October 12

 Up at 5AM, ugh, although I could have gotten up closer to 6. Plus, there was time change last night and we got an extra hour that way. I brought some juice and a few strudels to our room last night so that we could just eat a quick bite before we left without worrying about crowds. 

We had received our disembarkation notices yesterday, telling us to leave our luggage in the hallway and what bus we were to go to. 

It is SUCH a long walk to get off the ship and to the luggage room, it takes forever, but our suitcases were easy to find, as was our bus. It was just starting to rain as we clambered on the bus, which had the absolute TIGHTEST/lack of legroom seat of any bus I have ever been on in my entire life.

Luckily there were two seats empty on each side of the aisle, so he sat in one, with his personal item bag on the seat beside him, and I did the same on the other side of the aisle. I figured if someone needed a seat, I’d just shuffle over and sit by him. 

He fell asleep in about 30 seconds.

So, I was almost “that person”. A woman about 40-ish came down the aisle with an older woman who was about my age. Now, there were 2 empty seats directly in front of me. The woman looked at me (I had leaned over to put the strap of Steven’s bag up so that it wasn’t dangling for someone to trip on). The woman said to me “Are you with him?” I said “Yes”. She then said “Can you sit there then so that my mother and I can each have a seat of our own?” And she gestured to the two empty seats in front of me, and then also to the seats I was sitting in. I was a little taken aback and I said “No. I’m actually sitting here.” She scowled at me and I really wanted to ask her why she and her mother should get their own seats when I was here first, but I do not do confrontation very well, so I just put my head down and pretended to be reading something very important on my phone. She harrumphed and said something to her mother and sat down heavily and immediately tried to put her seat back, but they didn’t recline. Neither of them were large women or disabled with a cane or anything. I mean, I am civilized. I’m not heartless or completely selfish. But I was uncomfortable and nervous that she would yell at me. But all was well. 

Anyhow, we were at the airport by 8:30 and security was pretty much empty and quick. Thank goodness the shoe-taking-off thing is now in the past, and they didn’t ask for laptops/ipads separate, or liquids either. 

We were in our terminal by 9am, and we wandered up and down a bit, and checking out the stores. Heathrow has great stores! Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s as well as the usual airport places.

Found a place to have lunch, even though it was only 11am, but we had been up for a long time. It had free refills on cappuccino! I had FOUR!

I had a panini with Wiltshire ham and white cheddar, and he had a burger with Irish beef. Very good!

Then I remembered I had £5 note stashed away so I bought some water to take on the plane. It made me remember that old poem about “The Owl and the Pussycat” (they took some money and plenty of honey wrapped up in a £5 pound note) Read for a bit and in no time we were on board. 

Again he had an empty seat bedside him. That’s every single flight. I had two girls beside me, who slept most of the way. Dinner was a shepherds pie, which was only ok. 

I watched a few movies, Disclosure Day (so good!), Project Hail Mary (again) the new Scary Movie (SO bad) Power Ballad (with Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas)  and Isn’t it Romantic (Rebel Wilson and Liam Hemsworth) I don’t know why I was so wide awake. 

Anyhow, we arrived in Calgary on time, no one was in immigration, and I mean no one, we sailed right through. I had saved all my receipts in case I was asked, although I had no idea what was for what. Most places use the euro, but Sweden uses the Krona and Poland uses the Złoty so I basically have no idea what anything cost, or what the receipts are for. Thank goodness for credit cards….remember when we had to do the whole travellers cheque thing, and exchange money? What a pain. I do miss getting passport stamps though. Eight countries and not a stamp. 

Anyhow, we then took the shuttle to our gate (god almighty, it would have taken us two days to walk there) and hung out in that incredibly crappy downstairs area, and then ended up at home on time. It was like we were never gone. 

So, a quick round up of my thoughts.

