Day 14 - Amsterdam Port and Flying home

Luckily we have been to Amsterdam before, so we aren't missing anything

We will be home in about 22 hours 

Day 12 - Ice Bar

The Ice Bar.  

Everything was made out of ice...Even the cups. 20 degrees inside the room.  It was a "cool" experience. 

Day 13 - Cruising to Amsterdam

We cruised from Oslo to Amsterdam. We had another cooking class - What mermaids know ( cooking fish ) we did about 5 dishes. So good! 

Another great dinner followed by a beverage in our favorite bar with our favorite bartender! 

This was a great adventure 

Day 11 - Cooking Class - Tapas

We took a cooking class on the ship. Tapas and Paella 

Our first tapas: Tomatoes purée on garlic toast 

Second tapas: Prosciutto wrapped prune with blue cheese, walnuts, and cherries

Making Paella

Our instructor

Sangria

Almost done

Finished product was very very good. It wasn't that difficult to make. 

Day 12 - Oslo, Norway

Most mornings we are still coming into port. While having breakfast we passed this island. The small houses are vacation homes with no electricity or water and cost about $600,000.00

Our ship is moored next to this. 

Touring the city

You are here.  One of the founding fathers being funny. 

Cool Windows on this Deloitte building 

War is the name of the Opera they are currently doing!

Then headed up to the ski jump area 

That smaller white portion at the top of the picture is the ski part, the middle is the flying part, then the landing at the bottom. Imagine this has snow on it. 

Pretending to be a Viking! 

One of the first Viking churches near the ski jump

Day 11 - Copenhagen

This morning we boarded a canal boat for a tour around the beautiful waterways of Copenhagen. 

Then we walked through the city to get to a small restaurant for a snack of Smushi and beer

Then we walked a bit more though a market...

...to watch the changing of the guard at the palace 

Time for a souvenir store break...

...then we decided to break from the tour and walk back to the ship ourselves along the waterfront. It has been really nice in the north ( thank you to those San Diego couples who brought the great weather with them )

On the way we saw a tin man

And a mermaid 

This afternoon we are going to a "Tapas" cooking class and a special dinner on the ship. We may not be able to post again until tomorrow, so stay tuned.  

Day 10 - Berlin

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise 

At 0800 we left for Berlin. It is about a 3 hour ride from the dock. We had a great hostess on the coach who kept us fed and watered!  

Berlin is a very large city with a lot of history.   So to get you up to speed... Berlin was divided into two parts, East Berlin and West Berlin, right in the middle of Soviet occupied East Germany.  The United States had a stronghold on the West Berlin side.  Checkpoint Charlie was an area where Americans could go back and forth between the two sides. It was mostly used as a way to know who when over so they could look for you if you didn't make it back to the West

Today was 9-11 and when you look at the pictures of the day the wall came down they all say 9-11-89.  I was so excited thinking we were there 27 years after the wall came down. BUT in Germany they list the day first. So the wall actually came down on 11-9-89

The Bandenburg Gate where President Reagan said "Mr. Gorbachev, take down that wall" 

Doug and I standing with one leg in East Berlin and one leg in West Berlin 

The Reichstag

There are still a few areas of the wall they left standing. This was on the East Berlin side where no graffiti was allowed. After the wall came down artistes were invited to do artwork on the part that is still up. Here is one of the favorites. 

We are heading back to the ship now tired and cooling down in the coach. ( it was over 90 today) 

Day 9 - Martini's

We did a martini tasting in the afternoon 

Day 9 - Gdansk, Poland

Pulling into Poland.  The pilot boat dropping of our pilot. This happens in every port

We were in port at Gdinia and took a bus to Gdansk. This town has a Holland influence. It almost looked like we were in Amsterdam. The building at the end of the picture on the water is a medieval crane. 

Other sites...

Our tour guid said " if we eat we must drink" 

We drove past Wallenska' house.  And this is the solidarity monument where the shipyard workers were killed. 

Interesting that in the part of the world where they have been under communism rule and socialism, they are moving towards capitalism.