Paris to Dubai

Final morning in Paris, we packed ready for flying then went out for a wander to pass the time. We went to a part of the Marais area with lots of food shops - breads, meats, cheeses, sweets etc. Then we wandered down to the quite odd Forum des Halles shopping centre, which as well being largely underground is currently a labyrinth of rebuilding. Apparently there is a large number of shops in there somewhere. Then it was back to the apartment to face the combination of logic puzzle and strain test that would be getting our luggage back down a very small spiral staircase. We managed it, but I badly strained a tendon in one hand. Then the boring bits of travel: taxi to airport, long flight to Dubai. How to pass a six hour flight: step 1, listen to a four hour opera (Cecilia Bartoli in Norma by Bellini) while eye-grazing four other passengers screens showing movies I'll never watch myself; step 2, watch a 2 hour Japanese action rom-com movie (Library Wars, which yes, is about militant librarians defending their books, and every library should have a copy). Take one's own noise isolation/cancellation earpieces with plane socket adapter. On arrival in Dubai we took a taxi to the apartment where our gracious host had waited up for us (2am local time). By then jetlagged and glad to have no set times for the morrow, we crashed into bed.

Paris Day 5 Pompidou & Louvre

We walked to the Pompidou Centre and after going to the top level discovered that the exhibits there are not covered by the Paris museum pass. This was not an issue really as we were there to see their main collection anyway, just once again signage in French galleries is less than clear. The free galleries are two floors of modern art - from 1905 onwards. I liked that it's all in chronological order - as it meant I could mentally doze off once we got to the abstract art of the 1940s. Once again this was a case where for quite a few artworks that I've known for a long time I was finally seeing them first hand. The Pompidou clearly rotates their collection a lot, with only a few rooms devoted to surrealism the display had too few of my favorite artists to be believable. For example there wasn't a single painting by Yves Tanguay that I would say showed his real quality (visions of an infinite field). I guess the payoff is that locals will over time get to see more of it - and I can't begrudge them for doing that. We had lunch at the nearby Cafe Beaubourg. A curiosity was that the waiters were dressed very formally but the waitresses not. From there we went back to the apartment for a rest before our next sally. And fittingly, for the finale gallery-wise we spent the late afternoon and evening at the Musee du Louvre. We took the subway to be foot-ready for the gallery. Or museum passes let us bypass the queue of people getting tickets. It is impossible to do it all of course, so we settled for a full sweep through their Egyptian holdings and then took stabs at several other areas. I was pleased to get some surprises as well as see some familiar works being either mobbed or ignored by the throng. Also, it was as I had hoped, a chance to see art and artists that we don't get to know about in our home galleries. Alas there are too many of these and time is too short to pause in the gallery to make notes. From memory, two unfamiliar artists that were well represented with interesting works were Derain and Maillot. We also saw a lot more sculptural works by Degas than I knew existed. Of course, like the Hermitage in St Petersburg, this is a former palace, so in many spaces there is as much to marvel at in looking up and around at the walls and ceilings as there is at the art thus framed. In one particular long room, which now holds many portraits of artists, the degree of magnificence makes it hard to understand what King Louix XIV thought was so deficient about this palace that he had to build Versailles. Other areas of the Louvre are inherently modern and practical but these don't seem to clash. The covered inner courtyards that are now sculpture galleries had a relaxing open, spacious feeling. Depending where you go there are either voids or crushes of people. The oddest of these is of course at the Mona Lisa. It was probably more civilised than I was expecting but still had a crush of people about 8 persons thick around the third semi-circular barrier that guards it. Staff were opening the rope barrier to let people out (from the front in effect) so they wouldn't have to work their way back through the crush. It was like a paparazzi pack, all cameras, phones and tablets raised in the air rather than a bunch of people using their own eyes to view this famous painting directly. Do they not get the irony of seeing it through a device despite getting so close? I held back at a distance, luckily it's placed high enough that I could see it directly from a few paces behind the crush. I've seen enough detail explorations of it anyway. I know what I think of art - I only get confused about what most people think about it. At least no-one was being able to do the "here I am in front of the Mona Lisa" photos. It would be interesting to know which paintings get all the attention. In a large room of paintings by David, it was Napoleon crowning Josephine that had a crowd. Nearby my interest was caught by a painting of his that is referenced in a series of Magritte works. I think we were running out of puff just before they started announcing that closing time was approaching. We opted to walk back home through a pleasant Paris evening.

Paris Day 4 Notre Dame

We walked to Notre Dame cathedral, going first into their new Crypt archaeological display. This reminded me a bit of the one we saw at Bath in England. That is, an example of a place finding and showing its roots as a Roman settlement - all from fragments of stones reworked and reused over the centuries. Quite a jigsaw puzzle. Then we went into the cathedral itself. While it looks like a mess of flying buttresses on the outside, inside it is simply spacious. The upper vaults are so high that the stained glass designs there are lost in the distance. In other respects it's quite modest, with very few noble entombments cluttering the side chapels. We walked up to the Musee d'Orsay and went straight to level 5 for lunch. Going through the galleries we played spot the familiar painting - not just because some are mega-famous but because we saw them when they were loaned to the NGA in Canberra a few years ago. I was keen to check out some artists whose work I have liked but seen little of. For two of these - Moreau and Courbet seeing more was disappointing. Oh well. On the other hand, some of the Bouguereau was interestingly different to the ones that make it into printed annual calendars. Oh, they also had lots of Van Gogh, Matisse, Gauguin, Manet, Renoir etc that people were crowding around. We also saw so many Rodin sculptures there it seemed superfluous to go out to the Rodin museum so we decided to just stay at the d'Orsay a bit longer before taking the Metro back to the apartment. For the evening we went back to Sainte Chapelle for a violin+harpsichord concert. First time I've heard Bach and Vivaldi played in a building older than the music! Quite something to watch the outside daylight fading through the high walls of stained glass. Performance was itself stunning - violinist Paul Rouger soaring and crunching through a chaconne by Vitali with virtuoso form. We felt compelled to buy the CD of him performing it, and were embarrassed to be a couple of Euros short of the set price. He magnanimously waived the difference as no issue.

Paris Day 3 Walk about

We started the day by walking down to The Conciergerie. This building has a long history being an early palace but later became an infamous prison. As a tourist feature the focus is on the first French revolution and its prisoner Marie Antoinette. For a now clean and neat place it was still a grim visit. Adjacent buildings are still part of the justice system. Inside the walls of one of these is Sainte Chapelle, a very early yet ornate gothic church. Hence to reach it we had to go through a police run security scanner just as if we were visiting the courts. For an older design it had a decayed elegance not seen in the later styles. There were adverts for concerts during the weeks, which we noted. Then we walked along the Left Bank, going past the booksellers who use large green folding storage boxes perched on the river edging. We crossed the river and went into the Jardin du Carrousel (gardens). Next was the Musee National de L'Orangerie, famous largely as the place where there are two oval rooms of Monet murals. Next we crossed the Place de la Concorde, now a simple space in the middle of a roundabout but this was where thousands were guillotined during the turmoil of the revolution. Then we walked up the Champes Elysee. At first this is just an extension of the gardens with seats and small kiosks selling foods and drinks. Then abruptly it becomes a modern strip of upmarket brand labels and remains so all the way to the Arc de Triomphe. At the Arc, while Lee took the lift to the top I was treated to a brief French military dedication at the eternal flame (the Arc has France's tomb of the unknown soldier). We decided to walk from the Arc to the Eiffel Tower, which was simple once we'd identified the right road. Nearer the tower was unsurprisingly busy with tourists. We took some photos and walked back over the river to the Trocadero, which is clearly an excellent shot to take photos including the tower. We did the whole day on foot - perhaps to get the queueing mode out of our legs - but that was enough so we took a Metro ride home.

