Day 5 - I Love Kid's Club

Smooth seas today and sunny but still a bit cool for typical August weather - only about 12-13C (mid 50's F). Today we took full advantage of the kids club since both kids could now enjoy time there. It was totally surreal leaving the both of them and Kevin and I having a couple hours totally to ourselves. We headed to the back deck of the ship to read and sit in the sun in our sweatshirts.

We went to pick the kids up for lunch and they must have been having a pirate day because their faces were painted and they were making pirate crafts when we "interrupted" them.

We got a little daring at lunch and tried something new. Addison go this gourmet PB&J sandwich and, of course, french fries! After lunch the kids and I headed back for a nap in the room and Kevin delved back into his Warren Buffet book for a couple hours.

We brought the kids back to Kids Club so they could go eat dinner with the other kids and go to a show. How crazy was that to send my kids off to a show with total strangers when I was afraid to bring them myself. They absolutely loved it though because when we picked them they acted like they were singing with microphones.

While the kids were off playing, Kevin and I snuck off the the hot tubs for about 45 minutes then had dinner. Again super surreal that we were doing that. We also worked on canceling our second St. Petersburg day tour as we felt it would be way to much for the kids (and us!) We did get to visit a little bit with the lady who was advising on Russian souvenirs and she did a good sell job as we were only going to by a Russian stack doll, but now our hearts were set on one of the decorative eggs.

Warnemunde/Rostock, Germany

Today we ported in the little town of Warnemunde, Germany...ahhh...we love Germany!

Unfortunately the rain that was supposed to hit us in Copenhagen yesterday followed us to Germany today. We did get lucky that it didn't dump down rain on us but it was awfully gloomy all day, but it only made the brightly painted buildings pop out even more in the town square of Rostock. It was only a 20 minute train ride from the port to Rostock's train station.

Then we made our way to city centre on the tram. We only headed in the wrong direction for about 3 stops before we finally asked someone who understood where we wanted to head.

We made our way up Kropeliner Strasse in the Altstadt (Old Town) which was a lovely street with colorful houses and nice shops.

Rostock is home to the oldest university in Germany and here in the main university square is the Fountain of Happiness. There do seem to be a happy lot of creatures in this fountain...particularly the naked people behind us.

Addison found a new pair of shoes...and so did Kevin! After the kids fell asleep, we snuck into a shoe store and Kevin bought himself a new pair of Sketchers. We had to be pretty confident that they weren't going to hurt his feet as there wasn't any real way to return them later on.

At the end of the street was the medieval Kropeliner Tor. This Gothic styled tower was one of the former gates to the city and parts of the former wall that surrounded the city can be seen near it.

I really wish I understood something about the German language, but I've found that I can make a decent guess. I think that this incredibly long store name means that this is the University Bookstore.

For a special treat for the kids, they got to eat at McDonald's. I was pretty tempted to try the Nuremburger which was 4 little sausages all laid out on a crusty bun with grilled onions. But why get the fake version when you can get the real thing.

I found a little sausage stand out in the square with some amazing bratwurst loaded with mustard for only 1.50 Euro each.

They tasted so good that I had to have another!!!

St. Mary's Church was quite a site to see. This commanding gothic style church was like none other that we had seen...and we've seen a lot of big churches.

The Marienorgel (organ) dominates the front of the church and was originally built by a local of Rostock back in 1770 and continually worked on until it was finished in 1938. It has over 5700 pipes with the largest measuring eleven metres (32 ft) and the smallest is the size of a cigarette.

The St. Rochus Alter is a side alter in the church which is a shrine to Rochus the patron saint of the Black Death. It was set up in connection with the Black Death epidemic that effected so many in Rostock centuries ago. A friend of mine who visited the church just a few months earlier put it best when she said it looked like something out of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

This medieval astronomical clock is the only one of a kind in working condition with its original clockworks. On the top is an apostle go round giving hourly performances. In the middle is a clock with daily time, zodiac, moon phases, and month. On the bottom is a calendar that is valid until 2017.

