Jim and I spent 3 nights in London and 3 nights in Stockholm before our cruise on the Voyager to the Baltic’s. Here are some notes from each city and port along the way. Warning: It's long so you may want to search for a city name.

London

We stayed at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel and loved it! It is a small, very pretty British hotel with a good location – easy walking distance to Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park. We chose a junior suite with a king bed. Had a very pretty, nice size room with 2 easy chairs, table, full size desk and the bathroom was beautiful with a walk in shower plus a full size tub with shower attachment. Large TV in the room with smaller TV in the bath. The front desk people and Ian, the head concierge, were all very helpful and friendly. I don’t think we opened the door to the street once. The dining room is very pretty, also. We had dinner there the first night – had the traditional roast that is carved on a silver trolley at your table. Wonderful meal. Very good breakfast buffet and hot items. Highly recommend this hotel.

Had dinner one night at La Buerre Blanc a couple blocks from the hotel in Shepherd’s Market area. Good French food but very small restaurant where the tables are only 4 inches apart. I am not exaggerating. Was very noisy the night we ate there.

Had dinner one night at the Red Lion pub a couple blocks from the hotel. Very traditional English pub with a nice dining room in the rear. We ate pub food in the bar. The pub food was good, not great, but the atmosphere is good. Recommend it but would suggest you eat in the dining room.

We hired a Blue Badge tour guide for our first afternoon here and we are glad we did. She had a new Jaquar and buzzed around like nobody’s business. We saw the all the major areas of the city plus we stopped here and there for a couple of photos. We stopped for a beer at the oldest pub in London situated on the Thames River. It was a great afternoon! Over the next 3 days, Jimm and I hit the major highlights of the city and absolutely loved it. The black cabs were wonderful! Can’t wait to return.

Stockholm

We stayed at the Radisson SAS Strand Hotel which is 2 blocks behind the Grand Hotel, so the location is very good. It faces onto one of the many harbors. Very nice views if you get a harbor side room. We chose a harborside king room which was a nice size room with 2 easy chairs, a huge wooden desk and large window overlooking the attractive harbor. The bathroom was modern but very tiny. Beds were very comfy and the A/C worked well! The breakfast is buffet style and is excellent! The breads and pastries were to die for. The bacon was the BEST bacon we’ve ever tasted. Large variety of very good choices overall and very good coffee. The hotel is not ultra fancy but very nice. The front desk people were extremely helpful.! I forgot my plug adaptor for Sweden and they had one at the front desk. Would highly recommend this hotel for the harbor view, location, and breakfasts.

We met Denise and Alan, and Leslie and Brad at the Grand Hotel for their Scandinavian Smorgasboard dinner. It was an excellent buffet with nice views over the harbor. Highly recommend this dinner. We all had a great time!

The next night, we all met for dinner at Fem Smu Has, which is in Gamla Stan. The dining rooms are below street level and some are down in old cellars. Our table was not in the cellar which was disappointing to me, but the room we were in was very pretty. The menu is not huge but has interesting local offerings like reindeer, plus other traditional things. Very good dinners all around! Highly recommend it.

I arranged a walking tour for us with Maria from Stockholmstories.se. She was delightful and very knowledgeable. I think I can say we all enjoyed this tour very much. Her style is conversational and she is full of funny comments and anecdotes about the Stockholm’s history and culture. Highly recommend her walking tour of Gamla Stan for a small group, up to possibly 8 people.

The highlight for us was the Vasa Museum. It’s easy to get there on one of the ferry boats that goes directly there and back – it only takes about 10 minutes. Plan to spend at least 2 hours there. It is amazing to see this huge vessel in person. Make sure you see the movie as soon as you can as it explains the ship’s history and how it was finally found and restored. Very interesting, A+ experience! :)

We went to the changing of the guard ceremony one morning. They only have the cavalry band on certain days so make sure you find out the schedule. It was very crowded as we got there about 15 minutes before they got to the back of the Royal Palace. We should have arrived earlier to get a spot “inside” the courtyard. All I really saw was the mounted cavalry band as they passed us on their way into the courtyard, and as they left after the guard ceremony. Too many people – get there early! It will be worth it.

We would like to return to Stockholm some day. It is a beautiful clean city that is fairly easy to walk around in. It is not a huge and noisy city like London. Everyone speaks English fluently.

Baltic's Cruise Ports

Tallinn, Estonia

The first port was Tallinn, Estonia. The Radisson shuttle bus takes you into town and drops you off a couple of blocks from the entry into the old town. Once there, it is very nice. Keep on walking past all the shops and cafes and you will arrive at the Medieval area. We used Rick Steve’s walking tour as a guide and it was extremely helpful. It took about 1.5 hours to complete the tour. Very nice churches and overlooks. Lots of outdoor cafes in the town square for lunch. There was a very nice store at the highest point where Jim bought a handpainted Russian lacquer box made of paper mache. I bought some amber jewelry. The walk up to the top of the town was not as bad as I thought it would be. This was a fun first port town to explore!

