Wanderung 31

Once Around the Baltic

August - September 2016


 

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September 6,7: Last days of cruise

We spent the morning roaming around the ship and taking pictures of both the interior and exterior of the Pacifica. Costa had provided us a CD with pictures of the Costa Pacifica as a bonus with our package of evening portrait pictures, and curiously all but one of those pictures showed just the ship's interior furnishings. The Pacifica did, in fact, have a very fancy interior decoration scheme, almost overwhelming in the vivid colors and forms used in the main public areas. Certainly, the understated dark decor of the Holland America ships we have cruised on, would be almost the polar opposite from the flamboyant colorfulness of the Costa ships such as the Pacifica.

But other areas of the Pacifica, like the bar and dance floor amidships, the "Vienna, Vienna" classical-music salon, and the restaurants, were somewhat more muted, possibly to be more comfortable for the informal social interactions expected in those areas.

The official Costa pictures were done with perfect lighting, no people, and special wide-angle lenses, so they were much more nicer than any picture we could have managed. But Costa omitted to take pictures of the interior wall decorations, which we felt helped set the tone for the ship. Those interior prints were mainly of a musical theme, but they were of a funky, informal style that certainly contributed to the overall impression of the Costa Pacifica as a comfortable place to relax and enjoy the music.

We also took some last pictures out on deck, as it was a sunny day with a bright blue sky, which is a perfect day to be cruising on a beautiful ship.

Taking pictures was a pleasant way to occupy the morning, but in the afternoon things got serious because we had to pack up all of the things we had scattered around the cabin and then prepare to say "Good Bye" to the ship, the staff who both took care of our cabin and served us the fine meals on board, and to the wonderful people we have met along the way.

At our final meal together that evening, we gave our wait staff a final tip (my favorite is "Buy low, and sell high!"), and bid adieu to our dinner companions. Fortunately, one big difference on this cruise was that was that we would be getting off the ship with Linda and Jerry and heading back to Hamburg together, which took some of the sting our of saying Good Bye to everyone else.

During the night, Monika saw another cruise ship passing by in the inky darkness, and surprisingly she managed to get a reasonably good shot of how a cruise ship looks at night on the high seas. Most ships are rather dark except for their navigation lights, but cruise ships tend to be lit up like Christmas trees, and this one was no exception.

As we approached Kiel the next morning, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise as we eased our way back into the wide bay to the East of the Kiel harbor area.

But finally the Pacifica crept past the small marina and docked at the cruise ship terminal, and we all had to disembark to go home. We joined up with Linda and Jerry to take a taxicab from the ship to the Kiel train station for 8 Euro, and then all 4 of us took a train to Hamburg for a group ticket price of 36 Euro.

I found out the trains between Kiel and Hamburg run every hour, so getting from one city to the other by train is simple, quick, and relatively inexpensive. Once in Hamburg, we paused at the Hauptbahnhof food court for lunch. We all had bratwurst, and then hopped the next S1 train out to the airport, where we finally parted company as they had to fly back to the US and we had plans for some more travelling. It was sad to finally have to say Good Bye to them, but at least we had the comfort of knowing that we would be travelling together in the future.



Copyright 2016 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt


 

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