I know you want to see what Gothenburg looks like. As you know, the weather was dull and disappointing, and we weren’t very impressed, but having looked online I think it’s probably a much nicer and more interesting place than we thought. I think we could spend four or five days here in summer, and think very differently. There are some lovely shops, think Ikea but a long way upmarket! Nothing really interesting happened to write about, except for the scrum to get on the shuttle bus back to the ship. I don’t know what happened to the great British art of queuing, but it wasn’t around. There were also these guys getting in the fountain with the naked god, which shows you the actual weather. I have cheered up the rest of the photos as much as I could.

Luckily, all the other ports were beautifully sunny, except Tallinn which was so bad we didn’t get off the ship. Next stop – Stockholm.

We were up for sunrise for this, as you can see. The word “archipelago” had been bandied around the ship, I think we all wanted everyone to know that not only did we know this big word, we also knew what it meant. So, not only that, we also know what one looks like. Marlborough Sounds anyone?

No wonder Ikea have blue and yellow for their colours, Sweden is blue and yellow.

All the water you see is the sea. Stockholm is built on 14 islands.

The City Hall is the location of the Nobel Banquet. Although Stockholm obviously has a lot of bridges to join all those islands together, they are surprisingly plain, when the buildings are so ornate.

We could definitely spend a week in Stockholm, there is a lot to see. I have another 95 pics of Stockholm to process, and that will take a while, so I’m moving on…

Next stop was Tallin, let’s remind ourselves why we didn’t bother getting off the ship.

Rain all day long, and 5 or 6 ships in port. Those who ventured into the town said it was hellish.

Next, the highlight of our cruise, St Petersburg. We booked a two day tour with a company called Alla. It was called a Comfort Tour, and we were only thankful that we hadn’t booked a full on tour, as even this seemed rather quick! It was fascinating, our guide, Slava, was brilliant, really interesting and very good English. We were in a mini bus, with just 12 of us, so much better than going with a whole coach load, as we did in Berlin. We were very lucky to get two full days of sunshine. Apparently in a normal year, St Petersburg gets only 60 days of sunshine. This year, they have had 100.

St Petersburg was the only port where we needed to get currency, and that was to give a tip to the guide and the bus driver. The ATM at the cruise terminal was broken, so we asked Slava where we would find one, and thinking we would be fine as we were going to be in Nevsky Prospect, the main thoroughfare of the city. He had to think hard, and finally remembered there was one in a particular hotel. So, ATM’s are not common in Russia, it seems.

You would normally need a visa for Russia, but if you are on a cruise ship and take a tour with a registered company, you can go under a group visa. This means you have to stay with your group, and can’t wander around, which feels a bit strange, but still, easier than getting your own visa.

Should have some photos ready in a couple of days!

I think there were seven ships in port, so it was crowded, but it is a big place so not too bad.

We’d read warnings about how it could take ages to get through customs, but it didn’t, so we had an hour to fill in the terminal shop. Didn’t buy anything! Our guide arrived on time and this was our first stop. It was very exciting to be in Russia, but surprisingly normal. There weren’t uniforms around as there were when we went to Beijing.

There were less of these onion dome churches than we expected, and most of them seemed to be covered in scaffolding.

After a drive around the city, we went for a ride on the underground, which seems to be a thing. It is very deep, and these escalators seem to go on forever.

Honestly, I would have thought it was a lot deeper! Anyway, they have these mosaics all over the place.

The Hermitage turns out to be four palaces joined together. We didn’t go in on the first day, this was just a little look. Remember, we had to stay with our guide all the time – no wandering off.

Russian scaffolding!

Awesome, is it not?

Next, it was time for our drive out to Peterhof Palace, which took about an hour. Before going in, we had lunch…

Obviously a wedding venue. We had four courses, and I actually had to leave some of my pudding.

Russian salad.

Chicken. Forgot to photograph the rest of it.

Peterhof Palace is famous for its fountains, and there were lots! Had a wonderful time wandering around.

Before going into the palace, you have to put on these overshoes to protect the parquet floors!

The interior was quite hard to photograph, thousands of people, poor light, etc, but you get the idea. It’s supposed to be a mini Versailles, and I found myself thinking over and over, no wonder they had a revolution. I ask myself, will superyachts be tourist attractions in the future?

A few more Peterhof Palace…

The Peterhof Grand Palace and Fountain Gardens, to give it its full name, was built by Tsar Peter the Great, in the early 18th century. After he died, it wasn’t much used, and along with all other palaces was immediately nationalised in 1917, after the Russian revolution. It was captured in 1941 by the invading German army, and suffered great destruction and the loss of many thousands of its treasures. St Petersburg itself was under siege for 872 days, and more than 1,000,000 people lost their lives. The Germans were stopped 15 miles from the city, so anything within that 15 miles was preserved.

