A Magical Vacation

Hello again!!  We are back after another whirlwind of a summer in the States.  While we had so much fun visiting family and friends in Texas, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota, it was wonderful to come home to Saudi.  We have just finished our third week of school.  The kids, yes plural, started school at the end of August and are enjoying it very much.  Soren started 1st grade and Elsa finally got to go to big girl school with brother.  She started Kindergarten 1 and is loving it!  Although, after 3 days of school, she asked, "Mom, how many more days of school until I'm done?"  Her father very kindly answered her, "Well Elsa, you have 16 more years."  Needless to say, she was not thrilled.  I think it's safe to say that the newness has worn off, but she still comes home with big grins on her face and the pictures I see throughout the day show a happy girl at school!  So we are thankful fo that!

While it has been fun to be back in Saudi, our summer ended with a magical vacation that I hope the kids never forget.  After hearing several of our friends speak so highly about Disney Cruises, especially the Baltic Cruise, we decided to escape the Saudi August heat, and head up to the Baltic for two weeks.  We stayed in Copenhagen, Denmark for two nights, then spent seven nights on the Disney Magic stopping at four ports in the Baltic, and then returned to Copenhagen for four more nights, before heading back to Saudi.  And boy, did it exceed our expectations.  It was simply magical!

Our first day in Copenhagen, we decided to check out the children's museum.  Ryan read all the wonderful reviews, and after a long day of travel on the previous day, we decided to do something fun for the kids.  And it was awesome.  I would even venture to say that it was the best children's museum/science museum that I have ever been to.  There were four levels of interactive activities for the kids, including a doctor station, a farming station, a whole water section, team building games, mazes, legos, bubbles, construction site, math puzzles, and the list goes on.  The kids could have stayed all day, but after 5 hours of fun we decided to head out to Tivoli Gardens.  Tivoli Gardens was opened in 1843 (yes you read that correctly....1843) and it is the second oldest amusement park in the world.  We explored the park for a while, found some supper at a cute 50s diner place, and then each kid picked one ride to go on.  Elsa and I went on the flying submarines, where Elsa got to use the throttle to make us go up and down.  Ryan and Soren decided to do the bumper cars and had a blast crashing into people!  We got some ice cream to end our day of fun, and headed back to the hotel to get ready for our big day!

Planting vegetables in the garden.

They are being foxes and trying to hide.

Safety first in the construction zone!

Bubbles!!!

Bumper cars in Tivoli Garden.

They got pirate treasure from the pirate ship in Tivoli Garden.

Flying high in the sky at Tivoli Garden.

The next day, we only had a little bit of time in the morning before we had to get ready to head to our ship, so we decided to head to Nyhavn.  Nyhavn is a waterfront canal lined with colorful buildings.  There are restaurants and shops all along both sides, with boats lining the canal as well.  We walked up and down and even got to see our cruise ship off in the distance.  We were so excited to board our ship soon!

All the colorful buildings at Nyhavn.

The one who should be in the stroller always ends walking!!

The check in process was so smooth and before we knew it, we were aboard the Disney Magic.  We first went to drop off our stuff in our rooms and then we headed out to explore the boat.  We found the pool, the all you can eat pizza/hotdogs/fruit/ice cream station (where we took a small break to try the food), the kid's club for the bigger kids and kjerstin, the movie theater, the show theater, the restaurants, the souvenir shop, the sports court, and the lounges.  We decided to head up to the deck to watch the sailing away party and ran into Ariel!  Elsa was so excited that she got to see a princess!!!  As we watched the ship pull away from the dock, there was lots of music and all the Disney characters came out to dance too!!!  The kids were so excited and we were just getting started!  After supper, the kids checked out the kid's club for a little bit, and then we decided to call it a night.  Soren and Elsa got to sleep in bunk beds and every night our room host made a different towel animal, which Soren loved!!!

First princess sighting....Ariel!

All the desserts please!!!!

The sail away deck party!

Happy girl!

Mickey and friends joining the sail away deck party!

We saw Captain Mickey!!!

The kids room....they loved the bunkbeds!

Our first full day on the boat was an at sea day, which we were all so excited about.  We got to meet lots and lots of characters, we watched movies, we ate, the kids spent some time at kid's club where they got to make flubber in the science lab, and we ended our day getting all dressed up to go watch the first show of the cruise, which was about Cinderella.  Both big kids were in awe of the show!  

Goofy!

Elsa loved seeing Princess Sophia!

Donald in his Hawaiian shirt.

So happy to see Minnie!

