The last post was all about the first half of our cruise and now I’ll tell you about the rest. We stopped in Helsinki, Tallinn, and Kristiansand and there was another unexpected change of plans.

Since we had to shorten our stop in Stockholm, that sent us to Helsinki earlier than planned. We arrived about 12 hours early, so that gave us an extra evening to get off the ship and check things out. But first, we had dinner and attended the special show in the ship’s theater. There were 40+ Finnish dancers and musicians that joined us on the ship to share their culture with us. It was a joyful performance. We had a nice walking tour of town after that. The next morning, we joined a very small tour to the Nooksia National Park. We hiked around through the forest and lakes, ate mushroom soup and licorice and really enjoyed talking to our guide and fellow hikers. Then we took another walk through the city to their beautiful library and the Sibelius monument. Both were worth the walk! Then we listened to Sibelius on our way back to the ship—Finlanda and the Violin Concerto. The weather was pleasant and we really enjoyed the stop.

Tallinn, Estonia is just 50 miles across the Baltic Sea from Helsinki, so it was a quick(ish) trip and we were off the ship early. We opted to just get ourselves around the charming city. Tallinn is a delightful mix of the old and the new, with a well-preserved and lively old town surrounded by a bustling modern city and a busy seaport. As the easternmost member of the Hanseatic league and the subject of many occupations of foreign powers, the city has an interesting history of eastern and western influences. There are two cathedrals—the ornate Russian Orthodox (which was built as an imperial message to the Estonians) and the simpler Lutheran one, where we attended an organ concert. The weather in the morning was pleasant, but the wind was really picking up as we returned to the ship and then departed for Sweden.

We were scheduled to dock the next morning at the town of Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland. We had stopped there for water on our way east, but nobody was allowed to get off the ship. About an hour before our scheduled arrival, the captain announced that the wind was just too powerful and we couldn’t safely make it to port. So that day turned into an extra day at sea. I was so impressed by the crew and how they would happily jump into action to change up food and entertainment and logistics with the new plans. Unfortunately, our change of plans meant that we had back to back sea days, which is not our favorite. But one bonus of the second sea day was that we got the thrill of passing under the Great Belt Bridge that links two Danish islands. It was amazing to be on the top deck as our big ship approached and passed under that huge span. Breathtaking!

Our last stop was Kristiansand, Norway and the weather was perfect! It was a charming little town and we hiked around a lighthouse island and up into the hills above town where the locals were out sunbathing and swimming in the little lakes. We had a good wander, went to another organ concert, and had a bite at a local bakery and at the fish market. The market was a charming gathering place to watch people and boats. It made us excited to return to Norway and see more.

The whole cruise was quite pleasant, even on days that were chilly. We loved each stop and enjoyed trying new foods and seeing some different scenery. The food was generally of very high quality and we ate very well on the ship and off. It was the battle of the pastries all through the trip. Our favorites were in Sweden and Norway. We returned to Southampton and we are now spending some time in London, getting in some culture and making more plans. I’ll tell you all about our “bashing around London” next time!