LATELY WITH THE LINKS: 7/19/09

Friday, July 24, 2009

Visby, Sweden

Visby is the largest city on the island of Gotland. The entire island is full of ruins, artifacts and memories from its periods of greatness during the Viking period and Middle Ages when Visby was a member of the Hanseatic League. The town is surrounded by the Visby Ringwall, a huge 13th century stone wall that encloses the city.

We drove along Visby's coast to Högklint. From this cliff-top you can see the entire wall that surrounds the city with fantastic views of Visby and the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, the camera chip that holds the pictures from here is damaged and I haven't been able to rescue my photos as of yet....but trust me, it was an incredible view. We then headed back towards town and stopped to stroll through the Botanical Gardens (pictures on bad chip). We continuted to drive through the town and followed the remnants of the 13th-century city wall.

Dalmansporten is one of the gates through the wall surrounding Visby.

We then strolled down the towns narrow, winding streets trying our hardest to get lost.

Along the way, we stumbled on the ruins of one of the many Medieval churches. It's really quite something to behold to see these amazing architectual masterpieces still standing.

Before having to get back to the ship, we made our final stop at the Cathedral of St. Mary's. I'm not sure how a setting for a church could be more picturesque. It was beautiful.

Visby is an amazing town! We really would've liked more time to explore this cool medieval place. But, the boat doesn't wait. So, we went back to our room and got dressed up for a 5 course meal....concluded by creme brulee. So sad.....

Tomorrow.......The Fairy Tale Land of Estonia!

THE BALTIC SEA as we saw it

It doesn't get better than this! Lucky?? Blessed?? Yes--both I think!

We started our cruise in Copenhagen, Denmark. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see much of the city. We arrived at 7:00 a.m. Denmark time--which was 11:00 p.m. at home...the night before. So, we missed our night of sleep we so desperately needed. Too exhausted to function, we got a hotel room for 3 hours so we could nap a little before we could board our ship. ....Next time, Copenhagen....

Welcome to the Regent Seven Seas Voyager! I've always been apprehensive about getting on a boat and launching out into the open seas. Something about that just didn't seem safe to me. Then when you get on the ship, they require you to do a safety drill. It was very entertaining to see all of these very well dressed people waiting out on the deck with their life-vests on. But, really, that didn't help with the anxiety of floating away from land....miles and miles away from land.
Then, all of a sudden (even though you knew that eventually you would), you're leaving the shore....and all of your fears go away. We really couldn't even tell that we were on a boat--except for a couple of times when you could see people trying to keep their balance--so we just remained seated.
Our state room was very big compared to other ships (I think.....we hear people complain all the time about how cruise ship rooms are tiny). When you walked in, it had a bathroom to the left with a bathtub AND a shower. Then, there was a walk-in closet with lots of room for all our clothes. We slept in a KING size bed every night. Our room also had a little living room with a couch and a table with chairs where we would have room service delivered atleast twice a day. We spent a lot of time on the balcony where we watched the sun set over the Baltic Sea....somewhere around midnight each night.

For the next few days, I'll be posting pictures and stories from each of the cities that we docked in from Visby, Sweden to Stockholm, Sweden and I'll try my best to tell you about each of the incredible places we were lucky enough to see.
See you tomorrow.

Magdalene--Maggie Mae

Little Miss Sass is actually what we should call her. Lately, she's been "testing her limits" or should I say "her mom and dad's limits"--Just a little here and there. She's really decided that she has an opinion on every single thing and that it's her way or the highway. I guess we can just call her "Miss Independent". No more holding her hand while walking down the sidewalk, or helping her into her stroller. She'll do it "by self". "By self" is just one of the funny little things she says. "Or not" is big in her vocabulary, too. If you ask her if she wants a snack or not, if she doesn't, she'll say "Or not". She's just so funny. Conversations are never dull and always cute.

Brynna-Bel

My heaven's--getting older every second. She's no longer a little girl. She has turned into, simply, a girl. Not little, but not too big either. We are young enough to still love Barbie--but old enough to really care what Barbie is wearing. A good thing, right?
Bel is in the 1st grade now, and love's to read. She really loves school too. She loves her teachers and her friends. Can you say Social Butterfly? Talk-talk-talk-talk. She's never been considered shy. Everyone is her best-friend, you know, even if it's the first time you've ever talked to her. I love that quality about her. She is a friend to everyone. What a good and sweet girl she is.

Caden--C Dog

I just love my little Caden. He is THE sweetest and nicest kid around--and did I mention handsome. He's now in the 5th grade--the year when things get a bit more hectic. He has more work and he's expected to be organized enough to get it all in one day, do it over the next week and then turn it in. We're still workin' on that one. Organization is not a strong point for us. He changes classes too, which is new to him. I tell you what--he absolutley LOVES science. Almost every day he comes home telling me of the experiment that they did in science lab or goes on and on about protons and neutrons and electrons. I have a hard time following because he goes into every single little detail--and he remembers every-single-detail. What a smarty-pants. He's really discovering how funny his personality is lately, too. He now know's he's funny and that he's got the gift of gab. He takes after his dad.

Greyson--G Money

You'd think I was giving this kid steroids at the rate he's growing. He's only 15, but people ask if he's 17. He's very tall for his age. He might think he acts like he's 17--but we know better. Maturity-?-it's comin' along. We'll just say we're working on it. No, really-all kidding aside--he's a really good young man. He's at the age when typical teenage angst sets in. And..we have our fair share of it. But, all in all, I think he really tries to keep a cool head when he thinks we've asked him to take out the trash one too many times. He's just at an age when we can really count on his help. He is a great helper to me. He even folds laundry (don't tell his friends).
Greyson is doing really, really well in school so far this year. He's got and extra load-basically doing two years of school in only one. We thought he'd really have to bust it and be doing work constantly to keep up. But..he hardly has any homework and he's making all A's. He has a 100% in Geometry!? I asked him if he just has never missed any question ever on anything to get that average. He replied by saying, "No--I've missed stuff, but I got a 120% on a project". Whatever--wouldn't it be great to be that smart?

LATELY WITH THE LINKS