Fun In Finlandia!

Photos: 1) Uspenski Cathedral, Helsinki; 2) Old Town Poorvo, Finland; 3) Neoclassical architecture in Downtown Helsinki; 4 and 5) the monument to Finnish Composer Jean Sibelius; 6) Finnish icebreakers in Helsinki harbor.

On Monday we made our first ever visit to Finland. The Emerald Princess docked in Helsinki at around 10 AM and we boarded our tour bus before driving into the center of town. As is often the case when you travel, we were pleasantly surprised by the interesting appearance of this city. Our first stop was the monument to famous Finnish composer Jean Sibelius designed by Eila Hiltunun, which was unveiled in 1967. Other drive by attractions are: the Olympic Stadium, Finlandia (concert) Hall, Temppeliaukio Church (carved out of a mound of granite,) Uspenski Cathedral, and the Finnish National Opera. We stopped our bus for an hour near the Helsinki Cathedral and walked trough the shopping district neat the center of town. Helsinki is quite beautiful with lots of interesting neoclassical architecture. Following our stop downtown we drove about an hour east in the direction of the border with Russia to visit Finland’s second oldest town, Poorvo, that dates back to the 13th century. On the way to Poorvo we had a delicious lunch at a country manor house. Poorvo features many quaint wooden structures and narrow cobblestone streets in its old quarter. There is a pretty old stone church to visit. The organist was playing while we were there. After our visit to Poorvo we returned to our ship and joined our friends for dinner as the ship set sail for St. Petersburg. We are taking with us fond memories of our visit to Finland.

Stockholm Photos

Here are some photos from our delightful day in Stockholm on Sunday. 1) The National Palace; 2) National Palace Interior; 3) Our new found gay friends on board the Emerald Princess; 4) The National Museum - 8 Rembrandts! 5) The Emerald Princess docked in Stockholm; 6) The Grand hotel, Stockholm, where we stayed 26 years ago and had lunch on our return on Sunday.

Return To Stockholm

Twenty-six years ago, when we visited Stockholm for the first time, with my late father, rain fell from Thor’s sky every day. The same weather showed up yesterday on Sunday, but the skies became clearer in the afternoon. We took a shuttle bus from where the ship was docked into the center of the magnificent Swedish capitol. From the Opera house we walked to the National Museum. A more spacious city than Copenhagen, Stockholm has the grandeur of a well-laid out urban plan.

The National Museum houses a great, if medium-sized, collection of great art. There have many paintings by the German Renaissance painter Cranach, several works by the Baroque masters Rubens and Jordaens, and best of all eight Rembrandt’s, including the rare history scene, “The Conspiracy of the Batavians.” The magical light in the painting and the brutal expressions on the faces of the conspirators make this work a most unusual treasure. From France, the museum boasts a painting by Poussin, and many works by the eighteenth century artists Watteau, Boucher and Chardin. From 19th century France there are masterpieces by Courbet, Delacroix, Manet, Renoir and Gauguin. We also saw an exhibit called “Love and Vice,” showing the way erotic scenes have been depicted in art from the Renaissance to the present day. The show asked the provocative question, ‘Who’s the voyeur, the artist or the viewer?’ We also saw some of the museum’s outstanding and large collection of decorative art.

For lunch we walked to the nearby Grand Hotel, the most famed hostelry in the city. We had stayed there on our last visit to Sweden, and the hotel is still elegant. Then we boarded a covered boat for a harbor tour that went past many of the islands that comprise the beautiful city of Stockholm. One of the stops let us out at the magnificent Royal Palace. Past the guards, in their steel helmets and colorful blue and white uniforms, we toured the royal apartments. Like Denmark and Norway, Sweden still has a monarchy; although all three of these Scandinavian countries are very democratic in everyday politics. At the end of the afternoon we took the boat back to the ship.

We enjoyed another convivial dinner Sunday evening with our new gay friends Bob, Lance and Gary, who we met through the ship’s meeting of the Rainbow LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender group.) Lance and Gary, from Texas, own a large ranch where they raise cattle. Who would have dreamed we’d meet folks with such a different life-style?
And after dinner we saw an amusing hypnotist’s show in the Princess Theater.

Today we explored Helsinki, by late afternoon the rain did depart.
--Dan

Sunday In Stockholm

Sunday in Stockholm

A little later this Sunday morning we arrive in Stockholm. We’re not booked on any organized tour today, rather we plan to take a shuttle bus transfer into town. We hope to visit the art museum and perhaps the royal palace. However, while yesterday at sea we had sunny conditions, the forecast for today is for cloudy skies and rain showers. So we’ll have to play it by ear as far as touring today goes.

