Today was markedly better.

We took the shuttle bus from the port to downtown by the waterfront. From there we followed Rick Steves’s walking tour around the city, starting in Senate Square:

This square also houses the Lutheran cathedral:

From there, we rambled along the Esplanade, which is lined with some of Helsinki’s high-end shops and restaurants:

We then visited the art nouveau train station, which houses the most fabulous Burger King in the world (architecture, not food):

We then checked out some more modern Finnish design, including the famed Aalto’s Finlandia Hall. Emerson also got a chance to play in the nearby park after we ate a snack/lunch of fresh fruit that we’d purchased earlier in the day. 

After taking in a few more sights, we did a bit of shopping, especially appreciating Finland’s design culture (which greatly appeals to my minimalist and geometric tendencies).

We returned to this ship by late afternoon and packed for our early disembarkation tomorrow in Sweden. 

En route to the museum, we witnessed the gruesome aftermath of what we assume to be an accident (car vs. pedestrian). For some reason, the authorities failed to cover the body of the victim, who’d sustained extensive head trauma. While I’ve seen that sort of thing, it came as an unpleasant shock to Libby. Thankfully, Emerson was looking in the opposite direction and didn’t notice the accident. All in all, not a happy start to a tour. 

But, life goes on…

The Hermitage was unsurprisingly crowded with visitors and tour groups:

However, it’s still a spectacular space with amazing art and artifacts. 

This is actually a clock, which moves moves mark time (e.g. the peacock displays its tail, etc.):

The room that contained it was pretty spectacular (though crowded):

More lavish interior:

I really liked this Ribera (not that it’s anywhere near the most famous / important work):

After the museum visit, we were brought to a large shop for Russian trinkets and trash. 

This made it totally worth the visit:

Like the rest of northern Europe, we last visited St. Petersburg for a single day six years ago when Emerson was only a little more than a year old. Due to Russian visa requirements, it’s generally easiest to do a shore execursion arranged by the cruise line. So, we did a brief panorama tour but didn’t really get in to see any major sights–that seemed like the best compromise at the time.

On this trip, we opted instead for two in-depth tours: one of St. Petersburg’s major cathedrals (today) and another of the Hermitage museum (tomorrow). Today’s tour departed around noon for the city center. 

First, we visited the Church of the Spilled Blood. It was built in the neo-Russian style on the site of Alexander II’s assassination. 

The interior is festooned with mosaics. 

Next, we drove to the Peter and Paul Fortress, which is both the birthplace of St. Petersburg and home to the cathedral of the same name. 

Here the interior is festooned with dead Czars and Czarinas.

Last, we visited the neoclassical St. Issac’s Cathedral, which is reported to be the fourth largest in Christendom. 

What’s interesting is that all of these churches, aside from a small chapel at St. Issac’s, function as museums and aren’t used for religious services. 

We returned to the ship around 6:30 for dinner at Ocean Blue, which was rather delectable. Emerson and I especially liked our lemon tart:

One highlight — for lunch, we tried the Margaritaville at Sea, which brings Jimmy Buffet’s restaurant to cruise ships. It was fun with decent food and good “boat drinks.” Clearly, as an open air venue, it would be perfect in the Caribbean, but it was a little out of place in the Baltic on a cool-ish day. No matter — wasting away in Margaritaville is a state of mind. 

We spent a happy morning and lunch in this seaside village. It’s really a very charming place. We strolled about the city, took in the canals and beachfront, and also tried to enjoy as much as Germany has to offer–all in half a day: fresh strawberries, a Berliner (donut), a pretzel stick, fried seafood & chips (mit sauce), dark German beer, and an “eis” treat. 

Wunderbar! Wunderbar! Wunderbar!

Canal view:

The girls at the lighthouse:

Beach:

Charming cottages and shops:

Delightful town:

Cool seafood boats along the canal:

Serving a great lunch:

Happy Libby:

Local dunkel beer (happy Paul):

Of course, NCL couldn’t get the logistics right (again) — making us stand in line to board for well over an hour (surprise — more irate guests!).

