We arrived in Hamburg a full day before we were to join the cruise intending to see some of the city. The weather had other plans. We donned our rain coats and put umbrellas up but soon abandoned most of our plans. We opted for the covered top of a local hop on hop off bus tour. Late in the day with only a light rain we walked to the St. Nikolas Tower which is a high place from which to see much of Hamburg. Also there is a small, but interesting, museum of the local history,

The next day we took a taxi to the cruise terminal to board the MS Spitsbergen to begin our journey. As usual for a cruise one of the first items of business is getting to know safety procedures on the ship. Dinner that night begins the routine to follow with “hello, where are you from?", and frequently for us, “you speak English very well”.

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Click here to go to the Harlingen photos .