And so, now that I now just a few broadband sites along the way, I will give a thumbnail impression of each port that the Star goes to in the Baltic. The last two cruises, which is to say my entire career so far on this ship. has been under less than optimal weather. Yes, the gloom has been thick in the Baltic, the meteorological equivalent of the Russian customs officials’ outlook on life. We tell our little jokes to the weather and get no response. And, yes, thank you for asking, it certainly does effect us when it settles in, the calendar notwithstanding with icy rain, fog, and not a patch of blue sky to be found.
When Austin heats up in the summer you can escape it temporarily. Run from one air conditioner to another. A little relief arrives with afternoon showers. There are more public swimming places per capita in Austin than anywhere else in the USA, including the icy waters of Barton Springs in Zilker Park.
But this this Baltic “spring” gets in your bones, and eventually, your attitude. Yesterday, in Oslo, we had a real spring day. It came as quite a shock to see sailboats in the harbor, natives walking about on a Saturday in shirtsleeves.
Anyway, onward:
We leave Copenhagen and after a Relaxing Day at Sea (an expression which Princess ought to own if they down already) our first port is Nynahamn, Sweden. It’s a pretty little town, but Princess advertising it as the “Gateway to Stockholm” is a bit of a stretch. Kind of like by old friend Tom Traynor back in LA saying that Reseda was the gateway to Woodland Hills. The guys speculate that this arrangement makes for more shre excursion revenue than the alternative would. See, we could if the gods allowed steam all the way to Stockholm and pretty much park the boat downtown. Not mine to judge, though.
Anyway, Nynashamn is our only tender port, but everything seems under control in that regard. Last winter in Mexico the Grand had only one NON-tender port, and that was a shopping mall hewn out of the jungle with five Diamonds International stores called Costa Maya. Then, anything that could go wrong with tenders DID. Our tender boats are new, fast, and accommodating.
That’s why it can be a bit of a letdown when arrive at the wharf. There’s a shack that sells Swedish chochkes, a smiling customs official with not much else t do. There are chainlink fences with freight behind them. In order to take the train to Stockholm (70 km distant) you could go all the way around that fence to a gate, then walk the full distance of the fence back, them up the hill and, in about a mile, you’d be at the train station. Or you could sign up for a Princess tour, have a deluxe motor coach meet you at the wharf, and be on your way. See what the problem is? Well, I managed to get around the fence and up the hill to town, where I found a public library with excellent internet.There was even wi-fi, although the fellow with the password was off that day. I had to actually work on a PC with a Swedish keyboard, which was an unexpected thrill, and one I can do without in the future.
We’re in port from around 7 in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon, so the traveler will need to keep that last tender time in mind. You’d better be on board that tender at around 4:00 in the afternoon, and, if you’ve taken the train into Stockholm, plan your return accordingly. You don’t want to see that ass end of the ship receding in the distance. It can be costly and very inconvenient. If you’re crew, you could lose your job and be sent home on your nickel.
Day three finds the Star Princess in Helsinki, the capitol of Finland. Overnight we lose an hour as we cross into the second of three time changes. We’re in port until 6 (all aboard at 5:30). The crew gets a “deal” with a shuttle bus for $2 each way, saving a 45 minute walk. This would be a good place to use a bicycle. The Finns are entirely pleasant people, though you can tell why they did not invent the blues. There are several things to do, none of which I have done personally, so I’ve spent some time just walking about and having a look at things. There natives are friendly, the internet powerful (although I had to use PC with FINNISH keyboards), almost everyone speaks music, and the shuttle bus drops us off next to Stockman, a huge department store with nearly everything a human could need under its roof.
Next day, and the following day, we’re in St. Petersburg, Russia’s most beautiful and terrifying city. Both are pretty relative concepts, of course. The riches of the city are products and properties of the czar. The religious buildings are stunning, as are the statues, and the greatest collection of art and statuary is at the Hermitage. It also is the most corrupt and oppressively bleak setting for a city in the history of the world. (Spring has yet to arrive there, so this is a qualified judgment.) The one thing we all do in St. Petersburg is buy cd. For $2 I bought the complete recorded works of Manhattan Transfer on a DVD. I have a very nice guidebook for the wonderful places in St. Petersburg, which are separated by some of the ugliest and most squalid housing imaginable. Of course, thing have actually improved since the Communists relinquished power to the Mafia.