Paris Day 2 Versailles

Where do I begin? To tell the story of the longest most tiring, strenuous and tedious day of tourism that I've ever known. Though I should preface the above by saying it was well worth it and Versailles remains a must see feature. But let me put the pain to bed while I'm still feeling it now that I'm back in our apartment with my feet up and a cool breeze wafting through. The queuing to get in was a matter of standing in the sun on hard cobblestones for 90 minutes. This was much worse than we expected, which meant that we weren't as prepared as we might have been. The catch-22 involved here is that I carried enough water for us to cope, which meant standing/shuffling up and down the snaked line bearing the weight of the water and our other survival paraphernalia. All the while rotating and rearranging hats and bags to keep things out of the sun. While that was the worst of it, for the rest of the day we had very few places to sit and rest. We even had to stand to eat/drink from the internal cafe. Rant over, I'm glad we went and just a little chastened that I'm getting old enough that doing these things can hurt quite a lot. We got to Versailles by taking a Metro subway train to Montparnasse and then buying return tickets on a suburban train to Versailles Chantiers. From there we walked for 15 minutes through the town of Versailles before seeing our doom in the huge queue to get through security scanning. At least we hadn't needed to first queue for tickets. Once inside, perhaps because of the pace of the scanning, there was no crowding although Lee did immediately have to queue for a toilet. The way it works at Versailles is that you enter through the Chateau (Palace really). This directs you through a sequence of rooms, there are toilets, a cafe, a restaurant and two shops. You can leave the room sequence in several places to go out to the gardens. The chateau is much like similar royal palaces/apartments around Europe but with a few twists. Some parts are simply bigger/better, e.g. the famed Hall of Mirrors. Others had interrupted histories because of the Revolutions plural and restoration of the monarchy. Some spaces had been overtaken by Napoleons (I & III). As I've written before, being able to see and compare these across Europe has been the unexpected payoff of this holiday. While the palace is itself the feature, it became a museum since the revolution so there is a lot of art about too. So, once again we were able to see works of artists who we don't see in art history books. Ditto for avenues of busts of writers, artists, composers etc and see which were enough noted in the past, all lined up and some familiar and many not. After walking through the chateau we queued with quite some patience, in the sun again, for a very bumpy little pseudo-train to take us to two auxiliary buildings - the Grand Trianon and the Petit Trianon. Like lesser palaces these still had elements of grandeur but had open vistas and the feel of seaside villas, albeit with no beach, just more sculptured gardens. At this point we were very tired and after queuing again for the return little train ride we didn't have the energy to stop at The Grand Canal. This was clearly very popular and being outside the central gardens is available to all, much like Kings Park or the Domain. The mini train is ticket controlled and was thus able to get us back in the grounds. I suspect that if we hadn't had to queue so much then we would have managed to walk more of the main gardens and its fountains. Timing was an issue for that as they block it off for separately ticketed water fountain shows. It had been blocked as we waited for the train. Thus, this is what we lost from being in the long entry queue. But as we were too exhausted we just walked out the gates and headed off through Versailles town for the train station. We had left the apartment at 8:45 and were back at 18:30.

Paris Day 1 Boat and About

We started with a river cruise up and down the Seine. For this we walked from the apartment down to the river and then tried to dash as we felt we might be running late for the timed ticket that we had. Proof that judging walking times is a tourist's peril. The tour was fairly simple, along the river to the Eiffel Tower, then back past our origin to go around the island in the river that has the Notre Dame cathedral. Using binoculars on the famous metal tower was more effective than I expected. Such a boat trip is inherently about going under bridges, so almost all were named and described for us. What I hadn't realised until the second pass is that what I assumed was gold decorations on some bridges was a bazillion padlocks that had been left locked to the gratings. Apparently the tradition is for lovers to affix a lock and throw the keys into the river. After the boat tour we walked along the right bank, which was made up as a beach for people, esp children who hadn't left (Paris) for the summer. Thus we made our way, mostly back the way we had come, heading for the Musee Carnavalet. Somewhat hungry we found another excellent Chinese restaurant. Good prices and it was funny that while we were able to choose dishes by sight more than with English, some French speakers who came in after seemed to need more guidance (might be my mistake as I didn't understand a word). The Musee Carnavalet almost defies description but is run by the City of Paris and has a sometimes bizarre assortment of art, furniture, curios and historical gems. For example, kept under blinds were personal artifacts of Marie Antoinette. There were also entire reconstructed rooms in various period styles, frequently with authentic matching (if sometimes decayed) furniture. It's hard to call it must-see but I can't easily imagine having not seen it. As some staff were on lunch breaks whole sections had been closed off for an hour. Next we headed to the Metro to zip over to Le Palais Garnier (National Opera/Ballet), where we paid for a guided tour. Our guide was quite fun in a grumpy way but had to contend with a very loud busker nearby (singing a Leonard Cohen song in French). Like so many things in Paris the opera house has a mixed history being built before, through and after the Revolution. Even so, the key word is lavish although with many a theatrical stage painting technique. Our guide was keen to point out the fake bits. A particular feature is the theatre space ceiling, where an original but smoke stained painting has been covered by a modern painting by Marc Chagall. It's mostly used for ballet now as the national opera prefers a larger capacity venue. Then we walked all the way to Montmartre to see the Sacre-Coeur basilica. Another choice that looked easier on the map than it proved to be. Certainly I had under-estimated the size of the hill. However, it did mean that we walked through Montmartre, which is clearly a little bit hipster just as its reputation has it. As we neared the church we saw a few people using a clearly dodgy practice to distract tourists - classic pickpocket technique. Needless to say we avoided them. Every church is in many ways just another church and few are really alike - I can't now recall if Lee was taking photos, or whether it was allowed in this one. Back on the street in front of the church is a very good view of half of central Paris. The quality of the view and our tiredness from the hill climb gave us the excuse to drop the plan to take the Metro down to Montparnasse where there is a tall building with 360 degree views. Instead we hopped off the train near our apartment.

London to Paris

We took a minicab to get to St Pancras station, having figured that getting to and through the tube with suitcases would be torture. For 20 pounds the driver clearly knew the side streets to use to avoid traffic. St Pancras is an oddity, a modernised old station that is partly like an airport as it has international handling. The Eurostar waiting lounge makes airports look good by comparison. I think they forgot to allow for the fact that unlike an airport our luggage was still with us. Then we caught the Eurostar express train. This was far less modern than I had expected. No Wi-Fi, no charging points for phones, no directable air-con and there were dirty ashtrays at the sides of the seats. Is this someone's revenge on the future come home to roost? It reminded me of the pre-upgrade Australind. At least once we got going It was a noticeably fast train - it was strange to be going so rapidly across ground. A short taxi ride from the station and we were on the right street trying to identify the block in which our apartment was to be found. Duly located it was up an extremely tight spiral staircase. I wish I was joking in saying it nearly killed me getting the larger suitcase up there. First things first - a nap. Several hours later it was apparent how problematic sleeping had been in the London apartment. Having settled in and unpacked we headed out for supplies and quickly found a suitable supermarket. No language problem, you can be mute and still do credit at a supermarket. Then we set off to find some dinner and soon had a choice of restaurants. We chose a Chinese called Iris and tackled the triple language puzzle of a Chinese menu in French. To speed things up they had an abbreviated English menu. The food tasted delicious. Back to the apartment to do some washing and plan our first solid day in Paris.

