Dr. Seuss, Oh The Places You’ll Go
Like many children who grew up on Green Eggs and Hamm or Horton Hears A Who, Dr Seuss stories were an indelible part of my childhood. For my high school graduation Mom and Dad gave me the Dr Seuss classic “Oh The Places You’ll Go”, I’m sure in the hopes that life would take me to some amazing places and meet one or two incredible people. I’m not so sure however, they ever dreamed that life would lead me on the adventure Amanda and I have gotten to share for the last few years.
That adventure has now taken us to a place I never dreamed I’d get to go. But before we got to our ultimate destination in this series of travels there was the journey that got us there that deserves a little time as well.
Amanda and I had talked about going on a Baltic Cruise almost since the moment we arrived in the UK and very nearly missed our chance when we couldn’t get one scheduled during our first two years here.
Thankfully, we were able to extend our time in the UK for another year which gave us the opportunity to cross this trip off our list. Of course, simply deciding where we wanted to go on our cruise was only a small part of the decision we had to make. We also had to decide which cruise line we wanted to sail with. Having never been on a cruise before, neither one of us where quite sure what to expect. Our primary goal for the cruise was to spend some time in St. Petersburg and that helped to eliminate several Baltic cruise lines from the beginning, as not every company makes a stop there. Then some of the other cruise lines that did stop in St Petersburg either skipped a few of the other locations at the top of our list, (Tallinn, Helsinki, Stockholm or Copenhagen) or are companies that primarily operate as ferry services and maintain a few cruise ships as well. Ultimately we decided on a company called Cruise & Maritime which, along with stopping at nearly every port we were interested in, also has the distinction of being an ‘adult’ only cruise. It may come as a surprise to some but this was actually rather appealing to both of us.
When we received our brochure however, we began to realize just how ‘adult’ this cruise might be. (Not that way – get your mind out of the gutter!) Let’s just say that no one in the advertisement photographs appeared to be under the age of 50. I half expected this was an attempt to pass the cruise off as being focused on a more mature cruising clientele and in some respects I was right. However, I may have underestimated just how mature our cruising compatriots would be.
The photo above was taken on the shuttle bus which transferred us from London Victoria Bus Station to our ship at London, Tilbury. Our age was about to be one of the top talking points for the next two weeks!
As a significant part of our adventures are typically derived from the effort it takes to get somewhere, making our way to the Cruise Terminal was no different. The options for arriving at London Tilbury (which is about 20 miles east of London) are personal vehicle, taxi, train (then a 20 min walk with your luggage) or chartered bus. As parking is around £20 a day and taxi fares into Tilbury can run upwards of £100 depending on, of course, how far you are traveling from, we decided to brave the rail network on a weekend so that we could take advantage of the £50 round trip chartered bus that ran from London Victoria bus station to Tilbury.
If you’ve spent any time living around London for the last few years you know how difficult it can be to make it into the city on the weekends. There are numerous multi-million pound improvement works taking place across the entire network of stations throughout greater London so it really can be a Craps Shoot as to whether any particular station will have service into London on a given weekend. Thankfully trains from our local station into London Victoria were running every thirty minutes or so. A little less often than normal but at least they were running. Taking the train into London also meant we had to lug our baggage through what is the busiest train station in London as we made our way to the Victoria Station bus terminal. Now, one might reasonably assume that the London Victoria Train station is in the same place as the London Victoria Bus Terminal. One would, however, be wrong in that assumption as the bus and train stations that both bear the Victoria name are actually a few blocks apart. So, on we trudge, darting between tourists and locals alike as we hustle towards the bus terminal in hopes of arriving before our bus departs for the boat. In the end our last minute rush paid off as we got to the station in just enough time to grab a VERY quick bite to eat before joining the queue to board our coach.
Arriving at the Cruise Terminal we were processed through customs and immigration relatively quickly and took the gangway up to the boat where we were greeted by the official cruise photographer and a plywood cutout of the ship we were about to board. Having had our photo taken we proceeded onto the boat and were directed to our quarters directly. Once we’d examined our room we set off to do a bit of exploring. Unfortunately I decided not to take the camera with me as I figured I would be on the ship for the next 12 days and would get plenty of photos of our surroundings. This proved to be a monumental oversight on my part as we somehow managed to take pictures of everything else on this trip except where we were staying. In fact, the only other photo I have prior to our setting sail is a rather uninteresting shot of the harbor.
Once underway and sailing down the River Thames I recalled a series of structures built during WWII at the mouth of the Thames Estuary intended to serve as a warning stations and the first line of defense for the river and its famous city. Known as Maunsell Forts, after the man who designed them, they were constructed in the late 30’s to early 40’s. I was curious to see if they were still intact or if the ravages of the sea had laid claim to the forgotten structures. Much to my pleasure we were able to spot these structures as we approached the mouth of the estuary.
Then I was even more thrilled when we drew to within a couple miles and could clearly see that they were not only still intact but appeared to have weathered remarkably well considering. Having done some additional research I should also mention that one of these forts is actually managed by an unrecognized principality called the Principality of Sealand.
Okay so perhaps I was a little excited about the Maunsell Forts but then is anyone really that surprised?
After the excitement of setting out on our very first cruise we settled into a cuppa on the deck before returning to our room and preparing for dinner.
Dinner the first night was a casual affair and gave us an opportunity to meet our dinner table partners (or as Amanda says, the old people we ate dinner with every night). Having been onboard for a few hours at this point and still not seen anyone within shouting distance of my own age I was a bit concerned that we would end up at a table with at least one or two stodgy retirees who would disapprove of eating with a couple uncultured ne’er-do-wells who are too young and far too American to be on this cruise. However we quickly discovered that the couples we would be dining with for the duration of our trip were wonderfully lovely people and nothing like the ones I had envisioned prior to being seated.
Having polished off the last of dessert we made our way to the Marco Polo Lounge for our first evening show on board. It was a selection of movie theme songs primarily from films that were popular in the 50’s and 60’s. They might have been playing to the crowd a bit. For the most part all of the performers were very talented and did the songs the justice they deserved; however, one particular song apparently required a Texas accent that just didn’t come across all that well to my highly trained Texan ear.
All in all it was a great start to what we hoped would be an amazing trip.
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