Nice is Really Nice!

So, finally, I'll do a quick blog about Nice.

We arrived late on a Thursday night, and woke up kinda late on Friday, but ready to hit the beach. We loaded up our gear and took the train just a little outside the city to a town called Villefrance sur Mer. We had heard the beach was a little nicer, especially for the kids. We bought some supplies (a raft, a swim ring, an umbrella and a mat) and headed to the beach. Much to our surprise, we saw our cruise ship from our first cruise, docked just offshore. (It was much torment to us to have the ship so close, yet so far.)



The kids loved laying on the raft and floating in the waves, and they had a great time playing in the waves. The beach wasn't sandy -- small pebbles instead. So a little uncomfortable on the feet, but not too bad. The kids happily stayed on the beach all day long, and we had just a wonderful time.




The town of Nice was quite nice -- lots of pedestrian streets with shopping and ice cream and a surprising number of Italian restaurants. And of course, a carousel.

On Saturday, we opted to stay in Nice for our beach day. And indeed, the beach was a little less pleasant -- big rocks instead of sand or pebbles. But again, the kids weren't bothered by it, and the ocean was wonderful. More riding the gentle waves (no jellyfish!)



For dinner, we decided to head to Cannes, which was just a half-hour away by train. We walked along the beach, and they had more rides for the kids on one side of the street. And on the other side of the street, were the fancy (or, should I say FANCY) shops. Cartier, Ferragamo, a cell phone store that sold only one phone (for 4400 euros). It was definitely how the other half lives. We saw a few folks who looked to be papparazzi types, though we never saw anyone famous. While we didn't see where the film festival took place (we were only there for 2 hours), it was fun to be able to say we've been there.



I could definitely have stayed in Nice for much longer than a weekend. It was fantastic, and I hope to be able to go back!

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Jack loved being the center of attention today, and Amelia was very good about him having the spotlight.



After tearing through his presents in record time, the boys went off for a haircut. Afterwards, we went to Walibi, the Six Flags equivalent here. They have a great section for kids, and the kids love all the rides. It's not as fun for us, to have to ride all the kiddie rides, but it's better than nothing.



Of course, the rides weren't without problems. All, obviously, had height restrictions. And it was bad news when Jack wasn't tall enough to ride the fake ponies around a track. And it was worse news when he discovered Amelia WAS tall enough.





The kids were insistent that TJ win them prizes. Jack received a giant inflatable hammer (I'll give you one guess as to the first thing he did with it. Yes, bonk Amelia in the head.) And Amelia played a solo game of Whack-a-Mole to win the tiniest pink dolphin you've ever seen.

The weather was forecast to be 66 and pleasant, which was seriously misleading. We had a few dry hours, then it would alternate between 15 mins. of rain, then a period of sun and blue sky. Then the rain would come, and the cycle would continue. At one point, there was a torrential downpour, complete with thunder. Luckily, it didn't last too long.

Then it was back to home for a Spiderman cake and lots of frosting eating (but little actual cake eating). He had a great day and told us over and over "Thank You." It was a great way to start off the 3s!



Big Happy Birthday hugs and kisses also go out to PopPop, who celebrates his special day today as well.

A Cappuccino Revolution in Belgium!

Walking to the post office tonight, I noticed that a neighborhood bakery now offers coffee, cappuccino and hot chocolate to go. I can't help but think the impending opening of Starbucks has had some effect on this. I could be wrong. Heck, I don't care. I've got all the takeaway coffee I need, now.

Just a few bullet points of note lately...

