We changed our plans for a summer vacation from a Nova Scotia driving tour to a Northern European cruise. We leave from Dover England and then visit
Copenhagen,Warnemunde Germany (2.5 hr by bus from Berlin), Helsinki Finland, St. Petersburgh Russia, Tallinn Estonia and Zeebrugge Belgium (where I’ll be hand delivering a whistle to a customer-- does this make the trip a deductible business expense? 
).
As long as we’re on the far side of the Atlantic, we’re staying 3 extra days in London.
If anyone has any suggestions for interesting and unusual things to do in any of these locations, we’d love to hear them. Also, in London we’d love recommendations for decent but cheap lodging and food. Maybe a pub session or two.
If you managed to stop in and visit some instrument makers, you probably COULD deduct a substantial part of the trip as a business expense.
Is the delivery of the whistle the only or main purpose of the trip? [Heh heh. I’m an accountant, innit? 
]
Meanwhile, I know there are decent sessions in/around London, but I have no idea where/when. If it was a bit later in the year, there’s the ‘Return to Camden Town’ Festival in October, which is supposed to be good.
Don’t let anyone say you can’t stay cheaply in London, btw. There are decent B&Bs available from about £40 pppn, potentially less. Might take some Googling, mind.
Wow! Lucky you.
I had a chance to be in Mexico, I just went to the places that didn’t speak English. Great food the locals ate and it wasn’t tourist prices. Pretty sure that is the same for all countries.
Then London should be a cinch.
You will have problems to find places like that in Europe 
thats a lot of traveling - a lot of time on the road
how much time do you have for all?
how long do you stay in each area?
i dont recomend any speacial place but i recomend staying at least 2 or 3 days in each Location
It is a lot of traveling for sure, and we don’t have any choice how long to stay. Each place is only one day except for 2 in St. Petersburgh.
Not enough time in each, but enough to get a small taste for future trips with fewer and longer stays.
you asked for it, here we go
recomendation no. 1
well that sounds like you are on a already and strictly planned trip, maybe with a group? something like a bustour?
anyway, even if you might will be sitting (cause all this travelling) a lot (maybe even in a bus) i suggest bustours
in most citys you can do bustours, they dont cost a lot, they pass by all the most interesting touristatractions AND you can hop on and off normaly whenever and whereever you want, sometimes even entrytickets for museums are included
you book the tour in the morning and take so much tiume as you want for it , just pass by or have a closer look whenever and wherever you feel like
i traveled a lot in germany in the last years, had to work, and many times i took my mother with me and while i was working she made bustours and now she has seen many interesting places in germany and knows so much more about it than i do
recomendation no. 2
also, check if you can meet other people on your trip, maybe there are some people in this forum you might like to meet for a drink or so
recomendation no. 3
have whistles and a cammera on you all the time and ask someone takeing videos of you in front of some nice european scenery
recomendation no. 4
dont worry to much about what you have to do/see, just sit in a nice cafe, relax and enjoy the atmosphere and different culture - open your eyes and ears and get a feeling for good old europe
recomendation no. 5
tell us about it afterwords 
have fun!
oh i forgott
london?
take a taxi (something special) to Abbey road (you may know it ) and get a photo taken of you walking across the street holding a whistle
Oh, I love that one! I’ve gotta try to do that.
Thanks for your other suggestions too. I’m already planning on hand delivering a whistle to a customer in Bruges Belgium, and then going for one or two fabulous Belgian beers
This is an ocean cruise stopping in each of those places, so it’s pretty regimented. I think bus tours at some of the stops sounds like a good idea for an overview of the city. Definitely one of the London double deckers!
OH now it sounds like a great trip, traveling on the sea is so much more relaxing than on roads
oh Belgium? dont forget to have “Pommes Frittes” with your beers, they say that they make the best ones, it isnt true but they are pretty good
while we are talking about beer…well you have your stop in germany, beer is quite good here
have a nice trip
I don’t have any specific recommendations (other than that the Natural History Museum in London is the best of that type of museum I’ve ever been to, hands down! Can’t beat the Tate Modern either, if modern art is your thing). And I don’t know if it’s still there (I was there in 2005), but if you find yourself in Canary Wharf, check out a pub called The Rogue Trader…best Indian food I’ve ever had anywhere!
