Small ship - 592 passengers

Average age on this voyage was "mature". One passenger at 20, another at 23, and then up in age quickly to well over 90.
Some entertainers were younger

Century club: passengers who had visited over 100 countries plus some wanabees (like me, with only 38 countries)

Fitness room

Pool and hot tubs

Web cam

Ocean

Entertainment at sea

Food

Town

Cemetary

Church

Overlook

Approach up the River

Jeronimo Monastery

Cathedral

Maritime Museum

Henry Navigator Monument

Anglican Church

Cathedral

Deck of Cards

Waterfront

Approach up the river

Castle

Church

Church

Town Hall Gardens

Train

Town

Port

Colchester

Priory

Castle

The Royal Princess was moored far from the city center. We had to pay the ship $10 RT to go into the Center and it took an hour to get there in the morning. (Some ships do moor near town, but not all - and not us.) We walked around and saw the train station and several of the more interesting aspects of the city - some in full view even at noon.

Canal Ride  

Amsterdam is a city of canals. The city elevation is below sea levels and is characterized by numerous canals. We took an hour long cruise (for about $18). This ride went out into the main channel and then through the neighborhoods. There are about 2500 houseboats in the city. We passed under numerous bridges and through several sets of locks (which are normally left open). We passed several hotels and slowed as we passed the famous Anne Frank residence. The narration in our boat (run by Lover's) was in seven languages with no supplement from the driver - it was clearly deficient in quality compared to other Amsterdam canal tours I have taken in the past. However, we still got a satisfactory orientation of the city.

Windmills and Locks to the North Sea

After we departed the port we passed many commercial ships carrying coal, cars, and containers. In this area we saw many huge, modern windmills. They make electricity which can illuminated homes and businesses or power pumps to manage the water. Eventually we reached the locks which hold back the North Sea. We were lifted back to "sea level" - about 2 meters (6 feet) and made our way onward to the east. In the north sea we viewed a number of oil platforms and several huge windmill farms.

The Kiel Canal is one of the more interesting and surprising parts of the trip. Most of us had never heard of the Canal. Yet it has been in operation for over 100 years and is a major transportation route. The canal runs across the top of Germany and connects the North Sea to the Baltic. It is about 100 km (60 miles) long. Transit saves ships about one day (400 miles). The water levels between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea vary by less than 4 feet (depending on the tides).

On the day of our cruise the weather was magnificent. Clear, cool with almost no wind. A German Band boarded and played music through the day. We were saddened when they finally got off at the end.

Our crossing was observed by German helicopters and  several fly-bys of F-16. Only small cruise ships like the Royal Princess can go through. The canal and even the locks are wide enough for large ships, but the nine bridges  restrict the large ships. We had only about 2 meters (6 feet) of vertical clearance at several points. I will have some photos show this.

Along the way we observed houses, warehouses, and factories - also fields and forests. Many fields had yellow rapeseed blossoms (the seed is used to make canola oil). A large cruise ship passing at 8 knots is quite a tourist attraction for those on the banks of the canals. Of course, we passed many ships during the day - sailing in both directions.

Locks from North Sea

German Band

Locks to Baltic

Anglican Church

Rock Church

Tram

Catherine Palace

Peterhof

Port

 We arrived by Royal Princess early on Wednesday morning, May 21. The ship sailed through the islands for several hours before reaching the port. The water was glassy smooth in the early dawn. As we got closer the quiet was disrupted by a helicopter on a photo shoot - probably by Princess Cruises.

At the port we retrieved our considerable quantity of luggage and boarded a taxi for the 10 minute - $29 ride to our rooms. We made an arrangement to stay with a local resident in her apartment. This worked out well and probably was much less expensive than a hotel stay. The cost of everything is steep in Stockholm. Food, taxi, tourist attractions, hotels. We purchased a one day "Stockholm card" for $55 each. This provided "free" admission to most museums as well as "free" use of public bus lines for exactly 24 hours. Joyce and I have done this before in Norway and other cities. This is what we did with the pass:

Vasa Museum, Harbor tour for 75 minutes, Nordic Museum, City Hall Tour, Skansen Folk Village including the Aquarium, Royal Treasury, Royal Antiquities, National Museum, Nobel Museum, and connecting rides on the bus. We did get our money worth; we went for quantity and survey rather than detailed visits. Each place costs $10-24 admission.

Vasa Museum - this holds a warship that sank in the 1680. It was recovered in 1970's and restored. Nice exhibit.

Nordic Museum - all kinds of examples of Nordic life. A large and detailed collection.

National Museum - Downstairs are textiles, designs, time pieces and more. Upstairs - fine paintings by the masters.

City Hall - the local government meets here. This is also the location of the banquet for the Nobel Prizes.

Changing of the Guard at the Palace - we happened to be there and watched a military parade and band concert in the courtyard of the Royal Palace.

Skansen Folk Village - a collection of buildings showing various aspects of early 20th century life (and before) in Sweden. Some buildings had real people in period clothing who explained what was happening. Inside the village is a small zoo and a well-appointed aquarium.

Food - very expensive.

Copenhagen

Greenland

Currency (money)

Time Zones

Food

Pilots

I took about 3500 photos during the 26 day trip.

Experience has taught me to just take photos of anything that is remotely interesting. I had about 12 GB of storage so I could shoot in full resolution (10 megapixels) and clean it up when I got home. The photos were backed up on 3 DVD disks before I even looked at them

I have a portable GPS which was turned on during the entire trip. It records a location point every second with lat/long, time, elevation, and speed. At times it could not find enough satellites to function due to the constraints of an airplane or ship window. But most of the time I captured the track.

The unit has only a primitive base map with only a few cities and no streets. This means it is useless in knowing where to go. But upon return to the homeland, the gpx tracks were loaded into Google Earth and I now have an abundance of information.

Because there were 12 times changes expected during the trip, I set the time zone to GMT at the beginning and kept it there until we boarded the return flight from Stockholm (then set at EDT). The camera was also set at GMT for the whole trip. I hope that the clocks are pretty close. This will allow me to link the photo time with GPS time and location. We shall see...

GPS tracks visualized with Google Earth