Anchors aweigh for the final days...

As promised, I have finally finished all the scribbling of my thoughts and wading through the photographs from our fabulous Baltic cruise. So if you want to know about our visit to the coast of Poland, our day in Berlin and all the remaining cruising escapades click here.

- Our last day in St Petersburg - from Russia with love
- A day of vegetable carving and piratical shenanigans!
- Our little taste of Poland
- An Italian meal as we sail away from Poland
- A decadent day of walls and chocolate in Berlin
- How we somehow managed to squeeze in some flammekueche
- A dinner with new guests
- A canal, an ice swan, too many pink drinks (maybe), some unused radio mics and a lot of sequins.

So the cruise is recorded for posterity, now it's just all the rest of the forking and travelling I've enjoyed to be caught up on.

Half of the Baltic

I'm still so behind but finally I have been able to post my musings and photos from our Baltic cruise, well at least some of it. I’m still only half way through and have much more to write but I am determined to complete it and not just write “we have another nondescript soup followed by some meat with yet more carrots”. I do want to do everything justice.

So if you haven’t spotted them and caught up yet, click here for:

First night aboard,

A day cruising and informal dinner,

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen,

A night at the Tivoli,

Another day at sea,

Stockholm’s Ice Bar,

More of that dreaded aspic,

Tallinn and the singing revolution,

Eggs and St Petersburg and

Marvellous Moscow.

Phew… half way there!

And then I've got to catch up with everything else I've done since then, ah well, one day at a time.

Excessive forking and extensive travelling

I have finally returned from bobbing around on the beautiful balmy sea enjoying a wonderful holiday cruising around the Northern Baltic cites and have many forking escapades to blog. And very remiss of me I know, but I also need to catch up on some fabulous eating from before I went away, it's just all eat, eat, eat at the moment!
I had hoped to catch up on the various exciting foodie events during my days at sea contemplating what to do with a drunken sailor but all that eating, sunbathing, enjoying sunsets and watching dancers in day-glo feathers miming tap-dancing (best not to ask!) doesn't happen by itself so no real blogging time.
Unfortunately I also have a steaming pile of work emails to address which have to take priority so all this catching up with my blog may take a little time.

As a taster of what I have to blog there was the best mash in the world, handbag-shaped little cakes, unnecessary aspic, eggs - lots of eggs (including very sparkly eggs), more of Jeremy's fabulousness, Russian caviar, the finest Scandinavian salmon, the largest mint leaves in the world, Gaucho's in the dark, a summery Sunday lunch and an over-reliance on carrots due to flooding.

The final stage... cruising out with a bang!

So it’s our last day and night onboard the Discovery and we’ve got a busy schedule. We are going to sail down the Kiel Canal and experience a couple of locks in a cruise ship, which should be an unusual experience. We’ve still got to pack, hmmm that might be a challenge. There are the last few rays of sun to be caught and then we’ll have to say farewell to everyone and our home for the past two weeks. There’s an announcement over the tannoy to inform us that later they’ll be an exhibition of the art we’ve been creating whilst at sea, now that’s an alarming thought! But to distract us from that frightful notion we watch Martin, the shy expert carver, whip up a large ice swan to adorn the captain’s table later.

Normally he would wrap himself up in a big padded jacket head for the ice store below decks and chip away there. Performing this feat on deck in the baking sun meant that he has to work extremely speedily to ensure his creation did not melt into a large pool before he was finished. Martin is rather talented in this area; I also spotted more of his handiwork garnishing the salad table in the Lido. This was his decorative take on a water melon.

One of the final events of the afternoon was a Brain's Trust with a panel of experts from the cruise debating thought provoking questions about influential historical figures, politics, etiquette and morals. There were differing opinions, controversial responses and much food for thought. I'm glad we managed to squeeze in the completely packed show lounge to participate.

There are several things we haven't experienced yet on the ship and one apparent lack is a viewing of one of the nightly shows. We've been in the show lounge many times especially as we congregate there for the excursions but R (aka K) and T have had front row seats every night and assure us that it's a must see ( otherwise known as a scream!) And granted it is the last night so we really should out with a bang we agree to accompany them.

We join them in the bar before dinner and our evening started with a Kir Imperial, then we head down for the last supper as it were.

I decide to forgo a starter as I certainly don’t fancy the vine ripened tomatoes, shrimp cocktail or mixed salad so it’s straight to Chicken Consommé with Pan Cake Strips. My main was the Game Casserole with a Rich Red Wine, Mushrooms, Thyme and Bacon Sauce with Braised Leeks, Roasted Vegetables and Herb Champ.