Last evening we joined our new gay friends for the Captain’s welcome dinner. There was a festive free champagne reception and special menu items at the dinner such as delightful escargot. It was a “formal” dress evening so we asked a friend to take photo by the grand staircase.

The photos below are those which I could not post yesterday due to problems with Blogger and internet explorer. The first three were taken at the pantomime theater in Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens. Photos 4-6 are of “Hamlet’s Castle” (Kronborg Castle) in Elsinore. Photo 7 is a Horned Greeve that is nesting at the Frederikborg castle. Photo 8 is Frederikbork, Photo 9 Fredensborg Palace and the last two ate Frederikborg castle. (Whew! – the castle and palace names are a killer.)

Jim

Copenhagen And Denmark Castle Photos

On Board The Emerald Princess

On Board The Emerald Princess

Saturday, and we’re at sea…slowly making our way to Stockholm. The big surprise on boarding this beautiful new ship is that we received a strict warning that there was an outbreak of a gastrointestinal virus on the previous cruise that affected somewhere around three hundred passengers. The ship was completely sanitized in Copenhagen before we boarded, and strict sanitary measures are in place today. The Captain has made announcements and all passengers have received notices urging frequent hand washing and the use of available hand sanitizing dispensers. In addition, there is no self service at meal time. You have to ask for everything to be handed to you, even packets of Splenda! Oh well, this isn’t the first time this has happened on board a ship. The good news is that the outbreak seemed to have been contained toward the end of the previous cruise with fewer new cases reported.

Computer access is slow on board since it is satellite-based. Nevertheless, we should be able to post trip reports to the blog. Hopefully Blogger will get its act together and we will be able to post photos again soon.

Today (Saturday) we are at sea for the day. Tomorrow morning we will be in Stockholm. Since we have not been in Scandinavia for 26 years it will be like visiting this city for the first time for me.

:Last evening the ship hosted a get-together for gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans passengers. We were delighted to meet five other gay guys who are also passengers on this cruise. Tonight our group will have cocktails and dinner together.

Jim

Problems With Blogger

To our readers: this blog hosting service for Hard To Port (Blogger) was down for about two days on Thursday and Friday. Even worse, they removed our post from Thursday and only recently restored it. That's why you haven't seen anything new from us until now. It's Saturday morning here and we are sailing along the coast of Sweden headed for Stockholm. Currently Blogger will not let me post photos, but keep checking back for messages and photos when we can.

Jim

To Tour Or Not To Tour

TO TOUR OR NOT TO TOUR

The main event of Thursday was a bus tour to the Danish countryside. Thanks to my brother Billy, we were inspired to book a tour to “Hamlet’s” castle of Kronborg. The character of the melancholy Prince may have been fictional, but Shakespeare correctly located the castle in the town of Elsinore (English version of Helsingfor.)

The tour started out with an hour and a half drive to Frederiksborg, a great 17th century royal castle which is now the national historical museum. Though most of the huge palace was destroyed by a fire in the 18th century, it was rebuilt, thanks to the generosity of the brewer Carlsberg in the early 20th century. It’s furnished with the rich, rather heavy furniture and decorative style of the Baroque age, and some of the rooms, such as the chapel are very imposing. Jim even managed to photograph a nesting grebe in reed waters, since the castle is surrounded by a large moat. The visit to Frederiksborg was the best part of the excursion.

Then we briefly stopped at Fredenborg, a castle that the Queen still uses. After that photo stop we finally arrived at Kronborg, too late to visit the interior which closed at 5 PM. But we explored the grounds and enjoyed the magnificent view from the site, close to the ocean. I felt peeved that the tour guide brought us so late to the Renaissance castle, since the tour had been labeled “Hamlet’s Castle” and also that we returned a half hour late to Copenhagen. Yet it’s always worthwhile to see the landscape of any country, to obtain an idea of the differences between city and country.

After a brief stop at the Royal Hotel we left for Tivoli Gardens, to have a delicious dinner at one of the restaurants in the amusement park, La Vecchia Signora (The Old Lady.) Then we saw the unique pantomime theater. Danish pantomime is part slapstick, part ballet, and based on the old Italian theater form called the commedia del’arte. Characters like Harlequin, Colombina and Pierrot chase each other around the stage. The colorful and amusing commedia’s survival into the 20th century appears to be thanks to the Danes. The shows are done twice daily at Tivoli. They are the best events in the park in my opinion.

Friday we boarded the Emerald Princess, which sailed away from Copenhagen Friday evening.
--Dan

Christianborg Palace

The Royal Theater