These 10 days on the NCL Sun took us through a wonderful selection of Baltic cities. Each was a little different, but all were full of history and surprises. From the magical, medieval street of Tallinn, to the beautiful merchant buildings of Gdańsk to the charm of Wernemünde and everything in between, there was always something new to see.

The time in Helsinki before we left gave us time to acclimate and was a perfect beginning to our trip.

I know a lot of people say they would never cruise, and maybe it’s not for everyone, but I disagree with the idea that it isn’t a wonderful way to travel. We unpacked once, woke up in a new country every day and experienced places we would never have visited otherwise.

Is a port visit the same as spending a week in a city? Of course not. Can you see everything a country has to offer in a day? Absolutely not. But you can still get a taste of somewhere new.

For me, cruising isn’t about seeing everything. It’s about discovering something- a beautiful street, a fascinating piece of history, a wonderful café or even a moment alone by the sea with the wind in your face. And coffee….always coffee…..

Calgary

Finland

Estonia

Sweden

Latvia

Lithuania

Poland

And four Germany in a row.

And alone at the sea. 

October 11

 Well, today is the last sea day as we head toward Southhampton to disembark and fly home tomorrow morning. It’s time to unpack and repack and get organized for tomorrow’s early start. I didn’t buy a lot, and what I bought was all small things, but man, did my suitcase shrink? 

We had a leisurely breakfast, wandered around the ship, and just had a relaxing day which involved a lot of eating. 

This ship seemed so familiar to me, and I don’t know why since the NCL Prima that we were on last year was entirely different, being almost brand new, whereas this one is about 20 years old. Not familiar in a paranormal way or anything, just plain old familiar.

I took a photo of the hair dryer in the bathroom because it just seemed so old and, shall we say…vintage? As a matter of fact, I asked Steven on about Day 8 or 9 how the hair dryer was (he always uses them to unfog the bathroom mirror) and he said “There isn’t one” I showed him this, which is directly above the toilet:

And he laughed and said he had thought it was a weird vent or toilet accessory, or possible even a vacuum.  We chuckled and went on our day.

I’m telling this story because during the cruise I got a call from an NCL representative telling me that since this was our 3rd cruise with NCL that I was entitled to discounts on our next cruise. I was pretty sure we had only done 2 cruises with them, but whatever, I wasn’t planning on booking another one right now anyhow. But when home, I dug out my pictures from our Alaska cruise in 2009, and not only was it with NCL, it was on this very same ship! The Norwegian Sun. And, I had taken a picture of the bathroom way back then, and LOOK:

Identical! Nothing updated since 2009! No wonder everything seemed so familiar. 

The entertainment tonight was called Wild Cards and it was an 18+ song and dance sort of in a burlesque style, taking place in the Old West. Again, really good. 

There were a lot of other shows, things like The Price is Right, Deal or No Deal and Name that Tune, they were not really very good, although the venues were always crowded, so I guess that other folks enjoyed them. There were also plenty of smaller pubs and lounges that always had live entertainment, as well as a sports bar so one could catch up on their sports.

Also a plethora of classes, from Line Dancing to origami lessons, wine and whisky tasting, chinese herbal medicine and even a pickleball court, and so much more.

You could only be bored if you chose to be.

Anyhow, here’s a few of my pictures that I might have missed posting. 

I loved that these coffee vending machines were scattered all over the place, I saw a lot of them in residential areas near bus stops. Can you imagine that around here? They’d be vandalized in a New York Minute.

An $18 USD Mudslide. (The alcoholic kind)

In case you needed to know that French fries were served here.

The public toilets were always spotless, but these square-ish seats were not appealing (of course I do the “lined with TP and still hover” maneuver, but still…square seats? Most bathrooms were unisex, so maybe it was so that men didn’t scroll and linger?

An interesting building.

We went to the casino to spend the last of our US money, and spend it we did! 