London Day 5

We headed off to The Shard for our booked session. This is currently London's tallest building and the top floors are devoted to viewing platforms with a 360 degree view. It isn't cheap but it's twice as high as The Eye and much less mucking about. Then we took a River Bus along the Thames and walked to Westminster, going past Big Ben on the way. Had to queue a while to get into Westminster Abbey but I have to say it was worthwhile. If Windsor was the taster for memorials then this was the main - more dead'uns than you could shake a stick at. Even spotted a couple of Australians memorialized there - scientist Florey and poet Ted Hughes. From there we walked to Westminster Cathedral. This is London's main Catholic church and is only about 100 years old. It's thus unusual for being in Byzantine style, which makes it more like the Russian Orthodox churches we saw in the Baltic than a Catholic church. It is only part way through having mosaics applied so it is like seeing a work in progress. Much of it is still dark brick but it will eventually be all glittery - though this may take centuries yet. Then we hopped onto a very humid and sweaty underground train to the location of the Barbican. Near there is the Museum of London where we inadvertently finally learnt why we weren't getting cold drinks in British shops. Their fridges aren't even plugged in! Seriously. The museum is a half about London and half about Britain as a whole. Once again we have seen references to Barnardo that don't acknowledge the horror that he wrought upon countless children (he'd shown up in the National Portrait Gallery as a "benefactor" of children) - at least here they quoted that he'd been caught lying about his activities. We'd walked to the museum from the Barbican train station and had to walk in loops and ups to find the entrance. But then to go to the Barbican centre we followed signs along an elevated walkway. To our surprise this went through a housing development with spacious water gardens. It was all very Singapore-esque. After a gander at the library there we were joined by Barbara and Delia for drinks. We took the lift to our planned perusal of the gallery only to find it closed - despite both Lee and Delia having checked online that it should be open. We walked with D&B back toward their station before waving them goodbye. We took a few streets to go around The Old Bailey and St Paul's Cathedral. On the way we found dinner at Cafe Rouge opposite St Paul's. Slowest service we'd had in London and the smallest simplest food serve disguised by fancy naming. This was probably exactly what I had expected from the UK so I should glad it was the exception rather than the rule. A two step rail journey back to the apartment where Joan was staying with us overnight. Managed to have the packing done by before 1am.

London Day 4

We took the light rail and subway train to Tottenham Court Rd and then walked to the British Museum. We found that the exhibit Lee wanted to see was booked out until the afternoon. So we rescheduled and took the tube to South Kensington for our next block of tourist attractions. We took some photos from outside the Natural History Museum. Then we went into the Science Museum and had lunch at their cafeteria. After looking through a retrospective of Alan Turing I did the nerd thing of checking out the range of Charles Babbage displays. This included the modern reconstruction that proved his Difference engine really would have worked. More importantly was the prototype Analytical Engine, which was built by his son and proves that programmable computing was possible in the Victorian era. What a missed chance! I wonder if any Steampunk aficionados have included it in their imagined past. I was also quite impressed by the mathematical history section which included: slide rules (I was in the last year to sit tertiary exams with them); draughting pens (I had been a draughtsman in the early 80s); polyhedral models and pantographs (both of which I used to make); topology (a fascination I had in my teens). All up, it was nerd paradise. From there we crossed the road to go into the V&A Museum. There was definitely too much in here to see in a short visit so we looked at the map and chose the glassware section. On the way there we tarried in one of the sculpture halls, which had a disturbing number of Rodins among other impressive works. The glass section was itself impressive with light and mind bending modern works along with a jaw dropping number of ancient glass items. Forcing ourselves to leave we ambled up the road towards Kensington Park and came upon the Royal Albert Hall, and opposite it, the astonishing Albert Memorial. From there we walked along to Knightsbridge to take the tube to Holborn. A short walk and then Lee went into the British Museum for the Pompeii exhibit and I went a few streets over to see the Cartoon museum. This is a small private gallery - one half is a hefty collection of Ronald Searle originals. The other half is a retrospective summary of notable cartoon series, mainly from the early 20th century, each with example strips and a summary. When I was done I walked back to the British Museum for a coffee and free WiFi. Then we walked down to near the theatre and found a Moroccan restaurant (Souk) for dinner, quite excellent! Then we went to our second booked show, Matilda with music by Tim Minchin. Largely performed by a cast of children, this was a glorious stage enactment of a fantasy-class story with good songs, great physicality and seamless props. If at times it seemed a bit odd to have Minchin-esque word complexity coming from children this was more than made up for by the enthusiasm with which they did it. Recommended. Went straight home via tube.

London Day 3

It had been another warm night in the apartment but the new day was raining and cool. I went off to Canary Wharf to meet Joan, without Lee who was not feeling well. Joan got misled by a mislabeled bus which confused us both enough to go to opposite ends of the station. Having taken the tube to Southwark and walked through a maze of streets we eventually found the Globe in the rain and got tickets for the 11:30 guided tour. As The Globe is open air, the tour was done partly in the rain. The stage was being set up for a performance that afternoon of a French/English/Indian version of The Tempest. As we finished, Lee arrived and we all took a look at the thorough exhibit of the theatre's history and Elizabethan times. From there we walked next door to the Tate Modern, where the first thing we did was have lunch in the cafe. Then we did two exhibits, one contemporary African with a general play on Money. The other was about Surrealism and was a real treat for me as I got to first hand many paintings I've known from prints for over thirty years. eg Magritte, Max Ernst, Arp, Tanning, Tanguay, Delvaux, Picabia, Fini and more. We collected our bags from cloaking and found a smaller cafe bar for coffee before walking off along the Thames towards London Bridge station. This took us past a replica of the Golden Hind (the ship made famous by Francis Drake) and Southwark Cathedral, which Joan remembered as having been to for a concert by Yehudi Menuin. As we'd offered Joan to use our apartment to fill the gap in her time in London, she came along to see exactly where it was and how to get in. After a short rest we headed back out for the theatre to see The Book of Mormon. We got Leicester Square a little early so we wandered through the Chinatown area and got a fruit drink. The theatre seemed strangely small for such a successful show, which was a feeling I had first in its bar and then again having made our seats inside. While the stage was normal sized, the depth of the audience space was much shorter than I'm used to. The shorter stalls area is merely that, but the single circle above it was steeper than many upper circles in general Australian theatres. This partly explains why London has so many shows on at once and why they have longish runs. With not many people in at a time it takes quite a few performances to chomp through a regular attendance aggregate. The show itself was marked by enthusiastic and fun performances, which had the audience pumped at the end of each major number. If we were expecting South Park level satire then we were wrong, instead it was both more generous about its main topic and posed a heavier burden of "and what would you have done" philosophy to take home. No memorable songs but that is normal these days I suppose.

London Day 2

We caught the DLR (Docklands Light Rail) to a station near to Somerset House, where we used the advice we'd been given the previous day and got into the elBulli exhibit at half price. It was quite a compact but detailed display covering both the history and philosophy of this famous restaurant. Then we to the nearby church of St Martin in the Fields for a free lunchtime concert by the Bernadel Quartet. This was exceptionally good and we donated more than was requested in response. From that we crossed the street to go into the National Portrait Gallery, and while this wasn't as big as I expected and had the obligatory amount of contemporary (therefore largely self-portrait portraits - seriously, are current artists unable to find models or are they just self-obsessed? Judging from their supplied annotations to their masterworks it's clearly the latter) and a dollop of "we involved summa da local kidz wozza innit wikkid" rhubarb, actually there were some fascinating old portraits in there, of people who really did stuff. Fancy! Admittedly they were dullish paintings but it was a treat to care *who* they were of. Then out of one building and into the next - the National Gallery. We could easily have spent ages in there, like most great galleries there were "famous" paintings in many rooms, surprise runs of good paintings of unfamiliar artists and solid collections of national and/or period styles. Next we ambled around the streets to St James's Square, seeking the elusive London Library. Not helped by me forgetting exactly what it was and why I was interested in it. Eventually locating it - right next to a building with a blue plaque for being the residence of Ada Lovelace - despite being obscured by renovation works. Alas the same renovations meant that the normal guided tours of this historical private library were cancelled. So on we walked into Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, noting the number of ticket seller booths for London musical theatre and finding a touristy but ok place for some lunch. We took the tube home, but this time went from the Canary Wharf station and shopping centre to the adjacent (and as far as I can tell, pointlessly separately named) Cabot Place shopping centre in search of a real supermarket. Found, it wasn't much different to the closer one we'd already found. We had gone far enough to need to catch the DLR home anyway so it was all for nought.

