Bavaria and Liechtenstein

On Thursday Sept.27 we reached Bavaria to visit the castle of King Ludvig II, Neuschwanstein. However the whole castle was wrapped and I lost totally the interest to visit it. Instead I spent those two hours in two German bars. We then continued our journey to lake Bodensee where we stayed over night on beautiful Lindau island. Next afternoon we came to short visit to Vaduz the capital of Liechtenstein. A half an hour walk, and I had seen the place. Later a stop in Einsiedeln village,now already in Switzerland, before we continued to Luzern at lake Vierwaldstättersee.We stayed the night there and saturday then was free to explore Luzern.

Meeting Ernst Vettori, The Olympic Champion 1992

In Hall we were to over night in a over 700 hundred years old castle, now SChlosshotel Restaurant Goldener Engl. After dinner I took a walk, which ended in a friendly Kurd bar, where I did have interesting discussions with the Shia / Alawiti muslims, family owner of the bar. and with a local bum but a nice guy of my age with a lot of perspectives but less money. He was overwhelmed happy when I bought him a couple of beers,before leaving the place. Next morning we were in Innsbruck. I first decided to hire a "Fiakker", horse carriage for 4 persons. I soon found company from our group, and we had a one hour city tour with good guide. We then enjoyed some Austrian wine in awfully pretty old town,with very decorative baroque buildings. Later we did join the rest of the group to visit the Hofburg Castle, where queen Elisabeth, known as "Sissy" used to live. Our guide was a young lady, who had studied for years the history of that castle, and she wanted to show it to us. We went more than two hours trough that gorgeous building, and she explained the smallest details to us exactly. That was boring. Finally back in Hall, I was strolling trough the shopping area. I saw the sign "Vettori". They sold jeans and sporting outfits. I did try some jeans but it was 25 years too late. I was sweating. Two men were drinking beer at the desk. One of them asked if I would like to have a beer too. I was very greatful, and did accept the offer. Then I looked at the other guy. I was sure he is Olympic Gold Medal Winner 1992 in skijumping Ernst Vettori. So he was. the other one was his older brother, also a top sportsman from 80's. We had a long chat. Ernst wanted to know about his earlier Finnish competitions like Toni Nieminen and Matti Nykänen. When brothers told me that they always liked to compete with the Finnish ones, and that they also very much enjoyed their many visits to Finland, my day was perfect.

Around the European Alps on Sept.24.- Oct.1. 2012

A group of 17 of us flew early that Monday morning to Milan / Italy to start 8 days tour around the Alps. Our bus then brought us trough a enormous heavy rain to our first stop at a winery in Franciacorta area, famous especially of it's excellent spumanti. After several tasteings of different wines we had a nice lunch before we continued towards Dolomites. Our road went trough beautiful landscapes before arriving to a old castle, Hotel Castello Schloss Labers. In this historic building we had our dinner and first night. Next morning after breakfast we continued to the nearby city of Bolzano. Our main target was to find "Ötzi", the Ice Man , age over 4000 years, found some decades ago at the Austrian and Italian border. For years those two countries were quarreling to whom the body belongs before a satellite picture testified,that it laid half a meter on Italian side. The Ötzi Museum was nicely done explaining in details his life, the man itself was about 160cm tall, and had been killed in a fight at the age of 35-40. Next thing I did, was to enjoy the late Autumn Italian sun with very good wine at the Cathedral square in some trattoria. Soon 4 other persons of our group joined me. In early afternoon restarted to over cross the Dolomites, passing unbelievable breathtaking and fantastic landscapes like Canazei village, Val de Fiemme, Val Gardena, Val di Fassa, crossing Passo Sella at the height of 2244 meters, passing the Marmolada 3342 meters. Late that afternoon we arrived in a tiny medieval city of Hall near Innsbruck in Austria.

Short visit to Tallinn, Estonia

On June 13. a group of 13 guys including me made a visit to Tallinn,on opposite side of Gulf of Finland. Our main target was the new Maritime Museum. The Museum was very impressive, concentrating mainly to their Sovjet history. I later left the group to meet two Estonian very good friends, Sigrid and Kadri, both 39. They picked me up from the Museum,and we then had a nice lunch together, before visiting the TV -tower and having a drink at it's sky bar. I later visited their new beautiful homes to meet their husbands and children, before joining the other guys, with some comments, onboard the fast ferry of Linda-Line.

