July 7, 2017 our 55 Wedding Anniversary, Murmansk, Russia

Murmansk , Russia's located on Kola Bay, Murmansk is Russia's only ice-free port and also the only Russian city found north of the Arctic Circle. We really enjoyed this port, more then we thought we would. First it isn't really pretty at  the port, lots of coal and trains. And in the town a lot is leftover from the communist, so gray and not structures, that were very attractive.  

The guide was Tatyana and she was really good.  Not politically correct, told it like it was, and is. So first stop was a huge monument to all the fallen soldiers, it was up on a very high hill, the tallest in the town. It was very moving, very well done, but I have to admit, not the style I prefer, very much in the Art Deco style. 

Then they took us to a Greek Orthodox Church, only one of three left in Murmansk, the communist destroyed the rest of them. And the people of Murmansk are very religious and almost every one is Christian. So on holidays the three churches are overflowing. 

Then we went for pancakes, with cream and jam, in a Radisson hotel, would you believe?  It was wonderful, and two of the servers were wearing traditional costumes, they were so pretty.  We were able to do a wee bit of shopping and then back to the ship. 

When we got back to the ship we didn't realize that the ship parked next to us was the nuclear ice breaker we could have toured, wops! 

It was our 55th  anniversary so it wasn't too early to start getting ready fo a very special evening. 

The dinning room staff and our friends Karen and Pat had planed out something very special and it was, at the end of dinner, one of the waters from another part of the DR, with a wonderful voice sang "Through the years" to us, which made us both tear up, and then they gave us a bottle of champaign!  

From there we went to the casino bar and listen to Austin Ray sing "Moon River" to us as hat was our song 55 years ago, and they played it at our wedding. 

We got back to the room, and Dominic had mad us two swans one with a red beak, they were in the middle of the bed and he put chocolate harts all around them! All and  all it was a wonderful day

  

July 6, 2017 at sea

Well we woke up late, with the light on in the sky 24 hours a day it makes it hard to judge the day, so 9,9:30 seems to be what we do. It is rainy, and gray, which also seems to be the rhythm of the cruse. It is easy to get very lazy. Talk about being relaxed, some one brings you coffee, some one makes your bed, someone cleaners your bathroom, some one, fixes lunch, dinner, and snacks and tea, someone takes care of your laundry,  etc, etc.  This small ship feels like home with no worries, it will be hard to get back in the swing of things, even being in England will be more work then this. 

So we had lunch with Karen and Pat, our new friends from New Orleans, they are a lot of fun, we usually have lunch and dinner together, so the conversation was mostly about our tour to Murmansk, we really don't know what to expect. We have been told there will be little if any, Internet.  The whole set up on this ship of the Internet has been less then optimum. I don't like "Princess @ Sea" even when we have had T-Mobile availability it overrides it!   

So I will send this when I can.