This is the third part of our St. Petersburg Cruise journey. It all started with the planning stage which we cover here. We had just finished three great days in London before beginning our cruise. We took a cab over to the St. Pancreas train station, and an hour and a half later we arrived at the train station in Dover.
A short taxi ride later, we were down at the docks ready to board the Carnival Legend. We checked in our bags and crossed our fingers that they would indeed arrive in our rooms later. As we stood on deck and sailed away, we could see the iconic white cliffs of Dover. We were on our way!!! We couldn’t wait to see all of the port destinations ahead of us, especially the featured port, St. Petersburg. As I mention in our Barcelona cruise blog, I’m pretty sure that all ships are more or less the same. Swimming pools, usually 2, Theater, Dining hall, Casino, etc. The Legend had all of these and provided us with all the comforts of a 5 star hotel.
On the deck of the Carnival Legend
Even though we weren’t sailing the sunny Mediterranean, we still made sure to book a balcony room and even in the sometimes chilly weather, we put it to good use.
Copenhagen Our first port that we stopped at was Copenhagen. Our excursion plan for this trip was to save money and to go on our own for a majority of the stops and focus our excursion budget on St. Petersburg. For the Copenhagen stop, we decided to follow our plan and not take a tour and to instead walk into town from the port.
The road in front of the port contained many stores to do some quick shopping
A short distance from where our ship was docked, we found the Little Mermaid statue, sitting on a rock a few feet into the water. This is a bronze statue by Edvard Eriksen and has become an iconic symbol for Copenhagen.
The Little Mermaid Statue is close to the docks
A short walk away is the Gefion Fountain, featuring a large group of oxen pulling a plow and being driven by the Norse goddess Gefjon. The fountain is directly on the path into town so it’s worth a stop to take a look.
Gefion Fountain
As you continue your walk toward the city center, you will come up on the Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Danish royal family. The palace contains several buildings forming an internal octagonal courtyard. While we were there, we saw the changing of the guard. It was a similar ceremony that we saw at Buckingham Palace, but there were a lot less people there to enjoy it. We could literally walk right up to the guards as they marched in and performed their duties.
Changing of the Guard at Amalienborg Palace
Our main goal of the day was to see Tivoli Gardens, the second oldest Amusement park in the world, and the park that is said to have inspired Walt Disney. We were able to walk to Tivoli in less than an hour, and we spent the morning wandering through the beautiful park.
Beautiful Gardens and lots of shops at Tivoli Gardens
Hans Christian Andersen Statue near Tivoli Gardens
It was past noon, and we were starving. We were close to finding a place in the park to eat, but decided instead to make the walk back toward the ship. We had heard about a waterfront, canal and entertainment district called Nyhavn. We hiked over and found a cafe with outdoor seating. The area around Nyhavn was beautiful and there were several cafes that sat along the canal.
Many cafes on the edge of the canal in Nyhavn
The whole walk through Copenhagen was very doable and we had a great time seeing the city on foot. We agreed that our self guided tour was a much better choice than any of the tours that the ship provided.
Our walking tour route of Copenhagen
Berlin (Warnemunde) After booking our cruise, we studied each of the ports to decide what we wanted to do at each stop. When we got to Germany, we noticed that Berlin was nowhere near the ocean. The actual port was Warnemunde which was 140 miles away from Berlin! The 3 hour train ride there and back would take most of the day.
The train that would take us the 3 hours from the docks into Berlin
In the end, we decided that it was worth it so we booked the cruise’s Berlin’s Top 10 tour. The tour included the train ride there and back along with a bus tour and lunch in Berlin. The bus tour was efficient as we drove around the city to all of the major tourist sites.
Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by Frederick William II and built in 1791. It was originally named the Peace Gate. Brandenburg Gate was part of the Berlin Wall during the cold war but now is a symbol of peace and unity.
