Across the Nordic Sea

There I was. On a boat. The day ahead was a sea day. We had to cross the Nordic Sea to reach Copenhagen the next day. So, as there were no new lands to explore this day, we shall dive into the topic of entertainment on boats.

While, in the early days of seafaring, passengers were entertained by keelhauling and the occasional case of scurvy, today's audiences demand higher standards. Quite rightfully I should say. Cunard, the owning company of the Queen Victoria, attempts to meet these demands with a potpourri of lectures, entertainment and activities, some of which could even be misconstrued as sport.

Setting Off for the Baltic Sea

It was the summer of 2010. My sister invited me on a visit to her workplace once more. Surely that would not be worth mentioning, if my sister wasn't working for Cunard and her workplace wouldn't be the Queen Victoria. For me this effectively translates to “Free Cruise”.

I had the pleasure before. In 2008 I travelled the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. This time it would be the Baltic Sea. From Southampton we would go to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Oslo, Kristiansand and back to Southampton.

Now sadly the great age of the vacation slide show has come to an end. I can't come to your homes, put up a slide projector and let my monotone voice recount overly detailed stories of non-interest while you fade into unconsciousness. Even if I could, I'd probably be to lazy to visit you all. Thankfully the technologies of today offer convenient alternatives. I will therefore strive to relive the excitement of such an evening through a pointless travelogue stretching over ten to fifteen ill-written blog posts. And yes, I really mean it.

Festival of Lights 2010

It's that time of the year where the nights get longer, the landmarks of Berlin get strangely colourful and all the photographers come out. We like to call it the Festival of Lights. No one cares if you're walking through the city with a tripod, because everyone does it. And we're all taking the same pictures.

The Sun Going Down on Tempelhof Airfield

It wasn't planned that way. We had the opportunity to jump on a tourist boat tour for free. But that didn't happen and I blame the S-Bahn. We would have had lots of time to find the right boat, if it weren't for the fire on the train tracks. I had to take another route and instead of 30 minutes I arrived five minutes before the boat left. Still enough time to catch the boat though. And indeed we reached a boat, but unfortunately not the boat. We stood in front of a boat, waiting for the passengers to board, while the boat was 100 meters to the left. And it was not exactly waiting for us. Just when we realized the subtle difference between a and the, we could see the boat passing by. So much for the boat trip.

Suddenly we had a lot of time to kill. So we went to Tempelhof airport instead. An ex-airport since 2008 and since May 2010 a city park with the widest bike paths ever. And not very much obstructing the view of the sunset.