Tag: Cruises

Caribbean Cruise 2024 – Day 13- Princess Cays -Bahamas

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You might well ask what happened to Day 9, 10, 11 & 12…..Well!!!! ….Day 9 we were in St Thomas, it was crazy hot making you feel as if you’re skin was being dried to your bones or in my case I felt as if I was “deep fat frying”🤣🤣. We had been going to walk to the gondola and go up to the view point. It was sooooo hot we decided to just walk to an atm and get some money. We had spent quite a bit of cash because all our tours had been paid to local drivers in cash. The atm at St Thomas is in Mall 6&7 of the port shops, inside a nail bar… having both drawn enough cash to see us through the rest of our holiday we headed back to the air conditioning of our cabin…only as we went back through port security did we spy an atm machine at the security point 🤣🤣…

Day 10 we headed to one of my favourite islands Grand Turk. I love the wild donkeys….they’ve learnt to drink water out of your bottle and not spill a drop. I also like the fact that they provide free sunloungers and parasols to encourage tourists to come off the ship on to the island. However it was not to be this time. The sky was gray and it was raining on and off, we were definitely “rocking and rolling” . The captain and the port authorities decided it was not safe to try to dock so on we went.

Day 11 was at Sea – we played cards, took part in some quizzes, ate a nice meal and woke up on Day 12 in Fort Lauderdale. It was turn around day for us and disembarkation and embarkation for others. We complied with the bureaucracy of walking off the ship showing our passports to immigration and walking back on again…this process took 2 hours…we soon back at ‘our’ table playing cards and directing newbies towards the buffet…. I am beginning to wonder if all Americans have a phobia of starving to death so they have to carry food with them at all times, and don’t like to be more than a few strides away from their next meal…..this is the first caribbean cruise we’ve noticed this total obsession with food…..I think I am loosing weight just watching them eat 🤣🤣😢

Day 13 we woke up to blue sky and high temperatures…yeah!! After breakfast with Ernesto we went to the priority tender seating area…not quite certain which part of it is priority as we waited quite a while….seems a bit like their complimentary photo session…..no different from anyone else !!!!! Eventually we tendered to Princess Cays……I love this place….blue sea, sun-loungers…and not least of all this is where John proposed to me, in the sea some 11 years ago….We swam, sunbathed…..my mother would have been proud of me because it was so hot on the sun-lounger I put the waist of my shorts around my head to protect my ears, neck and top of my arm….it was a typical ‘Mum’ thing to do…John said at least it wasn’t my knickers !!!! After a second swim, we headed back to the tenders and back to the ship. 3 hours is about as long as we could stand the heat and most of that time we were in the water cooling off….but it was still long enough for me to do a good impersonation of a lobster…do so hope that when we get home to England I won’t be mistaken as Rudolph 🤣🤣 Great day…thanks Princess Cays you never fail to deliver a happy time.

Tallinn, Estonia – BEEN THERE GOT THE T-SHIRT

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Estonia is a country situated  in Northern Europe it has borders on the west with the Baltic Sea, on the north with the Gulf of Finland, on the south with Latvia and on the east with Lake Peipsi and Russia. It was formally part of The Soviet Union. Soviet authorities recognised Estonian independence on 6 September 1991, and on 17 September 1991 Estonia was admitted into the United Nations. 

Estonia consists of the mainland and a lot of islands……if you ask one Estonia they’ll tell you 1500 and if you ask another you’ll be told 2300 Islands….so I’ll just say a lot!!! The largest islands are Saaremaa and Hiiumaa. Estonia covers a total of 17,504 square miles(45,335sqkm).  It has a very diverse terrain which includes rocky beaches, old forests and many lakes. It’s attractiveness is not just one of scenery but it also in its very aesthetically beautiful castles, churches and hilltop fortresses. 

We visited Estonia as part of a Northern Europe, Capital city, cruise with Princess Cruises. We had had it booked before the arrival of the pandemic and it had been moved twice….so we were delighted to finally go  even though the itinerary was much changed from our original booking. This had been pre-invasion of Russia into Ukrainian and had included both St Petersburg and Helsinki, both of which were removed from the itinerary, the former because it was a country at war and the later because it was too close to Russia. 

Our trip to Estonia included a day trip to Tallinn, it’s capital city. Tallinn has a population of about 461,000. Tallinn is renowned for its preserved Old Town and museums. Our coach picked us up at the port and took us to the monument complex which commemorates the victims of communism. 

Our next stop was the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds it is valued architecturally and is the first post-war building in Tallinn which was completed in 1960. When not being used for The Song Festival the park is open for walking, sports activities and having a picnic. There is a beautiful statue of Gustav Ernesaks  who was an Estonia composer who died in 1993. The statue of him sitting overlooking the festival ground was erected in 2004. 

The coach parked up outside the old city walls and we followed our guide to Toompea Hill. Toompea or “Upper Town” is the home of some of Tallinn’s oldest architectural wonders and home to Palace Square. Our first stop was Alexander Nevsky Cathedral . This is a historic Russian Orthodox Cathedral. St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral serves as the dominating landmark in Palace Square, the cathedral’s cupolas and golden crosses rise high above the rooftops.

Turn your back on the Cathedral and you come face to face with Toompea Castle. The castle with its late Baroque façade was built between 1767 and 1773 and sits on the site of the foundations of a 13th century fortress. It’s outside wall is pink which was an attractive contrast to the wet dark cobbles of the area on this particular grey rainy day. The castle is now home to the Parliamentary buildings.

We then slipped and slid our way around the streets, if it hadn’t been for the heavy rain we would have been more enthusiastic about the history and beauty of the quaint streets. Instead of concentrating on what our guide was saying we were more concerned with staying upright and keeping warm. We made our way to Piiskopi Viewing point. It was worth it …the views were terrific. We looked down on Lowe Old Town. Our guide pointed out many buildings but we were ready to scurry into a tourist souvenir shop and get into the warm and out of the rain for a few minutes.

We made our way back to the coach which returned us to the port terminal. The weather really impacted on our tour and we were a bit disappointed that we couldn’t appreciate this obviously beautiful historical capital city….maybe sometime we will get to visit again.