Author: Lion-san

Forty, Forty One, Forty Two!

Hi, everyone!

Grandma helped me make a list of all the countries I’ve visited.  Before this trip, I had been in 37 countries!  Denmark and Poland were numbers thirty-eight and thirty-nine, and the Baltic Republics — Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia — are numbers forty, forty-one and forty two. Continue reading “Forty, Forty One, Forty Two!”

Beginning My Baltic Adventure!

Hi, everyone!

Last Tuesday morning, Grandma said we had to get ready for a special adventure! We were going on a trip!   First, we made enough party mix to last Uncle Steven’s family until we got back.  Then Grandma helped me put on my Oceania Club pin.  That’s when I knew we were going on a cruise!  We were finally going on the cruise we had planned before the pandemic!

First, we flew to New York City.  I could see Irondequoit Bay right after we took off.  Then I saw Central Park in New York City right before we landed.  Our first flight was right on time, but our flight to Copenhagen Denmark was delayed. The first officer was supposed to arrive on a flight to our airport that was canceled, so he had to fly to the another airport and take a taxi!  We got to watch the sunset from the airport while we waited for him to arrive!

When we finally left New York City, it was way past my bedtime.  By the time we arrived in Copenhagen, it was already lunchtime there!  I was happy to go right to our cabin!  Grandma told me there would be a special blanket for me and I wrapped up in it right away!

Being on the MS Marina is fun!  I can watch the water from the terrace of our cabin, or I can sun beside the swimming pool.  There is always food available, and it is yummy!  The first night on board, after dinner, Grandma and Grandpa and I watched the sun set.  It seemed like it took longer for the sun to go down than it does at Sodus!  Grandpa said that’s because Copenhagen is farther north than Sodus.

We had one day to see Copenhagen before the cruise left!  First, we went to Christianborg palace.  That’s where the Queen of Denmark receives important visitors.  She didn’t need to meet anybody official that day, so we got to go inside.  The rooms are very fancy!  One room has a set of woven pictures that the Queen got as a birthday present!  The symbol of the royal family includes three lions, so I got to make friends with a lot of my cousins!

The next place we went was my favorite part of the day!  Tivoli Gardens is the oldest amusement park in Europe.  Mr. Carstensen started building the park over 170 years ago!  At that time, the land was at the edge of the city.  Now it’s surrounded by downtown buildings!  The path right inside the entrance has a canopy of purple flowers hanging down.  Guess what?  They are all orchids!  The oldest building in the park is the pantomime theater.  We didn’t think there was going to be a show while we were there, but one started right as we were passing by!  In a pantomime show, the actors act out stories without speaking any words.  It was fun to watch!

There are lots of statues and landscaped spaces in Tivoli Gardens.  It was fun to walk around and make new friends!

Another big part of Tivoli Gardens are the amusement rides.  Some of them are for little children, but some are thrill rides for older guests.  There was a lot of yelling and screaming when those rides got to the scary parts!

We had one more stop on our tour before we went back to the Marina.  Hans Christian Anderson was from Copenhagen, and his story about the little mermaid was made into a ballet.  Someone commissioned a statue of the mermaid and set it in the water at the edge of a city park.  Lots of people come to see it, either from land or from boat rides!  It was hard to get close enough to make friends with her!

We got back from our tour in time for my favorite activity on Marina — afternoon tea!  I like watching the water from the highest part of the ship, and the sandwiches and sweets are yummy!  I’m a big fan of the string quartet that plays, too!

During tea time on Thursday, Marina set sail from Copenhagen Denmark.  When I woke up the next morning, we were in Kiel, Germany!  Grandma and Grandpa hadn’t signed us up for any tours, so Grandma and I went exploring.  We followed the signs to the tourist information center to find out where the maritime museum was.  Turns out, it was right next to where Marina was docked!

Kiel was a center for building German submarines in both World War I and World War II.  When the Germans lost both those wars, Kiel had to shut down their shipbuilding business.  Kiel is still an important port, but not for building warships.  The museum is in the former fish wholesale market building.  We saw a very old rowboat that women used to bring wares to market.  There was a section of a two-man submarine, too.  It looked very small to have two people in it!

There were some ships behind the museum that we could visit.  I liked the rescue boat Hindenberg!  I climbed up to the bridge and tried to steer, but I was too little to see where I would be going!  The throttle controls for the engines were a better fit for a little lion!  From the bridge of the Hindenberg, I could see a statue on a tall pole near the water.  It looked like somebody sailing!  The seagulls seemed to enjoy getting a ride with the sailor!

Just before dinner on Friday, the art scavenger hunt pictures were handed out.  Hunters are supposed to match the images with the art aboard the Marina and write down where they are.  On my last cruise, my friend Butlog helped Grandma and me with the art hunt.  He lived on the ship, so he knew where everything was.  Butlog isn’t around on this cruise, so I have to make sure to help Grandma all I can!

Love,

Lion-san