Comments of my last World Cruise

I have been too lazy or busy to write my opinions earlier. The length of the cruise was principally ok. However my first and last that long one. The best things were absolutely great sunny weather almost all 82 days and the marvellous Philippine waitresses onboard. We enjoyed many great harbours but we had to be mostly back onboard at 4-5 pm. Only in Hong Kong, Sydney and Cape Town we could enjoy the night life. The English Kitchen was not very much of my taste. I did not gain any kilos or pounds during this trip. Too late I found out that using Room Service Menu you got good food specially made for you. Most of the passengers were my age or even from the 30's. Among the Australians were the much younger ones but they participated on short legs only. Anyhow I met some very nice English people too, and was invited to private parties. A big disappointment was that we couln't go to Seychelles because of possible threat of terrorists and pirates. However I mostly was happy and in good mood during that cruise over the Sea of China, Pacific, Indian Ocean and Atlantic .

St.Helena, Tenerife, Madeira and Vigo

On Monday, April 16. we were at St.Helena waters a few hundred meters away from fast land. One tender with Deputy Captain was sent to study the possibilities to go ashore, but unfortunately, as widely expected, the conditions at the small tender dock were too rough and for great disappointment we could not but just circumnavigate the volcanic island of about 4000 inhabitants. That took two hours,and we did continue to sail towards Tenerife of Canary Islands. After eigth days at the sea, on Sunday, April 22., we got fast land under our feet in Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife. When walking a while on a boulevard near the harbour, I found a nice cafe with a big TV-screen to watch the Formula I - race. To my great pleasure the Finnish pilot, Kimi Räikkönen finished second. Soon afterwards we had to be onboard again heading towards Funchal, Madeira, to where we arrived next morning. I only had one wish when in Funchal, to find an excellent fish restaurant. With Bill, an English-Australian friend we just strolled trough the city, and found at the seaside an old yacht, once owned by The Beatles. It was cemented on shore, and would never sail again, instead it had an marvellous kitchen and we got both a very tasty unknown fish, recommended to us with a bottle of wine, white for Bill, red for me. A couple of hours later we started to sail to our last port of the cruise, Vigo in north-west Spain.On Wednesday morning, April 25. Vigo was first a bit rainy , but when I left the ship, the sun, naturally, came out. I was walking around this medieval city until I got thirsty and found a nice place on a plaza to get a couple cold Spanish beers. Suddenly Bill and his Australian lady friend popped out behind the corner and joined me. I already knew where the restaurants for," Mariscos y Pescados ", good sea fruits were and did succesfully orientate directly trough unknown narrow streets of the old town just to the spot. After oysters Bill and I had difficulties to decide if Portuguese or Spanish fish was more delicate. Next day we had our last day at the sea crossing the Bay of Biscay ang English Channel before berthing on April 28. at the Mayflower Cruise Terminal in Southampton. I still shall later give my overall comments and impressions concern this World Cruise.

Cruising Zambezi and leaving Africa

That same afternoon after lunch and a couple of relaxing hours we left with two speed boats for Zambezi river cruise. Very soon our guide spotted a group of big African elephants. We drove slowly near the the river bank to look and to make photos of those great animals. Suddenly we could hear a strong noise from the bushes, and a huge old masculin leader of the herd came trough to our sight, cutting the trees maybe just 20 meters away. He did not care of us, and ate peacefully the leaves of the trees. We then continued with full speed up and down the river with a series of 2 grade rapids, seeing some more elephants and funny looking old steam boats like "African Queen". Those ships were on their daily sunset cuises. We as well enjoyed the fantastic sunset before returning to our lodge to have some cocktails and delicious dinner. Later we still sat in the beach bar at two log fires until midnight Next morning we left for two and half hours safari before heading to the airport. We wanted to see some rhinos, but then we were informed that they were some miles away in the bush and the jeeps couldn't get there. We were too lazy or too exhausted and decided not to try to walk there. Then our visit at Sussi and Chuma Lodge was finished but with beautiful memories. I can recommend to anybody this gorgeous place, its very friendly people and the total character of this part of Africa. During that afternoon we had a nice flight to Johannesburg, where we spent the evening with great dinner, and the night in luxurious five star " THe Westcliff Hotel" overlooking the city. Next afternoon after a flight from Johannesburg and our great adventure, we arrived Walvis Bay in Namibia, where we boarded m/v Arcadia again to continue the cruise.