• Jack is getting ready to exit the twos, and his last few weeks have exemplified the "terrible twos." I don't know where this behavior is coming from, but I hope I don't have another year of it coming. He is completely out of hand, exacerbated a millionfold when tired. Overall, he is still a sweet, charming boy, but when his flip is switched, he throws, hits and calls us "bad."
• I signed the kids up for tennis lessons beginning in October, and lasting 20 weeks. They'll be in the same class, which I think will be a hoot.
• Price check. Big mac menu meal (inc. fries and diet coke), cheeseburger, 4-piece nuggets, small fries, 3 hot fudge sundaes. 19 euros (roughly 27 bucks). Is it just me, or is that really exorbitant? And at the bakery, a single donut is 2 euros (3 bucks!). ONE DONUT. Thankfully, Ikea sells them 4 for 2 euros.
• I finally changed the bed linens from the winter polarfleece to the summer cotton. Mostly because it's August, and it seemed like I should. Bad move. Chilly nights, and I'm missing the warmth. This has NOT been a warm summer. I don't think it's been much past 70 since we've been here.
• It's going to be a Spiderman-themed party for Jack this weekend. Of course, he has no idea what Spiderman DOES, but he is clearly genetically programmed to like him. Much to TJ's relief, I was able to take Jack's purple Ariel sock and replace it with a Spiderman sock, and Jack hasn't missed Ariel...too much. It's hard enough to explain the sock -- harder still to explain Ariel.
• I decided to try some yoga classes at the gym. Forgetting, of course, that they would be conducted in French. It's not quite as relaxing when you have to keep one eye open to see what the teacher (or what everyone else) is doing. On the plus side, I'm learning the parts of the body. I came away from the first class not so relaxed (but, very sore the next day) and I'm going to try it again today. I'm just not as flexible as I used to be, and I'm certainly feeling it.
  
  You'd think that after 1 1/2 years, I'd be more cognizant of the language stuff. But sometimes, I just totally forget that things are French (or Flemish). Someday I'll get it!
  

The Flower Carpet

We managed to get back from France in just enough time to catch a glimpse of the flower carpet. They do it every 2 years in the Grand Place, and it's all done with begonias. We had heard it was pretty amazing (and had seen spectacular pictures before) and I, especially, really wanted to see it (especially as we're hoping to not be in Brussels the next time its done, in 2010). It was well worth it, despite the dreary (surprise!) weather.

Out of Jack's Mouth...

We were driving along today, and Jack yells, "Mommy, you're going too fast!" (Which I, of course, wasn't." Then he says, "Mommy, I'll miss you while you're in jail." (The kids have been quite interested in the concept of jail since T.J. had his car broken into.)

Jack also made several middle-of-the-night trips to our room last night, asking if he could sleep with us. (I think 2 weeks of sharing a bed with Amelia is leaving him lonely at night here at home.) The second time he came in, he slipped and banged his head against something, leaving a little bruise on his head, poor guy.

A Belgian Complaint (or Two)
I was on a mission to fill a prescription for T.J. today, which I thought would be easy. I went to THREE pharmacies, and none had the medication (and I wasn't trying to fill anything funky, either!). Quite frustrating, especially since we're leaving for vacation today, and he needed it for our trip.

But on the plus side, if they don't have the medication, they simply order it, and it's available just a few hours later. So we'll have to go back.

And it's August, which means holidays en masse for shops. In Ste. Alix, a good percentage of shops (bakeries, butchers, etc.) are closed for 2 weeks for the summer holidays. It makes "running out for just one thing" exponentially more difficult. I guess it's not such a big deal when you grow up with these kinds of closures, but when you come from the land where Walgreens is open on Christmas, it takes some getting used to.

More soon...

Baltic Cruise -- Part 4

Monday, Aug. 4 -- St. Petersburg, Russia

The arrival into the port was a little disappointing -- very industrial and not attractive, and there wasn't much to see on the horizon. We were all exhausted, and I took the morning off from the gym and opted for an extra cup of coffee in the library, instead. It took a while to clear the ship through customs, and while we waited, we got to hear a band playing outside on the dock, greeting us (they were a quite good). We had to wait in a bit of a line for a visa (we actually had to show our passports and prove we were going on a tour) and then we were off on our tour.