As I said, this is a rare overnight. This upcoming cruise there are two crew tours scheduled, a shopping tour (cds, dvds, and so on) and a pub crawl. Just thought I’d illustrate what level we’re dealing with here. We can accompany any of the passenger shore excursions, which tend to be a bit more highbrow, although I haven’t yet. Maybe I will later in the summer, maybe not.
Oh, and then there’s customs. We need to go through customs to get into Russia. We can buy bus passes for $10 a day, which isn’t as bad as it sounds when you factor in what you can buy for $2 down there. They drop us off across from St. Isaac’s Cathedral, within easy walking distance of the Hermitage, the Winter Palace, and the bustling Nevskiy Prospect. I’d like to go out and see the gardens and buildings at Peterhof. I have a friend on the ship who shoots the souvenir videos and the footage she brought back from Peterhof in stunning.
Tallinn, the capitol of Estonia, is the next stop. It’s a little town compared to St. Petersburg. So far the most interesting thing I’ve seen is a man walking his three corgis.
We arrive there, very close to the center of town, at 7 am and steam off at 1 pm.
The next port is Gdynia, the less well-known sibling city to Gdansk, just up the road. I haven’t fully explored the possibilities of Gdynia because I couldn’t yet rope the Polish guys in the string quarter. I know there’s a cafe with wi-fi there, I just don’t know which it is, and the Polish language is a very difficult thing for me to decode. The good news is that Gdynia is the cheapest port to buy anything (because in St. Petersburg you have to factor in the transport to any purchase). The walk to the center of town is an easy half hour. A taxi back can run $3 if you’re with the Polish guys and $5 if you’re not.
We arrive at 9 in the morning and off we go a 6 in the afternoon.
Next stop is Oslo, but not before we have the other Relaxing Day at Sea. The place we dock is right on the city’s waterfront. Incredibly beautiful, the city has also eclipsed Tokyo for the dubious honor of the most expensive city on earth, where a cup of coffee can easily cost $12. It’s spectacularly clean, though and the sculpture garden in a park just outside of town is worth a look, because you take a tram out and back. We get there at 7, exit at 2 pm.
Then we’re overnight to Copenhagen, which is home base. I walked the town when we first got here, maybe to the point of overdoing it, and haven’t had a chance to since. Another great bicycling city, surrounded by windmills generating electricity, including one strip just outside the port.
Then the passengers get off the ship and, at around 11 am, a new lot of them comes aboard. We’ve loaded up at that point our mail, everything Food and Beverage needs to keep them (and us) fed and beveraged. The last turnaround day I counted 14 full-sized semi trailers full of provisions. And they have to be comprehensive. Last cruise we ran out of yogurt and there were plenty grumblings, even though Food and Beverage picked some up in Poland--but not enough to last through the cruise.
So that’s a thumbnail description. Don’t get me wrong. I tend to emphasize the dark side of things, but there is plenty to recommend this cruise and the port cities where we call. For some, especially those drawn to art and decoration, St. Petersburg alone is worth the trip, especially when you factor in the overnight. St. Petersburg is not an easy place to visit under the best of circumstances for the independent traveler. Despite the coldest stares in the customs shed at the wharf, I suspect that the folks arriving at the airport have an much harder time of it with the officials there. Especially with the option of a shore excursion or two to some of the sites in and around St. Petersburg, it’s hard to top the deal. Consider just one: The Hermitage by night, when the place closed to the public, with a champagne reception and a brief concert by a chamber music group. No crowds to fight at the greatest art museum in the world. Try to find that deal anywhere else.
I have 9 more circuits of the Baltic for a total of 99 days until the end of my contract. I’ll be back in Austin just in time for the September heat wave, I suspect, much like I returned from Alaska last year to 100 degree temperatures. On some of the trips, we forego Oslo, stopping instead in Germany and throwing in an overnight in Copenhagen for good measure.
That’s the story of my summer so far. In my next installment I’ll talk about the about the musical and extra-musical dynamics of our show band.
