We’re so glad you’re going to join us on our Viking Cruise to Scandinavia and the Baltic.  For 15 days we’re going to pretend we’re nomadic Vikings (along with about 900 other eager beavers), moving from place to place (albeit aboard a pretty nice “boat,” with no rowing necessary and no helmets required), visiting all of the places the Vikings called home: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Poland, Germany, and Estonia.  We’re looking forward to spending time on board the beautiful ship as well as the 18 shore excursions we’ve signed up for.  (Sounds like somebody’s naps are going to be seriously impacted!).  Three tours that I’m especially looking forward to are Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, the Hermitage Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, and a visit and recital at the house in Bergen, Norway, of Edvard Grieg, one of my favorite composers (no, Edvard won’t be there).

Okay, so you know the drill.  It will probably be quiet for a while until we actually arrive in Stockholm and get settled in.  We’ll fly out of San Diego on Saturday morning at 6:15 and, after making a connection in Newark, we’ll land in Stockholm at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday morning (where it will already have been daylight for 4 hours!).  Ship boarding begins at 1 p.m. and other than boarding, we have the entire day free.  Our first shore excursion, a panoramic tour of Stockholm, isn’t until Monday morning and then our ship leaves Stockholm for Helsinki on Monday afternoon.

You’ll notice there are 2 tabs at the bottom of the header photo at the top of this page.  The “Home” tab is where you are now and where you’ll find my daily posts.  But also be sure to check out the “About our Trip” tab.  Although this page won’t change, it does contain some preliminary information as well as a list of the individual shore excursions we’ll be taking and a bigger version of the map (one you can actually see – how refreshing!).

So…everybody ready?  Okay then, let’s go!  See you there.

Chuck & Joyce