Brian and I returned just a few days ago from 10 days in Northern Europe, and while we’re both exhausted (and one of us is battling a cold…. cough Brian cough), we wanted to give you a quick rundown of our time there, to be followed up with many more detailed posts!

Nyhavn (pronounced Newhown) in Copenhagen

We got to Copenhagen on a Wednesday afternoon after a delightfully smooth 1.5 hour plane ride! (Those are my favorite.) Since Eurovision – an annual singing competition that pits countries in the EU against each other – was taking place in Copenhagen that weekend, it was near impossible to find a hostel or hotel that didn’t cost 50€ per night per person, so we ended up renting an apartment from Air BNB. It was a great find!

While in Copenhagen, we took a free walking tour and did lots of sight seeing on our own, including visiting and climbing some fabulous churches and The Little Mermaid.

On Saturday morning, we took a bus to the Royal Caribbean cruise terminal – well, actually, we took a bus as close to the cruise terminal as we could, and then walked nearly 2 miles while dragging our suitcases behind us, which was all kinds of fun – and met Brian’s folks there. Instead of going back into Copenhagen’s city center, we decided to just hang out on the boat for the afternoon and get to know the ship!

Here was our sailing itinerary:

Sunday: Sea Day
Monday: Tallinn, Estonia – self-guided walking tour.
Tuesday: St. Petersburg, Russia – 12-hour (12 HOURS!) guided tour in some of the most famous landmarks of the city, including Peterhof Palace and the Hermitage.
Wednesday: We were supposed to be in Helsinki, Finland, but the weather in St. Petersburg on Tuesday was so rough that our ship couldn’t leave the terminal until Wednesday morning, so we ended up with an extra sea day to head to our final destination.
Thursday: Stockholm, Sweden – free walking tour and the Vasa Museum (SO COOL!)
Friday: Sea Day
Saturday: Arrive back in Copenhagen and fly home to Freiburg.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Stockholm, Sweden

Tallinn, Estonia

We had a really spectacular time, ate some amazing food, and got to experience some amazing new places. Stay posted for lots of detailed blogs about each of the cities and some of our favorite things about them!

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