After the wonderful days in St. Petersburg, Russia the next stops had a lot to live up to. But we were not disappointed! This was the view sailing into the harbor of Tallinn, Estonia. It's a medieval town that still preserves much of its heritage.
Here is the facade of the gorgeous Russian Orthodox church in the center of town.
This state house is beautiful in its own way.
A unique sign welcoming visitors to the Estonian National Academy of Music :
Our excellent
guide made sure we saw everything important in our day there.
There is an "upper town" and "lower town"; the upper built to provide defense against invaders. These are views down onto the lower town from above.
A renaissance festival was in progress and this archer was demonstrating her skills next to the castle.
Most of the castles and churches are now art museums, containing the best works of local artists, as well as some internationally famous works. This picture shows a warship in the Tallinn harbor. The inlaid wood work depicts the city at an earlier time. (be sure and left-click on any pictures in the blog for a larger view.)
Our Celebrity Eclipse awaits us in the harbor.
Local vendors greet you in the port area, ready to sell you souvenirs of your visit. This young Estonian lady is holding the pretty wooden box we bought from her.
One of our favorite parts of a cruise is meeting new friends: here are Buddy and JoAnne from Georgia. We "hit it off immediately" and enjoyed time together, eating
most meals, as well as meeting up for the entertainment and some of the same tours.
Several evenings are always designated "formal" occasions; a kilt and evening gown were made for just such times. Roger met several other Scots on the ship.
We made this trip with Jim and Barb
and had a fantastic time together! So much so that we're trying to plan another trip together already!
Not sure what the surprise was here? We're in Stockholm, Sweden now. We bused out to a working farm, found this lone cow there:
Traveling by ferry and bus we visited several towns on the Stockholm archipelago.
Gustavsberg is home to a porcelain factory and museum, filled with beautiful examples of the craft, such as these:
And, of course, there was always time to hunt for geocaches nearby.
Meg's holding up part of a find here.
Barb and Jim enjoying the elevated view of the port.
The entry and departure from Stockholm is described commonly as one of the most beautiful in cruising.
On to Copenhagen, Denmark and what may be the most famous landmark in the world: The Little Mermaid, of Hans Christian Andersen fame.
(She's the smaller girl on the right!)
The new Opera House in Copenhagen
seen from an evening cruise tour boat.
The phenomenal shows each evening in the ship's theater are major contributors to the overall fun experience of a cruise. Here the cruise director and "volunteers" from the audience are dancing to "Y.M.C.A."
A Welsh comedian and singer was a blast! We really enjoyed his entire show. Emily, another wonderful singer, also from Wales, brought songs of Streisand and Judy Garland to life.
The crew and performers are a "United Nations" showcase; they revel in how well they get along with each other and admonish the audience with "why can't we all just get along?!" coupled with lots of smiles. This is the face of a Romanian acrobat, Andrea. We remarked often about how happy the crew members appear. Their apparent joy is a major contributing factor to our enjoyment of the cruises.
There are frequent educational opportunities
on board; we had history lessons on the various countries we visited. This is a former MI-6 agent teaching us about computer hacking, espionage and identity theft.
Here was a helpful hint on how to spot a terrorist!
A nice couple we met on board: he's German, she's Hungarian. They have both lived in the US.
The last evening was a time for us to say thank you to the members of the crew who were personally responsible for making our trip so memorable: our room stewards
and our waitstaff.
At our last meal they celebrated our two birthdays with us. "Happy Birthday to Us!" Yeah!! Yes, we've gotten to the stage where ONE candle will do, thank you very much!
After two wonderful weeks of visiting capitols and countries new to us, and enjoying the camaraderie of old friends and newly-made friends, the beautiful "White Cliffs of Dover" which historically have welcomed many sailors home to England, loomed like icebergs before us, showing us that we, like they, had safely navigated the North Sea, and were approaching Southampton's haven.
We took a cab the short distance to the Southampton bus stop. A 2-hour bus ride brought us to Heathrow and sometime later (much later) we fell into our own bed, happy and tired! Thanks for joining us for this reminiscence. Hope you can do something like this in the future!
Following the SMART National Muster, we traveled from Shawnee, Oklahoma to the National Convention of MAPS RV Volunteers in Carlinville, Illinois. It's an old-fashioned campmeeting, but with a lot fancier rigs. We met morning and evening for worship together, as well as to afford the volunteers opportunity to meet the local project sponsors and decide where to go in the future. Kind of like a "job fair" for volunteers.
I'm not sure why, but lots of folks decided big hats were in order! 
It was so fascinating and more extensive than we had thought, that we spent two days there.
The Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is downtown, not far from his home and law office. 
The fall is a beautiful time of year in Illinois. This was early October and the leaves were beginning to change, putting on a glorious show, "just for us!"
