Eurodam

The ship is huge.  She is 290 m long and on this trip, she has just under 2,000 guests, plus about 900 crew.  And aside from the mayhem at disembark this morning, the organization has been great.

One can only tell it is a ship (and not a hotel) when you sit still and feel the rumble under your seat, lie in your bed and be gently rocked to sleep, or sit at a table and watch the slight quiver of the orchids.

Since embarking on Monday afternoon, we have spent a morning on tour in Kiel (highlight was the naval memorial and the walk through the U995 submarine), and afternoon poking around through Kiel (WMF store!).

Wednesday was a sea day.  I had hoped to swim for some exercise (no, not in the Baltic) but the pools are not set up for that, so it was walking the deck or spend time in the gym.  I would rather walk the deck and on level 3, you can make circuits around the ship -- 3 loops equal 1 mile and over the day I strolled for 15 loops.  There was almost always another boat to be seen somewhere on the horizon and it is quite amazing how quickly they pass.

Thursday was our day in Helsinki.  The Finnish capital is wonderfully clean with many modern and old elements.  We walked through the Lutheran cathedral (stark Lutherans), a fabulous modern church built inside the rock (lots of granite here) and checked out the Sibelius monument.  I opted to walk back to the ship and spent a few very pleasant hours strolling by the water.

So today is Friday.  We are anchored off the docks and had to be tendered to the shore.  Mass chaos this morning about how to get the tickets to indicate which boat you will be on.  I started waiting early and got on the first one -- lots of time to catch this train and now I am speeding north through countryside green on both sides to Gavle.