Came home with .14….far cry from last year when I came home with $28,000….which essentially made this trip free. (Not that this trip cost anywhere near that)

This ship still delivers the Freestyle Daily to your room every night, which I love. Most of the cruise lines, including NCL are going to digital newspapers and notices, which I understand, eco and all that, but I love having the paper ones. It’s just fun to check your mail every day and have all the little notes right there. We had a lot of invites to various parties, and notes about the time changes and whatnot. I just like getting mail.

Anhow. Early to bed. Tomorrow will be a looooooon day.

October 10

 Today is a sea day. Quite a lovely one, from the looks of it. 

Today we have the “Mandatory UK Face-to-Face Immigration Inspection for all Guests.” This always strikes me as strange thing since we already had to have a valid ETA before we even got on the ship in Finland, so I asked (since the guy seemed super friendly) and he explained that the cruise line check-in systems are not connected to the UK immigration data base the way that airline systems are. So this is a check of every single passenger to make sure they have an ETA and are eligible to enter the UK. Makes sense I guess. 

They called by group number (every key card has a group number on it) and then you just head to the Stardust and show your passport to one of the two fellows sitting at a table. It seemed very casual. In hindsite, I’m sure they had some sort of scanner or something there, but he just looked at our passports, where we were flying from in the UK, and where our final destination was. 

I couldn’t figure out where they came from, we are in the middle of nowhere so it’s not like a pilot boat could have dropped them off, and I doubt they get a free cruise, so I asked again, and was told that they board the boat on the last foreign stop before the UK, stay in a cabin like anyone else, and then leave when the ship docks in the UK with everyone else. The table they were sitting at is considered an actual border control, so when the ship docks in the UK, everyone can just leave, instead of everyone trying to get though border control at the same time, on land. 

After that was done we decided to go to the art auction. They are always a fun way to spend an hour or so, and they ply you with mimosa’s, hoping, I suppose, that maybe someday someone will actually buy that masterpiece (because they always have at least one piece of art by one of the masters, this cruise had a Picasso) 

The auctioneer is usually really funny, and also informative and each piece is auctioned off super quick, like maybe a minute per piece, so you have no time to get bored. They have draws and raffles throughout and so many different types of work to see. We always enjoy it on a sea day.

We won a little print in the raffle. 

It will look cute framed in the spare room, and will be a little reminder of the time spent drinking mimosas!

It was a pretty lazy day, did some walking around the outside of the ship for some fresh air,  watched some trivia games, checked out the shops for last minute deals, ate far too much. Spent some time in the casino…no luck..

I did find 2 ducks though, apparently hiding ducks is quite the thing. I guess it’s like painting rocks and hiding them in the forest, it’s just something that people do to give a little joy to others. The bigger one was stashed behind the napkin holder on out table, and the wee one (who I set on a nickel so you can see the size…so cute!) was tucked in a corner in an elevator.

The entertainment was the comedian/magician that we had seen before, but it was a different show and was much funnier than last time. 

Tomorrow we have to start to pack up as it will be the last day on the ship.

Goodnight.

October 9th

Cautiously opened the curtains today to see sunshine! Hooray! We were originally supposed to leave Wernemünde last night, but:

Wernemünde has a narrow harbour and for the docking threshold for cruise ships, the critical factor is wind, rather than waves. The Captain announced that the Beaufort Scale had to be less than 6 for us to leave, and last night it was 8. Even though it had calmed down and was nice today, the time slot allotted to the ship for leaving was lost.  Or something like that, the Captain and the local Rostock pilots decided it was unsafe to leave and made the announcement at midnight, and that’s fine by me!

(Thinking of that ship that sank in the Baltic and 852 lives were lost. I’ll happily spend an extra day in Germany. It was to be a sea day anyhow, so this is a lovely bonus)

We had our usual breakfast in our usual spot, and then headed back to town, this time to explore the fish market a bit. There were so many places selling all sorts of seafood

There were a lot of these tables and seats scattered up and down, a perfect spot to stay out of the wind, rain or sun. 

