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| The Fortified city |
Life on a Cruise Ship
While we partied at night at the ship was sailing towards Tallinn. I walked outside to go up to the upper deck of the ship which was exposed to the sea breeze. I felt a bit chilly but as I went up the steps towards the jogging track, the cold blow of wind hit my head and ears and I hastily retreated my steps to go back inside the warmth of the indoor regulated heating. It was still cold in the
Baltics and with the sea breeze, it was really freezing at this time of the night. Though
Costa Luminosa was nowhere in size as compared to many of the
Royal Caribbean ships, it is large enough to have quite a few facilities to keep everyone occupied. The
sporty types also had their gym, jogging tracks, swimming pools and other exercising options. This particular ship was docking almost everyday so time spent on board was limited otherwise in many cruises there are days where the ship is on high seas without any docking so people use more of the facilities on ship. In most cruise ships the casinos and the shopping arcade are shut during the time the ship is docked so people are encouraged to go out and take shore excursions.
Tallinn is pretty-very pretty
The Old down of Tallinn is a
world heritage site of UNESCO.
Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and is known as the fortified city as it had
to fortify itself against the armies who were all too ready to attack it. It lies
on the Gulf of Finland and would be just 80 miles from Helsinki. As was with
most East European nations, Estonia was
under Soviet Russia and then Nazis captured it during WWII. After the war Soviets
captured it again and it was only towards the end of last century could it get
independence. The cruise ship docked here in the morning and we got out
leisurely as today was a day without an agenda. I had done no study or research
about Tallinn and had no knowledge except the fact that the Old town was very
pretty.
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| Enchanting rooftops |
We strolled from the cruise ship and came across a church
which was very pretty. The
cobbled streets started from there and we were soon
in the Old town. It must have been just a 20 minute walk from the ship. As we reached the main square I was reminded
of
Prague. This appeared to be a miniature and simplified version of Prague. It
appears that most tourists come from the cruise ships so there must be quite a
bit of activity between 10 AM and 4 PM and for rest of the evening it must be a
sleepy little town. It is a kind of town that you take liking to the moment you set you foot on it. It has an old world charm and is dotted by churches, lovely rooftops, colorful buildings, and is surrounded by sea.
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| Sanya and I enjoyed this town very much |
We just chilled while we were in town. We started with
roaming the alleys and cobbled lanes; sat down for coffee at the main square;
had a leisurely beer at one of the pubs serving fresh brew; sat in the park as
sun was very soothing on this cold day; and then had a leisurely lunch. While
the others did some window shopping I climbed up the fort to have a nice view
of the city.
We walked back through another way and entered a huge modern
mall. From there we could see the modern new town. What a contrast it was.
Cruise ship is fun
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| The dining hall has thousands having dinner at the same time. |
This was our 3rd cruise in last 6 years. I have enjoyed them all. I have seen people either love the cruises or hate them. Very few are indifferent. I do agree that the staterooms are small and at times you can get rough seas but so far we have been fine. 7 nights in one room while visiting many places is something which I like. One doesn't have to check in and check out like you do for hotels for these 7 days. In the dining hall you have a table which becomes yours for 7 dinners. The people serving you get to know your likes and dislikes. After the 2nd day, Adley knew exactly what I would like for dinner among the choices we had.
The Costa ships literally force you to get up early as now they have stopped serving hot breakfast on upper deck. If you want eggs, bacon, ham and good breakfast then you'd better get up early and be in dining hall by 8 PM. Here you can get English, German, Italian , American and some other great combinations of breakfasts. Otherwise on the upper deck you will get croissants, fruits and sandwiches etc till 10.30 AM, which frankly we didn't care much for.
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| With Adley and Wilson. They served us each night for dinner. |
During the
Alaska cruise we had spent quite some time in casino also. For some strange reason we did not go to casino on this cruise but spent time at the spa. Each evening before dinner Kunaal and I would meet at the atrium bar for drinks and would then be joined by Devicka and Jyoti. The kids would come down at dinner time.
Christopher and his companions at the bar would tell us stories about different cruises they had served on. Many men would wear tuxedos for the captain's night and the ladies would wear cocktail dresses. On certain days the waiters and other staff would sing songs and entertain us at the dining hall and we would join them for fun and dance.
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| All set for a theme party |
On most days there was some theme party going on at the top deck. We attended a few. Devicka and Kartik would go for playing of
Bingo and twice they actually won some money so were extremely pleased with themselves. Kartik and I would go and play table tennis in our free time. There were a lot of activities happening at all times so the family would keep busy doing what they liked doing best.
Stockholm - the last stop of Costa Luminosa
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| The pretty city of Stockholm |
The ship was docking at Stockholm and would do so for 24 hours so this meant that we would stay on the ship for a night before disembarking.
We paid for a
Red Bus hop on hop off from the cruise terminal thinking that we will roam around the whole town on it while stopping where we wanted to. The bus service turned out to be terrible as at each stop we had to wait for a long time and the bus wouldn't come. We were told that there was a Royal wedding and traffic was disrupted due to that. But we felt our money had been wasted.
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| The charming old town 'Gamla Stan' |
Stockholm is a very pretty city and the main point in the old town '
Gamla Stan.' It was nice walking the lanes of the historic old town and looking at great glassware's and handicrafts but as it happens in most touristy places, the food was rubbish. From there we walked to the The Royal Palace which was being readied for the
Royal wedding. A former reality-TV star and glamour model became a princess, marrying the man who is third in line to the Swedish throne. Sofia Hellqvist, 30, married 36-year-old Prince Carl Philip at a lavish ceremony in the chapel of Stockholm's Royal Palace.There was a lot of activity happening just as there should be before such an important wedding. It was time to move on from here.
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| Relaxing near the City Hall |
The Stockholm
city hall area had nice views and we spent quite some time at the water-front. It was quite relaxing sitting here and looking at the lovely buildings across the water. There were many people kayaking and boating in the water and it was a lovely setting. This City Hall is the venue for the Nobel prize banquet which is held each year on December 10.
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| City Hall is the venue for Nobel prize banquet |
We walked the area where we had walked with our suitcases the first day and we walked many other areas in the city centre. The shops close early so the others left early while Kunaal and I stayed behind to do some pub crawling. These were some nice open pubs filled with weekend crowds. The glass structures had come up on the pavements and they were nice and comfortable. They were also very busy and one had to work hard to get a drink. We had our scotch with the Swedish tipplers and then traveled back to the port on bus no. 1 which took us a km away from our ship.
It is important to learn about public transportation and how to use it in European cities. We reached back to the port without any difficulties.
We wanted to spend the last evening on the ship with the people who had been our companions for full one week. It had been a lovely cruise.
A new journey would start tomorrow as we were to travel to Norway, to the very pretty city of
Bergen.
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| A selfie at a Stockholm Pub |
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