Helsinki/Stockholm

Greetings- July 26, 2010

This will be our final blog posting. We leave the ship tomorrow morning (Monday) and fly home Tuesday. St. Petersburg had been a pretty intense and exciting three days so, unfortunately, Helsinki was a bit of a let down. Maybe it would be more accurate to say they we were not mentally prepared to enjoy all that Helsinki had to offer. Our ship was able to dock not more than a five minute walk from the part of Helsinki that we wanted to visit. The view from the top deck of our ship of Helsinki was another one of the many postcard views we have experienced on this trip. There was an open air market near our dock that catered to both tourists and locals. There were lots of booths with craft and souvenir items. Those of you still in our will may have something to look forward to. Fur seemed to predominate: mink, fox and reindeer. We did not buy any fur for two reasons: 1) it was very expensive and 2) Jilayne would have had a major hissy fit! Tim also passed up the opportunity to have a reindeer steak in one the restaurants for pretty much the same reasons plus not wanting to explain to his grandchildren that he had eaten Rudolph. There were also booths selling fresh fruit and vegetables as well as freshly caught fish. The fruit and veggies were gorgeous.

There was a lovely Lutheran Church that we wanted to visit but it was closed for a couple of weddings so we could not see the interior. Some of our fellow ship mates who were able to get inside said that it was very simple and beautiful inside, a very serene change from the ornateness of the Russian Orthodox churches we visited in St. Petersburg.

We also did some more geocaching and actually joined up with a couple from the Netherlands at one of the geocaching sites. Not only have we geocached in foreign countries but we have now geocached with foreigners. Lynda thinks that is pretty cool.

We had a very rough crossing from Helsinki to Stockholm. The roughest of the cruise. Tim handled the rough seas like the old salt that he has become. Unfortunately, we were awakened very early by a phone call from Jil informing us that Lynda’s father had fallen in his apartment and had broken his arm. She has reported to us that there is some evidence that he may have also had a heart attack but no confirmation of that. Tim talked to Jeff by cell phone and Jeff reports that Lynda’s dad is resting comfortably in the hospital and is complaining that he has created too much fuss for everyone. We all take this as a good sign. Lynda has basically crashed in our stateroom today (Sunday) while Tim went into Stockholm to e-mail Jil and Jeff and talk to Jeff on the phone. He also booked a hotel room for Monday night. He did report to Lynda that Stockholm is a beautiful city and will be fun to explore tomorrow.

Once we left the ship this morning we wandered around both the new and old parts of Stockholm. Stockholm is a very cosmopolitan city with lots of excellent shopping. We visited two large, local department stores and found many fascinating items in both. We have also noticed that Stockholm is a very expensive city. Either that or we are not doing the currency exchange properly!

While we were in old town we happened by the parliament building just as an English tour was about to start so we joined the tour. It was very interesting to hear our guide talk about how Sweden’s government operates and compare that with how the state and federal government in the states operate or don’t depending on your point of view. We also enjoyed our guides rather tongue in cheek comments about Swedish politics. We were also struck by the contemporary design of the parliament hall.

Lunch was a big deal because Tim actually had Swedish meatballs. He reports that they were excellent.

We are resting in our hotel room at this moment. The plan for the rest of the day is to do some geocaching and then find a place for dinner. Our plane leaves Stockholm tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. and we arrive in Detroit, after a layover in New York, at 6:45. It will be a long day but we are both anxious to get home after a month away.

As always we thank you for reading our blog. We hope it has been both informative as well as entertaining. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

Tim and Lynda

P.S. The reports from Jil and Jeff are that Lynda’s father is doing well. The doctors seem to have ruled out the possibility of a heart attack but he still faces a long process of rehab for his broken arm.