A lot of the food stalls were stand-up only and we wanted to find a sit down spot for lunch. The places that had inside seating charged much more than if you got your meal “to go”. I know that’s a common practice in Europe, and that’s fine, when in Rome and all, but the inside prices were €18-€22 and to go was about €8. Crazy. Anyhow, we spotted this place and got some fish ‘n chips and a Pepsi. Delicious!

We did some more walking, some shopping, some people-watching, some bird watching…

I liked these gulls, they weren’t screechy, and no swooping to steal your food like our loud and rude Canadian gulls. These one just sat and judged you.

We strolled the street until I realized that I hadn’t had a coffee yet today, and we were near the place where I sat during yesterday’s downpour so we popped in there. The server recognized me and asked if I wanted to sit outside again, but we chose inside. I saw some people eating little cream puffs, about the size of a golf ball, and they looked light and yummy, so I ordered one. She asked if I wanted fruit and cream with it, and of course I said “please”. This is what arrived:

Needless to say, we shared, and ohhh….it was so delicious.

After this we walked a bit more and enjoyed the sunshine and the flowers. 

It was time to head back to the ship for some R&R. I guess maybe the ship  had some severe motion going on last night, because we saw these in a lot of places, and I heard someone say that the little store had completely run out of sea-sick meds, as well as cold and ‘flu meds. I pack a little first aid kit with me, and had all of those, plus more, but luckily, knock wood, we have never needed anything, other than an occasional band-aid, but hearing that a cold and/or flu might be making the rounds made us hyper-vigilant about washing and hand sanitizing and not touching things.

Steven decided to have a rest, and I decided to go back to town. It’s such a nice walk, and yesterday I had contemplated going on the Sky Wheel, but the weather was not cooperative. Steven hates heights, so he would never have gone on it, we went on the one in Niagara Falls and he hated every second. I walked over there and watched it go around. I was tempted to get on, there were only two passengers on it, and there no line-up and the sign said it was approximately an 8 minute ride. 

I hesitated, because what if it got stuck and I was left dangling at the top (because it would never get stuck at the bottom) and there I am…watching  my ship sail away without me. Or, what if the operator had a heart attack and no one knew? And I’m stuck going around and around as my ship sails away without me?

 But I threw caution to the wind and paid for my ticket and climbed on. I mean, how often do you get the chance to go on a giant Ferris Wheel and gaze over the Baltic Sea? 

It was worth the worry! I love heights. 

You can see how close the ship is. The building with the curved roof, near the smaller boat is Karl’s. Last night when it rained, the restaurant there was packed. It was perfect for people who wanted to be able to eat a local meal, but didn’t want to go out in the rain.

I had no idea there was a caravan park here, although it is one of Germany’s most popular resorts.

After I got off the wheel, knowing that I was safe from watching my ship sail away without me, I headed back to the town. It is just such a walkable place. 

Mermaids for sale!

So many choices to add to your frozen yogurt or gelato.

A statue is someone’s front yard. 

Private homes. No yards to mow. Perfect. There didn’t seem to be back allys, so I don’t know where they park. A lot of people ride bicycles, but there must be car owners. Maybe a car park somewhere?

A little pub in the middle of the street.

These trees with red berries were all over the place. It felt like Christmas to see them.

And yet another coffee. I spotted this place yesterday (thus the rain on the street) and I wanted to have a coffee there, it was just so cute.

Mission accomplished.

And yes, this is my new favourite place. 

Well. Back to my ship. Dinner tonight will be in the buffet, I think it is a Mexican theme, although there are choices for everyone if you don’t care for Mexican. 

The entertainment was the crew talent show, and some of them are quite extraordinarily talented, the singers in particular, and some are….not…

But it was fun, and all to the credit to them for being brave enough to go in front of us. They all got resounding amounts of applause.

Tomorrow is a sea day, maybe a “sleep-in” day.