I'll probably require T.J.'s memory on this to recall everything, but I'll give it a whirl. (For those wanting more details, visit http://www.saint-petersburg.com/attractions/index.asp, which has some great links on the churches, museums and palaces we visited) We were all quite surprised at the buildings in the city. They were all HUGE (wide, not tall), and painted in cheerful pastels -- quite the opposite of what I expected from Russia. Simply beautiful. The people, however, were very serious, and you definitely got the feeling that you didn't want to mess with them.

We bought some nesting dolls from a street vendor. Amelia was excited because hers had a ladybug on them. (I bought Jack one later on that was all panda bears. They even had St. Louis Cardinals nesting dolls.) And if you wanted to take pictures in any of the museums, you had to buy a special sticker and put it on your camera.

We drove first by the Spilled Blood Cathedral, which was one of my favorite things to see. It was just what you'd see as a postcard of a traditional Russian Orthodox cathedral. Very impressive. Unfortunately, we didn't have the opportunity to go inside, which will be a big regret, as we heard it was beautiful, with many mosaics.



Our next stop was the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul. It's the oldest church in St. Petersburg (from the early 1700s). It plays bells at noon and sends off a canon shot (which we heard, and it scared the daylights out of Amelia -- and worried me a little, too). One major attraction is the graves of most of the Romanov rulers of Russia from Peter the Great onward. Also here are both Catherines, Elizabeth, all three Alexanders, Paul, Peter III, Anne - and now both Nicholases as well.



We then took a boat ride down the Neva river, and really got a great view of the city. It really was far more beautiful that I thought it would be. Amelia fell asleep and missed most of the show.





We went then for a group lunch. I imagine it was some sort of traditional Russian dish -- stroganoff, perhaps? Jack loved it. They also had champagne and vodka for us. Whoo, doggy. It was strong. I drank it (OK, both). When in Russia, you know.



After lunch, we went to St. Isaac's Cathedral, and it was, again, spectacular.

Finally, we ended the day at Yusupov Palace. These palaces are all relatively nondescript on the outside, but phenomenal on the inside. I especially loved the theater inside.

This was also the place where Rasputin was murdered (http://www.saint-petersburg.com/museums/yusupov-palace.asp), for those who are more familiar with Russian history than I.



Tuesday, Aug. 5 -- St. Petersburg, Russia
Another full day of touring today. We started off with a short metro ride -- just one stop. We thought it sounded rather goofy, until we saw the metro stations (which we're forbidden to take pictures of -- one tourist on a previous cruise actually was taken to the police station for taking a picture there). The two we saw, and our guide says they're all like this, were amazing. Chandeliers, statues, marble, brass reliefs -- unbelievable. And they were spotless, too. Some of the trains seemed pretty old, but in good condition. And there were trains every 3-4 minutes. We were in rush hour, granted, but I'm not used to seeing them so often, even in rush hour!

We continued on to the Peterhof summer palace and gardens. It was completely destroyed during the war by Hitler, but they rebuilt it completely, and as accurately as possible. They had moved some of the statues and paintings, etc. to Moscow during the war, and they even buried some of the fountains so the Germans wouldn't destroy them.







Everything was just spectacular.

After that, we headed to lunch, which was unremarkable, unfortunately. I'm not sure if it was traditional Russian (the borscht was, but the rest was just mystery chicken and saffron rice), but it didn't seem impressive. But more champagne and vodka (at least this stuff was a little smoother than yesterday's). Of course I had to drink it, but we had to quickly take it away from the children, as they thought the little vodka glasses were just their size...

In ther afternoon, we went to Catherine's winter palace and the Hermitage Museum. Again, this was just unbelievable and beyond impressive. this building wasn't damaged during the war but again, they moved a lot of the interior to Moscow.


You can see how excited Amelia is to see another palace.


A mosaic on the floor in the palace.