London Day 1 Somerset House

Having arrived at our apartment in the dark by bus, we now had the fun of navigating to the nearest tube station. Not as easy as expected as the signage was a bit strange. A short trip via the underground we arrived, reached the surface and walked along a major street to get to Trafalgar Square. I remarked that the street had a very "government" feel to it. Well so it should, it was Whitehall after all. Looking at the map later I realised I'd walked past the end of Downing St without noticing. At Trafalgar Square we met up with Lee's cousin and her partner Pat. From there we all walked over to Somerset House. This now holds the Courtauld Gallery, which was currently showing an exhibit of Impressionist and Post Impressionist works. After viewing some fine art we had coffee at the basement cafe before wandering off on a lane discovery trek. I had earmarked Cecil Court, a short street of antiquities bookshops. After finding it and perusing there a while, we wandered the area around Covent Garden (famous for the opera house there). There was debate whether an operatic busker was miming. We found a suitable place for early dinner - a steak house with a theatre menu. From there we walked a bit more, said goodbye to Delia and Pat then carried on to meet Barbara and two of her friends for drinks at Giraffe on Southbank and a lively discussion. Took the tube back to Canary Wharf station where we tried in vain to find a supermarket. Eventually a security guard pointed out the obvious - it was late, on a Sunday. Canary Wharf was not going to have a full scale supermarket open around there. Instead we found a nearby mini market and were soon home.

Back in the UK

At the end of the cruise, we were among the first off the ship, taking luggage ourselves ashore then waiting for our tour bus to take us to London. First this took us to Stonehenge. I don't know what I expected of this ancient site. Perhaps I'd seen too many documentaries about it - the reality is a little more mundane than the imagination constructs. That's probably a good thing, now I can review the information with a better sense of how it fits into the ancient landscape. Next we went to Bath. I didn't know much about Bath, maybe how often it was referenced in Georgian literature. I didn't expect there to be ruins of the Roman baths nor there to be a whole below ground museum. Also, I'd probably assumed the "Georgian bit" was just a few blocks, when in fact it is most of a sizeable town for the time. Our final en-route stop was Windsor Castle. After visiting so many palaces and churches throughout the Baltic it was quite fitting to then include some of the majesty of Britain and to compare the English style to the rest. As ever, these viewings are a reminder of the great power that a nation had been in the past. Windsor is only one of many palaces here, so we weren't seeing the peak but even so and despite the relative restraint of English style it was clear that here had been an empire of scale beyond the others. The St George's Chapel in being the entombment place of many monarchs was comparable to some of the others we'd seen, with the extra side chapels for that purpose. Also, as in Stockholm there were metal plates representing nobles who would have been buried elsewhere. Also there were some nobles there of whom time has dimmed the importance that they must have had in their day in order to be placed there. It was clear in several ways but notably by the memorial presence that the church dates from the time of Edward IV. Once inside the castle we went straight to the chapel as it would be first to close. From there we went into the State Apartments, which were equivalent to those we'd seen in the Baltic. Their style was yet again different in subtle ways. For example the ceilings had a shape altogether different (a two step effect) but the ornamentation with gilding was very similar. There were also much more expansive than they seem from the outside, the rooms being larger and more numerous than seems possible from the outside. After a quick wander through the new shops of Windsor the town, it was back on the coach to finally head into London. On the way we dropped off some people to hotels near Heathrow airport. It was an eye opener to realise how large and how many of these there are. After all they're not near anything else. Then it was into London to drop people at London hotels. As this involved some convoluted streets, which involved impressive coach maneuvering in narrow streets, we got to see quite a few notable spots (Sloane Square, Notting Hill etc). We were split off into a different bus for the final leg - supposed to be a mini-bus but turned out to be a full sized coach. This proved comical when it came to us as the last drop and our street eluded the driver's GPS, was closed at one end by building works and was too narrow for the huge coach. And it was raining. When we trundled from the end of the street the key was found as advised and we were in.

Cruise Summary

I figured I should try to put some perspective on our Baltic cruise. As I've probably noted and told people directly, a cruise ship is an excellent way to go on an extended holiday to multiple locations. You only have to unpack once, the cruise takes care of or gives you a default of not needing visas for the countries being visited. The housekeeping and other things that you'd hope not to need (such as medical care) are delivered at a level well beyond land equivalents. The food options include self-service buffets with attendants fetching drinks available almost all hours as well as full table service dinners with allowance for any dietary need variations. For those whom they suit there are cruise-arranged tours for every shore stop. Often there are days at sea to punctuate the shore stops. There are entertainment and activity options at almost all times. There are plenty of places to relax around the ship. There are staff willing and able to help almost all of the time. The scale of logistics behind the scenes enabling all this is mind boggling but rarely of concern to passengers. I do feel all the above should be borne in mind when I report that there were some issues that we faced on this particular cruise. Our previous cruises have certainly been of exceptional quality, both on Star Cruises out of Singapore and the one Princess cruise out of Melbourne. It is comparing to those standards that we compare this one, in a very different part of the world, with a noticeably different base clientele demographic on board. All businesses must train their staff and all staff will make some mistakes as they learn. From our very first cruise we have been struck by a general sense in which, while using modern methods themselves, have a presumption that their passengers are not users of information and/or technology. In general, over the cruises we have done, they done better than they used to. Indeed we have been impressed enough to want offer feedback so they can continue to improve. I've chosen to record my frustrations with the situations where this cruise fell short of our desires. In my travel notes I left those unfettered from how I felt them at the time. When I have time I will use them to compose my feedback and will at that point try to judge their significance.

Cruise Day 12 Zeebrugge

Another shore day .. and another chance to be messed about by Princess. After researching the optional methods for getting to Brugge, we reluctantly decided we couldn't rely on the unknown that was the port-supplied shuttle to and from the port boundary. Hence we paid (too much) for a Princess supplied shuttle direct to the train station at the nearby town of Blankenberge. Alas the contracted business running these was taking the view of using as few trips as possible and so wouldn't go until a bus was full. Thus we sat on the bus going nowhere for at least 20 minutes. By the time we left it was almost time for the train to be leaving. Finally under way we seemed sure to miss it. When we arrived a rep stopped us from getting off the bus in order to tell us we had 5 minutes to walk/run, buy tickets and board or the next train would be another hour away (which we already knew from our research). Thankfully he did also confirm that we could buy tickets on board. We chuffed it and hopped straight on. I don't know how many of the full bus made the train - for the Stockholm shore stop we had later heard of a 45 minute queue just to buy train tickets. Luckily the train conductor came through just after we took off and we were even able to pay by credit. While we went through all this, we watched as people who gone with our original plan - use the port shuttle, walk to the tram, take the tram to the train - go past us with no waiting and no hurry for a fraction of the cost. So, stiffed and extorted. Once in Brugge (which seems to be the local spelling instead of Bruges, I suspect there's a Flemish vs French thing in that) we tried to find an info service and a map. Stiffed again because it wouldn't be open until 10am. That's impressive, not. So I had to use my phone, switching on the European data SIM and use a combination of Google Maps and a PDF that we'd downloaded back on ship. And so, off we walked to the town centre. Actually it wasn't far and while the route was utterly anonymous, it was a gentle introduction to the winding street charm of the place. We chanced across a church - St Saviour's Cathedral and popped in for a look. Yet again, a quite impressive structure with many unique features. This one is participating in an organ festival and the organist and organ tuner were doing a run through for the evening's concert. Also, this one had a great many large paintings sitting and hanging around (apparently mostly moved at the demise of another church building). It also had entirely expanded into its side wings and outer chapels. Even part of the inner structure had also become a private mausoleum. All in all it was a huge space, much larger than it seemed from the outside. From there we strolled along a "high street" that led to the Market Square, which was clearly the central place to be in Brugge. As the weather seemed about to turn wet, we opted to pay for a 50 minute guided bus tour. This proved a brilliant idea as we stayed dry, had information spoken into personal headsets in one of 8 languages as well as occasional extra alerts from the driver in English and French. The bus ran a dizzying route through the narrow and frequently one-way streets, often going in loops to pass something then cross our own route to head to something else. A by-product of this was the place seemed to have twice as many canals than it really does. The tour returned us to the market square. We walked to the corner to check out a Dali exhibit but decided we were here to see Brugges not art from elsewhere. After that we wandered somewhat randomly, buying postcards, inspecting chocolate stores (more per square metre than anywhere else on the planet I'd reckon). We discovered two more open squares, one of which had a very capable music group playing Bach and Vivaldi as an ensemble of violin, accordian, tuba, Russian bass. After looping back to Market Square, we picked up a bite to eat and find yet another small square in which to sit and eat. We have noticed that these historical cities/towns don't have much in the way of take-away food - nearly everything is a sit-in cafe, brasserie or restaurant. By now it was mid-afternoon and I think we'd reached the point where another church, museum or gallery was beyond our car point so we headed in the general direction of the train station, although via a different set of streets. Thus we can across yet another square near the central bus station and with modern sculptures and fountains. Hilariously, as we walked back into the train station a Spanish tourist asked us where she could get a map. We showed her how to find the Info point that had failed us and then decided we'd like a copy too for post-trip annotations. The train took us back, and after a brief stroll we caught the shuttle back to Zeebrugge (translates as Brugge-On-Sea, being the industrial port). So that was Brugge. Very charming place, well suited to tourists (apart from an info both that doesn't open until 10am) - just a pity it is full of tourists. ;-)