It’s interesting, the cycle of history. The rich get too rich, grabbing everything for themselves (maybe like now?) so the peasants revolt, kill them and grab the palaces. Then war comes, the palaces get damaged, everyone is upset. The palaces get restored, at great expense to the tax payer (the peasants).

That was the end of the first day, so back to the ship for dinner and sleep! And then I suppose, a cruise ship is a poor man’s superyacht!

I wonder how many Russian cities have got a cruise terminal?

Second day of our tour, and we’re going to the Hermitage this morning, not somewhere I ever expected to go. If you’d asked me, I’d probably have guessed it was in Moscow!

A few shots from the Hermitage, which thankfully was lighter that the Peterhof, so easier to photograph.

Lovely floors again, but this time no overshoes.

Another of those “no wonder” places…

We just saw a couple, but there are more palaces. Many more! Colin thinks they should not be restored, as the money could be better better spent elsewhere. Just left to rot away. I think that would be a shame, what do you think?

Another lunch venue. I don’t remember it being this purple!

Here we see the Church on the Spilled Blood in its setting. Would have liked to get closer, but couldn’t leave our group, and it’s nice to see what the city actually looks like!

A quick visit to a church which is still a church, not a museum.

In the afternoon, we had our boat tour.

A few shots from the boat:-

You get on the boat on the canal, then go out through one of those tunnels you can see, to the river.

Just a quick look at the outside. Honestly, I wouldn’t have wanted to fit in any more, what we saw filled the two days nicely.

Next stop, Helsinki.

Helsinki suffered a bit from going there the day after St Petersburg. Hard to compete!

One thing they do seem to have is amazing public transport. Never seen so many trams and buses.

And lots of bikes for hire!

Yes, it was so interesting, we took lots of pics of trams, buses, and bikes!

Helsinki cathedral.

I wouldn’t mind going again, but I’d want to go in the middle of summer. Apparently, we were lucky with the weather, so a Finnish woman told us!

Next stop, Berlin. Our tour guide was excellent, and Berlin has a very interesting history, but suffered a lot of damage in the war. The buildings put up since then aren’t very attractive, lots of concrete. And LOTS of tourists! We took the ship’s tour for Berlin, took three hours to get there, then had about 5-6 hours in the city. We drove past Hitler’s bunker, which is just a car park, not even tarmac, just dirt and a few trees. Apparently they found the bunker, which was in the east, after the Wall came down, and could have opened it to tourism, but decided not to, as it could have become a shrine for the misguided.

Imagine paying for a week in Berlin, then getting there and finding that both the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag were setting up for an event and covered in barriers and you couldn’t get near them. Plus big grey stormy skies! Looking at what’s available, I can’t see this ever selling. Still, enjoyed seeing it at last.

Our tour guide recommended this for its toilets! And very nice too.

There are quite a few preserved bits of the wall, but only had time for this one.

Yes, we had lunch at McDonalds Checkpoint Charlie. Those soldiers are actors, you have to pay to have your photo taken with them. And take your own photos! I was surprised to find it’s in the middle of a busy road junction!

Of course it tasted the same as everywhere else.

We also saw a beer bike, very popular for stag nights. Worth Googling if you haven’t seen one.

I thought we might not bother going to Berlin again, but having looked around at what else is there, I think it would be worth a few days, if we ever have time! I love going on a tour, because you learn so much, but I don’t like being stuck in a group. We did have 2 1/2 hours on our own, and luckily the sun came out!

Next, Copenhagen, a really beautiful city.

Just a few from Copenhagen. You would love it!

It has 18 decks and takes nearly 4000 passengers. It couldn’t go to Warnemunde (port for Berlin) due to rough seas, they had to stay in Copenhagen. However, Copenhagen is nice enough for more than one day!

She is very small!

You can’t blame Princess Mary for swapping Sydney for this, I suppose!

You can see Colin on the right. He loves his cars!

Has Chch got one of these yet? Every other city seems to have. Some cities have had to remove them, as the weight was destroying the bridge!

Didn’t have time for a canal cruise, would have liked to.

It’s very photogenic!

Only one port left now, Bruges, maybe the prettiest of the lot.

Just a few from Bruges. You already know about the chocolate!

I must admit I am not always overly impressed with artworks, but this one I get. Very topical.

The sound of Bruges is horses clip-clopping around the city, and took loads of photos, but this is the only decent one. We need more practice!

So that was the cruise. We enjoyed it, and took a lot of photos. It’s an easy way to see a lot of places in a short space of time, although cruising itself isn’t very exciting. I enjoyed our trip to Cornwall in the caravan more. That hasn’t stopped us booking another for next year! As for Bruges, it will be easy to go and spend a week there, and I think Colin can be tempted, especially when I tell him they have a permanent Dali exhibition! And they have a caravan site too!