Speaking of which, I didn’t want to waste another day at sea, and I’ve just grown tired of these morons. Sooo… I made a game time decision to abandon the cruise at our last port of Stockholm (actually a port an hour outside of Stockholm–they changed it shortly before we left for the trip!). 

So, I booked us two nights of hotel rooms and train tickets back to Copenhagen. That’ll give us a full extra day (really day and a half) in Stockholm. Why? I value my time more than I value a few dollars. So this 9-night round trip cruise is becoming a 7-night one way journey. And, I’m once again at peace, even if we’re missing Estonia. 

Happily back aboard the Norwegian Getaway:

Afternoon update:

We’re still sailing around in circles with no hope to dock anytime soon. I have taken to watching French movies with subtitles. All hope is lost. 

Evening update:

During dinner, the captain informed us that we wouldn’t be docking at all today. Instead, our official arrival has been pushed until tomorrow for a shortened visit (so folks wanting to go to Berlin still cannot). That means we’ll also now miss our visit to Tallin, Estonia — the only new country on this trip for Emerson, Libby, and me. 

Why didn’t we just skip Germany altogether? Well, we couldn’t because it’s an alternative port of embarkation / disembarkation for NCL, as well as where we’re picking up our food for the rest of the cruise. So, basically, the vast majority of paying passengers get screwed because of weather and (more specifically) to accommodate NCL’s logistical needs. 

What is NCL going to do about it? Nada, it seems. 

On top of that, we returned from dinner to learn our second day’s execursions in St. Petersburg have been cancelled. Now pissed off to the point of not seeing straight, I went down to the (closed) shore execursion desk where I proceeded to bitch loudly at staff until they grudgingly fetched me the ShoreEx manager. He thankfully was helpful and rebooked everything in Russia, but really they ought to have had more than banker’s hours given the volume of people with issues on this ship at this point. 

So, in summary, Admiral Paul sends the captain (and really all of NCL) greetings and suggestions on how to dock this ship in his (their) derrière. 

Note: I’m posting this from Germany on Wednesday morning. Due to being back at sea early today, all day tomorrow, and then in Russia for two days — expect no further updates from me until Sunday. 

Got photos working in Germany on 4/14.

We more or less retraced our route back to the hotel, stopping in a few shops along the way. The stretch of the Stroget close to Nyhavn is populated with the shops of international, high-end, luxury brands. Toward the City Hall, the retailers seem to be a bit more local, as well as targeting the tourist trade. This included a pretty awesome Lego store, which pleased Emerson greatly. 

We checked out of the hotel a little after 11am and took a taxi to the ship, the Norwegian Getaway. 

We spent the remainder of the day doing what one does on the first day of cruise: check-in, having lunch, exploring the ship, making plans (dining reservations and shore excursions), muster drill, etc. 

Now we faced a dilemma. We could return to the Rome airport and get a car there… this would waste 3-4 hours in terms of travel/transfer time and mean we’d only have time to spend the day driving to our hotel in Arezzo rather than sightseeing. Or, we could scrap the rental car idea (and San Marino) and just get a hotel in Rome.

Realistically, with the delayed start, I knew that the driving made far less sense, as we’d have two days with a lot of “car hours” for only a day or so of sightseeing. Just staying in Rome clearly made sense. Nonetheless, I was rather frustrated at the thought of having made plans that would now have to be undone and would ultimately be more of a hassle than had we just stayed in Rome from the start (as we’d originally considered).

Oh well. I’m nothing if not resourceful.

On my iPhone (thanks AT&T for the $60 data international data plan!), I found a good deal on Hotels.com for a five-star hotel on the Via Veneto called the Hotel Majestic, a few blocks from the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps. It wasn’t a Marriott or Starwoods property (I checked them first because I hate not getting points), but the price ($250/nt.), location, and reviews were very good.