Cruise Day 11 At Sea

Having a sea day means we could sleep in, so we slept in. We were both quite footsore and achy from the previous day. Woke up to go to the Port lecture for Zeebrugge, Bruges and Brussels. It seemed that Bruges would be another historic town but much busier with tourists than our other stops. As usual getting there would be the tricky bit with only vague information available on ship. The at-sea days allow us to do our clothes washing. We'd taken our own laundry powder to put into the industrial "maytag" machine, which we fed with American quarters. After the previous night's poor service at Dinner we had booked ahead for the following Formal Night and asked to be placed in a different area - in our minds to avoid a repeat and any comfortableness. So we were quite surprised to be taken back to the same area. I suspect their approach was to force the same staff to get it right this time. I understand this idea but don't appreciate that our request was thus silently denied. This kind of disregard has been the default on this cruise. In general all was fine this time, although we were never asked if we wanted wine. This didn't matter as  I had already decided not have a wine at dinner but of course they couldn't have known that. After dinner we caught two of the onboard entertainments. One was their major song and dance troupe, doing a sequence of disco numbers in "show" style. It was fun enough to outweigh its kitsch. It did set me pondering the standard age of people for whom disco was their generational "thing". Is it my age? A little older? Hmmm. Is disco a style to keep in your silver years? We skipped out of that before the end to move over to another venue to catch a second type of site by Paul Stone. This time he was doing a "jazz" set rather than his theatre-space "swing". I liked this much better. He and the house band did a killer rendition of Summertime from Porgy and Bess, which gave it a blues edge as I imagine was more authentic than the smoother versions that are normal.

Cruise Day 10 Copenhagen

There was much confusion aboard the day before about exactly where the ship was going to dock. The possible alternatives would make quite a difference to the day and it was hard to understand why the port lecturer - employed by the ship - didn't know. His two sources were, what had happened on his previous cruises (admittedly including this very ship in this very city) and feedback he was getting from passengers who had asked ship officers for information. When I quizzed him, his comment was "no-one has told me". Quite why he was unable to get advice is beyond me. That night we did our research online via the very patchy satellite internet, we found the port's web site showing the ship's berth booking details. This has been a strange issue all through the cruise. Our plan for Copenhagen was to walk until we were too tired and then bus it back to the ship. Depending on how we went for time we would drop items on our list and move on to the next. We were able to get a decent map from an info cart dockside but there was nothing open to do currency exchange. Nor was there anywhere to buy a "Copenhagen Card", which would cover multiple entrance fees and transport tickets. So we walked inbound. The weather was clear and cool becoming warm in the sunshine. First we came across some statues, including the famed Little Mermaid, which sits on a rock in the water a couple of metres from the bank. Already it was clear that this is famous enough that the behavior of tourists taking photos was to ensure that they were all captured in the photo with it. Nearby was another, somewhat larger mermaid with a more adult depiction. Read into that what you will, I felt it was too kitsch not to take a snap. From there we skirted around a structure that we later walked through so more of that anon - but we did note plenty of people jogging along it. Just beyond this was the large Gefion fountain. After trying our luck at a souvenir shop we reached some very orthogonal gardens set slightly back from the waterfront. By turning through these we found ourselves at one corner of the current royal apartments. Nothing here was open yet so after noting how the square had no markings and that cars were driving through and around the tourist pedestrians, we sallied further afield. Soon we can to Nyhaven, a short dead-end canal with lots of boats, lots of period merchant buildings and lots of outdoor restaurant/cafe/brasseries. Most were just setting up but clearly a lot of Danish food and beer was going to be consumed there. After failing to find the currency exchange shown on our map... we just carried on walking. Soon we came to the canal that surrounds the island of Slotsholmen which has the older set of royal buildings. Our first target was the Royal Library. Here, "royal" had the context of "national". The original historic library building has clearly been extended with a very modern appendage. We were spotted taking photos inside, and with one of us exposed as a fellow librarian we were soon ushered into the staff-only areas and pointed to the prime viewpoints and the most valuable treasures. This library sure has some treasures though, their most expensive is a copy of Audubon's Birds of America. Personally I was impressed to see an original score by Bach of one of his cantatas. From the library we walked into the old grounds of Christiansborg Palace, in which there were several areas we could have viewed. We opted for the Royal Reception Chambers. Once again this is the sort of palace complex where a nation displays its magnificence. This time however, while the building is historic, much of it was lost to fire relatively recently. Hence some of the redecoration and re-ornamentation is in modern interpretations of the majestic style. For example, one large hall had all traditional framing but had tapestries with designs that were modern but which didn't clash. Another room had been decorated with large modern images of flowers. Many of these stylings had been selected by the current monarch. From there we walked over to the City Hall, which clearly dates from a much earlier time and was mostly about the merchant traders. This one was notable for having a glazed ceiling over its original courtyard. We pointlessly followed some signs promising to lead to an upstairs feasting hall - perhaps it was closed with anonymous doors because we saw no such thing. The City Hall was opposite the Tivoli gardens from which there was a constant rain of screams from people on various rides, some of which we could see when they rose high. As the adjacent city square was at one end of the pedestrian mall (called the Stroget) we decided to follow that on our general return route. Unsurprisingly it was full of tourists of all sorts and most of the shops were targeting this. We bought some postcards. Thus we ambled back to the Nyhaven area and started to get a bit weary. When we reached the current royal residences - Amalienborg Palace - and popped our heads in to see what was accessible we were disposed to pass and carry on. This we again approached the Gefion fountain but this when around its other side and into the castelett. This had been a fort and barracks, on a star shaped island with high earth ramparts built all around. It was the grassy ramparts that we had seen people jogging along earlier. The path that went through the fort was much lower down and very cobbly. No-one would jog or cycle through that part - but absurdly one tourist was trundling a wheeled suitcase on the heavy cobblestones. The buildings were simple as befit their military origin and there was reconstruction work being done on them as there were many temporary plywood doors on them. The fort ramparts are surrounded by a wide moat, so it was over a bridge to pass through to return to the dock. This time the shops were open and full of people, presumably returning to the two cruise ships then in dock. We had an unfortunate run of poor service that night at Dinner and when we were asked if all was fine I reluctantly felt required to complain. We're used to confusions over meal ingredients so that part wasn't an issue. However our two waiters spent so long chatting to an earlier table that we were unattended for 20 minutes. At one point one of them said to the back of my head that they would be with us soon. Bizarre really. Eventually our details were taken and I was able to order. I didn't get any bread until just before the entree arrived. Perhaps because of the delays, entree and mains came unusually close together. Then despite asking twice for gluten-free bread none came until we were half way through mains. After dinner we went to the theatre for the late session of a British singer, who had apparently risen through a UK reality show. Clearly a performer in the beginning of a stage career, she was ok. Perhaps she sung too much from the head rather than the diaphragm. I felt her microphone technique was a problem. The material covered was a fair range, though it seemed to be a matter of which singers she liked mimicking.

Cruise Day 9 At sea

En route to Copenhagen. Presuming that the bridge between Denmark and Sweden is too small for the ship to pass under we will be going all the way around the island of Zealand. A surprise announcement last night is that we've had a change of captain - no reason was given but the replacement saw fit to give more detail about the port change at Stockholm. Curious to say the least. I went to another in a series of music lectures that have been given by Angela Schneider, who is a viola player with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. This one was an overall introduction to Classical music. I was particularly impressed by her coverage of the basics of booking and attending concerts.

