Contrasts of Scandinavia and Russia
Day Four – 26 May 2010
Weather: Sunny, couple clouds, 16C
The sun was up so early that it woke me at 5 am, but didn’t think it was that early. I laid in bed thinking the phone would ring any moment but nothing, so I finally got up to check my watch and jumped back in bed. I’ve never been so excited at the prospect of having two more hours to sleep. Given the sparseness of the room, I sleep quite soundly. Others noted the same thing – that they woke at 5 am and that they slept well.
I woke at 6:45 and got up to check my email and make sure my overnight bag had everything I needed. Breakfast was as sparse as the room and had been picked over by the earlier tour. The croissants and cinnamon rolls were quite good, however.
I went outside to watch our luggage being piled into a van. Diego came out to see if I was waving good-bye to our bags. He explained that it cost a bit but the service to deliver the luggage was worth it given the long walk to the ferry. He finished piling in the last bag, stood back and the driver started to pull away…leaving the side door open.
Well, you want to see a TD run!
He caught up to the van on the corner and the driver got out to close the door. He drove off and Diego came back with a bit of a grin saying something about how funny it was after telling me how much the service cost, to watch the luggage fly out of the side of the van as it made the corner.
Hmmm. What was I saying about the havoc of not having any of the luggage show up?
Our Swedish yellow bus showed up and our blonde Swedish tour guide showed up.
Her name was Osa and she was very good. We started with our included city tour, stopping first at the City Hall. It’s a red brick building made from 8 million bricks and is the location where the Nobel Prizes are awarded.
She brought us into the large room where the awards are given out and explained how they wanted a long walkway along one side of the room to lead to the stairway where the food could be brought down in an elegant style.
Of course, it also meant the kitchen was some distance away and the servers have to move fast to get the food to the table before it got cold.
The king doesn’t like cold food.
After the City Hall, we drove up to a look out where we could get a nice picture of the City Hall from across the water.
The blue skies made a tremendous difference. Then we drove to a higher lookout for another picture opportunity.
‘Short stops’ as Diego calls them.
Then we drove back to the shopping area and dropped off the people not going on the Wasa optional. The optional had two parts. First was a visit to Skansen, a large village that shows life in early Sweden. She gave us a highlight tour, taking us to the school house, labourer’s house, glass blower and bakery (where we could buy the cinnamon rolls or pretzels).
After the short tour, we drove to the Wasa which was a ship built over 300 years ago. The king had wanted to make it as grand as possible and over-ruled the ship-builders to the point that the ship didn’t have enough ballast and was top heavy for the narrow width of the ship. On the day it sailed, there was little wind so it floated a few hundred metres down the river until a gust of wind caught the sails and the ship rolled. Several dozen were killed and the ship sank in 90 feet of water, leaving the mast exposed with the flags showing.
The king promptly had them removed and they decided to “forget” about the ship.
Until the 1950s when it was found and eventually raised to the surface. The ship is in amazing shape. All the sculptures are in pristine condition.
Apparently, the low salt content of the Baltic helped preserve the ship but they fear it may be disintegrating from the sulfur in the wood turning to sulfuric acid after some exposure to humidity and are working to prevent any more degradation.
Optional Opinion: Highly recommend it. Skansen I could take or leave. It’s the same kind of village you find in so many other countries but the Wasa was well worth the visit.
We drove back to the shopping area and were given two hours to shop. We walked down the same pedestrian street I had visited yesterday but went further into the old town. I picked up a couple more t-shirts from the same shop since the quality was so good and the price (around $6) was too good to pass by.
The bus picked everyone up at 3:45 and it was about a 20 minute drive through traffic to get to the ferry. The walk wasn’t as far as I expected and while we could have easily wheeled our luggage that far, getting it down the stairs and into our cabins would have been a bit of a struggle. The elevators are really slow.
The ship is more than the ferry I’m used to. It a cross between a ferry and a cruise ship. The centre walkway is open up for the five decks above it and has shops, restaurants and casinos.
Diego said it was a party boat and sure enough, two of the cabins on my aisle are full of party kids who look far too young to be drinking. One girl is barely wearing enough to cover the basic necessities for being in a public place.
The cabin is just a little larger than the room at the Birger Jarl Hotel. It’s an inside cabin with four beds (two bunks) but they can all fold up against the wall. Since I get this room to myself, only one bed was made up and the other three folded into the wall. I have my own bathroom with (shockingly enough to me) a shower!
Definitely not the ferry I’m used to.
There’s no internet but there are plugs so that I can use my computer.
The ferry left on time around 5 pm and I went up on deck to watch the ship navigate through the archipelago. To me, it was like sailing through the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River. The houses, boats, trees and islands all look just like that.
I spent a couple hours relaxing in my cabin downloading my pictures from my cameras then went up to meet our tour guide for Moscow. His name is Malcolm and he will be taking a group from St. Petersburg to Moscow by coach and will meet us in Moscow with a group of 36 others. He has the whole two days planned from start to finish and I signed up for all the optionals.
From there, we went to the buffet dinner. It was quite the buffet for a ferry, but I shouldn’t be surprised by now. After all, there’s a shower in my room.
I had chicken and beef and a dessert sampler. We all sat in one long table and next to us was a large group of men. After the meal, one or two of them started to sing songs. Then one from our group got up and sang a song.
Then it became a competition. Two of the women on our tour have amazing voices and when the men started joining in, it turned into quite a show. Probably better than the show planned by the ship (which everyone missed).
We didn’t break up till 10 pm. It was still light outside and with the time change, that means it will probably be light well after 11 pm in Helsinki.
Something to be said for an inside cabin.
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