When men were men ....

.... and women wore dirndls. TSH and Diva were initially pleased when the evening show was to be given by a local folk group from Tallinn. In the event, hefty men pranced in macho style whilst women simpered and jostled for their attention. Diva is not prepared to record here what she was muttering about what should be done to the patriarchy.

TSH's walking tour in Tallinn might have ended in disaster if it was not for his presence of mind. During the tour, the guide rushed off without giving clear instructions about where she was going. He lost sight of her and his sound system went silent. So he was alone and adrift at a distance from the Silver Spirit that was too far to walk. He decided that the best plan was to go into a hotel and ask them to call him a taxi. The receptionist and the taxi driver are his new heroes. He thinks that all tour guides should be tall and wear bright colours. He is now grounded for solo visits for his own safety.

It was disappointing in Helsinki that the Silver Spirit was docked at a distance from the city centre, instead of at an inner harbour, as they experienced on a previous visit. So they did not go ashore, as it was not clear that the shuttle bus would go to the area they wanted.

The time again

 In Riga, TSH and Diva both walked along the riverside and into the old square but in Tallinn Diva stayed safely onboard the Silver Spirit whilst TSH went on an organised walking tour of the city. In the evening, TSH had banana foster for dessert whilst Diva - the banana fan - did not. A first. It was Formal Optional and, walking past Reception, they were greeted with 'super elegant as usual'. That will do.

The MacDonald brothers are back on the ship, impressing everybody with their energy. It is amazing how an international audience can sing and clap along with Wild Rover and Whiskey in the Jar. 

It seems that there is a new Silversea style, omitting the customary daily briefings about the location and the sea state. Certainly this captain is not very communicative, although in Gdansk he found time to chat with TSH and Diva and show them the Polish sausage he had bought ashore.  Do they not feed the captain on this ship?

Regular readers will know that Diva has struggled many times with technology and time changes. On this cruise, she has set the phones to automatically adjust to local time. Most of the time it has worked well. Sailing up the east side of the Baltic, the time is 2 hours ahead of UK time. But in the night the course of the Silver Spirit often swings to the west, returning to UK + 1 hour time. And does not revert until docking has been achieved. After the alarm should have gone off.

There are now 11 spare coat hangers.

It was a dark and stormy night

 All the ingredients of a Gothic horror were in place - a severe weather message on the phones, the laundry delivered by a different butler who understood little English and had no explanation for what had happened to the first one, a fault on the security system which had not recorded Diva's return to the ship in Gdansk (security phoned the suite and were assured by TSH that she was in the shower - should they have believed him?) and the TV map showing that the Silver Spirit, heading for the coast of Lithuania, was somewhere in land-locked western Russia. The lightening and thunder were almost simultaneous and the thunderclap was the loudest Diva had ever heard. Fortunately the sea remained calm and the other issues were resolved. Apart from the positioning information, which was probably the result of tampering with GPS systems. Hopefully the Captain has access to more accurate navigation information.

is this Denmark?

In Bornholm, an island which is currently Danish but has been Swedish (no wonder that Diva does not understand the geography in this region), TSH went on an excursion which took him to a small fishing port. For the first time on this holiday, the temperature was high and he was pleased to have his Silversea water bottle.

At dinner with the Hotel Director and the Head Housekeeper, Diva remarked to the latter that she could not imagine housekeeping for 1,000 people. Bafflingly - and worryingly - the response was 'Neither can I'.

The sunsets have been dramatic, even though they mostly do not result in darkness. One evening the reflections appeared to turn the sea orange. One night, Diva looked out of the window and saw darkness for the first time for many days. 

It wasn't an official Bloody Mary day but one guest was heard to ask for one at 9:45 am. She was politely directed to the venue where such drinks are available all day. 

Bikes and a baby

 All of the Scandinavian towns are, as usual, full of tall athletic people riding bikes at speed through crowds of pedestrians. TSH and Diva are unscathed so far. There are some very good features - Diva walked past a bench where a young man was sitting and he leapt up and offered her his seat. She thanked him, refused the offer and wondered quite how decrepit she must now appear to be.

On one of TSH's excursions a young man stood up on the bus and announced that they had a baby with them and that anyone who objected should move to a different bus. TSH stayed put but was aware of a level of noise and disruption. There have been a small number of children on this cruise, which is very unusual for Silversea.

One evening the sail away was quite late, so they decided on pizzas for dinner in the open air restaurant. This proved to be a mistake, as the chill wind made them cold despite the overhead heaters and the M&S thermal vests. The pizzas were excellent.

ER, TSH and Paddington Bear

 The catering crew have made great efforts and produced an impressive chocolate buffet one evening, followed by a magnificent brunch the following morning. Some of them probably had little or no sleep. 

The brunch had all the usual breakfast items as well as a seafood selection, an ice sculpture and, of course Bloody Marys. 

TSH ate his usual fruit and then made himself a marmalade sandwich. He is in good company with the late Queen and Paddington Bear. They revisited the brunch at lunch time.

Technical triumphs

 TSH has now been on a number of excursions alone and has always returned safely. There are always clear instructions about whether to take each guest's personal 'Quietbox', which is a system for hearing the guide as the group moves around outdoors. There are always guests who turn up without them and no spares are carried.  On one outing, there were guests at the front of the bus who were talking loudly at the same time as the guide. She told them sternly to either keep quiet or to move to the back of the bus!! 

In Norway, public toilets are usually chargeable, so TSH was proud of finding free ones on two occasions. And they were clean! In Oslo, both TSH and Diva went out for a short walk and were surprised to see local bathers in the fjord, close to the Silver Spirit and other vessels and in spite of the distinctly chilly temperature.

There were two technical problems. TSH's camera persisted into going into 'flash' mode even when lighting conditions were bright. An online consultation with the manual resolved the issue. More seriously, his laptop refused to connect to the Silver Spirit wifi. They tried several options but nothing worked and it was beginning to look like faulty hardware. Diva asked AI what they could do and was impressed when it gave her precise instructions for modifying Device Manager (who knew?) to resolve the issue. Success!