The great anniversary trip!

Day started badly...didn’t hear the announcement that we’d arrived in Moscow so were so late off the train that we incurred the wrath of our compartment attendant and ALL of the glowering attendants of the other compartments( about 15 of them standing to attention beside their compartment doors) as we made the walk of shame along the long, long platform to where our driver was anxiously waiting for us.

Long train!

Metro

Partisan memorial Metro

Red Square

Grand Express

The St Petersburg ferry is part Italian run/ managed(!) so I had an excellent pizza for my meal...which seemed weird but breakfast was far more Nordic with loads of fish on offer...which delighted Keith but I avoided like the plague. We docked and disembarked at St.Petersburg and after considerable stamping of papers by the serious looking Russian officials, we met our lovely guide for the day, Helena. We were the only ones on for this tour so we had her and the car with driver to ourselves for the day which was great. Dear reader...if I tell you my mock Fitbit told me we’d done more than 8 miles by bedtime, you’ll get some idea how intense it was. In the day we covered the Egyptian stuff, St. Isaacs Cathedral, the Square in front of the Winter Palace as the weather was great and fewer crowds than on our scheduled day of Sunday, the Peter and Paul fortress and the the Catherine Palace at Pushkin for the Amber room!! Plus some shopping and things being pointed out too numerous to mention.

Winter Palace

Catherine Palace

What a lovely hotel Motel L was in Stockholm! We had a great walk in its environs then relaxed in their lounge using the Wi-Fi and free coffee until a taxi took us to the Viking line terminal. The cruise/ferry ship was great...a proper bed and plenty of space in the cabin. Heading out through the islands was wonderful...they look so lovely particularly in an evening mist...definitely colder ( hooray, I have the right clothes at last!).

We went to eat on board and I chose a veal chop with fries imagining something like a schnitzel...I hate to think how big the parents were if the chop was part of a young animal...I’ve cooked roasts that were smaller! However, it was really beautiful and I managed most of it. I will be careful in future if I meet Swedish ( or Finnish) cows! Our waitress was a lovely Finn with perfect English that she taught herself by getting hold of the lyrics from her favourite artist and translating...favourite artist = Eminem!!
The crossing was so calm, the ship hardly seemed to move and after a fabulous breakfast, we arrived in Helsinki. We took a taxi to the other ferry terminal and left our bags then went off to explore Helsinki on foot. I really like Helsinki and its Art Deco buildings are wonderful! The central station both inside and out is really marvellous..loved it. Sadly as we hoofed back to the ferry ( we only did 6+ miles today instead of 7+ in Copenhagen), the heavens opened and we got pretty much soaked by the time we reached the ferry. The St.Petersburg cruise/ferry accommodation is not as luxurious as last nights...much more like a Calmac cabin...but more entertainment on board...and hopefully the food will be more of a normal size!

Again glorious warm weather...far too hot for autumn attire. I seemed to be full of a cold since yesterday afternoon...but it could have been too much air conditioning on trains. However we walked a lot ( and in my case, sneezed a lot) around central Copenhagen which is lovely. Our hotel (WakeupCopenhagen) was near the water so we followed the road beside the water until we got to some of the smaller waterways which lead to the old government buildings and the royal palace

Copenhagen view

and then on to see Tivoli. We didn’t have enough time to go in and explore the gardens...and I’m far too chicken to have done any of the rides particularly those that go high then plummet rather quickly! However it was gearing up to Hallowe’en there so the entrance was adorned with pumpkins, broomstick etc which was rather fun.

Halloween at Tivoli

Then it was time for the long train trip to Stockholm. THE TRAIN WAS ON TIME! From the time and comfort, the train was great however, they didn’t have enough food in their buffet for all on the train..,so by the time we went, the cupboard was bare. However, when we arrived after 2140 in Stockholm, we managed to grab a takeaway burger from a place near the station just before he closed at 2200. Every other station we’ve been at quite late has been teeming with eateries, Stockholm station didn’t seem to have many...and those there were were closed. However, we ate, found a taxi and came out to a rather lovely hotel ( called Motel L although certainly not a motel) which is a bit too far out to make it worth going in to sightsee. By this time, my cold/ cough seemed worse than ever -probably 5+ hours in the train didn’t help - but thankfully, I managed a good sleep and the worse seems to be over now and I can stop leaving a trail of used tissues over Scandinavia!

Glorious sunshine - so too hot for the clothes we’ve brought, but after a great buffet breakfast we had a couple of hours to walk it off, so after a very brief look at the dodgier side of Hamburg, I worked out where the posh shops would be and in finding them we also found the lovely Town Hall (Rathaus).

Rathaus

Train on ferry