The renaissance style pulpit is decorated with scenes from the passion of Christ. To get over the poor acoustics in the church, the pulpit was built in the middle of the church to get as close to the congregation as possible.

I loved the tall stained glass windows and this was one of the largest single stained glass windows in all of Europe.

After a nice day in Rostock, we made our way back to Warnemunde to check out our little port city.

The sea comes into the land via this waterway and it was beautifully lined with fishing boats and ships on each side.

Fun boats like this were in the mix selling fresh and fried fish.

Warnemunde has some beautiful beach and I had hoped that we would get to enjoy some of them but the weather was pretty rough. Even after we were almost blown away as we walked down towards the coast, we made our way to the Warnemunde Lighthouse.

Not thinking very much at the time about how windy it was on the ground, I forgot that it gets windier the higher you get up. Even though we sometimes feared for the childrens' lives, we did see some great views. Here we got to see back our path back to the boat and our ship just dominates the skyline.

The beach looked great and I wish we could go out there and play, but look at those waves rolling in.

The gentleman tending to the lighthouse was very nice and gave the kiddos a few sweeties.

The kids really enjoyed the lighthouse and of course their sweeties.

It was a long port day, but we got back for a nice dinner to celebrate a very special day.

Today my little boy turned 2 years old!!! What a little cutie!!!

The wait staff brought him up a little birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday to him...how sweet!!!

Copenhagen, Denmark

Our cruise stop was in Copenhagen, Denmark and what a beautiful place.

Our favorite spot during our whirlwind tour of the city centre was Nyhavn which reminded us a lot of Amsterdam with the style of buildings and brightly painted colors.

The canal was lined up with tall masted boats and loads of people in the cafes lined up along the water.

Of course, a trip to Copenhagen isn't complete without seeing the infamous Little Mermaid. The interesting thing is that this delicate little statue was currently on display in Shanghai, China so they set up this huge TV screen up just above her normal resting place with a live feed of her displayed in China. The kids didn't quite understand the whole concept (neither did we really) but it was pretty cool. The statue was actually commissioned by Carl Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg Brewery. He loved the "Little Mermaid" play so much that he wanted a sculpture of the main actress made, but when she wouldn't pose nude for it the sculptor used Carl's wife as the model.

Honestly though, Kevin quite enjoyed the "new" Little Mermaid on display just outside the port. She's really not quite little and very well endowed.

On our way to the entrance of the Kastellet, we stopped to admire the Gefion Fountain. It depicts the story of how Copenhagen was created by the Norse goddess, Gefjun. The Swedish king gave her permission to plow up as much land as she could in one day and one night the to use as she wished. So to maximize her time she turned her four sons into oxen in order to plow up as much land as she could. The got enough land to create the island of Zealand which is what most of Copenhagen exists on today.

The Kastellet was a massive fortification built to defend the Danish capital. The ramparts built in a star shape which allowed all walls to be fired upon by at least one other wall. This allowed not only the soldiers to fight off enemies from the top but they could be supported by other soldiers from another wall. Today the site serves mainly as a public park and historic site and is home to a church, a windmill and military housing. On this particular day there was a massive ECCO walk organized so along with hundreds of cruise goers there were 1000's of locals congregating in the courtyards. The original windmill was built in 1847, but replaced twice. This one is Dutch style and still fully functional and tested every year on October 28th apparently.

They are very particular about protecting the site as these little signs are all over the place. We assumed they said "Keep of the Grass" which is a hard enough concept for a 2 year old to understand when he is told in English because our little Harry just wanted to run off all over the place.

Outside the Danish Freedom museum, was a Danish produced armored car, which was put together covertly during the last days of the German occupation and helped to persuade the last German soldiers to surrender. Looks a bit scary to me...