Cruise Day 8 Nynäshamn

Ah, lovely Nynashamn - somewhere I've always wanted to go. Not! Not that I've anything against it, indeed prior to this trip I'd never heard of it. And I'd bet that you haven't either. When our ship discovered that predicted weather conditions could mean becoming stuck in Stockholm, we were diverted to the more Southerly port of Nynashamm. This required a complete revision of our plans for Stockholm with much doubt about how helpful the ship would be with it. First of all there would be extra time required to reach the city and secondly would be more expense. This did vindicate our decision months ago to book our visit to the ABBA museum for 12pm - so that it would be more "robust" in case of cruise variations. We made a new plan and decided that it hinged on being on the first available tender boat (the changed port having no berth for the ship) then the first available train to Stockholm. A cunning plan that was nearly foiled by the ship proving once again to have a careless approach to organising and to those of us not using cruise-arranged tours. Hence we sat in a tender next to the ship for over 20 minutes and missed our train. A train that the ship had itself informed us about (and confirmed by us using some purchased internet research time). Not happy Jan! Dropped on the dock we did the non-trivial walk into Nynashamm to catch a later train. This then took an hour to reach Stockholm and thus we were eventually able to start our visit there. First, we quickly checked with the tourist info desk at the station that our city travel plan should work. Next step was a "metro" train ride by one station to be on the island of Gamla Stan, which is the most historic part of the city. Here we went into the Royal burial church, which while clearly a real church is almost entirely devoted to being the burial place of the royal dynasties. To this end it has had multiple sideways extensions of chapels above ground and crypts below ground to house royal coffins. We saw all of these by wandering around and up and down. For a church that has been burnt and rebuilt quite a bit the amount of history inside was staggering. A feature that I'd not seen before was the large number of heralded burial plates - these signify noble people not entombed there. These and the actual tombs date back centuries. From there we wandered between buildings of various ages to reach the royal complex. Here we only had time to see the Royal apartments, which I think elsewhere would just be called the palace. While there was art throughout, the feature here was the rooms, their decorations and fittings. In room after room the impact was a confirmation of a fact that has shown up in the history on show in the earlier cities, museums and palaces. Namely that Sweden had long been the dominant power in the Baltic. The degree of majesty built into the royal apartments states this over and over again. I can now see why Peter the Great of Russia had monuments made to crow about conquering the region of St Petersburg - clearly beating Sweden was notable. These also seemed to be apartments that were thoroughly used by sequences of monarchs who had left their stamps upon it. And some rooms were quite specialised - eg ones for the appointing of Swedish orders of the garters. For lack of time we missed the other royal places: the Treasury, Tre Kronor museum, museum of antiquities - which we had effectively paid for. From there we headed down to the water for a ferry to the island of Djurgarden. We were just in time for our booking at the ABBA museum. After that we walked across to the Vasa museum. You could be forgiven for thinking that this is now Stockholm's #1 attraction - so many guides mention it. It certainly is unique. Inside a custom built museum is the salvaged ship, the Vasa, which sank in 1628. As a thing to visit, the museum wraps itself around the ship giving a very full story of its circumstance, its fate, its salvage and its restoration. In short, it is as good as described. Alas for lack of time we had to bypass the nearby Nordic museum and catch the Tram #7 back to the modern city centre. We had a surprise tram halt, as the track simply ended before any of our maps said it would. There are clearly works in progress, perhaps related to the bus station which adjoins the train station. While our tram trip was very short we did get inspected while on it. Absurdly we now had a pocket of time to spare so we walked through streets to the waterside then back up through tourist trinket central. Then it was into the station to grab a snack and then back on the train to the port town. One aspect of this major train journey was that it made it expedient to buy a full day travel card, which we then used for our transports within the city. In our original plan this didn't seem worthwhile - the advantage of having it is that saved time mucking about with individual fares and let us directly board vehicles. Back well in time for the last tender boat we once again sat in the boat while we waited - this time for stragglers. After thus gathering in a couple of latecomers, we had already cast off and pulled away when a party of three ran onto the dock. Alas we were turned back to pick them up. ;-p So, the ship's ineptitude meant that we missed two or three major sights and/or lunch. Missing lunch due to entirely avoidable ship delays seems to be the theme of this cruise. Don't think I'll be cruising with Princess again. Their motto may be Escape Completely and they bang on a lot about relaxing on cruise but this is the one that has had the most ambiguities and least usable information giving us unwanted stress.

Cruise Day 7 Helsinki

Another day, another port, another shuttle bus. Oh well, at least none of the ports on this cruise require the use of tender boats. We were dropped off in the centre of the shipping district. On a Sunday morning. Helsinki is a sub-Perth size city with a similar amount of life - on a Sunday morning. Luckily we'd already worked out where to walk - to spot some sights and then hit the first feature that would be open. Thus we first noted the mix of Finnish and international shop names and brands and meandered our way to the waterside market square, which we ignored and walked back up the gentle slope to the Senate Square. I was just opining that I'd expected the slope to be steeper based on the photos we'd been shown, when I realised why. The square wasn't very elevated but there was a huge number of steps up to the level of the large Lutheran church. As we arrived a service was soon to begin so we ducked in for a quick look. Typically Lutheran, this was plain inside compared to the glitter of the Russians but it was still quite large and had a quiet majesty. I liked the look of the organ and quickly snapped a photo. From there and with some time to kill we picked a winding path through the streets with a vague hope of passing the library (but without bothering to research it - see, we don't plan everything). Instead we saw an interesting bank (now also a museum) and the national archives. Eventually we came to the railway station. This is one of those architectural highlights pointed out in the guides and port lectures. Except when it's being renovated - as so many buildings on this cruise have been. I don't begrudge this - I'm actually quite impressed with the pride and care that peoples, regimes and authorities in this region have for their assets. Many that we have seen and marveled at have themselves been recently restored - thus to be available for us to enjoy. From there we turned a corner and into the just-that-minute opening Kiasma art gallery. Yet another contemporary art affair with exhibits from near and afar and yet all the same distance from being definitely worthy of the name "art". Oh well, ce la vie. Best of show was a sideways multi-screen video of a large fir/spruce tree, such that it was like being able to see the lower trunk and uppermost branches as equally close. From there we headed off through some back streets and soon ran into a solid stream of tourists marching up the sidewalk. They were headed where we were, the "rock" church (actually named Temppeliaukion kirkko but let's face it Finnish names are not easy), which is notable for being in a circular pit blasted out of solid rock. It then has a unique single dome roof. This design gives it an impressive combination of acoustics and natural light. If you look online you'll see pictures of it as a meditative elegant space. Instead, we experienced it as a cacophony (low key, people were somewhat trying but mostly failing to be quiet, but still a cacophony) of camera wielding tourist-beasts. In itself an amazing sight. It was free to enter with an overlooked donation box - cleverly though, there was a charge for the toilets. After that we walked down the main road through the city, which took us past the parliament (not interesting) and the new music centre. This had an interesting foyer with a large sculpture hanging in space and nice spaces around the cafe both inside and outside. This is apparently quite recently built and it appears that there is more development in progress to make an arts precinct next to the Kiasma. Carrying on and passing the train station again our next feature was the Ateneum. This proved to be a fascinating building, which had started life as a Merchant's home, been adopted as a royal residence and is now an art gallery. Hence part that impressed was the building and part was the art. Like so many of the places we had been to in Helsinki, there was a good arrangement of cloaking or lockers - the latter all requiring a single coin to use and which returned the coin when usage was over. Apart from being zero cost, this guaranteed that I didn't run out of coins as we went from museum to museum. Take note tourist authorities elsewhere! The art was a mix of works which had been collected by or given to the estate (royal and civic) along with some featured exhibits of modern(ish) Finnish artists. One of these was Hugo Simberg, whose work The Wounded Angel I immediately knew I'd seen before. Otherwise, the collected items were only interesting for being such a collection. Next we meandered back to the shopping centres near our shuttle spot. Managed to find a food hall for a quick lunch before heading back the ship.