And the dessert was an “Australian” Pavlova with Chantilly Cream and Wild Berries.

After wine and farewells with P and C over dinner and then another glass or Kir Imperial, I think you can guess how this goes!

M wants to grab some air after dinner so the show starts without her. When she arrives in the show lounge I'm anxious that she won't be able to locate us in the gloom. Fuelled by a few pink drinks I have a brilliant idea that I should walk over to her and lead her back to our ringside seats. This idea may seem practical but actually it was extremely ill conceived! Firstly we were right at the front and there wasn't a raised stage for the performers to strut their stuff on, just a wooden semi circle in front of the audience. I decided to nip across the edge of the performance area and grab M but on the way back no amount of semi crouching could disguise the fact that I was trying to creep back to my seat accompanied by dancing girls in feathers sashaying behind me. Never have I been so conspicuous especially considering I clearly felt that bowing my head slightly would render me utterly invisible. Errr it didn’t!

After the sarcastic ripple of applause had died down for my 'performance' I could slink down in my seat and stare in awe at the real performers. R and T had warned me that the 'best' bit was that only two of the six singers/dancers actually sang but they were all fitted with J-Lo style face microphones. When the chorus were due to sing there lip synched to a click track, which is fair enough. They were clearly employed for their long legs and predilection for stretchy satin and sequins but what we found amusing (and those cold pink drinks could well have fuelled our hilarity) was that one of the blond dancers only mimed occasionally. We couldn't work out if this was an unfortunate forgetfulness when it came to the lyrics or the inability to multitask whilst concentrating on her footwork. But we thought it was very funny, she'd maintain the perfect "tits and teeth" stance and then suddenly part way through the song she'd suddenly start miming. Of course we were incredibly close to the action and could easily have joined in (again!) should the mood have taken us so we were able to spot everything. Whose trouser zip was no longer doing its job, who was completely out of step with the other dancers and as a finale, how faked was the tap-dancing. This was our favourite - an upbeat number with a few bursts of frenetic tap dancing but Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly weren't available so the click track played the sound of the tap dancing and the dancers just shuffled their feet. I hope I haven't thrown daylight onto magic? A few rows back may have had a difference experience but I thought it was sweet, surreal and probably way funnier than they'd ever intended. A splendid finale for our fortnight, possibly for the wrong reasons but I don't think they can have you for that.
There was one more corner of the ship we hadn't visited which was the Hideaway Bar. On previous trips it had been a nightclub (ascertained by sneaking a peek behind the new sign) but I could guess it wouldn't be frequented much on this sort of cruise. This tiny bar housed a couple of one armed bandits next to the former dance floor and seemed to be the place where all the staff hung out. Another entirely unnecessary but very enjoyable pink drink and then we really had to tackle the packing. On returning to our cabin we found that whilst we were out a note asking us to leave our fully loaded luggage outside our cabins for midnight. Whoops, it was already way after midnight and it was going to take a considerable effort to sort everything out. However somehow it all got done and we collapsed for our final night. Only one more Oscar's omelette to go!

A meaty meal in Germany

We had been convinced that we would never eat again but here we are, back on the ship and back in the dining room. C and P are dining al Italian n the Yacht Club tonight to we have new dining companions. In fact the dining room is heaving, because so many of us have been to Berlin today many of those who would have been sat in the early sitting have joined us for the later sitting. It is rather loud and it’s quite difficult to make small talk with our somewhat grumpier companions. Let’s hope the food distracts us.

We start with Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio with Parmesan Shavings and Rocket Salad. It was okay, but not really a patch of yesterdays. Clearly our fellow diners are not raw meat eaters and look slightly horrified at my plate. I follow this with a bowl of Cock a Leekie Soup.

Then it’s more beef, this time it is Steak Diane – Pan Fried Steak in a Creamy Mushroom Sauce with Brandy and Mustard, Gratinated Potatoes and Melody of Vegetables. The steal is unfortunately not that luscious fillet we’d seen Neill flaming earlier this week but a thinner slightly gristlier version. And what do we spot in the melody of vegetables, some orange vegetable that I just can’t really place!

Our dessert was Ebony and Ivory Chocolate Bavarois with Bailey’s Cream Sauce.

Flammekueche anyone?