Next we walked up towards the Amalienborg Castle where the Queen lives during the winter season. Soldiers of the Danish Army serve as protection and security for the Queen so they are posted throughout the plaza. Each day at noon there is a changing of the guard, but each guard has only a two hour shift. As part of each inspection the officer in charge is commissioned to check the red cloak hanging in the guard house. Though it is meant to wear when it's cold or raining, but in the past some guards used it to hide their girlfriends behind it. It's supposedly doesn't happen any more but it's still tradition to look.

It was amazing walking along the pier into town. We loved all the big boats along the way.

After walking along the pier a bit we made our way to Nyhavn which is a 17th century waterfront constructed by King Christian V to create a gateway from the sea to the inner city. It was dug out by war prisoners from the Dano-Swedish War...hmmmm. The area's past had a very infamous reputation for beer, sailors and prostitution and today is still a popular place to sit and have a drink and walk about with one as well. Hans Christian Anderson lived here from almost 18 years of his life....sure he got lots of interesting inspiration.

At the end of the Nyhavn is an area called Kongens Nytorv which displays a large ship's ancho to commemorate Danish soldiers who were lost in WWII.

Next destination was the Stroget which is said to be Europe's longest pedestrian shopping street. With mostly high street shopping stores there were some other interesting little bits to it like the Guinness Book of World Records museum. I took an opportunity to size myself up to the world's tallest man at over 7 feet tall.

Down a little ways was the oldest square in Copenhagen called Gammeltorv (Old Market) which dates back to the 12th century. It features a really neat fountain called Caritas Well. The figure was originally carved in wood but later cast in bronze. The figures depict the three theological virtures of love and symbolized by a pregnant mother and her children. Kevin didn't think this was all to interesting until I pointed out that the woman sprays water from her breasts while the little boy "pees" in the fountain.

We ate at a cafe with outdoor seating which was really nice. The tables had white paper on top for the kids to color on and we had some of the most amazing food. I LOVED my hamburger and Addison quite enjoyed eating up all of Kevin's fish...funny how our picky little eater will try new things when she's absolutely starving.

At the end of the Stroget is Town Hall Square and again we ran into another big shin dig going on there as well. It looked to be a big street football (soccer) competition. There were boys and girls of all ages playing in what looked like cages and I felt like we were at some street 2-on-2 basketball deal but with soccer. It made the square come alive though and it was so cool to be there filled with thousands of people.

Across the road was the Tivoli Park which is said to be Walt Disney's inspiration to build the Magic Kingdom. We didn't go inside the park but we could see all the big rides and it looked like fun.

Staring into the park as well was the huge statue of Hans Christian Andersen.

Facing in the Town Hall Square was this interesting building which touted the local Carlsberg brew, but I loved how they made the left side corner of the building into a thermometer and it was a whopping 12 C outside (about 55 F).

You know a place has to have great food when you can order 11 different kinds of sausages from a street vendor that look like this. I love the hotdogs that look like a Twinky-dog on the bottom.

Did you know that the Oldest Glove Factory in the World was in Copenhagen.

And did you know that 7-Eleven was in Copenhagen as well??? Yep, right there in the corner store on the big square.

In the afternoon we strolled down to Rosenberg Castle and the amazing gardens that surround it. It is home to the Danish crown jewels and is a commanding Dutch Renaissance style building.

We really loved the garden/park. We found some really interesting things in it that were so unique. It's not often you see people spreading out a blanket for a picnic next to grass covered furniture. Also they had some really fun kids play equipment that was so bright and colorful and used lots of recycled materials. Addison had a blast.

Before we headed back to the boat, we stopped at one of the little places in the Nyhavn to sit and relax and take it all in. All the chairs had blankets on them to cover up with so Addie snuggled in while Harry slept in the push chair.

We got the bill and gasped when we saw what a beer and Coke cost...81.00Krone!!! But then we looked below and they had price in Euros (only 10.80 Euros).

A quick but great day in Copenhagen.