Thursday, July 30, 2009
I LOVE Copenhagen
After the cruise we got to stay in Copenhagen for two days and do some real sight seeing. That is the coolest city ever, I highly recommended it to anyone and everyone! We stayed right in Nyhavn where all the pretty colorful houses are on the water. The sightseeing is amazing, cathedrals, castles, parliament buildings, gardens, amusement parks, town squares, incredible restaurants, yummy ice cream and John's favorite hot dog of all time!
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tallin, Estonia
The first stop on our cruise was Tallin, Estonia. I LOVED this city. It's small and quaint and old and full of cobble stone streets and beautiful castles and churches.
St. Petersburg, Russia!
The longest stop on our cruise was St. Petersburg, Russia. We made the most of it with a full day of a city tour, tour of the Summer Palace/Petrohoff Museum, the Winter Palace/ Hermitage Museum, a fun little Russian-ish lunch at a restaurant and we ended the night with Swan Lake with the Russian Ballet. It was an incredible city, such beautiful buildings from hundreds and hundreds of years ago contrasted with hideous concrete buildings built during the communist times. I am so grateful I was able to see just a day of that country, it made me so very very proud and thankful to be an American!!
Our day started out with a tour of the Summer Palace where Peter the Great spent his summers. It was huge and lavish and very gold. Pictures were not allowed to be taken inside but the gardens were free and so gorgeous!
Petrohoff Museum "Summer Palace"
Around the town pictures from inside the tour bus
The Hermitage "Winter Palace" where Peter the Great spent his..you guessed it, Winters! Huge doesn't even begin to describe how big this place was, it was a maze. He sure needed a lot of space considering it didn't even have a work out room or theater! Ha! My favorite part of this museum was getting to see my first Da Vinci. I could have stared at it all day, every brush stroke, but those Russians are pretty impatient and probably thought I was plotting how I was going to steal it so the alarm would go off if my nose got too close. We also saw the "Return of the Prodigal Son" by....dang it, I forgot and a Caravaggio. I loved Art History. By the end of the three hour museum tour we were all so tired and saying things like, "blah blah blah, we don't care about the Spanish art, just show us a bench to sit on!" But it was amazing, so beautiful and ornate and huge and culturally nourishing!
After a long, amazing day in St. Petersburg Denise surprised all the girls with tickets to the Russian Ballet! On the way there, we were talking about how cool it would be if they were performing Swan Lake and they DID!! We even had our original tour guide Alexander! The performance was amazing. It left Andrea and I wanting to go buy toe shoes and dance all over the ship that night! Thanks Denise, it was a night I will NEVER forget!!
Our day started out with a tour of the Summer Palace where Peter the Great spent his summers. It was huge and lavish and very gold. Pictures were not allowed to be taken inside but the gardens were free and so gorgeous!
Petrohoff Museum "Summer Palace"
Around the town pictures from inside the tour bus
The Hermitage "Winter Palace" where Peter the Great spent his..you guessed it, Winters! Huge doesn't even begin to describe how big this place was, it was a maze. He sure needed a lot of space considering it didn't even have a work out room or theater! Ha! My favorite part of this museum was getting to see my first Da Vinci. I could have stared at it all day, every brush stroke, but those Russians are pretty impatient and probably thought I was plotting how I was going to steal it so the alarm would go off if my nose got too close. We also saw the "Return of the Prodigal Son" by....dang it, I forgot and a Caravaggio. I loved Art History. By the end of the three hour museum tour we were all so tired and saying things like, "blah blah blah, we don't care about the Spanish art, just show us a bench to sit on!" But it was amazing, so beautiful and ornate and huge and culturally nourishing!
After a long, amazing day in St. Petersburg Denise surprised all the girls with tickets to the Russian Ballet! On the way there, we were talking about how cool it would be if they were performing Swan Lake and they DID!! We even had our original tour guide Alexander! The performance was amazing. It left Andrea and I wanting to go buy toe shoes and dance all over the ship that night! Thanks Denise, it was a night I will NEVER forget!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