Upon returning to the ship, the kids and T.J. went on board while I popped into a DVD shop and a souvenir shop. The DVDs were of, uh, questionable origin. Let's just say that on the Sex and the City DVD, Jennifer Hudson had top billing. Pretty funny to see a bootleg DVD shop run on a major port

When I walked back toward the gangway, I could hear the band playing for us again. And above the music, I could hear my children shouting "more music, more music." Everyone was looking up at them, and it was fun to watch them dancing on the balcony.

Wednesday, Aug. 6 -- Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn turned out to be a wonderful surprise, much like Dubrovnik on our last trip. I was up early (again) to exchange dollars into Kroon, as we were warned that it was illegal for shop owners to accept foreign currency. We were on our own again today, and after a quick walk from port, we were in the old walled city. We had been on the hunt for a Faberge-type egg in Russia, but hadn't found one we liked. But we found one in Tallinn -- a beautiful blue egg that opens to show one of the Russian orthodox churches (we had been trying to find one with the Spilled Blood Cathedral, and this one -- showing a church in Moscow -- was the closest we came) and is also a music box. One of our favorite souvenirs. And, it figures, they accepted euros for payment. Was this just a scam to exchange money for Kroon at a ripoff rate?



We continued to explore the town, and Amelia and I opted to make a long climb up one of the church's bell towers. I was skeptical, as they said it was over 200 steps. But she was amazing, and made it to the top without any complaints, requests to be held, or rest stops. It was a super-narrow, winding staircase (and it was used both for folks going up and coming down, which made for tight squeezes), but the view was wonderful. (below is the tower we climbed.)






We continued to walk around, and the buildings were very pretty and ornate. In the main square there was a market (hooray!) with lots of sweaters, felted wool items, and other handicrafts. Several stalls had these seasoned roasted almonds that were just wonderful. And, of course, they accepted both dollars and euros. (It was fantastic to be able to use so many dollars on this cruise!) I got the kids these darling homemade horses, after much begging and pleading. They're so cute, I might keep them for myself.

Lunch was a stop at Olde Hansa, a restaurant serving traditional (I suppose) old Estonian food. Like meat soup (see picture for the big hunk of meat) and bear and barley. T.J. declared it the best meal he had all trip. The kids did well, and I ate almonds (too funky of a menu for me, and they didn't even serve Diet Coke).

After lunch we continued to walk around to the upper city, where we got in a game of tag, some ice cream and more souvenir shopping. It was a charming, charming town, and quite a nice way to end the trip.






Thursday, Aug. 7 -- Sea Day
Today was our first sea day heading back to Dover. In 6 days, I think we will change time zones 5 times. It's very confusing for the kids, especially.

The day was pretty uneventful -- just relaxing. I had a massage in the morning; T.J. played in his poker tournament in the afternoon (unfortunately, he didn't win this one). The kids enjoyed the Kids' Club, and I also took them swimming in the afternoon.

We went to one of the main dining rooms for dinner and to celebrate our anniversary a little early. They brought us a cake and sang "Let me call you sweetheart." Both the kids had big grins on their faces and loved the attention.

In the evening, the kids were in the club, going to see a acrobatic/dancing/magic kind of show. T.J. and I peeked in on the show and could see the kids concentrating intently. He and I went up to one of the lounges at the front of the ship so we could see the ship passing under the 2nd largest suspension bridge in the world, connecting Sweeden and Denmark. We got there just as we were approaching the bridge, and also entering a thunderstorm. It looked like we passed under the bridge with not much room to spare, and everyone clapped when we made it under. The lightening was pretty spectacular as well. Afterwards, we headed to the casino, where I got $20 in free slot play (lost it all) and $15 in blackjack play, which I managed to parlay into $100 with T.J.'s help. But as soon as I lost my free $15, I walked away from the table. I'm just not a good gambler (both skill- and temperament-wise)

Starting to pack and getting ready to go home. Hard to believe it's almost over. Even harder to believe that we're packing up directly again and heading to Nice, France for the coming weekend!

Friday, Aug. 8 -- Final Sea Day
More massages, more poker, more bacon.

