We finished our European tour and are now on our final leg. We are taking a 15 day cruise on Viking through the Baltic Sea. We wrap up with a few days in London post cruise. Crazy how fast this journey has gone and how wonderful the experiences to date. I know earlier I mentioned the importance of living in the moment - no matter how big or how small. This trip has certainly reminded us to appreciate all the moments. Here's one from last night at dinner - a simple yet stunning sunset - took our breaths away. No photo enhancement - pure nature. I don't think you can paint something that beautiful.
We are on Viking Jupiter - never been on this cruise line before - it is an absolutely beautiful ship.
One of the really fun features is their spa area which includes a pool, hot tub, snow grotto (yep - room filled with snow / ice), sauna and ice cold bucket drop (yep - you stand underneath a bucket filled with ice cold water until you are brave enough to pull the cord - let's just say you feel "alive" when that water hits!). There is also a cold plunge pool but it's inside the separate dressing rooms so we didn't try it out. We really enjoyed everything else though - even when our bathing suits and hair froze a bit in the snow grotto :).
Snow grotto - yep - real snow and ice.
Main pool / hot tub area - really nice after the grotto!
Cold bucket challenge - just stand underneath and pull...
The trip out of Stockholm was really beautiful. It was almost a 3 hour trip to fully exit into the Baltic Sea. Along the way you were literally right next to the coast - really gorgeous. It reminded us a bit of the cruise through Alaska - or what you might see in the Pacific NW.
Today we were in Helsinki Finland - it is a smaller city with just over 650,000 residents. We took a tour of the city to see some of the sights. They only achieved full independence 100 years ago - prior to that there was a lot of history with both Sweden and Russia. One of their most famous citizens is Jean Sibelius. He was a composer and violinist. He is recognized for helping to give the Finns an identity as they struggled for independence from Russia. They have erected a monument to him - looks like an organ.
Another well known citizen is Eero Saarinen - he was a furniture designer and architect. For our friends from St. Louis, he also was the designer for the St. Louis Arch! Here are some pictures of the Helsinki city.
And the obligatory picture with the naked statue. Quick funny story though - apparently this statue created quite a scandal for the Finns. As our guide told us, even though they are ok swimming without clothes they felt it was completely inappropriate to have a statue of a naked lady. Ironic.
We started the post with a picture of the sunset. Here's a view from our room this morning at sunrise. I am not the most patient person :) so I was proud of myself for waiting for an opportunity to capture the bird waking up for the day. I'll always prefer sunsets (and I'll always see more of them!) but this is still beautiful - the start of a new day with so much promise.
Enjoy the Ride!
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