We took the Hop On Hop Off bus. It was a good idea. The only problem we had was it started pouring half way through the day. This was our least favorite port.
It would take forever to tell about this port. One of our worries was regarding getting off the ship in St. P. The Princess Patter said that local authorities would not let anyone not on a Princess tour off the ship before the ship tours got off. I didn't sleep the night before due to the fact that I was sure I would have a confrontation trying to leave the ship. That did not happen. As soon as the ship was cleared at 7 am, we were able to leave the ship. We had a private tour with STP tours. Lubba was our tour guide and she was very capable. We were very happy that we made that decision.
We took a private tour to Berlin. We again used STP tours. There was an International Track meet going on as well as the day we went a Marathon where many streets were closed. They worked it out and we saw practically everything. What we noticed on all of our tours is we are used to tour guides taking you to tourist traps where they get kickbacks for souveniers. That was not the case on this trip. You almost had to beg the tour guides to let you shop. I liked that.
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