Brandenburg Gate
Checkpoint Charlie was one of the more famous crossing points between East and West Berlin. Our bus let us off a short distance away from the checkpoint. The driver reminded us that we were on a busy boulevard so to be careful while taking pictures. It was very good advice since there was a lot of traffic on the road.
Checkpoint Charlie
Parts of the Berlin Wall is a series of murals that are painted directly onto the remnants of the Wall. We were only able to see a small part of it since this section of the remaining wall is nearly a mile long.
Murals painted onto the remnants of the Berlin Wall
The Holocaust Memorial and the Book Burning memorial were grim reminders of the terrible events during World War II. Both memorials provided a very moving experience and we were glad that the tour group decided to stop there.
The Book Burning memorial marks the spot of the 1933 Nazi book burning. If you look down into the glass window, you can still see the empty shelves.
Holocaust Memorial
Book Burning Memorial
Some of the other iconic spots that we stopped at during our tour included the Victory Column, the iconic Berlin Antenna, and the Reichstag Building.
The Victory Column
Iconic Berlin Antenna
Reichstag Building
So, a bit of humor from our Berlin trip. The stop lights in Berlin have very recognizable icons to represent stop and go. The tour guide handed out gummy bears that were in the shape of these icons and they also sold bags of them on the bus.
Stop and Go traffic light gummy icons
Helsinki Helsinki provided us with another opportunity to do a self guided tour into the city. The cruise port was an easy walk into Helsinki. Our sites included the Helsinki Cathedral, the Uspenski Cathedral, and the Temppeliaukio Church which is a church that is built into solid rock. The latter being the furthest to walk to, but it was worth the effort.
Helsinki Cathedral
Uspenski Cathedral
Temppeliaukio Church
Tallinn Our first stop after St. Petersburg, covered in a different blog post here, was Tallinn Estonia. The cruise had a reasonably priced walking tour into the Tallinn Old town so we signed up for it. The tour guide said several times that Estonia was looking for people to relocate into their country if we were interested. I think they were joking but, Tallinn old town was beautiful so I’m sure there were people on the bus who were tempted by their offer. This was a nice tour that took us through the cobblestone streets of the old town and into a few of their beautiful churches.
Tallinn Old Town and a tour through one of their churches
Amsterdam For Amsterdam, we decided to split up. Theresa took the Grand Tour of Holland excursion. This tour included a bus ride to some sites outside of Amsterdam highlighted by a tour of Delft and its pottery factory.
Making pottery at the Delft factory
I spent the day wandering through the streets of Amsterdam. The cruise port is conveniently located next to the train station so its an easy walk to the city center. I had the whole day, so I was easily able to walk to the opposite side of town to the Museumplein Park where the iconic large I amsterdam sign can be found. This is also the area where several of Amsterdam’s museums like the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are located.
One of the iconic Amsterdam Canals
The I amsterdam sign with the Rijksmuseum in the background
Museumplein Park with the Concertgebouw (Concert Hall) in the background
I had hoped to visit the Ann Frank house. This is the house where she lived in hiding for two years during World War II. It has now been converted into a museum. Unfortunately, the line was really long so I decided to bail on the visit.
A long line to get into the Ann Frank House
While walking through the city, be sure to stroll through the famous Amsterdam flower market. You can also find several types of bulbs at the market that are packaged for you to take home.
Different types of bulbs for sale at the Flower Market
If you’re hungry, you can stop off at the Grasshopper, just a short walk from the train station. It has great outdoor seating right along the water where you can look out at the city center. The food is above average but the location is fantastic.
The Grasshopper Cafe right on the water
In order to get to Amsterdam, we needed to follow a river/canal from the ocean to the docks. At one point, we had to enter a lock and wait for the water level to change so that we could pass. There was literally just enough space where we could fit through the lock. I’m guessing that someone figured this out when designing our ship.
That covers most of the ports that we visited on this cruise. Please follow the links below to our cruise starting point in London, or to the feature stop of our cruise, St. Petersburg.