Impressions of St Petersburg

To sum up my impressions of St Petersburg: I really hadn't expected there to be so much historic central areas. It really is a great European city much as Peter the Great must have wanted it to be. Apart from the distinctively Russian churches the general feel is totally European, perhaps more Italian than anything else. And yet everything is on a scale that probably makes its Italian equivalents look hobbyish by comparison. With its original islands fully built on, the rivers now seem like canals giving it the feel of Venice. Of course, here we were in Summer. I expect that in Winter it all reverts to a cold series of cityscapes in snow and ice. I heard someone ask "why would you come here in winter?" but I'd be curious to realise the contrast. It was certainly cleaner and more civilised than I must have expected. I say that because I seemed to have been surprised. To be sure there is a strong element of decay visible both in the city and the surrounding countryside. But with no way of knowing which is part of a current neglect and which the remnant of past neglects I feel that the amount of historic restorations under way must guide the benefit of the doubt. Of the Russian people that we encountered I have only good to report. The tourist arrangements were all quite orderly, firm and mostly friendly. Our tour guide was informative and adaptable, being particularly good to accommodate our wish to spend more time at the Hermitage. Despite being well warned about pickpockets we had no incidents - of course we had prepared by having tamper-proof bags and covering each other while photographing. And in general Russians going about their city lives seemed entirely normal. I think we did both notice a slight commonality to the look of people - a degree of monoculture that is not familiar in our multicultural cities. Language presence in the city was, unsurprisingly, mostly Russian but I was surprised by the amount of English text visible and not only in signs for tourists per se. If I assume that English would serve as a usable non-Russian world language then such signage might indicate an amount of international residents.

Cruise Day 6 St Petersburg part 2

Not such an early start this time but some annoying mucking about as we waited for a family to get off the ship. After muttering curses at their absence, when they turned up we discovered they'd been stiffed by the ship service to provide the pre-arranged care for one of their children. After a short drop-in to the tour company office to pay, we went straight to our major feature for St Petersburg - the Hermitage Museum. This complex defies any short descriptions (i.e. so seek that elsewhere). It is astonishing in two main respects: 1) the array of art within, 2) the incredible spaces from the palaces and galleries that have been then been combined to comprise it. Touring through it - and I'm grateful to have had a guide who knew where we were going - it was humbling to be glancing through rooms that would have been a major exhibition in any normal art gallery - e.g. a room full of Caravaggio, a room full of Matisse, a room full of Picasso, etc. Ditto, a room with the museum's only two Da Vinci paintings, or their sole Michelangelo statue. As I had hoped, a great feature was seeing artists I'd not heard of but whose works were clearly exceptional. I will have to research at home to rediscover what I'd seen. Even if I'd had my notebook with me, on such a lightning run I wouldn't have had time to note titles and names. We split from our group and went back in lieu of lunch to re-view the Egyptian room - such 3D items as bas-relief and tomb objects would be poorly served by online photos and catalogues. After the kaleidoscope of treasures of the Hermitage we caught up with our tour group as they finished their lunch and headed to the so-called church of the spilled blood, built on the site of assassination of a Tsar. Again, little can prepare one for the scale and artistic density of this former church. While it's already quite an eyeful on the outside, the inside alone is quite remarkable for its mosaics from floor to extremely high ceiling. Then on to another incredible Russian church, at fourth largest in the world, St Isaac's is of such scale as to deceive the eye. There were mosaics so high up as to appear small, yet the replicas which had been placed at ground floor were nearly two stories high. Looking across at one then up at its original it was tempting to think the guide was fibbing. Both of these churches had been damaged in the war and the time and effort to restore them is impressive. Some have only recently been re-opened. For a change from the historic, we were taken into the modern underground railway station, which was very deep underground and very clean and with good mosaics. Finally, we dropped into a typical soviet-style "farmers" market, which let us see what kinds of fresh goods were available in the city.

Cruise Day 5 St Petersburg part 1

An early start in order to get through passport control. We had been warned that this would be slow compared to our other ports of call - and it was. Nowhere near as bad as the British were at Gatwick though. We were in a small tour party of 8, with a guide and a driver for the minivan. It was too early for the museums to be open so we drove around the city with commentary from our guide and several stops for photographing. Then it was time to go on a hydrofoil boat ride to the summer palace of Peter the Great. Besides being an impressive palace looking out onto the Gulf of Finland, this is famous for its garden of fountains. It is hard to say which is the greater wonder - that these were built in the first place or the amount of effort that has gone into restoring them. Some of this apparently involved hiding and even burying major artworks from invading powers. And being fountains this is a dynamic display that no photographs will do due justice. It would have been interesting to be there on a quiet day (surely a fantasy concept judging from the tourist numbers) in order for some of the surprise fountains to be truly that. Instead, throngs of tourists and laughter made the location of these quite apparent. The weather turned delightful while we were there, sunshine adding to the charm and to the glint of gilded statuary. I can't imagine how it fares in Winter. From Peter's summer palace we drove out to Catherine's palace, which is further inland. Whereas we'd only walked the grounds/gardens/fountains of Peter's palace, this time was the reverse with focus on the restored interiors. And what a wonder it was! The scale of the palace is jaw-dropping. Ignoring the bare facts of it all the effect is to give the reality to words "imperial" and "majesty". Especially notable were the hall of light and the Amber Room. In the latter all photography was forbidden, with steely-eyed Russian mamas on guard. The scale of restoration achieved is staggering and yet the whole palace can probably never be completed. In the lower floor passages were the pre-war historical photos from which they have worked as well as ones of the devastation by war's end. It is clear that Russians also enjoy visiting these parts of their history - the Empress' palace is clearly popular for wedding photos. Part of the restoration feature is having various rooms returned to the style of different empresses: baroque for Empress Elizabeth, classical for Empress Catherine the Great. We were driven back to St Petersburg, with some more drive-bys of famous places (e.g. the invention of Beef Stroganov, the murder of Rasputin) before returning to the ship. General impressions of St Petersburg: a barely believable collection of historic baroque/classical buildings in the central area. Many of these buildings are in partial or full restoration cladding. On the other hand there are many buildings that have cranes as if under construction but also appear to have nothing actually happening. Could it be that there are many stalled projects here?

Cruise Day 4 Tallinn

We made a sharp start getting promptly off the ship and on to a shuttle bus from the dock area. We needed to first find a shopping centre as Lee's glasses had a broken nose piece. Luckily there were several suitable places and the repair took only ten minutes and cost only 4 euros. From there we caught a tram out to Kadriorg - a former Russian palace. Despite long since being a non-imperial building it still has its sense of grandeur, especially the central hall with its interior plasterworks. A curious feature was multiple rooms having original tile heaters. Freestanding but going from floor to ceiling, these look much like indoor kilns, covered by white and blue tiles. From there it was a short walk through the palace gardens to KUMU, the Art Museum of Estonia. This very modern building had five large floors of Estonian art from throughout its history as well as contemporary (ie like everywhere else in the world, items require generosity to be called "art"). In many ways it was fascinating to see how Estonians had joined in global art trends of various periods, apparently despite the regimes they had been under. A tram back and we walked to start exploring the historic lower town. And while all the sightseeing guides say it, it is still quite a jolt to see such a medieval town, looking so much like a fairy tale at each glance. Yet, somewhat not as touristy as you might expect and while it might not be entirely true I did find myself presuming that many buildings had been in continuous usage. The adage has it that you can't get lost in old Tallinn but I think that's a polite way of saying that it's easy to find you'd walked the long way around to get from A to B. We went into a fair few historic buildings, including the town hall, which really was like a small town/village meeting place for the merchants. I was quite struck by an old Lutheran church as it had the kind of side balcony seating for the sort of choir for which Bach would have composed cantatas. We also walked a stretch of the original town wall, which had slot gaps for archers to hide behind yet be able to shoot in a wide angle range. While there were plenty of standard tourist trinkets for sale, it was apparent that a popular choice was to sit in the cafes & restaurants with tall glasses of the local ale. A second architectural example of past Russian dominance was the Russian orthodox church in the upper town. Glittering on the outside this was dark inside and so much was cordoned off that tourists were treading on each other's toes as soon as they were inside. This despite the fact that there was plenty of room. I suspect that the matrons who were slowly cleaning it would rather the tourists went elsewhere. The charges for entering the various places were all quite reasonable, and of course it was abundantly clear that maintaining such old structures requires resources. There was plenty more that we could have seen and read in Tallinn - any history buff would delight in the wealth of detail and the chance to look around and imagine life in a previous era.