Today was a little rough (gale force winds, they said) and so we weren't really able to do as much outside as we wanted. We tried to play soccer, but the ball kept being blown away. I tried to sit on the deck by the pool to read, but everytime I sat up, my chair's reclining back blew down. Luckily the kids club kept the kids busy, and the adults had plenty to do, too

I've decided that I probably could live on a cruise ship, so long as I could get access to laundry facilities. It's been a wonderful trip (kudos to T.J. for planning it!). Can't wait for the next one!!

Saturday, Aug. 9 -- Arrival in Dover
Though reluctant to disembark, it was an easy process and our car was right there to load up. We had a nice trip back on the ferry, where a pirate spent the whole ride making swords for the kids from balloons. Amelia kept asking for him to make a zebra. She kept getting swords. Now we're back home, and getting ready for our next trip, to Nice, France.

Cardinals or Nationals??

Recruiting will be starting early for this top swinger ... as long as he remembers to put on pants next time.

Baltic Cruise -- Part 3

Friday, Aug. 1 -- Sea Day

Not much to report other than T.J. won the poker tournament again. Jack and I tried to catch the end of it, but they tossed him out of the casino (Jack). Jack was quite upset, as he just wanted to pull the arm on the slot machines. We stayed on the edge of the casino doors (technically outside of the casino, but not by much). We couldn't see any of the action but knew it was down to T.J. and another guy, and T.J. had just won a large pot. I was very proud of him, and there was quite a crowd gathered around to see. He seems to be a familiar face around the place now, and we run into a lot of folks he's met in the casino.

I struck up a conversation with a woman while we were both in the library -- I was getting coffee after working out, and she was making lace. We chatted a little about it (she claims it's actually easy, but I still don't believe her). Later on, I was taking the kids to the pool, and we ran into her again. She actually let Amelia do a few "stitches" on the piece she was making, which I thought was quite cool (Amelia didn't see why I thought it was so neat and made such a big deal about it.

Just a lot of time in the Kids' Club for the kids, the gym for me, and relaxing for T.J. There's a lot to be said for sea days. Especially when the kids love the kids' club so much. Their counselors are BBQ, Milkshake and Randy (they give them funny names, as it's easier for the kids to remember. Randy just never came up with a good name.) The kids have really picked up a lot and repeat a lot of what they do. They enjoy talking like robots (from Alien Night), yell out "Hey, Cruisers" when they want to get my attention (and I have to respond "Hey, What?". And they also have a song about a monkey who taunts and alligator, and it involves blowing raspberries. Pretty funny.

Saturday, Aug. 2 -- Stockholm, Sweeden
We woke up to a gloomy (and cool) day arriving in Stockholm. We were on our own again, and we took a cab to the Vasa museum. The Vasa was a Sweedish wooden warship that was built around 1628 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasa_(ship)). It set sail from the Stockholm harbour, caught the wind, tipped, righted itself, caught the wind again, tipped and promptly sank. It was mostly forgotten about until the 1950s, I believe, and then was lifted up, mostly fully intact, and preserved in a museum. T.J. was very excited to see it, and I must admit, it was pretty impressive. Quite an amazing amount of carvings and detail and apparently fantastically painted. It was very interesting to see, and if you're interested in boats, I'm sure you could find out more online.







From then, it was a lot of walking around. Stockholm is a lot of canals and islands (not quite as many as Venice, but it was a similar idea -- I think they said it was 2,000 islands, though many are very small. It must be quite a maze for the captain to navigate!). We walked to the old town and it started to rain. Poor Amelia was cold, and we were scouring souvenir shops looking for a reasonably priced (and not tacky) sweatshirt. We finally found one, and Jack fell asleep in the rain. We decided to abandon the sightseeing in the rain and head back to the ship for lunch. We really weren't sure what we wanted to see in Stockholm (isn't that terrible?), but T.J. and the kids decided to stay put. I walked back, so I could go and look for a House Elf (a little elf that is supposed to bring good luck to a house). I walked the 30 minutes back to town and was getting ready to cross over the canal into the old city. But there was a gigantic alternative lifestyle parade going on, and I found it impossible to cross the street, and the parade had no intention of ending. I almost joined the parade to cross over but thought better of it (didn't want to risk messing with the Sweedish police). After another 30 minutes of walking, I finally found a tunnel I could use. Now I had barely 1.5 hours to do my shopping and make the walk back to the ship. I found my elves, and a Pippi Longstocking book for Amelia, and made it back. Completely soaked and exhausted. (You know how you're supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day? That day, I walked 35,000.)