Despite the fact that we were pretty stuffed from our lunch, so much so we hadn’t been tempted to sample any of the yummy chocolates we’d got from Fassbender & Rausch, after we’d explored a delighted little art market I espied from the corner of my eye a much loved Flammekueche, or Tarte Flambé if we were in Alsace. I’ve mentioned this Alsatian delicacy before, a thin pizza style base, a smearing or crème fraîche and then topped with slivers of smoked bacon lardons. Simple and truly delicious! This café attached to the art gallery had this as one of today’s specials, this version the perfect original and the extremely sacrilegious tomato studded version. Aghhh - Flammekueche, or Tarte Flambé means no tomato! Don't they understand?
But despite hanging around with the tomato loving M, I convinced her that the genuine article was what we should sample. And it was exceedingly good! A passing rather brave sparrow thought so also as he popped by to relieve us of a few crumbs from the edge. I don’t know how we managed to eat it, but it was good so we forced ourselves and was glad we had.

Willkommen im Berlin! Gluklich zu sehen

Ever since seeing the film Cabaret for the first time I wanted to be right there in the front row of the sleazy Kit Kat club hearing the MC welcoming me to decadent Berlin and inviting me to bleibe, reste, stay. I got my chance to sit at a little round table on the front row of the audience of a fabulous Broadway production of Cabaret a few years ago at the former 70’s disco Studio 54 in Manhattan but still Berlin itself had eluded me. And now here we are in a city that has inspired so many writers and artists and still attracts a vibrant, bohemian population today. On our drive to Berlin from Warnemunde we’d viewed a thought provoking film reminding us about all this history of this fascinating place and our guide explained his love of East Germany and how reunification changed their world.

What struck me immediately was how recently so many world-altering events have taken place here. I remember the Berlin Wall finally being torn down in 1986 and even then I couldn’t really understand how so long after the end of the Second World War it had loomed over East and West Berlin.

This partitioning of Berlin featured in so many war and spy films, dramatic heart-stopping moments at Checkpoint Charlie, tense hanging around in starkly lit cafés (mainly the infamous Café Eagle) waiting for someone to successfully cross over from East Germany into the American quarter of West Berlin.

Naturally much of this all is now a museum, a slew of souvenir shops and a host of photo opportunities. If you play your cards right you can snap a photo of yourself with a man in American army uniform in front of the reconstructed wooden hut that was Checkpoint Charlie.

And you can possibly get your own little piece of pock marked, bullet shot wall to stick on you fridge. I don’t know if it’s genuine, there was rather a lot of wall and not much remains now, so it could be.

We visited the parts that are still standing, some with the original graffiti and some enhanced with modern art to delight the tourists’ clicking cameras.

The former course of the wall is marked by bricks laid in the pavement. Around the Brandenburg Gate you can view the daunting thickness of the former barrier.

The city of Berlin is both a mixture of the imposing and symbolic Brandenburg Gate and the quirky Eastern German traffic lights.

The Brandenburg Gate topped by the goddess of victory was once the entrance to Berlin and was closed and blocked off by the building of the wall in 1961, it became the place where many a US President has stood and called for the end of the Cold War.

Our Berlin guide was a student taxi driver when she heard rumours of the wall falling over her radio back in November 9^th 1989, and drove to Brandenburg Gate to see for herself. She was greeted by Eastern Germans climbing through the opening many clutching pieces of paper with desperately scribbled West Berlin addresses of family and friends that they may not have seen for 28 years and no means to get to them.

She used her taxi to ferry these people to their long lost relatives and as they had no Western money, did this for free until the wee small hours when she could barely keep her eyes open.

She also explained that after reunification many differing aspects of West and East Germany were standardised and there was a call to use the West German generic traffic lights. But the more distinctive be-hatted East German symbols were fought for in an attempt to preserve a little of the East German nostalgia. And Berlin bowed to the pressure and the quirkier East Germany traffic light symbols have remained and become tourist attractions in their own right.

After all our explorations we were feeling peckish and fortunately we had a lunch laid on for us in a local restaurant. And it was a very impressive spread!

There was a ham salad on a table when we sat down and then the cloches were lifted on an array of German fare.

We tucked into tasty German sausages (much more like frankfurters that a British banger!) and to my delight an assortment of vegetables and potatoes. The creamy cabbage, mash potato and gratin potatoes were very fine, though I think M probably passed on those!

For desserts we have a local speciality of doughnuts and apple strudel with a berry sauce.

Whilst we are eating our lunch our guide tells us about a fabulous local chocolate shop that we are keen to investigate so we hot foot it over to Fassbender und Rausch.