Big smiles!

All dressed up for formal night!

What a cute bunch!

Which very quickly turned into the goofy bunch!

The next day was our first of four port days.  Our first stop was Tallin, Estonia.  But, before we got off the boat, we got to eat breakfast in Animator's Palate and saw a few characters while we ate.  The kids (minus Kjerstin) had so much fun seeing the characters!  After breakfast, we got ready to disembark for the day.  Ryan was our tour guide in each city and did a great job researching all the highlights!  Tallin is a beautiful coastal city that has a very well preserved medieval old town.  The old town is surrounded by the city wall and towers that used to protect the city hundreds of years ago.  The old town is broken into two different sections: Toompea, which is the upper town and All-linn, which is the lower town.  In the lower town, we walked through the Old Town Square, saw St. Nicholas' Cathedral, and saw lots of the city wall.  We then walked up to the upper town where we saw Toompea Castle, which now houses the parliament, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox Church, St. Mary's Cathedral, and more of the city wall.  It was an impressive town with beautiful red roofs! 

Character breakfast...our first visit was from Goofy!

Next up was Minnie!

So sweet!

And finally Mickey came!

A few of the towers surrounding Old Town Tallin.

A view down one of the streets....this was part of the wall.

Old Town Square.

Old Town Square.

St. Nicholas's Church.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox Church.

Another tower and part of the wall.

Toompea Castle, which now houses parliament.

Getting ready to go back on the boat!

The next port we stopped at was St. Petersburg, Russia.  We had decided to book a tour in this city since there was just so much to see.  We made our first stop along one of the rivers that runs through the city.  From here, we saw several palaces (built in European style, that used to house many aristocrats), the Hermitage Museum (which holds many historical artifacts and paintings, as well as is the sight of the Winter Palace, where former Russian emperors used to reside), and the Peter and Paul Fortress (which is located on an island and is the location where St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great).  After spending a few minutes taking in all the impressive buildings, we began our drive outside the city to Peterhof Palace, which is sometimes referred to as the Russian Versailles.  We spent some time walking around the beautiful gardens and fountains and also got to see the grand palace from the outside.  We weren't able to go inside because they are working on restoring the palace.  After touring the Peterhof Palace grounds, we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch, where we even got to taste Russian Vodka!  It was quite strong.  After our lunch, we drove back into the city, where we got to visit the Church on the Spilled Blood.  The history of this church was fascinating!  The church was built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was fatally wounded in 1881.  The Tsar had been traveling along the cobblestone road and was attacked by some conspirators.  A shrine was immediately put up on this site and you can still see the Tsar's blood on the cobblestone from all those years ago.  The architecture inside the church was beautiful as well!  After visiting the church, we went to the Hermitage Museum where we saw many paintings and old artifacts.  It was incredibly busy and a bit overwhelming.  After the museum, we made one more quick stop to ride the local subway train.  Our tour guide took us to a stop that had one of the longest (if not THE longest) escalator ride down to the train.  We hopped on the train for one stop and then headed back to the boat.  It was a fun, fascinating, long day and we were ready to get some good rest!

The European style mansions are across the river.

The lucky lion statue.

Peter and Paul Fortress.

Fun in the rain!

You can see parts of the Hermitage Museum in the background.

Statues in the gardens at Peterhof Palace.

Peterhof Palace.

Peterhof Palace...you can see the resemblance to Versailles.

Peterhof Palace.

A checkerboard sculpture in the gardens.

Russian Vodka.

Someone being silly!

The Bronze Horseman, a statue of Peter the Great, with the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral in the background.

The Church on the Spilled Blood.

Inside the Church on the Spilled Blood.

The sight where Tsar Alexander II was fatally wounded.

It was a long ways underground to get to the metro!

And back up again!

They were excited about their Russian money that Daddy gave them!