Sunday, Aug. 3 -- Helsinki, Finland
We lost an hour of sleep today, which always stinks. The kids have been just exhausted, and we hate having to wake them up every morning. We took a cruise-organized tour to Porvoo, Finland, a little village about 1/2 hour outside Helsinki. It was a quaint little town, with a lot of handicraft stores, and is one of the oldest towns in Finland (second-oldest, if I recall correctly). We were a little surprised to hear that only 5 million live in Finland (compared with 5 million in St. Petersburg alone), and that the Finnish language has no similarities to Sweedish (I would've assumed them to be similar. The town was cute, but there wasn't much too see, and soon we were off to a horse farm to see horses and have cake.

The farm was also cute, and they brought out several horses to see. They brought out a Shetland Pony, and they let both the kids take a short ride, which they LOVED. Then a little cake with fresh green rhubarb (which was surprisingly tasty -- I'd never had it before) and blueberries and lingonberries with homemade caramel sauce. Quite delicious. Then it was a bus ride back to Helsinki for a little drive around town. T.J. and the kids stayed on the bus and headed back to the boat, while I stayed in the city with another woman who wanted to stay and shop.





The weather wasn't so good -- chilly and on-and-off rain.

We wandered around the city for a few hours and picked up a few goodies. We ran across an open-air market and found a bunch of odd foods, including some sort of stir-fried herrings and reindeer burgers. We didn't eat, if you can imagine.





I'm not exactly sure what I'd recommend about Helsinki, but there's nothing terrible about it, either. The kids just wanted to go to the kids' club (which was fine by us). T.J. went to a country music show while I went to the gym and to the spa for a (mediocre) foot massage. We were going to lose another hour of sleep Sunday night (and an early morning in Russia) so it was an early night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once we get back home, I'm going to post pictures in the appropriate spots on the blog here, but the internet connection is slow, and trying to upload pictures now doesn't work so well...

I may try, but if you don't see any pictures, check back on the posts in a week or so.

Installment 2 of the Cruise

Wednesday, July 30 -- Copenhagen, Denmark

We arrived in Copenhagen without really a plan, and it turned out quite nice. The weather was beautiful, again, so we got off the ship and walked toward town. The town, of course, was beautiful, full of canals and old buildings with copper roofs. We stopped to buy some tickets for a hop-on hop-off canal rides and found that the Little Mermaid statue was just a few minutes away. But while buying the tickets, we discovered we were right by the "New" Little Mermaid statue. The kids were rather fascinated that she had no shirt (and the statue was VERY clear about that fact, if you catch my drift), but Amelia started to get a little irate that this looked nothing like Disney's Ariel. That was nothing compared with her displeasure when we actually found the Little Mermaid statue. Amelia was very vocal about how she hated it, that it looked nothing like Ariel and she didn't even have long hair like Ariel (even though the statue did, in fact, have long hair). The rest of us enjoyed it, though I expected it to be a little bigger, they way it had been talked about.

