Helsinki & Nynashamn

Thursday 8 September 16

Let’s back up to our last days in St. Petersburg.  We enjoyed our stay at the Mini-Pride Hotel and the owner, Andy was a terrific host.  Unfortunately, B & I were both on the puny side, and spent both days mostly resting.  I did go do laundry, but actually Andy took me to a place that a little old babushka did it for me.  The $15 cost covered the whole suitcase (3 loads) and she insisted on folding it for me also…  I did a bit of shopping then found a very comfortable café to wait in until the laundry was done…

Russian Babushka in Lasundrymat

On Tuesday Andy drove us to the ship with our 4 pieces of luggage & 2 carry-ons.  I managed to catch a few Pokemon on the way to the ship.  Andy had never seen a large cruise ship so it was very interesting for him.  Going from a ship of 200 to a ship of 3000 is a bit of a transition…

There were no porters outside the docks when we got there (and no other passengers) and so Russian security helped us put our luggage on the conveyor belt to get x-rayed for customs.  Once inside, there was 1 Princess kid who helped us get through the building to outside the ship.  There, a Princess crew lady met us and gave us correct luggage tags, got us our cruise cards and an escort who took us onboard to process in.  It was very smooth except for the luggage and we think joining mid-cruise may be the way to avoid the crowds.  However we did have to do a boat drill still AND the next morning wake up at 630am, UGH!!, to clear European customs as we entered Finland…  OMG!  It was a bit of a goat rope as they made us be there by 645am in one of the restaurants, but did not serve coffee and were not even ready until 715!  Hell!  I could’ve slept another half hour!!  Lol!  We finished and went back to bed…

Helsinki

Yay!  No tours so we went ashore about 1030am.  Caught the ship shuttle and just wandered about the downtown area.  I was looking for some prints by the Finnish artist, Inge Look so we went to this huge store, Stockmans.  B found the food section and I went across to Starbuck’s and had a pumpkin spice latte.  We then meandered our way back to the shuttle and I caught a few Pokémon along the way.  The weather was quite nice and we enjoyed our day…

Upon returning to the ship, we had a light lunch and played bocce ball.  I went to late afternoon trivia but haven’t got a good team yet so am on a losing streak so far…damn!  Lol!  At dinner we are seated at a table for 4 but it has just been B & me until last night.  We were joined by Heather and Sean from Canada and had a pleasant conversation – we may switch to a larger table our of Copenhagen but it is nice to have another couple to chat with…

Nynashamn, Sweden

BTW it’s pronounced Nyna’s Hym…

Finally a chance to really sleep in – we even managed breakfast about 10am.   After collecting our things, we disembarked and walked a lloong floating bridge to reach land – over 300 meters.  We found out it was recently built at a cost of over $6million  and is retractable - much better than a tender port which it used to be…  Again we rode a shuttle that took us to the train station – from there it was about an 8 minute walk uphill to the center of town.  Some folks took the train and rode an hour into Stockholm, but Sweden is expensive and we had been there before so we opted to just stay close.  Nynashamn boasts lovely countryside and a pretty town center.  We enjoyed our stroll in the sunshine and there was plethora of Pokémon – I caught 4 new ones and had a Picacchu on my radar, but he never popped up…

After wandering around town we caught the shuttle back but asked the driver if he would drop us at the mall across from the ship.  Earlier we had seen the crew bringing bags of stuff back from the Dollar Store…  yay!  We are 2 for 3 in finding dollar stores – lol!  B bought some candy for the casino staff and I got some toothpaste…  We had a very enjoyable day exploring this city in Sweden… 

Nanashymn Courtyard

Friday is a sea day and Saturday we arrive in Denmark.  Posts will be a bit spotty from here till the end as connection is not as good.   Chow