St. Petersburg, Russia

Ngaire graciously arranged tours for her group with Red October. We had 3 vans with 8 people in each van. The tour guide in our van was Marina who was about 28 year old and spoke fluent English. She was an excellent and informative guide! The experience of using Red October was excellent. We could zoom from one sight to the next, get out of the van and back in so much faster than the large buses. I can’t imagine taking those large tour buses.

Day One

The first morning we drove to Peterhof. The drive there allowed us to see how most of the regular Russian people live – in large, old bleak apartment buildings. It was actually a drepressing first look at the city. The electric trains were old and rusty – looked like they were same ones from 50’s or 60’s. Most of the buildings in town are very dirty. I was thinking, “Why did we come here???”

Peterhof was beautiful. We had a very complete tour of the inside, but unfortunately, we had no time to tour the grounds to enjoy the fountains or the gardens! This was a major disappointment for us. I think Marina spent too much time talking inside and we simply ran out of time.

Each day, we drove back to the ship for lunch for about an hour and 15 minutes. Jim and I were happy with this as we could eat at La Veranda, our favorite lunch venue, and have time freshen up.

The first afternoon, we did a whirlwind tour of the city sights - St. Nicholas Church, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Church of Spilled Blood, St. Peter and Paul, etc. We ere amazed at how beautiful these cathedrals were! We stopped once for a bathroom break at one Red October store. And at the end of a very long day, we had another obligatory stop at another Red October store. :rolleyes:

Day Two

This morning was our chance to ride the Underground! We got our tokens and took the very long and steep escalator down to the trains. The station we were in was gorgeous with large chandeliers and carvings on the columns. We had to literally push our way onto the trains before the doors closed and this was at 10:30, after the rush hour! We stood right in the midst of Russian people on their way to wherever! The train was very fast and efficient. This experience was so fun because it was not a tourist sight.

We stopped at a gourmet food store in a very pretty building. After that, we had our “chance” to shop at the so-called flea market across from the Church of Spilled Blood. The Red October guides are very resistant to letting their groups shop here because a) it takes money away from their stores, and b) the merchandise here is of much higher quality than is in their stores. (Just my opinion.) In the 15 minutes we had, we stopped at about 4 booths and found unique hand-painted and artist signed nesting dolls and paper mache lacquer boxes. We could have shopped here easily for an hour. And don’t worry about the so-called pickpockets. It was not that crowded. Demand you get time to shop here and demand at least a half hour! I don’t know why it is called a flea market. It's a mix of flea and arts and crafts.

That afternoon we were promised a backstage tour of the theatre at the Hermitage. We were viewing the theatre, which was very pretty and then were told that the backstage tour was not to be because of some renovations. Instead we had a half hour tour of some of the Hermitage. Next we went to Yusupov Palace for a tour. The upstairs rooms were gorgeous and delightful. The living quarters downstairs were fairly ordinary and by the time we got down the basement to hear about the murder of Rasputin, I think our group was ready to die! It was after 6 by the time we got down there and Marina, a stickler for all details, kept on talking for another half hour as we all were ready to collapse. We didn’t get back to the ship until close to 7 that night. Jim said he was ready to shoot Rasputin and then shoot himself just so it would end! :eek:

Day Three

This morning was Catherine’s Palace which I understand is the highlight of many peoples’ trips. I could not sleep the night before so I decided to sleep in that morning and skip it. But I bought the book!! :rolleyes:

The last afternoon was our Hermitage tour. It was everything people say – beautiful, hot, crowded, wonderful, interesting, amazing, and HUGE! There were only 5 in our group this afternoon so we were able to zoom around very fast. I felt we saw a lot but of course, we couldn’t stay in one place for long. We also had the Gold Room tour at the end. It was very interesting to see all the minute detailed gold artifacts and jewelry on display. Our Gold Room guide was difficult to understand and was not very thorough. But by then, I really didn’t care.

Conclusion

I am sorry I missed Catherine’s Palace. We have no strong desire to return to St. Petersburg simply because there are so many other places we want to visit. We loved our time there. It’s way up there as one of my favorite life experiences.

After driving around the city for 3 days, my attitude of the city brightened as I saw more and more beautiful buildings along the River. Many of them are being renovated so as time goes on, things will look better. I certainly hope that the peoples' lifestyles improve also.


Helsinki, Finland

The trip to Helsinki was very rough and rumors were floating around that we may not be able to dock there because of the narrow channel. But, Captain Dag did get us there and docked without incident! We took the City Highlights tour and we are glad we did since it was a dark rainy day. The bus tour showed us the city highlights with stops at the open market by the harbor, the Senate square, the Sibelius monument and finally a stop at the Rock Church to hear a short recital. I would recommend this tour since Helsinki is a large city, touring on your own can be difficult and time consuming. It’s a very nice modern city but definitely not a highlight of the cruise.

There was a nice sized souvenir shop right at the dock by the ship that the sells the same souvenirs we saw at Stockman’s department store and even more. So if you are souvenir shopping, just go there.

