May '18 - Viking Cruise part 2: Germany to Sweden

Yesterday I posted part 1 - Norway to Denmark, click here for that post if you missed it. The rest of the cruise took us from Germany to Sweden:

Dave and I didn't go into Berlin (the 6 hour train ride stopped us) but went to Rostock, Germany instead - well technically we went to Rostock, in actuality we rode the train there but the tickets and the stops were all in German and we never figured out where to get off the train! We rode to the end of the line and back without getting out, duh! Walked around the little town of Warnemunde where the ship was docked,  had lunch sitting outside in the sunshine (again with the sunshine! still in a heat wave). 

In Warnemunde, after catching the train to nowhere, I mean to Rostock, Germany

I got to eat pierogi in Gdansk, Poland (I have to say I was a bit disappointed, I guess I'm used to the Michigan version of pierogi which I love); on a plus note we had the best ice cream there - it was thick and creamy, not overly sweet - sort of like frozen yogurt but better;

walked around Tallinn, Estonia and had a delicious sausage and potato lunch outside (yep, in the sunshine!) 

St. Petersburg was beautiful - we went to the Hermitage, cruised thru the canals, and toured the city;

 

Helsinki, Finland was a short stop but we were able to walk around and found an outdoor market - I'm not sure where they were grown but I could smell the strawberries before I saw them at one of the fruit stands, another vendor was stir-frying little fishes and potatoes (I still wish I would have tried the potatoes - not the fish!), they had a flower display on one street that was maybe a contest or something - it reminded me of a mini Rose Parade, the flowers were designed to look like animals, dresses, one was a shoe "tree" - what a fun thing to find! Oh, and we had lunch at a little cafe on the sidewalk - in the sunshine...

Last 2 days were in Stockholm - cruising into the port was the most beautiful landscape! The first day we went to the Vasa Museum where they have an almost perfect and complete Viking Ship that sunk in the harbor 20 minutes after it's maiden voyage, it was submerged for 300 years before someone discovered it. It's been restored using almost all original pieces and it was amazing to see.

amusement park set right on the water

authentic Viking ship at the Vasa Museum 

The second day I'm sorry to say that all I saw was my pillow, I got very very sick that morning and unfortunately stayed in bed the entire day. The rest of the gang got to explore tho and took some great photos, Sweden is beyond beautiful - I loved what I saw.

Our last night on the ship we were talking to Emrah (such a fun, talented, charming bartender - his wife also works on the ship and they were so cute!) and he told us a story about the scariest cruise he on - on their way to Iceland in the North Atlantic and the weather was so rough it blew out windows, people were crashing around hurting themselves, he said it was really bad but he "told the guests if they drank enough they wouldn't notice how rocky the boat was" (always the bartender haha) but then he worried about flying bottles and glass breaking -so he asked his manager if there were any helmets, naturally there's no helmets, so he improvised - here's his solution...yep, he has an ice bucket on his head :)

So there you have it - 14 days boiled down into a couple page of highlights. If you ever get the chance to visit any of these places you won't regret it - this was an amazing, breathtaking, fun trip! And doing it with friends made it even more special - I didn't even highlight the real fun which was all the dancing, card games, shuffleboard tournaments, a bit of drinking, lots of eating, and more laughter than we probably had a right to!! Love these people, loved the cruise. 

Thanks for reading!!