To St. Petersburg round the Baltic Cruise - Copenhagen

Thin sea mist as we came into Copenhagen. We got up at 0750, partly because the noise of docking would wake the dead. After breakfast, we went out onto the gloomy quay, to photo the new Opera House & the Royal Yacht, a very nice, traditional boat with a big funnel.

The new Opera House

The Royal Yacht, not terribly ostentacious

We walked into the town to look at the palace square & the guards in busbies.

The Palace. There are 4 of these buildings but you can drive through the square with only minimal security.

Palace guards in buzbies.

King Christian X

Down to Nyhavn & across the square to Strojet. (When the Nazis invaded Denmark, they said all Jews must wear armbands. Christian X did so himself, encouraging many Danish to do the same. Good egg).

Nyhavn

Nyhavn

Strojet

Some way down, we decided the drizzle & grey was enough but I had bought another doll for Bessie. We went back to Nyhavn, had expensive coffee & then, walked up to the old fort (Kastellet), round it a bit & back on board.

Kastellet grounds

Kastellet

War Memorial

From the Kastellet grounds

Big fountain near the Harbour

We had an early lunch because of my "Waltz 1815-1915" gig at 1445, the ship departing at 1400. I went down to the Neptune Lounge just after 2 & hunted George down by going down to Glenda's & getting her to call him on the tannoy. We got everything going after some trouble with 50 cycle hum. I showed the Vienna Show & played Haydn string quartet music before the proper show. Only about 70 people came but there were no glitches at all. No one did the waltz at the end but some commented on how many slides there were. It seemed to go down ok. Bob Taylor, the funny man (but a very serious character in private conversation), had a show all about the early days of the Beatles members after me. The content was very good. He relied on George to play the few musical examples. We had a rest after that, getting ready at about 1845 into our posh glad rags. We went to the Captain's farewell cocktail party, then I did a turn round the deck, as the sky had cleared but it was very windy. I went up to the Palms for tea & found Wolfgang & Elisabeth, the Gerries (but GB resident for 12 years), he a Psychiatrist & she, a Dance Therapist. A long chat. Avis found us & we packed up. The dance hosts & Lydia arrived. We had a brief exchange of wise-cracks & I promised Lydia a CD of Paderewski's Piano Concerto.

The next day was the last, sailing towards Dover, alas. I had one more gig about Mahler, which was quite well attended. Before the talk, I played some of my own "Sea & Mountains" & showed my photos so far. We were at Dover quite early & made ourselves scarce at quickly as possible, carrying off our own luggage, no passport control (!) & home before 1100.

Port 1 - Ijmuiden & Kiel Canal

Port 2 - Stockholm

Port 3 - Tallinn

Port 4 - St. Petersburg

Port 5 - Gdynia

Port 6 - Warnemunde