{"id":4020,"date":"2015-08-10T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-08-10T13:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=4020"},"modified":"2015-08-09T20:04:37","modified_gmt":"2015-08-10T03:04:37","slug":"4020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=4020","title":{"rendered":"Barnstorming the Baltic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calke\"<\/a>

Suzanne ‘into’ her chocolate cake<\/p><\/div>\n

(Editor\u2019s Aside: Suzanne & Alan, Jack & Sharon and Linda and I were all on the \u2018Central Coast\u2019 last weekend. California’s Central Coast is known for producing a lot of wine, and last weekend we were known for drinking much of it. The occasion? Suzanne\u2019s birthday! I\u2019ll let her tell you which one, although I can tell you that the old Beatle lyric, \u2018Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I\u2019m sixty-four?\u2019 has become moot. But I\u2019m here to say, she hasn\u2019t lost a step, although after last weekend there may be a few brain cells missing.)<\/em><\/p>\n

by Bob Sparrow<\/p>\n

\"Norwegian<\/a>

Norwegian Cruise Line \u00a0– Star<\/p><\/div>\n

After being released from the Betty Ford<\/strong> detox program after Tahoe<\/strong> and sweeping out my underwear, it was time to ready myself for another \u2018road trip\u2019. This time the \u2018road\u2019 is a bit salty, or at least brackish \u2013 the Baltic Sea<\/strong>, more accurately the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. \u00a0No, I won\u2019t be hiking it, but rather enjoying the trip from the deck of the\u00a0Norwegian Cruise Line<\/strong> ship, the Star<\/strong>. Linda and I have never been to any of these destinations, so we\u2019re looking forward to checking off these countries from our \u2018Visit Every Country in the World\u2019<\/strong> list. Just kidding about the list \u2013 it doesn\u2019t include Iraq, North<\/strong> Korea<\/strong> or Syria<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Our travel companions for this excursion include Jack & JJ Budd<\/strong> (previous travel companions to Ireland, South<\/strong> Africa <\/strong>and Charleston\/Savannah<\/strong>), John & Judy VanBoxmeer<\/strong> (Ireland and Charleston\/Savannah<\/strong>) and new additions from Canada<\/strong>, John\u2019s sister Mary<\/strong> and her husband, John<\/strong>. I guess it\u2019s always good to have two Johns on board. Come to think of it I guess we actually have three Johns, since Jack\u2019s name is really John. Can you ever really have too many Johns? I\u2019ll let you know in about three weeks!<\/p>\n

\"Copenhagen<\/a>

Copenhagen<\/p><\/div>\n

We will all meet up in Copenhagen<\/strong>; some will get there via \u20181st Class\u2019<\/strong>, some via \u2018Business Class\u2019<\/strong> and then there\u2019s Linda and me, in . . . \u2018No Class\u2019<\/strong>. On the leg from Chicago<\/strong> to Brussels<\/strong> I believe we have to serve coffee, make one trash pick up and prior to landing, remind passengers to return their tray tables to their fully upright and locked position; but those chores will give us some relief from our two middle seats in the rear that don\u2019t recline.<\/p>\n

Once in Copenhagen<\/strong>, we will have a couple of days to see that fair city, which we will do in part on Segways<\/strong>, a vehicle that the group practiced on recently in Newport Beach<\/strong> \u2013 the injuries should be fully healed by the time we get there. We also plan on sampling and rating \u2018Beers of the Baltic\u2019<\/strong>, ideally not while we\u2019re still riding the Segways. We\u2019ll start with some of Denmark\u2019s most popular beers, Carlsberg<\/strong> and Tuborg<\/strong>, but we hope to get into some of their more interesting beers such as their top-rated, Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel<\/strong>; say that three times fast . . . after you\u2019ve had a few.<\/p>\n

\"Baltic<\/a>

Baltic Ports-of-Call<\/p><\/div>\n

After departing Copenhagen<\/strong>, our first port-of-call is in Warnemunde, Germany<\/strong>, where we will take a train to a Concentration Camp<\/strong> in Berlin<\/strong>, which is not known for serving beer, but somewhere along the way we’d like to try Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier<\/strong>, a beer that is said to have a smoky flavor that tastes like beef jerky or leather \u2013 yeah, that\u2019s what I looking for, a beer I can get my teeth into. Next stop is Estonia\u2019s capitol, Tallinn<\/strong>, a city and country that has had a long history of German<\/strong> and Soviet<\/strong> domination. Then it’s time to move on to the happier countries. Oops! Our next port is St. Petersburg, Russia<\/strong>, that is if Mr. Putin<\/strong> has not annexed anything before then or declared war on someone. If we mysteriously disappear on this trip, this would be the first place I’d look for us.<\/p>\n

Our final two ports are the Scandinavian<\/strong> cities of Helsinki <\/strong>and Stockholm<\/strong>, before we return to Copenhagen<\/strong>, where we will undoubtably spend time trying to find all the items we left there the previous week.<\/p>\n

I know our ship will have \u2018connectivity\u2019, but the frequency of my blog submissions may be determined by just how much they\u2019ll be charging me to use their precious cyber space. I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll figure out a way to \u2018bring you along\u2019 on this adventure. We look forward to you joining us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s Aside: Suzanne & Alan, Jack & Sharon and Linda and I were all on the \u2018Central Coast\u2019 last weekend. California’s Central Coast is known for producing a lot of wine, and last weekend we were known for drinking much … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[813],"tags":[1884,1877,1875,1876,1878,271,1881,1880,1885,1879,1882],"class_list":["post-4020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-baltic-sea","tag-berlin","tag-copenhagen","tag-denmark","tag-estonia","tag-germany","tag-helsinki","tag-russia","tag-segway","tag-st-petersburg","tag-stockholm"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/Copenhagen2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s31aN0-4020","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4020"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4051,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4020\/revisions\/4051"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}