We’re doing a European cruise ourselves this year (in September), but doing the Med thing: Starting in Venice and ending in Barcelona.
Which line are you traveling with? Having done Holland America, Royal Carribbean and Celebrity, we’re back to good old HAL for this one.
Redwolf
Our cruise is Carnival which wouldn’t be our first choice normally. However, for the time period we had available and the price it was the only option. I’m hoping that this Northern itinerary won’t attract as much of the “party boat” crowd as the Caribbean cruises do.
It probably won’t. Your party cruisers tend to do either the Caribbean or the Mexican Riviera.
That said, we did the Mexican Riviera with Royal Caribbean, and it was actually a great time! We’re not partiers (My idea of a good vacation involves seeing historic sites, places of natural interest, beautiful old buildings…even factory tours! Club hopping or sitting on a beach would bore me to tears!), but we we just went off, did our own thing, and had a blast! It was a terrific Thanksgiving idea for a party that included three different generations, one dedicated gambler, and a couple of mind-hungry cultural explorers (not to mention three meat eaters and three vegetarians!).
I’d love to do Northern Europe some day. That and the Panama Canal are on my bucket list (the cruise we’re doing in September will cross off another on my bucket list, as I’ve always wanted to visit Venice and Florence!).
I guess you can tell we love cruising!
Redwolf
Reminded me of this song, which any 'Merkin must listen to before traveling to Europe. The song addresses our stereotypes of Eurotown (by reveling in them).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8ekCWVYeWw
“When you’re in Belgium you can eat
A lot of Mayonnaise with your Frittes
And no one will say ‘hey, that’s too much Mayonnaise!’
Enjoy a German sausage hall,
Eat an Italian meatball…
But I hope you don’t want a Twinkie
'Cause they don’t have Hostess Twinkies over there.”
Do we have them any more over here? I’m not sure since the bankruptcy …
Jonathan Coulton … 
No, but they’re coming back. Another company recently bought Hostess.
Love JoCo!
Redwolf
Hi Paul,
After spending some time earlier recommending things in NS to you… I’ll chime in again, as I also took a Baltic cruise last September. It’s a lovely & historic part of the world. Too bad you don’t stop in Sweden though (part of my ancestry )
I would recommend at least some of the time, rather than bus tours, walking tours. Old-town Copenhagen and Tallinn are both compact enough for walking. Copenhagen has a waterfront boardwalk (and I can recommend a wonderful Pakistani restaurant called Sahil which is along it), which leads to NyHavn, meaning New Harbour. It’s actually the old harbour, very touristy but great for photo ops of sailing ships. The bike rickshaw rides you can get from there are also really fun. There’s a famous pedestrian-only street, Strøget (I believe one of the first in Europe, where they’re now common), and the Tivoli amusement park. The Little Mermaid statue is located near where the cruise ships dock and is worth going to see. I don’t know Copenhagen all that well because my sister lives in a different part of DK and we usually hang out there, but I did the above last summer. Our cruise started there.
Tallinn has a fascinating history and we took a walking tour there which included the Upper Town and the Lower Town. The Baltic countries have a strong musical tradition of choral singing which helped the citizens keep up their spirits during the later Communist years, 1987-1991 - it was called the Singing Revolution. There’s a great documentary about the Estonian part of this called “The Singing Revolution”, and you can visit the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds just outside the city.
In St Petersburg, I hope in your 2 days they will offer a bus tour to Peterhof, Peter the Great’s incredible gold palace and fountains outside the city. The other place to go is the Hermitage Museum, located in the huge Winter Palace. We were in town for 3 days and that was the last thing on our schedule; my mom and I were so tired we were going to skip it. Our guide convinced us that we’d regret it the rest of our lives if we did. I ended up using a wheelchair there for the afternoon, and the Rembrandts there are probably the most gorgeous, glorious, moving paintings I’ve ever seen. If you only have a little time in the Hermitage, find the Rembrandts, OK? There are other interesting churches in the city-- the one in the Peter and Paul Fortress which is the burial place of the tsars, and the huge domed St Isaac’s Cathedral, among others. It’s an extremely beautiful city. I had never been to Russia, and it seemed to me to feel a little “off” even though Communist rule is over. We flew out from St Petersburg airport and it was like a scene out of Kafka 
Have fun whistling, and do please tell us about it after!