We continued on through town, walking through an old fort, and an area guarded by soldiers in big, fuzzy hats, who looked to be about 18 years old and none too pleased with their summer outfits. We came across Tivoli Gardens in the heart of the city, and the kids finally declared this to be their kind of vacation. Tivoli Gardens is a big amusement park, and it was right up the kids' alley. They had a ton of fun, especially when they discovered the cotton candy and, of course, the carousel. I went on a roller coaster (lots of upside down and twists and turns) and a mini coaster-type ride with Amelia (who loved the speed and the bumps). For those who are going green, for every drink you bought, you paid a 5 kroner deposit (probably around a dollar), and they had deposit machines at the exits, and you'd put your cup in, close the door, and your deposit would be returned to you. Pretty smart thinking. So if you wanted a souvenir cup, you could keep it, but this way, no cups were going to waste.

We took a canal ride back from Tivoli Gardens (it was hard to drag Amelia away, but Jack crashed hard in the stroller, no surprise) and headed back to the ship. A wonderful day, followed by a great dinner and sending the kids off (willingly) to the Kids' Club. This night was Alien Night. And when I came to pick them up, they were putting a giant helmet over Amelia's head, calling it a spaceship, and saying that they were turning the kids into aliens. It was pretty funny to watch. They made goofy antenna hats, and they got sticky googly eyes on their foreheads as third eyes. Apparently they also colored paper plates, which are now hanging from the ceiling of the club.

T.J. and I went to see a show -- a singing and dancing extravaganza to the hits of the 70s. Now, I say this knowing that I have no singing or dancing talent, and anything these folks do is worlds better than what I can. But the whole thing reminded me of an American Idol audition where Simon Cowell would say that a performer is more suited towards cruise ship entertainment. It was campy and goofy, but it was funny to see the older crowd get down to YMCA and Queen.

Thursday, July 31, Warnemunde, Germany

I got up early this morning to go exercise (a little gym, a little outdoors) and tried to enjoy the scene coming into port (a little industrial, not much to see). I picked up breakfast for myself and the kids and brought it back to the room, only to find everyone still asleep. I took my breakfast back downstairs and ate outside, which was nice. We pulled into port around 8, and it didn't look like there was much to see. Except a nuclear power plant. For many people, the destination today was Berlin (2.5 hours by train), but we opted to stay close. And it turned out nice. We walked into town, which was actually quite charming. Lots of shops and restaurants lining a harbour. We bought tickets for a sightseeing cruise, which turned out to be the most disappointing cruise we've ever been on. They took us by all the industrial sites (including not too far from the power plant), and commented in German. We didn't take one picture the whole time, save for one shot of our ship as we went by.





That done, we continued down the harbour. T.J. graciously took the kids to the beach (apparently this is a very popular beach town, and T.J. said the beach was mobbed) while I did a little shopping. After lunch and ice cream, T.J. brought the kids back to the boat to go swimming while I hit a few last shops. I must say, the kids are napping wonderfully here. Even Amelia. All that fresh air and exercise, I suppose. Unfortunately, T.J. started feeling poorly again after his nap (fever, chills). So we'll see where that goes. I took the kids to the club (Carnival night!) and left T.J. watching CNN in the room, and I'm poolside composing the blog. We head out at 10 tonight and have a sea day tomorrow en route to ... Helsinki, I think? (oops, no, it's Stockholm)

I forgot to announce that T.J. WON the poker tournament on board on Tuesday. We're all quite proud, and they even gave us matching casino t-shirts (in case the cash prize wasn't enough). Yay for him!!

T.J. went to bed early, and I picked the kids up around 9 and took them to the café for crepes (yum). They've gotten to stay up awfully late this cruise! Anyway, we got back around 10, just as we were setting sail and leaving the dock. It was almost dark, but you could see HUNDREDS of people lined up on the docks and along the shore, waving and hooting and hollering, taking pictures all the while. As we left the port, 4 big tour boats (filled with people) chugged alongside of us, tooting their horns and cheering. And several other small fishing boats also tried to keep up. When our ship gave its toot (although much deeper than a toot -- what would you call a cruise ship's horn?), the whole crowd cheered. It was quite a sight. It even roused T.J. from bed to see what was going on. It was by far the coolest departure we've ever had...