Of Winds and Whispers.

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We walked a couple of blocks then realised we weren't far from the Church of the Spilled Blood.

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We had been to Starbucks but not for coffee.A Starbucks St.Petersburg mug-what more appropriate souvenir could you get!

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This restaurant was definitely not on my must visit list.

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It started raining heavily again so it was back to the gift shop/pick up point.When we got there an ambulance with flashing blue lights was outside.Turned out that an older German lady from our bus had been knocked down the stairs by an impatient Chinese tourist.

But back to the ship for another very nice dinner.

And some night scenes of St.Petersburg from the ship-

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Tuesday and now we are not allowed off the ship.Didn't really matter as it was another miserable day with rain and wind.Used it to catch up on some sleep.

So the advice if you are going to St.Petersburg on a cruise.Think about going on a smaller ship as they will dock in the centre of St.Petersburg.The larger ships dock well outside and usually a 1 hour + ride into town.I would definitely go for a cruise that spends at least 2 nights there as long as it arrives early and leaves at at least 6pm on the third day.48 hours would not be enough time to see enough of what St.Petersburg has.

But if you go by cruise ship definitely get a private tour through a Russian Travel firm.We would heartily endorse SPB tours.They were easy to deal with online and paying by CC.Did everything they said they would.Wonderful guide and driver.Flexible.And your visa that they arrange covers you for all the days you have booked and not just the tour times as per ship's cruises.

Tuesday night and it was dinner with 2 Aussie couples.One working for an airline.A great night.But before that was sail away-

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The name at the entrance to the port is still Leningrad.Lots of new buildings here as well.

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Leaving St.Petersburg there was a lot of traffic-

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We awoke the next morning as we sailed into Helsinki-

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Our plan was to walk into the CBD where the Marimekko outlet was supposed to be.Unfortunately it turned out to be only a normal retail outlet with high prices.There were also a lot of beggard in this part of town.Had not seen that before.So another walk back to the ship through the markets-

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Lunch on the Pool deck then a successful day at trivia and golf.

The next day was a sea day so more relaxing.Quite a way into the day we overtook a slightly smaller vessel-

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That night it was the Venetian Society Cocktail party and formal night for dinner.We dined with the Guest Relations Manager,Priscilla,from Sao Paulo.We were having a great night with lively conversation.As we were served dessert there was a loud crash.Turned out to be our Scot trivia partner who had passed out crashing to the floor and knocked herself out.As luck would have it her head landed no more than 6 inches from the feet of a Neurosurgeon at the next table.The crew were fantastic and she was taken off to the hospital.However her husband had slight cognitive problems so I took care of him until the Cruise Director and Cruise consultant took over.They ensured he was looked after that night.Fantastic work Vicki and Nancy.

Drama over and it was off to bed ready for Warnemunde in the morning.

Entering the channel at Warnemunde-

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A Costa lines ship beat us in but it had to go further in before it could turn so we were first to the wharf.Not everything on the water was large-

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The Regal Princess was already at her dock.You can see the relative size by the shadow we cast.

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What a screen!Not every vessel was classy.The Costa dock,we would be further along the wharf.

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Ready for the day trippers-

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Several trains ready to take people on their day trip to Berlin-

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Whilst we berthed in front of an RV park.Not many busses for the Whisper.

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Very soon we were off for a walk around Warnemunde-

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Despite all the seafood available some headed straight here-

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The seagulls were huge.The young fellow had to protect his piece of crab from the older birds-

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This was the old entrance to Rostock harbour.

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And a favourite beach for East German summer holidays-

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The wind was a problem on the beach but not for some others-

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An icon of East German architecture-"the teapot"-

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If you look closely there are actually a couple of people in swimming-

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The channel was quite busy mainly with ferries-

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Wow.That last photo gives you 3 major attractions-the teapot,the old lighthouse and the free train around the town!

The exclusive area of beach wasn't popular,but then the downmarket area wasn't jumping either-

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Now our walk around town.Most houses had pretty little gardens-

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There was an interesting piece of art in town-

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The last of our wander around town-

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It was then back to the ship for a light lunch.Around 3pm I decided to go for a stroll and try a fish bun.I noticed we had a stowaway-

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I pointed it out to security who had a great laugh.

I had not walked far when a German couple was walking towards me both eating a fish bun.A seagull swooped taking the whole bun out of his hands.Before any of us realised what had happened the gull had swallowed both halves of the bun.When the couple left he came back for the fish-

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When I got to the fish stalls a woman had just bought a roll mop.She had it on a plate....for a few seconds until a gull swooped.I noted they were waiting-

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So when I bought my fish I made sure it was covered-a gull still tried to dispossess me.At least the fish was freshly smoked-

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Behind us was the Costa Favolosi-

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The kayaker had to take quick evasive action as when he came around the bow the cross channel ferry started out-

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An interesting statistic.Although the Regal Princess looked larger than the Costa ship it's maximum capacity is 240 fewer.

Now time for dinner,a late sail away due to Berlin day trippers and anticipating our transit of the Kiel Canal in the morning.