Tag: Destination Specialist

Eurodam In Stockholm, originally uploaded by Ralph Grizzle. Cruise passengers enjoyed a day of touring in Stockholm’s Old Town.

In Stockholm today: Holland America Line’s Rotterdam could not ask for a better parking place – er, make that, a better place to drop anchor – than in the harbor facing Stockholm’s Old Town, Gamla Stan.

[Eurodam is in Helsinki today.] In Helsinki, I was surprised to see a train marked “St. Petersburg.” We were there only yesterday on the ship. As with the ship, it’s only an overnight trip by train between the two cities. Traveling in the other direction, Stockholm is an overnight ferry away, which is why Helsinki…   read more of “Cruising White…”

[Eurodam overnighted in St. Petersburg. The story below suggests how passengers might make the most of two days in the Russian city.] Today, St. Petersburg is both welcoming and increasingly hospitable. Sure, the city could use infrastructure improvements (such as new highways to alleviate city center traffic), but even with its imperfections, 303-year-old St. Petersburg…   read more of “Cruising White…”

[Eurodam will spend two days in St. Petersburg. The story below took place on Westerdam in 2005.] Unless you are booked on a cruise line shore excursion, you need a visa before leaving home to visit St. Petersburg, Russia. To clarify, cruise passengers who book cruise line shore excursions do not need visas. Everyone else…   read more of “Cruising White…”

[Eurodam calls at Tallinn, Estonia, today. The account below took place on Westerdam in 2005.] As we stood on our balcony waiting for the sunset — near midnight! — Westerdam was charting a course for Tallinn, capital of Estonia. The “Economist” had recently cited Estonia “as the biggest, most complicated, and most promising piece of the…   read more of “Cruising White…”

[Eurodam called on Rostock/Warnemünde yesterday. Many passengers opted for excursions to Berlin.] Over lunch at Berlin’s trendy Restaurant Diekmann at Weinhaus Huth, Nicole Röbel tells a story that grandparents might tell their grandchildren. “We had no phone when I was a child,” she says, after finishing a bite of her Niçoise salad. She speaks of…   read more of “Berlin: Life Before…”

[Eurodam calls in Rostock/Warnemünde today, with excursions to Berlin.] Founded in 1218 and one of the three original Hanseatic cities, Rostock, Germany, is only 10 miles from the seaside resort Warnemünde, where cruise ships dock. And while many cruise passengers skip these two former East German destinations for trips to Berlin, we decided to stay…   read more of “Cruising White…”