When Jack and I first booked our Ireland and Scotland trip, we thought while we were all the way across the sea, we might as well see where else we might like to visit, so we started to look around to see what countries were nearby that we would like to visit. While searching I discovered that Princess Cruises was offering a cruise out of Copenhagen to Boston four days after our tour ended in Scotland. That seemed perfect for us! We could visit Copenhagen on our own, then take the cruise with its various stops and avoid that long flight back to the US, leaving only a five hour flight home! Perfect!
So, after Scotland, we flew to Copenhagen that evening, arriving late at night and went straight to bed! The following morning we went for a walk to get feel for the city and check out the hop-on-hop-off buses. Copenhagen was cold and windy (all four days!) but at least it wasn't raining. Our hotel was right in the heart of the city as we had hoped, so that worked out really well. We were right around the corner from Tivoli Gardens and took a peek at it, but as pretty as it is (we could see into it from the restaurant "Cocks & Cows" we are at) it is mostly rides, so decided not to actually buy the entrance tickets and enter. There were also some fun shops nearby too, like a huge, incredible Lego one with giant displays that were more than 7' tall! The one thing that stood out more than anything else, though was bikes! Tons of them everywhere, people riding them (all ages!) and parked. You had to watch them more than the cars!
Talking with a travel assist person, we decided that the two day hop-on-hop-off bus ticket was the best option for us to see all the areas we were interested in, so off we went!
First stop, Christiania, also known as Freetown. An intentional community and commune of about 900 residents and is about 19 acres. with its self-built houses, workshops and concert stages. To say it's unique is an understatement. You certainly could see their artist's in all the wonderful murals painted on their buildings. I bet at night when the lights are on and the music is playing it is truly magical.
From there we continued on to the canals where the beautiful colors of Nyhavn really show! The red building is where Hans Christian Anderson lived. The harbor was crowded, but so beautiful, it's no wonder everyone wanted to be there! A little further on was the "big" attraction - the Little Mermaid. She really is small, the crowd around her is much bigger, lol
All in all we were glad we only planned on a short visit to Copenhagen. After experiencing two weeks with such fun, gregarious, happy Irish and Scotsmen, it was an abrupt comedown to be around such cool, staid Danes. A smile was rare, let alone a laugh. The food was also not what we expected either. There seemed to be trash everywhere, but that could have been because of the wind, which was constant.
Then, we were off to relax for two weeks aboard our Princess Cruise!
We had one day at sea, then our first stop was at Shetland Islands, Scotland. This was a cute little island day stop at Lerwick that we were warmly welcomed by some "vikings" and friendly shop keepers. Some of the passengers went off to see where Shetland horses were bred, but we just stayed in town and wandered around and enjoyed the locals.
The next time we got off was in Liverpool England. That was a fun visit, very "Beatles"! But...they also had the most incredible cathedral ever! Everyone kept telling us that "it's not that far, you can walk to it", so we did...up hill, mostly on cobblestones, 3 miles up, then 3 miles back down again! I thought Jack would kill me (after my tenth time of "we're almost there"). He did admit that (after he could breathe) it was worth it. It's the largest cathedral in the UK. It took 74 years to build. Beautiful. There were other lovely sights as well, like their Chinatown Arch, and the long, long "love locks" at the harbor, murals, etc.
After several days at sea, with fun entertainment aboard, we stopped at Sydney Nova Scotia. The first thing you see is a giant fiddle! They are into music here and we were told to come back in February for annual music festival! Once again, we enjoyed walking around their quaint town, seeing historic houses, churches with cemeteries, and ran into a fellow blacksmither who makes incredible pieces, some of which we've never seen before, like a larger than life safety pin! Jack had a great time chatting with him.
Our last day stop was in Halifax Nova Scotia, and our 30th Wedding Anniversary! We celebrated with a great lobster lunch out on the edge of the harbor, just lovely. We'd been to Halifax several years ago in our motorhome, but it was pouring down rain, and all I wanted to do was leave! This time it was lovely, so we actually got to enjoy seeing the town. Found the Old Burying Ground, ran into "Winston Churchill", saw the Province House, discovered that Samual Cunard was from here and built his first cruise ship here, learned about signal masts and saw some beautiful churches.
Our cruise was relaxing, just what we needed after two and half weeks of steady go, go, go. This was the same exact ship we had been on when we went to Tahiti two years ago, so we were familiar with it and comfortable getting around. That said, we found that things had slipped a bit. Food and entertainment were not quite as high quality as they were two years ago. Our room was great, service, super, but not as personal (like nothing said or done about our anniversary), just the things that probably they are trying to cut costs down on. The Princess entertainers were very good, it was the ones they brought on board, that were not up to standard. The food that they prepared was okey, they just didn't have the higher choices, like steak, escargot, or lobster etc that they used to offer.
It was a GREAT vacation, one filled with so many wonderful sights, adventures, experiences, laughter, and fun that we will treasure forever. Will we do this again? Probably not, as we age, that type of travel gets harder and harder, and we find that the packing and unpacking, the hassle of flying etc. more than we want to burden ourselves with. We really love our motorhome and the convenience of having everything we need with us as we travel. We are already planning next year's road trip!
I took a ton of pictures, so if you're curious, help yourself and check them out on my Flickr account (it's just under my name)
Hugs, Marie
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