Cruising to Norway, Denmark and Russia

I’ll skip the descriptions of the typical cruise activities everyone has experienced but there were some differences on this P&O Cruises. For example, there were no towel animals - too whimsical, perhaps? Beyond the usual food service, they also served afternoon tea. I only made it once but I tried scones and tea biscuits with clotted cream - much nicer than it sounds. Dermot and I were sometimes assets on a team with Brits in the quiz challenges. Embarrassingly however, we did not know the origins of ZZ Top. 

Kristiansand, Norway

When you think of Norway, you picture magnificent fjords with the occasional colorful village thrown in. Our time in Kristiansand, Norway was wet - ranging from drizzle to downpour and there wasn’t a fjord in sight. We attempted a self-guided walking tour but truncated it a bit and everything looks pretty gray in the pictures. As far as I can tell, the main reason our cruise stopped here is that it’s conveniently located along our route to St Petersburg, Russia. I spent that evening and the next day drying out my shoes, backpack contents, and new “waterproof” jacket. 

Copenhagen, Denmark

We were forecast to have fair weather during our stay but experienced more rain. After attempting to wait it out, we gave up, bought plastic ponchos and carried on. Copenhagen is a lovely city where bike-riders take the right-of-way on wide paths and pedestrians nervously pick their way along narrow even pavers and (often) uneven cobblestones. I wished we had more time to visit the reportedly wonderful National Museum or fit a canal tour in but time was too tight. On our way out of Copenhagen we had more rain and then a double-rainbow. 

Our Photos Here

St. Petersburg, Russia

This was the big draw for us and we took a “Splendors of St. Petersburg” excursion that had us hopping for two days from one impressive palace, artwork, and fountain to the next. There were 14 people in our minibus and we enjoyed riding in comfort with explanations from a young native Russian. Since we hadn’t arranged a special visa prior to leaving home, we were restricted to a led tour and there were no opportunities to chat with locals. We got a pretty rosy description of current life in Russia and descriptions of historical events were told with a similarly positive perspective. I once asked what happened to churches and cathedrals after the revolution and civil war and was told that of course, they lost some of what they had but that most churches were turned into museums.  

History for those interested

Though we did see many splendors of St. Petersburg, we didn't see much of the Hermitage and left feeling that we only got the barest glimpse into all the cities we visited.  I guess that's the trade-off between vandrifting and cruising.