Visby, Sweden

We were so lucky to have a gorgeous sunny day here. This medieval town is darling! It’s so easy to walk all over and just enjoy the views from high up on the hill behind the town. Make sure you go to the Cathedral and up the stairs to experience this area with all the views. There was cheesy flea market in the main square but it was fun to watch it. There are some ruins of cathedrals here also. We ate lunch ate the Rose Garden outdoor café attached the back of the main cathedral ruins. We had roast lamb for lunch. Excellent! We were unaware that the ship was serving grilled lobsters on the pool deck. Grrrrrrrr.

Copenhagen

Our experience here was not a real positive one. We had a 7:30 pm flight to Heathrow that night. Because of the problems at Heathrow, we went directly to the airport to check on our flight and to store our luggage. We took the train back to the city. Basically, our morning was shot. We decided to take a 2 hour bus tour of the city. We thought we would have time after the tour to hang around Nyhavn Canal, but we didn’t. Warning – the City Tour and the City and Harbor tour are on dirty filthy open top buses that smell like urine!! Our driver had not seen a shower in a very long time! Also, the headsets have static and are difficult to understand sometimes. I would not recommend taking these tours that start in front of the Palace Hotel downtown. Hire your own tour guide.

We were so glad to get out of this town. Because we took the train in, we were in the older dirtier part of the city. We saw bits of trash all over the streets among other things. I am sure the Nyhavn Canal area is much nicer. Oh well, next time. The train system was clean and fast. Also, the airport was clean and modern with lots of good restaurants and shops. One of the better airports we've have seen!

Conclusion

We certainly saw many interesting cities on this vacation! We will treasure our memories of each one. London and Scandinavia are so easy to travel to because there is no language barrier and their lifestyle is so similar to ours. We hope to return to those destinations for sure.

Thanks so much for all the information. We are booking the Baltics cruise for July of next year. Can't wait based on all the information and excitment from LCTers just back from the voyage!
Cheers, Pam

PS Only a little more than a week until Dover to Monte Carlo on the Voyager!

Ginny, what was the pp cost for your St Petersburg tours? Thanks Jeanine

Good to see you're posting your review, Ginny!

Great review Ginny. I laughed out loud at your Rasputin comments!

Too bad you had a bad Copenhagen experience - we liked it a lot - glad we didn't do the bus tour - gross! It is a very pleasant city to walk through and the canal boat tour was great.

Jeanine our pp cost for Red October for three days of tours - morning & afternoon - was $437 pp.
For similiar tours on Radisson the pp charge would be about the same or perhaps a little more just looking at the shore excursion form we received. Much better not to have to go with a large group!

I had a good laugh at the Rasputin comment, too.

Our one day touring with the driver, provided by Marriott Concierge, and simply wandering (along with a terrific pizza lunch), was really nice. I think we had a nice sampling of Copenhagen.

Sorry your experience was not what you hoped for, Ginny.

Your comments pertaining to Maria/Stockholm Stories, was right on. She was very pleasant and informative. We enjoyed our walk with her a lot.

Thanks Ginny!

Masaki

Great review. We just walked around Copenhagen as we didn't know about the tours. We might have done it.

Our Red October guide talked us out of the flea market and the subway. Sorry we let her do this!

Andi, Copenhagen Marriott Concierge arranged a driver to pick us up at port, take us to Marriott to drop off our luggage and check in and then tour the castles. Very reasonable - $147.00 per couple for 5 hours.

We were fortunate with our Red October guide, Natasha. She said anything we wanted to do was fine, after we were done touring. This is how we managed some shopping time in other places, besides Red October. I was able to make a few purchases at Catherine's Palace and Hermitage, thanks to agreeable travelmates and Natasha.

We were sorry to have missed the flea market and underground. These excursions were taken on the day we went to Moscow. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it all.

Ginny, thank you so much for a great report! So helpful to others going there this summer, and I can't wait to get back!

I think guides everywhere can get a little too directive, don't you, Andi? They want you to see the masterpieces, perhaps, instead of what you want to see...the real stuff. That "flea market" across from Spilled blood had quality from 1-8 if you knew how to spot it. On my cruise on the Navigator in 2001, (I think),the ship had laquered boxes in the boutique that were VERY high quality, costing into 4 figures, but right across the way on the ship at what was the sundries shop, they had boxes painted by apprentices that were $15-25, only when we were in port. At the dock outside, they had them for even a little less, but low quality. I would assume those RO guides get at least a small cut of the business they bring in.

Back in the 70's, my former in-laws went to Russia, and had to do everything through Intourist, the gov't sponsored travel agency. When she came home, she had a box and an egg for me, and told me she had bought them on the "black market", as at the time you could only buy them (they were signed, mine are not)through government owned shops. She always was a shopper who loved "the game", and I love those pieces to this day. She was scared to death when she left the country that customs would inspect them for the signature! If only that egg would stay up on its pedestal when lifted for dusting!

Ginny - thanks for a great review! It's a wonderful trip, isn't it?

For what it's worth, Copenhagen was also near the bottom of our list of experiences on that trip, too. We've heard enough positive comments, though, that it would be worthwhile to plan it differently and then see it one more time.

I'd like to go back to St. Petersburg simply to see a little more of it but, as you say, it will be after we see some other places first. Cheers, Anne

Great Review, Ginny.

Thanks so much for taking the time. Sounds like the trip was fantastic!

Kathy