Cruise Day 3 Baltic Sea

Another day all at sea as we make our way to Tallinn.

Cruise Day 2 Goteborg Aborted

After studiously planning for the day ashore we were woken by the announcement that the weather was too rough for the ship to berth. The captain had chosen to cancel the stop in Goteborg and instead we were en-route to the next port - thus having a full day on ship. In response we elected to sleep in! Luckily there was nothing of note that we had planned for this stop. It was a long way between ports at this stage, we had to sail between Denmark and Sweden. In doing so we went under the bridge known as the Great Belt's - where there was only 9 metres between the top of the ship and the span of the bridge. We went through without slowing down which was quite a sight. We went to the port lecture for Tallinn, which was the first useful one of the series on this cruise. For the others he omitted much of the local advice that we particularly needed (e.g. knowing that the Palace in Oslo was having major ground works would have spared us a wasted hour). Very glad we'd had a loan of the equivalent given on a different cruise back at home. There is definitely such a thing as "cruise life". After a couple of days on board I felt myself returning to it. While I'm not big into the "travel" part of these holidays, having a settled zero maintenance base in our cabin, food on tap, plenty of places to walk/rest yet never be far from base really does allow all the stresses of normal life to just vanish. Plus, every day there is the novelty of a new city/country/culture to experience. Plus there is the tension/excitement of having the absolute deadline requirement of returning to the ship. As both of us are the planning type that gives us a nice puzzle to solve for each port of call. I can imagine some years later coming back on the exact same tour and perhaps instead just going to one feature per port and then sitting in a cafe watching the patterns of the locals before strolling back to the ship. As you might gather, I don't think there is a limit to how much one could cruise thus - having the means is the only barrier.

Cruise Day 1 Oslo

We spent a pleasant day wandering around Oslo. Several museums, lots of boats (Viking, Arctic etc). Perfect walking weather. The City Hall was a surprise treat and the Munch exhibit was an eye opener to a lot more if this artist's work than just The Scream. In order we: -walked past Akershus Slott (castle) on the way from the dock. - caught the ferry over to the Bygdoy peninsula - visited the Vikingskipshuseet - visited the Kon-Tiki Museum - visited the Frammuseet museum - took the return ferry to the city - walked into the Radhus (City Hall) - visited the Nasjonalgalleriet and its Munch 150 exhibit - walked through the streets and up one side of the Det Kongelige Slott (Royal Palace) - back through the main shopping street (Karl Johans Gate) - past the National Theatre and Stortinget (Parliament) - into the Domkirke - did some minor shopping - stamp, drink - finally, dropped into the tourist info centre to find out where to post a card After that it was a short walk back to the ship.

Cruise day 0 Embark and at sea

Getting onto the ship was the usual mix of order and chaos. Order because the logistics of these ships means that they are very organised - eg our entry time was pre-booked. Chaos because people are easily confused and information was scant. Also not helping was that a main escalator had died in the "heat" so that most of us (we of the cheaper cabins) had to walk a convoluted path to use the privileged escalator. These aspects would be the domain of the port terminal at Southampton rather than the ship or cruise line. Usually on arriving on a new ship I like to explore and mind-map the layout for use during the cruise. This time I just didn't feel like doing that. Whether that was due to it becoming a dull idea by this many cruises, or a reaction to the massed effect of British and Americans blundering around I can't guess. The hangover of this was to be continual confusion in my getting around onboard. I'll have to resolve to always do it in future no matter how I feel on the day.

Transit day 3 UK arrival

We flew midnight to dawn from Dubai into Gatwick airport. Perceptions of Britain didn't start well. The woefully inefficient passport control and badly signed airport railway station meant that it was only our pre-booking of train tickets that was "prompt". I certainly wouldn't want to have either needed to spend long at the station or to have been in great hurry to get anywhere else. Given the numbers going through it I don't see why the local authorities can't arrange a better service and information. From a machine we collected our pre-booked tickets for a train to Southampton to join our cruise ship. I managed to put some credit on our UK SIMs, which I'd had sent to Australia a week earlier. The plan is to use these if needed in Europe and in general in London. Then we went on a train gliding through the English countryside. Of course to me it all just looked like New Zealand. The poorly serviced train station at Southampton was a bit of a shock. Distinctly a second-world standard. Virtually no direction to help us get from the station to the cruise dock. We knew we had time to kill - cruise ship entry was by timed check-in - so we stopped at a nearby shopping centre. With our luggage as there was no locker facility.

Transit day 2 Dubai

A whirlwind day stop in Dubai. From the 1am arrival and taxi ride to our friend's residential tower near the marina to crash and sleep. To an afternoon of catch up conversation and dinner after dark (it was Ramadan there). Finally another taxi back to the airport and a short relaxation in the Emirates lounge while we waited for our flight to London. We'll have a longer stop in Dubai when we're coming back from Europe. My main impression of Dubai has been dusty but mind boggling, almost a sci-fi city at the edge of the desert, albeit with a Star Wars grittiness. What in another city might be smog or haze, in Dubai is the presence of desert dust. The other gobsmacking aspect is the sheer scale of almost everything. The Emirates terminal was bigger than most airports' whole terminals. What this clearly translates to is a capacity of human traffic when things are busy. We came through around midnight so it was understandably empty, however there was still a fair number of staff on duty ensuring that we didn't have to wait at any stage. I do think that too many bad economic decisions in the wider west under-value the waste of time, which is essentially the most limited resource for each of us in our lives. You see the opposite of this in Singapore and it seems the Dubai authorities also understand it.

Transit day 1 at Sentosa Island

Arrived late at night and took a taxi straight to the Movenpick Hotel right near the big Merlion on Sentosa Island. We flew in at 2am and slept until late check out. Then we spent the afternoon and evening wandering the island. On the South Side it was clearly in beach mode although quiet, probably as this was during the week. The main set of active people were university students having orientation exercises, all dressed in sets of colored/printed T-shirts. At first I'd wondered if they were religious groups but the number of listed corporate sponsor names was a telling clue. Even since our last visit Sentosa has changed a lot. There is now a family side, with free and paid theme areas - done with pirate themes mainly. Clearly there are large numbers showing up for the nightly multimedia show "Songs Of The Seas" as many signs warned of traffic congestion and voids in the free bus service around show times. The east strip is clearly more adult oriented with lots of bars, clubs and open pavilions. On the northern Singapore-city side the island has been transformed. Last time we were here it was a giant construction zone. Now it is a huge multipurpose indoor/outdoor mall. It includes: a Universal Studios theme site; a fake Malaysian street of food vendors; a modern shopping mall with restaurants, candy shops, a maritime museum; a dock with historic wooden boats; two convention centres; a water feature park and subtly hidden underneath it all: the casino. Finally, out in the water was a large rectangular building of no obvious purpose. Our map indicated it was near where some kind of crane dance light show occurred at 9pm each night so we contrived our wanderings to end there and then. When the time came we were seated on a brick amphitheatre facing out over the water and then watched as the block unfolded into two large mechanical cranes with giant embedded video screens, lights and water jets. All automated and a run time of ten minutes. From there we walked back through the complex to our hotel which had been very helpful in holding our luggage and medicines for seven hours after we checked out. It is this level of service that makes us realise how far behind most Anglo based countries are. There was no hint of being servile that we encountered thus, which sadly seems to be the issue at home. Instead I think the attitude better is of people who are helping to build things - indeed as our ancestors must have done when they were carving our civilisation from the Bush and coastal scrubs. When did that can-do attitude get replaced by the "aw-mum/love do I have to" attitude of modern Australia?