The windows of this large chocolate shop are adorned with huge unfortunately inedible shiny chocolate sculptures.

The glistening chocolate volcano erupted with chocolate lava and there’s also a shrunken Brandenburg Gate and the chocolate ruins of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church

There’s even a chocolate Titanic which causes much attention from our fellow cruisers as it’s a historical event I guess one doesn’t allude to on such a holiday! We buy some goodies to take home and I later discover this Fassbender und Rausch chocolate is exceedingly good indeed.

From Poland to Italy

Tonight is the Captain’s farewell dinner but M and I have been trying to secure a reservation in the Yacht Club which has been turned into an Italian restaurant for our return trip (it was Oriental on the way out and we weren’t so interested in that) so we forgo the formal meal for a bit of Italian. Being new to this cruising lark we hadn’t realised that reservations for the finer dining are sought after and you need to jump in early. However fortunately there was a cancellation and we were able to try it for ourselves tonight. It was slightly incongruous being in the full finery and sparkle in a place bedecked with red and white checked tablecloths, Chianti bottles and other Italian trattoria touches but it was all about the food so we didn’t mind.

We started with Carpaccio al Pesto – Thinly Sliced Fillet of Beef, Dressed with a Light Lime-Basil Pesto and Grana Padano Cheese. This was very good and such a pleasure to enjoy some beautiful really tasty food. This was definitely not mass-catered but produced with care.
Then there was a bowl of Zuppa di Minestrone, they knew of my aversion to the dreaded tomato and warned me of it in the minestrone soup, it’s never been my favourite but I had a few spoonfuls and it had a rounded flavour.

Next it was the pasta. I’ve had a couple of pasta dishes whilst on this cruise and they haven’t really worked. I’ve found them to be a little stodgy and claggy and haven’t been able to finish them. But the difference with his Primo Piatto Pasta dish was the phrase “One of our Chefs will prepare a Pasta Dish for you in the Restaurant” and I tuck into a freshly cooked pasta bows in a pesto sauce and they do indeed prepare it in front of you. I could then scrutinise the dish to ensure no tomato slipped in whilst I wasn’t looking, it didn’t. M had the tomato version, how am I related again?

There was a choice of two mains, M had the Salmon and Tiger Prawns with Lemon Sauce, Stuffed Eggplant Rolls and Garlic Flavoured Mashed Potatoes whilst I relished the Saltimbocca alla Romana – Grilled Veal Scaloppine with Sage and Parma Ham, Served with Barolo Sauce, Romanesco with Pine Butter and Risotto. It was succulent and delicious and well worth the wait.

For dessert there was either Tiramisu for those who like coffee – M, and for those who don’t – me, there was plate of Formaggio – a selection of Cheese with Sweet Red onion Marmalade. Oscar proudly told me that he had beautifully decorated the Tiramisu plates with forks so I had to ensure a photograph for posterity.

This was the tastiest meal we'd had on our cruise! I will say that they do try ever so hard in the Six Continents restaurant but there's too many of us, they have to cater for many with not very adventurous taste buds and a predilection for overcooked meat. So this was all considerably more to our liking, viva Italia!

A little taste of Poland

We dock into our penultimate port and look forward our visit to Poland. All thoughts of eggs have been banished as now it’s all about amber. Apparently the streets are positively paved with amber, I am not as excited about amber but the whole Jurassic Park bit intrigues me. We are told various techniques that can aid us in identifying fake amber. And you can’t go by the weight as everyone suspects as real amber and the various generally plastic copies are as light as each other. Apparently you can rub real amber and smell the pine resin and are able to pick up little bits of tissue with the real one. We have three towns to visit Gdansk, famous for the birth of the Solidarity movement and Lech Walesa, Gdynia where there are amber shops aplenty and Soport the local seaside and a famous wooden pier.
Our first stop is Gyinia, a charming little place with stylish architecture and yes, an abundance of amber shops. But unfortunately it is quite early when we visit and many of the other shops and the market stalls are not open yet. There are a lot of us tourists and in such a small place it is slightly like a plague of locusts have briefly descended upon them all being marshalled by guides with large white numbered lollipops. It's the first time I've been so aware of the cult of the tourist. I would have liked to linger longer especially when Gdynia had woken up and diluted the visitors a little but we were on a schedule.
We didn't get out at the Gdansk (formerly Lenin) Shipyards but saw the memorial erected to honour the fallen shipyard workers during the brutal strikes of the 70's.
Soport was the only beach we saw on this trip and seemed quite popular, it was our last stop. We were marched down to the sea edge along a wooden walkway and then led back. Again it was very apparent who was sightseer and we seem to overwhelm the seashore for a moment. Personally I would have liked to have visited here first, when it was at its quietest and then finish with Gdynia so we could have appreciated it when it was a little livelier.
We had a stop at a hotel to enjoy some tea and cake and in my case secure my penultimate Polish fridge magnet.
I really enjoyed our little taste of Poland but I definitely would have enjoyed a less curtailed visit but the tides were against us or something and we had to get to Germany.

Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum?

Today we are bobbing along on the beautiful briny sea and frankly it’s quite a relief. Not that we haven’t absolutely loved the last few fabulous days but I’m not sure if either of us could put one foot in front of one another again. It’s not just the amount of walking we’ve done but the heat we’ve been exploring Russia in. In my mind Russia is always smothered in blankets of the whitest snow and the inhabitants are swathed in furry coats and delicious hats, think Doctor Zhivago. But clearly, not in August!

After tucking into one of Oscar’s fine omelettes we head for the Cooking Demo in the Discovery Lounge. We’re not sure what to expect but we get to sit down so it already sounds good! As usual the shipmates are out in force, I can’t vouch for napkin folding demonstration or line dancing but every event I’ve seen has been very well attended.

Our demonstration is by Neill the head chef was also new to this ship from Australia and gave us a fascinating insight into the mechanics of catering for such a floating establishment. I'm always fascinated by kitchens anyway but this one particularly intrigued me. Health and safety unfortunately denied us the pleasure of seeing it all first hand, don't those guys in white coats always spoil our fun? But as he whipped up a frankly very fine looking pepper steak (H&S deemed we could look and smell but not eat, boo hiss!) and mushrooms he explained the daily routines onboard. He was assisted by Ben who he persisted in calling Martin. So much so that Ben seemed to get all huffy and leave. Martin in fact was a shy expert carver who could take an apple and a carrot and seemingly in moments produce a duck and deftly turn a potato into a rose. He made a slew of these and then disappeared coyly back to the kitchen. Neill detailed some of the improvements he's made to the Discovery, one being simplifying the menus. Wow, we were experiencing the after? Our demo continued with more delicious smelling food we couldn’t eat followed by audience questions. One I wished I asked was "what's with the carrots?", as they are an extremely regular adornment to our dishes. It turns that our regular supplies were curtailed by the terrible floods suffered by some farmers and some ingredients fell short. But luckily for us we received our full complement of carrots and hence they had to supplement our meagre rations of others. Though truth be told we weren't aware of the lack it was only the recurring carrot theme that was spotted. It seems that Neill had big plans for the lido dining area where we've grabbing breakfast, lunch and occasionally afternoon tea. It does seem to be prone to bottlenecks and he is hoping that in the next ship's refit this can be addressed. After our demo we were furnished with instructions on how to prepare for the perfect dinner party. One comment I spotted was the importance of creamy buttery mash potatoes, perhaps that explains the surprisingly good potatoes in the lido of a lunchtime.

After a day cruising around the Baltic Sea we were intrigued to discover what tonight dinner had in store. We had been told last night that this evening was going to have a piratical theme. We’d tried to elicit the details of what that would entail but they all remained schtum. We could only speculate that lashing of rum would be involved.

As we arrived in the dining room, there are Jolly Rogers and piratical paraphernalia all over the place, our waiter and busboy are resplendent in their cabin boy attire and fake tattoos looking to my mind like rock band roadies and our menu is large yellow and covered in cutlasses.

The starters are labelled as “Rich Pickings” and I chose “Diced parrot with Land Lubber’s Blood Sauce” which was actually Game Terrine with Cumberland Sauce.

“From the Slop Bucket” was “Cannon Ball Soup” otherwise know as Cream of Carrot, Honey and Walnut.

Ahh it looks like the ubiquitous carrots are back!

From “Square Meals” I selected “Grape Shot” which was subtitled Potato Gnocchi “Salvatore” Mushroon Sauce, Herbs and Parmesan Cheese.

And the dessert was “Floating Desert Island” Poached Meringue in a Sea of Fresh Vanilla Custard. Actually really apart from the decorated empty bottles on our tables the place wasn’t awash with rum. We weren’t made to walk the plank or unfortunately whisked off to some pirate’s lair by Johnny Depp but it was certainly an entertaining evening.