Where have I been?

Please excuse my absence from my twice-weekly posts on this blog but I have been away enjoying myself in another part of the world. For the first week I was on this ship:

But first we spent a day in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is where the cruise started.

Our first stop on the cruise was at Stockholm, Sweden, which is a pretty, organised city situated on 14 islands so there is water everywhere.

Then on to Helsinki, Finland where we drove out to one of the oldest towns in Finland, Porvoo.

On our way back to Helsinki, we passed this rather majestic church sitting all alone in a field.

When we arrived back in the city, the heavens opened as we ran to the indoor markets. It was worth getting completely drenched for the lovely array of food.

Our next stop was St Petersburg. There are not enough superlatives to describe this glorious city. If you visit anywhere, you have to see the majesty of St Petersburg before you leave this world. We were very lucky in that we hit one of only 30 days a year when the sun shines.

We visited the incredible Hermitage Museum and were blown away by the beauty of each room as well as the amazing collection of famous paintings displayed there.

We reluctantly had to leave St Petersburg after eight hours of wonder, which included a lunch that was low Fodmap without even trying – no onion or garlic in sight.
Our last stop was Tallin, Estonia, which has a pretty historic centre. We went on a walking tour and managed to lose our guide, which was no great loss since she didn’t seem to know much about the town unlike all the other great guides we had on the other tours.

I even found a bus named after me.

And then we spent a day and two nights at sea getting back to Copenhagen where we started the second stage of our holiday, which I will tell you about in my next post.

I will leave you with some final images of our spectacular ship.