Summer Cruise Experiences Pt. 1 (Copenhagen, Oslo, Gothenburg & Berlin)

Hey everyone! So as you may know this summer for our big vacay we went on a 12-day cruise all around the Nordic/Baltic Seas (Scandinavia + Russia)! It was such an amazing trip with so many unique and interesting places so I decided that I wanted to take 2 full travel posts on my blog just about this trip. These posts are in no way to show off or brag about what I did this summer; they are solely showing you places I recommend visiting and telling you more about these great countries/ how we toured around them. This is also my first cruise since the Disney Cruise when I was 4 so I'm going to be sharing with you my experience and opinions on this specific cruise journey. I hope some of you find this interesting or helpful and that I can show you another part of the world just through our computer screens. Also, I will be showing the different cities with you mainly through pictures for a higher attraction and interest level and to help you better visualize each city :)

Cruising Itinerary...

Copenhagen→ Oslo→ Gothenburg→ Berlin→ Tallinn→ St. Petersburg→ Helsinki→Stockholm

Our cruise liner was the Royal Princess-recently named best cruise liner by Kate Middleton ;) It's also the largest cruise vessel on the Baltic Sea; which I can believe because it is HUGE! Either every day or other day depending on if we had "at sea days" we would disembark from the boat, explore the city either by ourselves or on an excursion with the cruise ship, and head back inside late afternoon for dinner and the rest of the night. My family and I aren't big cruisers so it was a bit strange for us to be going on a cruise, however we figured this was the only way to see all these countries in such a small amount of time! And overall I think that statement couldn't be closer to the truth. We got to see so many different cities and countries that we wouldn't have been able to reach if not for this one-of-a-kind cruise! So, if you're planning on traveling to this area of Europe anytime soon, I would highly recommend booking a cruise for your best and most sufficient option :)

              

Stop #1: Copenhagen, Denmark
Our cruise began in Copenhagen so we decided to fly over a day before the adventure begins to explore the city! It's a nice and short flight from here (1 hr 30 min) so that was great because long flights can be so dreadful and put a real damper to the start of your anticipated vacation. Anyways, we had a great day in Copenhagen and it was one of my favorite cities in the trip! It was such a cute and unique city with so many friendly people-even the taxi drivers had full on conversations with us. Makes sense considering Danes are known as the happiest people on Earth (at least that's what the signs said ;) Throughout the day we toured around the main city, went on a canal tour to see all the many parts to Copenhagen, visited the famous street Nyhavn, climbed up a church with 100 stairs on the outside, had a great dinner, and finished the fun-filled night at Tivoli Gardens-their amusement park in the city!

Stop #2: Oslo, Norway
The second stop on our trip was Oslo! Oslo is a very up and coming city; however not many sights to see so could be easily seen touristy-wise in a day. But, if you're a shopper or don't care about sights it could also be a nice, long weekend! My mom and I began the day by ourselves exploring the city, got a bit lost but luckily ended up back at the ship in no time. From there all four of us left for a day of sightseeing. Starting with finding the Scream Picture, then making our way by Hop on, Hop off bus to the Vikings Ship and Kon Tiki Museum! The Kon Tiki was the first 'raft' to sail across the Pacific Ocean by a Norwegian sailor! After both those museums and a little touristy shopping it was time to head in to the boat for the night.

Stop #3: Gothenburg, Sweden
Destination 3...Gothenburg! There is not a whole lot to say about this trendy yet tiny city. We had basically seen most of Gothenburg in a couple hours and I have to admit it wasn't my top place! Only because there was a lot of construction going on all around the city and there wasn't anything such as architecture or landscapes that were considerable striking or caught my attention. Anyways, we only had a few hours so we just walked around the town, saw the Poseidon statue, and then did a bit of shopping (both fashion and touristy style).

Stop #4: Berlin, Germany
Berlin was one of our busiest and most packed days! There is so much to do in Berlin and I wish that we had 2 days to really hang out in Berlin because it was such a remarkable place; however we definitely made use of the time we were given and pretty much saw all of the main sights in Berlin. It was an early start because as you hopefully know Berlin is not on the water..so we had to take a 2 hour train ride from our port-Warmemunde into the city. Once we arrived we had arranged for a 'Tours by Local' guide to show us all around the city. Now... I want to let the pictures do the talking here, but basically Berlin is a very historical place due to the events of WWII. Throughout one day we saw: Checkpoint Charlie, remnants of the Berlin Wall, Jewish Memorial, the place where Hitler died, German Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Book Burning Memorial, and several other crazy beautiful cathedrals!

So, those are the first 4 stops on our cruise! Check back here tomorrow for Part 2 of my cruise experiences with cities you will not want to miss including one in...Russia! Thank you guys so much for viewing this post today and I hope that I could brighten up your day and teach/show you all about some awesome countries-as if you haven't been going through that in school enough right ;)