Our Handfasting Day

So far I’ve been writing about the honeymoon and have written nothing about our wedding day.

Before that however, I have to tell you the tale of our marriage license. Because Graham was divorced in the US, we had to go through some major hoops to obtain a marriage license. We had to have a lawyer write a “Letter of Opinion” stating that in her opinion Graham’s divorce was legal in Canada. Then we had to send the letter, our divorce decrees and our marriage license application to Thunder Bay. We did all of this about 4 weeks before the wedding. The week before the wedding, we still hadn’t received anything back. I called Thunder Bay and they really weren’t able to tell me much except that they had the application and they knew that our wedding date was 2 August. We met with Greg Currie, our officiate on Thursday evening and we discussed the fact that we didn’t have a marriage license. Luckily he was quite nonchalant about it – said that we could do the legal stuff at the kitchen table later on. Friday morning we received a call from Thunder Bay stating that our paperwork was done and asking if we wanted it faxed to our local clerk’s office. They did indeed fax it and we were able to go and get our license. Close call!!

Our wedding day dawned warm and sunny and the weather forecast was good. Krista, Jamie, Deb and I left the house at 8:30 to go to the hairdresser’s. We took food and drink and turned it into a party. We each had our hair and our make-up done. We did have a bit of a crisis – the girl who did our headpieces used Krista’s head as her guide. Unfortunately, Krista’s head is a lot bigger than most peoples. Jamie’s headpiece fit “okay”, but for Deb and I they kept dropping down around our necks. We ended up going to a florist shop down the road where a very kind young lady cut pieces out of the headpieces and then put them back together again. Disaster averted!!!!!!

About 2:00 we all started to head for the Elmhurst Inn. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the temperature was perfect – a beautiful summer day for an outdoor wedding ----------NOT!!!!!!! About half way to Ingersoll the sky became very dark and it started to rain – just a few sprinkles to start and then an absolute downpour. Many cars pulled off to the side of the road because visibility was so bad. The downpour lasted for about 10 minutes and then stopped. Shortly after we arrived at the Inn, it poured again so Graham and Ryan checked the weather radar on the Inn’s computer – it showed thunderstorm after thunderstorm hitting the Ingersoll area. With regret we made the decision to move the wedding indoors and were delighted to discover that the Inn always has a Plan B. They had a lovely room all set up for us – we just had to add the handfasting touches. One wall of the room was all windows so there was a feeling of being partly in the outdoors. As it turned out, it poured with about 10 minutes left in the ceremony.

Graham had his own issues on the big day - the company that they rented the kilts from sent the wrong size kilt for the groom. Poor guy was held together with pins and his sporran. As a matter of fact, when he took his sporran off that night, his kilt fell to the floor. His shoes were also too small - during dinner, he had to take one off as his foot had become totally numb.

Our ceremony was wonderful – everything that we had hoped for. Our priestess, Apryl and our officiate, Greg were an awesome team. They made our day absolutely wonderful and memorable. The best thing about the ceremony was the chalice. Apryl put it outside to fill it with rainwater. Unfortunately, prior to starting the ceremony, she forgot to bring it back in.I'm not sure how many people were able to see her face when she realized what she'd done, however Apryl is a true priestess and improvised impressively, turning the bell upside down and creating a chalice. All we heard were rave reviews about the ceremony – we hope everyone was moved by it.

Needless to say, my 2 year old grandson, Austin stole the show in his kilt outfit - he was absolutely adorable.






Here he is "walking Nana
down the aisle"








Two year olds have very little patience for standing around having pictures taken. Austin found this old tree stump close by the gazebo where we were having our pictures taken and had a ball playing in it.









Here are some pictures taken on our wedding day.

Apryl and Greg, our awesome "Priest" and "Priestess"

The altar prior to the ceremony

The happy couple

The wedding party minus Austin who long ago decided that he's had enough of this picture-taking nonsense

Our new family including my mother, Joan

The entire wedding group

Day 12 - Copenhagen, Denmark

Day 12 found us back in Copenhagen, Denmark where we started from 10 days ago. While passengers were coming and going today, we chose to take a tour to the Dragoer Fishing Village, just outside of Copenhagen. This fishing village was the salvation of many of the Danish Jews during WWII. The small fishing boat called the Elizabeth is still in the port – this boat was used by its owner to smuggle Jewish refugees into Sweden where the population and the royal family protected their Jewish population and refused to turn them over to the Germans. The gentleman who owned the boat also smuggled his own family out of Denmark and was returning to Denmark to pick up another group of refugees when he made the decision to return to Sweden. As it turned out, the Gestapo were waiting for him in his home.

The village today is a very high end suburb of Copenhagen and not the quaint little village that we were expecting. It is a lovely little village though. Many of the homes have thatched roofs.

This is a picture of the famous Little Mermaid. Over the years this statue has been beheaded twice, had her right arm amputated and was blown into the water once. She has always been repaired.

This afternoon at shortly after 5:00 we set sail for the next stop on our journey – Oslo, Norway.

Day 11 - Aarhus, Denmark

Today is the last full day of the first part of our cruise. Tomorrow, we dock in Copenhagen again and 75% of the passengers aboard will change. A whopping 25% of those of us aboard are staying aboard until we reach New York.

Today, we spent the day in Aarhus, Copenhagen – the second largest city in Denmark and another very old European city full of cobblestoned, narrow streets.

For those of you who are taking the time to look at our blog, you will notice that I haven’t been including pictures in the last several posts – on board, it takes a very long time to upload photos and internet time is very expensive. When we return home, I will add pictures to all of the posts.