Our next stop was Helsinki, Finland.  Before we got off the boat, we got to see Cinderella and her mice friends, and then Elsa and Daddy got meet Elsa and Anna at the Frozen Gathering.  Once off the boat, our first stop was the Finland Parliament building.  Ryan was hoping we could take a tour, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you are asking :)) it wasn't open for tours.  So we continued on to Temppeliaukio Church, also known as Rock Church, which was built directly into rock.  After visiting the Rock Church, we headed to Helsinki Cathedral, which is a beautiful white cathedral standing tall on the top of a hill.  The Cathedral opened in 1852 and was originally built as a tribute to the Grand Duke of Finland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia.  After visiting the cathedral, we walked through the market square where there were lots of local produce and local craft goods for sale, and then headed to Uspenski Cathedral.  Also sitting atop a hill, Uspenski Cathedral is an Eastern Orthodox church with a beautiful red brick exterior.  Unfortunately we weren't able to go inside.  After walking all over Helsinki, we decided to grab a snack and then head back to the boat.  Once back on the ship, we headed up to the pool deck, kicked back in some lounge chairs and watched a movie on the outdoor screen.  After the movie we headed to dinner in Animator's Palate.  Our servers had told us that there would be a fun activity for the kids that night, so we thought we would check it out.  While we were waiting for our food, the big kids got to decorate a character that would be animated a little later during dinner.  They had fun coloring their "guy" and then we got to see their "guy" come to life when they showed the animated movie.  It was pretty cool!  Later that night after supper, the kids had fun getting their faces painted at kid's club! It was a busy and fun day!

Meeting Cinderella and her mice friends!

So fun!

Meeting Elsa and Anna at the Frozen Gathering.

Finland's Parliament building.

Inside Temppeliaukio Church, the church carved out of stone.

The organ in Temppeliaukio Church.

Temppeliaukio Church.

Outside Helsinki Cathedral.

View of Uspenski Cathedral.

Elsa doing poses.

Making faces while Daddy tries to see if we can get into the church.

Watching a movie on a big outdoor movie screen on one of the decks!

Face paint fun at kid's club.

She loves him!

Kjerstin pulled the big two close to take a picture together!

Fun fun!

Beautiful rainbow face paint!

Animator's Palate, one of the three restaurants on the ship.

Soren's animation character is the one with blue on the far right.

Elsa's animation character is the black and orange one, third in from the left.

Waiting in line to see Captain Hook.

Our final port was Stockholm, Sweden.  Some of our friends had told us to make sure to watch outside as we came into Stockholm, because there are tons of little islands that you weave in and out of as you come into the city.  And it was breathtaking!  The ship would get so close to some of the islands that it felt like you could reach your arm out and touch the island!  We started our sightseeing of Stockholm by first seeing the Stockholm Parliament House.  Once again, we were unable to take a tour.  So we headed to the Stockholm Palace, the official residence of the royal family.  We got to tour part of the house where they house guests, as well as the treasury.  Kjerstin was fascinated by the guards!!  After touring the palace, we walked around Gamla Stan, the old town of Stockholm.  It was filled with little shops, restaurants, and cobblestone streets.  Of course we had to stop and get some ice cream!  After our ice cream, we headed to the ferry, to catch a ride over to a different island, where the Vasa Museum was located.  The Vasa Museum holds the Vasa warship, a 17th century Swedish ship that sank on it's maiden voyage.  After setting sail in 1628, the ship only made it 1300 yards before it took on too much water due to it's top heavy construction and sank.  In 1961, the ship was excavated largely in tact, and has been very well restored.  After our visit to the Vasa Museum, we headed back to the main island to check out one last sight, the Stockholm City Hall, famous for the hosting the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony every year.  We were hoping to take a tour, but unfortunately (and yes we were actually ALL bummed) the next tour would not have allowed us to make it back to our ship, so we weren't able to take the tour.  After we got back on the ship, the big kids wanted to go swim for just a bit and enjoyed going down the water slide.  It was a fun last port day, but we were ready for an at sea!!  

In front of the Parliament House.

Watching the guard at the Stockholm Palace.

Old Town Stockholm.

In front of the Stockholm City Hall, the venue for the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the ferry to the Vasa Museum.

The Vasa warship.

The back of the Vasa warship....originally these carvings were all brightly painted!

A very impressive ship!

Soren going down the waterslide.

Elsa's turn!

The last full day on the boat was at sea.  After four straight days of getting off the boat and exploring new cities, it was nice to be able to stay on the boat and relax all day.  We saw more characters, Elsa and I got to go to a princess gathering where she met 5 princesses and got their autographs, we did origami, the kids played in kid's club, we participated in and were crowned the champions in Mickey's Racing 200 (where each team/family built a car out of a carrot, a potato, and 4 wheels and then raced them down a ramp), we watched the new Christopher Robin movie, ate lots of food, went swimming, went to the final show on the boat, and Ryan and the big kids got to go to a late night character farewell party.  It was a great last day and so many memories were made.  

Cuties in the window!

Elsa and Ariel!

Elsa and Belle.

They had such a sweet moment!!

Elsa and Rapunzel.

Sweet hugs!

Elsa and Cinderella!

