Stockholm, Sweden

Oh, did we have a wonderful lunch in Stockholm! It was also one of our favorite cities on the tour. This restaurant opened in 1775, before the US was even a country! We had sandwiches, but most importantly, we had pastries!! They were even better than they look, and they look pretty awesome :)
The kids in the city center. It is a gorgeous city built on 24 (I think that's the number!) islands. We took a boat tour while we were there, plus its the easiest was to get around to all the islands. It was a one hour bus ride from the dock to Stockholm so we all had naps on the way to and from the city!

The ship, Vasa, sunk in 1628 in Stockholm's harbor on her maiden voyage. Not found until 1956! The ship and museum are just awesome. This is the back of the ship, it reminded us of the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean. If you want more info, ask Rolf when we get home, you know he had to buy a book on it!

Stockholm is just a gorgeous city! We all loved it and wished we could have spent another day or two . . . or three or four! Someday maybe we'll go back.

Helsinki, Finland

Quinn and Anna found a park to play in; it was our first stop of the day. This was a teeter-totter. It was really fun, it went up and down and also spun in circles. The city is full of parks and dogs!
Lunch break. We ate in a little stall that served sandwiches, pizza and sweets. We paid $4.50 for a doughnut, but it was worth it!

Here's one of the rows of stalls in the pavilion where we ate lunch. There was anything and everything at these booths, including elk jerky and fish heads! We weren't that adventurous with our lunch menu!

Now who doesn't want to sing a little karaoke when you stop for a potty break?!

Second day in St. Petersburg

The kids with our guide, Svetlana. She was so wonderful and knowledgeable. She really made our 2 days in St. Petersburg memorable.
At Peterhof Gardens. Peterhof was the summer palace of Peter the Great. There are about 40 fountains on the property and they are all stunning. There were many that you could walk or run though, which was nice considering it was so hot!

Our appetizer for lunch at the summer palace, borscht. Don't know if I'm spelling it right, but it is a typical Russian meal. Beets, cabbage, rosemary, and sometimes meat if its available. It was delicious even though it looked a little suspicious!

Ellie, Anna, Quinn and Travis taking a break from all the walking!

More St. Petersburg

Inside Catherine the Great's Palace. Yes, amazing and yes, absolutely packed! Summer is the high season and everyone comes to visit Russia during the warm months. During our 2nd day of touring with our guide, she told us that she couldn't remember 2 sunny days in a row in the past 15 years! On average, there are only 40 sunny days in St. Petersburg a year, let alone 2 days of 90 degrees! On the second day the air conditioning on the bus couldn't take it anymore and it quit running. Luckily, it was the end of the day and we were only 30 minutes from the ship!
The alter at the Church of Spilled Blood. It took 40 years to build. During World War II when the Germans bombed St. Petersburg, the church was almost completely demolished. It took another 40 years to re-build it!

This is a mosaic of Jesus as a 10 year old boy. It is one of only two representations of Jesus as a boy in the churches of Europe. It was at the top of a spiral tower, lots of zoom on this one!

St. Petersburg, Russia

Oh, were we so excited to get to Russia!! This was the only city in which we booked a tour. We thought it would be a little tough to get around the city and get to all the sites without a guide. We were so right! It was 2 full days of touring with our guide, Svetlana. She must have had a degree in art history because she knew every bit of history and trivia about every single site we passed. We did a bus and boat tour, along with walking, seeing the Hermitage Museum, and many other sites. It was just amazing to be in Russia and see all these sites that 30 years ago would have been impossible to see.

Quinn in a gift shop in front of shelves and shelves of nesting dolls. Not that she wanted to buy one, but it was a cool picture!


The kids in front of the Church of the Ressurection, also known as the Church on Spilled Blood. Every inch of the inside is filled with mosiacs that are just stunning. I'll post a couple pics from the inside on my next post.

Our little Russian girls, trying on fur hats in the middle of a heat wave!

Tallinn, Estonia

Here we are in Tallinn, by far our favorite city of our tour. It was a beautiful mix of old town, historic buildings, and shopping! We had no idea what to expect but we were so happy to have spent the day here. We would love to go back someday!
Ellie, Susan (a friend of Ellie & Travis' they met on the ship), Travis, Dave, Quinn, Lisa & Anna taking a break from all our walking. We probably put 4 or 5 miles on our shoes that day!

The kids in Tallinn's Old Town. We bought quite a few souveniers here, including 2 rings for myself! They are gorgeous, one amber and one peridot. Think that's my spending limit for the trip!

We were in a Marzipan Museum! It was weird but also kinda cool. Never thought I'd ever be in one. :) All the kids made a marzipan creation. Quinn made a mouse on a piece of cheese. Actually, I guess not all the kids made one, Travis wasn't interested in making one, but he did have a snack there at the snack shop!

Pics from the ship

Look at this pool! It was so crowded every day, the weather was the best it has been for this cruise in years. The staff couldn't believe how much sun we were getting. We felt truly blessed to be spoiled by all the great weather we were enjoying!
Quinn and one of her new friends, Kathanja. She is from South Africa and just the sweetest girl. Her dad was the doctor on the ship. She and Quinn exchanged email addresses and I'm sure they'll keep in touch.

Here's Quinn sleeping in the hat she bought in Germany! After she fell asleep I pulled it off her head so she wouldn't have heat stroke in the night!