Day 10 - Warnemunde, Germany

Day 9 finds us in Warnemunde and Rostock, Germany. We chose not to take the 13 hour journey to Berlin and instead did a Road, Rail and River to Rostock. First we took a bus from the dock to Rostock where we boarded our own private tram (you should have seen the faces of the people at the tram stops when the doors didn’t open to let them in). The tram took us on a tour of the city. We then had an opportunity to walk around this beautiful old city. Those of you who recall Mel’s Moose will appreciate the many colourful griffens that were situated around the city. We then boarded a boat and cruised down the river back to our ship. All in all it was an enjoyable day.

Day 9 - at sea

Day 9 is another wonderfully relaxing day at sea. We were able to sleep in and then enjoy a day spent just wandering around the ship, playing blackjack, eating (there go the waistlines) and dancing.

Day 8 - Stockholm, Sweden

I've been informed that I've been extremely remiss in posting to the blog, so I will make some entries today and the rest I will add after we return home.

Day 8 and we’re in Stockholm, Sweden. We never realized until today that the city of Stockholm is built on 14 small islands. We spent our time ashore on an island called Gamla Stan – this island holds the “Old Town” of Stockholm. Narrow, cobblestoned streets and quaint little stores were the norm. Apparently, however, Stockholm has some very strange residents!!

Day 7 - Helsinki, Finland

Day 7 has found us in Helsinki, Finland. We got off the boat and took a bus into town. We found Helsinki to be a very clean and unimaginative city. It is beautiful with cobblestone streets and sidewalks. Many of the buildings are quite old, but, there is nothing to make this city stand out for us – perhaps if we had taken a tour.

They tell us that tomorrow, in Stockholm will be a very different adventure.

Day 6 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Day 6 has been our second day in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since we did not have a visa, we were not permitted off the ship. We decided to have an extremely lazy day today. We were very late getting up and even slower getting going. We spent a lot of the day napping in preparation for Helsinki, Finland early tomorrow morning.

Leaving port this evening was an adventure – with only a very narrow channel to navigate out of the city into the Gulf of Finland, it was amazing how close we had to sail to some small islands.

Day 5 - St. Petersburg, Russia

Day 5 has been an extremely busy one. We left the ship this morning at 8:00 am – yes, I managed to get Graham up, fed and out the door (so to speak). We were required by the Russian authorities to leave the ship as a group, to remain as a group throughout our stay and return to the ship as a group. Unfortunately, our tour guide neglected to get this message – she totally lost 6 of us at Catherine’s Palace and it took the better part of 30 minutes for us all to get back together again. There were a couple of other times during the tour when she was convinced that she had everyone gathered up when she didn’t - thank goodness the rest of us realized that she was significantly counting challenged and we managed to make sure that no one got lost again.

Anyway, we visited Catherine’s Palace – this is the palace where Catherine the Great lived throughout her reign. The Amber Room alone was worth the entire day – unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photographs within the Amber Room. We were able to pay a small fee to take pictures everywhere else within the Palace. It was an awesome display of opulence and power. Following this tour, we travelled to Pavlov’s (Paul’s) Palace (Pavlov was the only child of Catherine the Great). Pavlov and his wife Marie lived in this smaller, more austere Palace and raised their nine living children (one daughter died at birth). Marie continued to live in the Palace for the remainder of her life following the death of Paul. Again, this Palace was a display of the wealth and power of the Russian Csars and Csarinas.

Day 4 - Tallinn, Estonia

At 10:30 this morning, we docked in Tallinn, Estonia. From the deck we could see the “old town” – what an amazing sight. Once we were docked and cleared by immigration, we headed off to tour the old town. It is about a 15 minute walk from the pier. What an amazing place!!!!!! Cobblestone streets, old churches, the original fortification walls, the original town square, narrow streets, friendly people, awesome amber!!!

We spent about 4 hours walking throughout the town taking pictures and visiting the occasional shops. The best deals, however, were to be had in the old town square where I was able to buy a couple of beautiful cardigans for amazing prices.

One of the stores had this awesome, 5 ft amber “tree”

After walking about, we returned to the ship for lunch and, for me a foot and ankle massage followed by some time on the heated ceramic bed, for Graham, a nap.

That evening we both entered a blackjack tournament. Only Graham made it to the finals – he won!!!!!!

Day 3 - we're finally on our way!!!!

Day 3 and it finally feels like we’re on vacation!! We are more than half way to Tallinn, Estonia, our first port of call. We are scheduled to arrive at 10:30 tomorrow morning (3:30 am Ontario time) – every time we turn around, they’re adjusting the time on us – apparently there will be one more change this week.

Today we just took things easy, wandered around the ship and spent some time in the Casino. We both napped this afternoon – Graham in the cabin while I enjoyed my nap in the thermal suite in the spa – this is a room full of ceramic, heated beds and sauna’s – so relaxing.

Tonight was the first of our formal nights. Graham was a huge hit in his kilt. Surprisingly he appears to be the only gentleman wearing one during this particular cruise. We are finding that, despite starting and ending in a European port, most of the passengers are American.

After dinner and a bit of time in the Casino, we went looking for dancing and found some in a little out of the way lounge – bad band, but, that’s what keeps the dance floor empty.

Day 2 and we're still travelling

We arrived at Charles deGaulle airport this morning on time – 9:00 am after an uneventful and awesome flight. First Class is the ONLY way to travel!!!!! Free wine, scotch, perfect food on china with real silverware. Unfortunately our flight from Detroit landed in Paris 20 minutes after our flight to Copenhagen started boarding. Despite our best efforts, we missed our connecting flight to Copenhagen and are now sitting in the first class lounge at Charles deGaulle Airport eating and drinking more Free food, Scotch, Beer and Wine waiting for the next flight to Copenhagen. Such a hardship!!!!! We are now scheduled to land in Copenhagen at 3:00 this afternoon while our ship is scheduled to depart at 5:00 – again we’re cutting it very close. More to come!!