A moment of high drama

The MS Amsterdam is at the moment on the way from Stockholm to Warnemunde, Germany, so many of its passengers can take an all-day tour to Berlin. But for a while last night it didn't look like we would be leaving.

We'd spent a pleasant day in Stockholm on various tours or shopping - great city; Ron and I had an hour at the Vasa museum built around a 17th-century ship retrieved from the bottom of the harbour.

The Rotterdam had to leave by 4:30 because it takes a long time to get through the network of islands off Stockholm and it has to be done in daylight. So all the tour buses got back in time, everyone was shepherded into the ship and the gangplank went up. And then we heard the announcement: "Would Emily Smith from cabin 1833 please contact the office?" Waited a few minutes; the announcement came again: "Would Emily Smith or anyone in her party please contact the office!" And still we waited. Quarter to five and the captain's pacing in the wheelhouse (I could see him from my perch on the top deck). And then in the distance we see a little taxi racing down the road to the dock. It nearly drags the security guard at the gate along with it. It screeches up to the ship and out jumps a woman with a Swedish accent: "Someone please help us! Please let Mrs. Smith on board! Please help!" Meanwhile the missing Mrs Smith emerges from the taxi and looks rather dazedly about her.

I have no idea what really happened, but from what I was able to piece together I think the Swedish lady found this somewhat elderly and scattered foreigner wandering around lost. Being a good and kind person, as most Swedes I've met are, she found out that the lady was looking for her bus back to the ship and had to be back by 4:30. At this point it was something like 3:45 and the last bus had left. No problem - call a taxi and everything would be all right. But the taxi took 20 minutes to come and there were traffic jams all over Stockholm (built on 16 islands with 53 bridges, some of them closed for repairs). So the dear helper was in a proper panic seeing the gangplank up and the ship nearly untied.

A small gangplank came down and the lost passenger was helped on board, to the cheers of the passengers. And some of us even remembered to shout "Thank you" to the helpful Swedish lady, who was left standing on the dock waving as we sailed away.

We got to Stockholm via Copenhagen, where we caught the ship last Friday, and Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Helsinki. I have never been this far north before, and the short nights and cool air are really wonderful. We enjoyed Tallinn, a life-filled town with a good balance of old and new, history and creativity. St. Petersburg appealed somewhat less - it still feels closed and unfriendly. The eighteenth-century buildings are marvelous, though, and we enjoyed a great Russian song-and-dance show. We spent most of a day at the Hermitage and I was quite disappointed. Our guide just showed us Western European art, and we saw nothing that was up to the standards of what we'd seen at the Louvre or Prado or Vatican. What I'd have liked to see was Russian stuff - artifacts from prehistory or uniquely Russian works. But we saw the Hermitage - one more tick-mark.

Helsinki was as pleasant as Tallinn. We didn't do a ship-organized tour but took a city tram around the town centre. Our best discovery was a Lutheran church built into the rock. What a wonderful feeling it had! A real church. And at Stockmann's department store I finally found the right dress (bright red - I hope that doesn't violate wedding etiquette) for Evan and Anna's wedding - I like Helsinki.

A week from today we'll be back in Canada. Seems hard to believe, but our gypsy life is coming to an end. We're already trying to decide what we'll do next year, but it will be kind of nice to settle down in one place for the winter.