me429sb

 

Hi Michelle, thank you for your appreciation.

Schwerin is a lovely baroque town, set on 7 lakes. Many of the buildings have connections with the ruling Ducal family. The palace gardens on the edge of the largest lake are beautiful and the outside of the palace is, to my mind, more interesting than the interior. On a Baltic cruise you see some really splendid palaces, especially in St. Petersburg, so missing the interior of Schwerin is no great deal. The park surrounding the castle has some interesting features and is very pleasant in summer. Guided walks in English are available. Please see my Schwerin page for details.

There are some nice cruises on the lakes, the landing stage is right next to the palace. The 4-See cruise includes the three smaller lakes within the suburbs, lovely waterside houses and quaint week-enders, approx 1.5hrs. Or you can take the ferry to Zippendorf, about 20 mins. to the lake beach for a swim. Return on the ferry at 3.50pm or on the tram.

For more info. see http://en.schwerin.com/en/attractions/water/boat_tours/index.html (in English) or

https://weisseflotteschwerin.de/ (German only.)

You could also combine Schwerin with Wismar if you have the time.

 

Many thanks for the tip re. the link on the Rostock page, now deleted. I have no idea how it got there and apologise to anyone whom it may have offended. It is just the latest in a long line of unexplained additions to my internet activities which have caused me recently to get out of the social media scene completely and strengthen my security. Hopefully it will not happen again.

 

Happy cruising :)

Anni

http://www.travelanni.webs.com

Anni - thanks for the great tips. We'll definitely take the train to Scherwin during our port stop at Warnemunde. Glad I could help re the link.

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Anni,

Thanks for all the great information - I found it really helpful. I was planning a trip to either Schwerin or Güstrow on our port day (5th June 2017) but as it is a Monday both palaces will be closed. Is there still enough to justify a visit to Schwerin without seeing the inside of the Palace?

Also - did you know that you have a link to an escort service on the Rostock page of your website? And not a tour guide kind of escort! I couldn't find a contact me link on the website so I thought I'd let you know here.

Michelle

Thanks Mim - this spreadsheet was really helpful and will make this decision so much easier. I appreciate you sharing it.

We are doing a baltic cruise in June 2017 and I booked an open jaw ticket into Amsterdam and out of Copenhagen. The flight between Amsterdam and Copenhagen cost $A125 including luggage so around $US100. I always like to add on an extra destination if time permits and have found open jaw tickets to cost no more that a standard return ticket - the trick is to pick two destinations served by the same airline.

So is it permanently chartered by another company? Previously it would disappear for the duration of the charters (usually 6 months or so) and then have scheduled cruises again but there are no scheduled Sapphire Princess cruises at any time in the future on the princess schedule.

I just noticed that Sapphire Princess is not in the princess schedule at all after April 2016. I remember reading that it was going to be based out of Beijing but if its not part of the princess schedule is it operating under another cruise company?

We're due to get onto the Sea Princess tomorrow in Brisbane so I'm praying she gets there. Also hoping we can get a flight into Brisbane tomorrow!

Michelle

With regards to the altitude my husband and I both took altitude medication the entire time we were in Cusco. The only affects I felt were a slight tingling in the fingers and a bit of breathlessness. You shouldn't feel any ill affects at Machu Picchu as it is nearly 1000m lower than Cusco at 2430m. If you do feel any ill affects from altitude skip the visit to Chinchero which is higher still at 3800m - even our driver was having trouble there and we both sounded like we were having an asthma attack walking up the hill through the village.

I didn't really like Lima at all - we had 6 hours between flights there and went into the Plaza de Armas for a walk around. This was nice and felt relatively safe but other parts of Lima are definately not safe and you need to be very careful with the taxis there.

Michelle

Would you mind telling me your itinerary and where you stayed and the approximate costs? Thanks. Sue

Sue,

Our itinerary was as follows:

Mon- arrive Cusco 6.30am ex Lima. Airport pickup arranged with hotel. Check into Los Apus and Mirador hotel. Rest in morning, afternoon Cusco Plaza de Armas

Tue - car arranged by hotel. Pisac ruins & market, Tambomachay, Puca Pucara, Q'enqo, Cristo Blanco, Sacsayhuman.

Wed - car arranged by hotel. Cusco to Ollantaytambo via Chinchero, Ollantaytambo ruins, 3.37pm train to MP, check into Terrazas del Inca.

Thur - Machu Picchu, 4.43pm train to Poroy, car Poroy to Cusco arranged by hotel. Return to Los Apus and Mirador hotel.

Fri - car arranged by hotel. Tipon, Pikillacta, Andahuaylillas.

Sat - 7.45am flight to Lima. 5.45pm flight to Santiago.

We absolutely loved the hotel in Cusco. The service was great, the room was nice (upstairs no elevator) and the rate included pickup from the airport and breakfast. I saw rates up to $100 pn but we paid $55 pn so look around. They arranged cars for us each day which were around PEN120-140 day. The hotel in Aguas Calientas was $60 - it wasn't that great but unless you pay a lot of money they're all pretty average from what I read on Tripadvisor.

The drivers we got didn't really speak english (I think you pay more for that) but I managed to get along fine with my basic spanish. We didn't find a lot of people who spoke english (other than other tourists) so I really gave my spanish a workout!

I really enjoyed Cusco and could easily have spent another week there and done things at a much slower pace but we were already away from home for 7 weeks so I couldn't extend it. The five days we had were enough to see nearly everything we wanted.

Michelle

Sue,

I searched for dates in July, August and November 2013 and got available trains. The tickets for 2014 will not open until mid to late December 2013. We went to Machu Picchu in February this year and the tickets didn't open up until just after xmas.

March is low season in Peru so you won't need to worry about whether you are able to get tickets - you could buy them the day before in Cusco and still find available tickets. The only tickets you might not find are Cusco to MP but you can alway get tickets from Ollanta to MP and this is in many ways a better journey. We left from Ollanta and got a taxi to take us there stopping at sites on the way. On the way back we bought tickets all the way to Cusco but they actually offloaded everyone at Urabumba and put us on buses back to Cusco because the Hiram Bingam is the only train running all the way to Cusco because of damage to the track from landslides. The Cusco station is actually at Poroy which is some way out of town so you will need a car/taxi to collect you anyway.

If you have any other questions I'm happy to answer them.

Michelle

We'll be in Dunedin on xmas day travelling on the Sea Princess. I usually arrange independent excursions but have decided to book the taieri gorge trip through Princess because I was worried about the availability of transport from Port Chalmers to Dunedin on xmas day. This way we can just get on the train and enjoy ourselves but, if we were there on another day I would have probably done one of the train trips independantly.

I'm really looking forward to it as the trip is supposed to be spectacular!:D