As for getting to Rome, since we were already halfway to the train station in Civitavecchia, I saved the 150 euro cab fare and spent 25 for train tickets to Roma Termini. From there, we took a short taxi ride to the hotel. Aside from schlepping some heavy luggage, it was a relatively pain-free transfer.

In the end, the cost differential given a high car rental rate made the swap more-or-less a wash economically.

We spent the afternoon strolling around central Rome doing a variety of walks provided by Rick Steves’s guidebooks. We took in all of the famous sights: the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, and any number of greater and lesser churches. We had a good time…

For dinner, we ate at a sidewalk cafe near our hotel. Unfortunately, Emerson started to feel poorly and threw up after we returned to our hotel room. So, it seems that she was suffering from whatever I had the night before.

All in all, not the best of days…

In contrast, Luigi agreed to take us to the station, seemed like a nice enough fellow, and offered us a deal (80 euro) on the private trip — 10 euros below the government rate. This would save time (at least an hour… maybe up to two) and only cost 30 euros or so more than the taxi/train option. So, Luigi become our driver for the morning, and we set off to a soundtrack of 70s slow jams.

We arrived at Pompeii a bit before 9am and agreed that we’d meet Luigi at 11:15. For a guy that’s always so-so on touring antiquity, I have to admit that the scale of Pompeii was impressive. It also required far less effort than other sites to imagine what ancient Pompeii looked like as it had been. That said, it was still sort of “meh” for me. Two things did strike me:

First, I was disappointed by the overall lack of graffiti. As a teenager, stories of Pompeii’s graffiti were one of the few time I wasn’t bored in Latin class. In hindsight, it seems my imagination overran the facts at Mr. Peet’s innuendos.

Second, without a doubt, I was struck by the casts of humans in the forms as they had perished. While crude forms of people, these objects carried so much humanity. You could almost sense their mental state of what had to be terror and panic or perhaps, in some cases, resignation. This was the only part of Pompeii that was truly “alive” to me.

We returned to Naples and explored a little of it on foot, as the ship docks right at the foot of the historic city center. We then found a restaurant and grabbed some pizza, which ironically wasn’t the best of our trip (though I blame the pizzeria, clearly not Napoli). Afterwards, I picked up some sfogliatella for everyone to enjoy back aboard the ship, which were crispier than I expected but not as beloved by me as the prior day’s cannoli.

After lunch, we returned to the ship to pack, while Emerson went to Splash Academy for the afternoon. At some point in the afternoon, I started to feel, well, bad… very lethargic. Packing was a struggle. By evening, I’d lost all of my appetite, and I developed a fever by the time I feel asleep (or passed out) around 8pm. I had a fitful night, but at some point my fever broke. By the next morning, I was more-or-less ok again, just a bit fatigued.

Now, on to Tunisia…

Not knowing exactly what to expect, we opted for an organized shore excursion. Most were variations on similar themes, but we picked one that visited the remains of Carthage and a village called Sidi Bou Said.

The area that was ancient Carthage is now mostly buried under a fairly upscale suburb of Tunis. What’s more, much of it (especially after the Punic period) was hauled away and reused to build later settlements. As a result, the sights are relatively modest in scale and scope, though the Roman baths and water reservoirs were relatively impressive. The baths were also situated ideally overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

Sidi Bou Said is a picturesque village located on a hillside along the coast of the Mediterranean. While it doesn’t have any individually “must see” sights, the town itself is generally a pleasure to experience. Although, I suspect some may be turned off by the somewhat aggressive street vendors hawking their wares (they’re more pushy than those in say the Caribbean, but far less so than the “gold medalists of touting” found in Egypt).

Overall, we liked Tunisia. It was a better experience than Egypt; less enjoyable than the UAE and Oman. But, I’d certainly return there again… I’ll be interested in seeing how their fledgling “true democracy” grows in the coming years. I hope it works out well for them.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Tunisia)