So happy!

Cinderella was giving Elsa some special advice!

Elsa and Tiana!

At the character farewell party!

With Daisy!

Sweet hugs!

Goodbye Minnie!

They had a blast!

Captain Mickey!

One final hug for Cinderella!!!

All the princesses!

They finally got their picture with Donald AND Daisy together!!!

Time to get off the boat!!!

We got off the boat early in the morning, got our stuff back to our hotel, and then headed out to explore more of Copenhagen.  We visited the statue of the Little Mermaid, which is based on the same fairy tale story that the movie "The Little Mermaid" was based upon.  Surprisingly, the statue is much small than I was expecting, but it was neat to see nonetheless.  After lunch, we headed to Frederik's Church, an Evangelical Church opened in 1894.  After exploring the church and walking around, we decided to head back to our hotel and call it a night.  We had lots of tired people and needed some good rest.

The Little Mermaid.

Beautiful Fountain.

Frederik's Church.

A marching band marching through the streets of Copenhagen!

A view of one of the many canals!

Our next day in Copenhagen was devoted to visiting ALL the big palaces in Copenhagen, of which there are three.  The first palace we visited was Rosenborg Castle, originally built as a summerhouse in 1606.  The castle was very well preserved and we saw a lot of original parts of the castle.  Rosenborg Castle houses the coronation chair, as well as the three silver lions used to guard the king or queen's coffin when it is on display for the few days after their passing.  We also got to see the crown jewels, including crowns, necklaces, rings, a whole room filled with Amber artifacts, weapons, and dishes.  It was a beautiful palace to visit!  The next palace we saw was Amalienborg Palace, the home of the Danish royal family, which was completed in 1760.  It consists of four identical houses on an octagonal courtyard with a large statue of Amalienborg founder King Frederick V located in the center.  Only two of the four houses are open to the public, with the other two houses being the residences of the reigning family.  Surrounding the palace were the royal guards, who had similar dress to the British royal guards.  Because all the royal family was there, including the queen, there was the highest level of guard watch, so there were several guards on watch.  We even got to see a changing of the guard procedure.  The final palace we visited was Christiansborg Palace.  Christiansborg Palace houses parliament and it is used by the Danish monarch to host large events.  We got to visit only a small portion of the palace, including the throne room, several reception rooms, and the grand banquet room.  It was quite impressive to see!  After our long day of touring palaces, we were ready for some food and a good night's rest.  

Outside Rosenborg Castle.

In front of the castle.

The lions that guard the king or queen's coffin.

The royal crowns.

More beautiful crown jewels.

One of the many beautiful royal crowns!

An assortment of exquisite rings!

Ice cream break!

Soren and Elsa pretending to sit on the throne chairs at Christiansborg Palace.

In front of Christiansborg Palace.

Since we had seen the big highlights of Copenhagen, for our final day, we decided to take a mini trip out to Roskilde, a small town just outside the city.  Roskilde is the home of Roskilde Cathedral, the Lutheran Church of Denmark and the first Gothic cathedral to be built of brick.  Constructed between the 12th and 13th centuries, it began the spread of the gothic brick style that spread throughout Northern Europe.  It has also been the main burial site of the Danish Monarchies since the 15th century.  With all the famous monarchies that were buried in the cathedral, it was quite impressive.  After spending the morning in Roskilde, we decided to take the kids to the Copenhagen Aquarium.  The kids loved seeing all the fish, piranhas, sharks, rays, and crabs.

Roskilde Cathedral.

The beautiful clock that chimes every hour.

The current queen's sarcophagus will be placed here.

Sarcophagus of Scandinavian Queen Margrethe I.

Soren saw his name on this Optometrist office!

On our final morning in Copenhagen, we only had a couple of hours before we needed to head to the airport.  So we decided to walk down Copenhagen's pedestrian only street, named Stroget, which is also one of Europe's longest pedestrian only streets measuring 1.1 km.  There were lots of shops, including one of the first lego shops.  We also saw the walked by the Guinness Book of World Records Museum where they had a statue of the tallest man that ever lived.  He was quite tall!!  It was a very lively cobblestone street filled with restaurants, musicians, shops, and a beautiful square in the center!  

A beautiful square along Stroget street.

The tallest man that has ever lived

Even on Daddy's shoulders, they didn't even make it to his armpits!

After our walk, it was time to head back to the hotel and start making the trek back to Saudi.  After almost two weeks of vacation, it was time to go home.  We had a wonderful time building memories as a family and exploring new parts of the world!