweden

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 11:03:00 -0600

7:26 2015/7/23 Reykjavík, Iceland, 1:26 MST: I am sitting on the airplane getting ready to leave from Reykjavík for Stockholm right now. We have another little kid behind us on this flight. I am hoping to not sleep this flight so that I am closer to Stockholm time (we will be arriving there at 12:30 local time). We will see how that goes.

On Our Way - Denver, Colorado, USA to Reykjavík, Iceland

Thu, 23 Jul 2015 00:02:00 -0600

I am on an Icelandair flight right now writing this post. We are about an hour and a half into the flight. We were able to check in online, so we ended up being fairly early to the airport, but it gave us plenty of time to eat a lupper (Lunch/Supper) at Panda Express. We are currently somewhere over the US still but I don’t know exactly because the flight map is not working for me. Right now I am waiting for the flight attendant to come and ask if we would like drinks. Right now she is having trouble scanning a Discover card for the people in front of us, so it is looking like it might be a while before we get our drinks…

Baltic Cruise and England Vacation Announcement

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 22:31:00 -0600

My family and I are going on a vacation! We will start with a cruise on the Baltic Sea, and then we will spend about a week and an half in England.

I will be maintaining this blog throughout the trip. I will try and write a post every day (though it might be a few days between when I actually post while I am on the cruise as internet connectivity is limited). I will be posting to both this blog and our family blog: basheracademy.blogspot.com. This blog will only contain posts from me, whereas the family blog will contain posts from my sister, Hannah, as well.