A good night’s sleep (for me anyway) as the foghorn throughout the night kept waking Paula. It woke me about 2am but after that I took no notice.
With a 10am planned arrival, it was pushed out to 10:30am – which is perhaps as well, as I forgot to turn the clocks forward! Back to a proper breakfast and a Robert Timms coffee bag coffee, so feeling back to normal. The fog was still surrounding the ship, even as we walked off, into the souvenir shed and paid up for the Ho-Ho bus. What a great greeting. A very informative young man who took the time to explain the route and it only got better when we were greeted by the driver – who was a cockney! Even with the usual pre-recorded commentary, decent padded headphones rather than the cheap plastic throwaway ones, the driver added his little bits to each stop, giving plenty of notice before the next stop.
A great tour and a great city. We hopped off back at the main harbour-side market. Wow! We are well used to markets where many offer cheap souvenir tat, mediocre food and grubby looking fruit and vegetables. This one had the most amazingly colourful food stalls, many selling similar food, where it was predominantly salmon, accompanied by tiny new potatoes, interesting rice and a colourful vegetable mix. It all looked so appetising, hygienic and dare I say it, healthy. There were also a few burgers, reindeer meatballs etc., but there was also herring and a small fish which could well have been whitebait or something similar. Whitebait in NZ is not much more than the spawn, but in Europe it is a proper fish,
The jewellery and craft stalls, not to mention furs, all looked very classy too. Prices for the food were more than reasonable and the other stalls very varied – all in Euros.
We walked around for an hour or so, just enjoying the whole Saturday atmosphere and the waterfront. There were even vegetables being sold from small boats. One local custom seemed to be shelling and eating a bag of garden peas!
We just missed the bus at stop 13, but were able to walk through to the cathedral (stop 1) and catch it there. Nice to have the same driver as before – Richard. We continued back to the port where the upper decks of the ship were still shrouded in mist, even though it had been bright sunshine everywhere else
Back on board and a coffee, a quiche with a very nice chicken Waldorf salad with cashews. Yes, I did just write that I ate a salad. Up, on deck 10, our cabin was in bright sunshine.
A couple of days ago, I posted a pic of me with a bag of vegetables, just to prove to the doubters back home that I have been maintaining my minimum of five fruit and veg a day. That Morrison’s bag contained a mix of carrot, parsnip, sweet potato and beetroot – crisps. Well? Are they vegetables or not? If not, what are they?
It was Paula’s turn to catch up on a bit of shut eye, whilst I managed to watch the final practice for the British Grand Prix.
After dinner, even though we knew we had a long day tomorrow, we’d heard that Kiwi entertainer Steve Larkins’ ‘Freddie Mercury’ tribute show was worth a look. Now I never was a Queen fan at the time, but they did produce some stunning music, which many of us have come to accept as classic. Steve’s singing and piano playing with the backing of the Emerald Princess orchestra and particularly the lead guitarist, Thomas was excellent, though had Freddie Mercury been alive today, I’m not at all sure that I’d be a fan.
Naturally late to bed with not only clocks forward an hour but a 6:15am start too, with a light room service breakfast ordered. A long day tomorrow for possibly the highlight port of St Petersburg with an overnight stop. We don’t have Russian visa’s as they are not required if doing a Princess tour.
Half way through this 14 day Baltic’s cruise already…
PS: Feathers? Paula seemed to attract a friendly the seagull this morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment