Afternoon Tea and the Polar Plunge

 Each afternoon, at 4 PM tea was offered in the Dome. We took advantage of it after day 2!

A staff member made brewed tea upon request. She had a special blend she made for OFD and I and after the first day, she made her special blend for us as soon as we entered the Dome. (That was the kind of service we received from every staff member!)

brewed for one minute in hot water

drinkable after several minutes

There was also a Tea menu with usually one sandwich offering and your choice of four sweets or desserts. It was a very nice dining option when dinner was at 7:30 or later.

A highlight (for some of the passengers and staff) of the afternoon was the Polar Plunge.

The yacht chose this area for the Polar Plunge. The Zodiacs pushed the ice away from the vessel, giving the divers and jumpers ice-free, open water for their plunge.

staff getting everything ready

the first polar plunger

they wore assorted apparel

75 of the 150 guests took the plunge!

and about 50 of the 130 staff participated

My hot chocolate treat after watching some of the Polar Plunge!

The Grinch

 OFD wanted to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which was playing at the Washington Pavilion over Christmas. The two of us had tickets.

statue at the Pavilion, part of the outdoor art display

At first I thought the glass was reflecting the sunset, but it is colored glass. Still impressive. Also part of the art at the Pavilion.

no photos once the musical began

we both enjoyed a Don't Be Grinchy adult beverage

photo collage from OFD

Hubby joined us for pizza after the play

Tallinn ~ Cruise Stop #2 ~ Olde Hansa

 OFD, through her voracious research, found a place to eat in Tallinn Estonia ~ Olde Hansa. She sent us the website with the menu. Hubby's tastebuds could not find a single item that looked or sounded edible. So Olde Hansa was ditched as a lunch stop while in Tallinn, but that did not stop OFD and me from exploring when we happened upon the place just off the Square in Old Town.

Olde Hansa is a restaurant in the Old Town in central Tallinn, Estonia, located in the protected Pakkhoone building.

The building is part of the cultural heritage of Tallinn and consists of three old storerooms. The storeroom at the corner of the street collapsed in 1654 and was rebuilt from 1655 to 1657. At that time the three storerooms were connected into a single baroque style building. Baroque portals and stone slabs were built into the facade. A large cellar was built at the basement of the new building, supported by support beams. The building was heated. A stairway connected the old and new parts of the building.

In the latter half of the 17th century, the building served as a storeroom for foreign products sold on the market.

Despite a partial renovation in the 19th and 20th century, the original outside facade of the building was kept intact.  

All info in Italics is from Wikipedia

The restaurant Olde Hansa with 300 customer places was opened in the building in 1997, becoming one of the most famous tourist destinations in Tallinn.

more details of Olde Hansa can be found here

 The style of the restaurant, including the food and drink, the cutlery, and the attire of the staff, is modeled after the Hanseatic League. 

Original recipes of the Hanseatic time are used, without ingredients introduced to Europe in the 15th century or later. For example, the recipes do not use any potato or maize.

There is a furnace room on the third floor.

Olde Hansa menu in English

there is an outdoor patio area

The staff is in period costumes.

There are many game dishes, including elk, bear and pheasant. The drinks include house beer and pepper schnapps.

no electric lights, only candles on the tables

The bill for the meal is dated 1400AD and can be paid by magic (credit card).

a box garden of herbs

and a barrel of herbs

I think it would have been an interesting experience, but honestly, our on-shore time did not allow for the a meal of this undertaking. Instead, the three of us had a pizza before we parted ways to go back to the ship or continue to explore and shop. This was the one piece of the explore part!

Next: Tallinn, Part 1

Stockholm ~ Day 1

Hubby and I boarded a plane in Sioux Falls on Sunday to Chicago to Helsinki (Finland) to Stockholm (Sweden), arriving around 4 PM on Monday.  OFD had arrived several hours earlier and scouted the neighborhood for food and shopping before our arrival.

We had enough time at the Helsinki airport to complete two Adventure Labs for geocaching before switching to a smaller plane and flying to Stockholm, our destination for two nights, before embarking on our cruise.

 

That was sort of how we felt after about 12 hours on airplanes!

airport welcome

home for the next two nights

The first order of business was finding a geocache near the hotel, just around the corner. 

Not having seen anyone use these stairs, we surmised the metal ramps are for bikes or rolling suitcases. The narrower metal ramp would certainly be wide enough for bike tires. 

colorful buildings in the neighborhood

mural

8:10 PM, not even close to sunset

loved the balconies on the corner

businesses on street level, apartments on the other levels

We found an Italian Restaurant nearby for dinner on our first night. Bottom row, second from left, the appetizer: GARLIC BREAD WITH OLIVE TAPENADE; second from right, the adult beverage: TRENTINO FIZZ - VODKA, ST-GERMAIN ELDERFLOWER, LIME, SODA; dinner entrees, top row left to right: LA CARBONARA (HOUSE MADE RAVIOLINI FILLED WITH CARBONARA CREAM, CRISPY GUANCIALE, BLACK PEPPAR, PECORINO ROMANO FONDUE), LINGUINE AI FRUTTI DI MARE (SEAFOOD PASTA WITH SHRIMPS, MUSSELS, SQUID, GREEN MUSSEL, GARLIC, CHILI, TOMATO, WHITE WINE & PARSLEY), and bottom row, first photo FETTUCINE ALLA INVECE (FRESH FETTUCINE, BEEF, TRUFFLE CREAM, SPINACH, PARMIGIANO REGGIANO AND A DASH OF MASCARPONE). It was all so very delicious, but more than we could eat. We had a great conversation with our server, who told us two of his staff called in sick, so he and the barman were serving all the people who came to eat, inside and out. The place was not large, but all the tables were full, and most tables held from 4 to 8 diners. The wonderful meal was a fabulous beginning to our visit to the countries around the Baltic Sea.

Some Final Photos and Comments from Iceland

 One the best things about the tour we had in Iceland was getting away from the coastline and into the interior to see farming country.

one of the larger farms we saw along the road

snow on the mountains and unique mountain shapes

lots of snow in some mountain areas

grazing Icelandic horses

The horses might stay out in the fields all winter. The sheep were still out in the hay pastures, but will be moved to the barns before it gets too cold. We did not see any cows. Margaret said they were moved to the farm barns already.

wrapped hay bales

We learned the sheep are moved to the mountain areas for the summer. The hay fields are mowed and baled for winter feed. The sheep are moved back down to the farms and hay fields in the fall. I did not have any good photos of the sheep other than this one:

We stopped at a grocery store and a guy parked his truck in the lot with these two sheep in the back. We all took photos of the sheep! The ones in the pastures looked much bigger, fatter and woolier!

This farm has an observation tower? It also has a number of barns for the different animals.

I was very impressed with the roads in Iceland. We never drove over a pot hole, road heave, or other road hazard one would expect in a country this far north. The roads were narrow, but in excellent condition. There were no semis on the roads we traveled, but a few box trucks. 

We saw a number of museums. The Akranes Folk Museum honored the people who settled the Akranes area.

This woman was of particular interest. GUĐRÚN GÍSLADÓTTIR (1868-1954) was a midwife.

she delivered 1166 children in her lifetime

she thanked coffee for helping her get through the long nights

As you know, we did not see any Northern Lights during our stay in Iceland. The weather just did not cooperate. But we did visit the Northern Lights Museum in Reykjavik. After learning what causes the Northern (and Southern) Lights, we were able to use our phone cameras to take a photo of a simulated one.

I didn't get to see the Aurora Borealis, but I did get to drink one! The hotel in Reykholt served it. It was so yummy, I had another the second night.

vodka and Curaçao

(the bar ran out of gin or rum, the usual first shot

so substituted vodka the second night)

mango juice

Until it was stirred, the bottom of the drink was blue and the green was on top. I looked at recipes online, and this one must have been a special of the hotel bar. Very refreshing.

We stayed two nights at the Foss Hotel in Reykholt (The Medieval Village village). Butter was served at the tables on a rock and topped with special salt. Creative. Funky. Tasty. Unusual.