Gdansk, Poland

The day of Charles' birthday was our stop in Gdansk, Poland. It was a short day and we booked an excursion through NCL. We bussed from the cruise port to Gdansk where we embarked on a walking tour with a very fun guide. He showed us around his favorite city. 

We very much enjoyed walking around the town, but both agreed that it was too short. We did not have much time to enjoy a Polish baked good, perogies or beer. So we might have to plan another visit in the future! 

 

Klaipeda, Lithuania

Our NCL cruise brought us to Lithuania as the next stop in our journey. Charles has visited Lithuania for work a couple times, but never near the coast. We disembarked in Klaipeda and had an excursion booked to visit Witches Hill. 

The excursion stopped at the beach for a way too short visit. We had just enough time to walk past the dune, snap a picture and then go back to the bus.

The main part of the excursion was to Witches Hill. It features wooden sculptures depicting folk lore for Lithuania. I was very much looking forward to this part because it sounded like a really fun combination of nature, art and stories. Our guide shared a few stories, but her storytelling skills were not fantastic. She rambled, so it was hard to follow along. 

Shortly after arriving to Witches Hill, it started to rain which then turned into a DOWNPOUR! We got completely soaked. Before departing on the excursion we decided not to bring our rain jackets. There wasn't a cloud in sight by the ship. Huge mistake! Because of the downpour, we were not able to hear all the stories throughout Witches Hill and were just a bit miserable through the rest of the walk back to the bus.

After getting soaked on the trail, our excursion brought us to a weather vane shop where they make beautiful, custom weather vanes. The stories behind the designs were really cool. 

The other thing the Baltic area is known for is amber. At the weather vane shop, we had the opportunity to try amber tea and amber schnapps. I did not try any. After being soaked through from the rain, ingesting more liquid did not sound appealing. The shop had a beautiful selection of amber items and we purchased a piece to use as a Christmas ornament. They also had a book of Lithuanian folk tales. Since we were not able to successfully hear the stories along Witches Hill, I thought the book would come in handy. 

Riga, Latvia

Onto Latvia! Our NCL cruise stopped in Riga. We booked an excursion through the cruise, but had some time before to walk around the city on our own. 

I liked how this statue seemed to break free from the ground. I am not sure what the statue represents, but it spoke to me.

I am not an assertive enough person for these kind of photo opportunities. Eventually I scooted in for a quick photo before we continued our stroll.

Our excursion was a visit to a nearby resort town, Jurmala. After driving a bit through the area, we got off for some free time to walk along the beach. Man, did it feel nice to stick my feet in the sand. The time at the beach was way too short, though. After the beach, we walked by some shops on the way to the meetup spot to get back on the bus.

Jurmala has a ton of cute little houses. Someone on the tour called them doll houses and the description was so fitting. I would love to spend more time here soaking up the sun and relaxing on the beach.

Is it a beach trip without ice cream???

Latvia's favorite sport is hockey and we happened upon this in a park. 

Another large Riga photo opportunity!

Tallinn, Estonia

The third new country visited on our Baltic cruise was Estonia! We booked a food tour (not through NCL) and had some time before the tour to explore Tallinn on our own. 

We toured the Estonian Maritime Museum. It is located in the Fat Margaret tower (Tallinn towers have some quirky names), so as you visit each level of the museum you get better and better views of the city. The very top level is an outdoor bar that offers a great vantage point. The museum was very well done with a lot of interactive displays. Strangely, there was a karaoke booth on one of the levels.

A large part of the Baltics has some warranted emotional baggage in regards to Russia. We happened upon the Russian embassy while strolling around Tallinn. As you can see, people don't much care for Russia.

We enjoy food tours! It takes the pressure off finding places to eat and helps us learn more about the city and culture that we're visiting. The Tallinn food tour was fantastic and so varied! The first stop was one of my favorite bites of the tour (I'm getting a bit hungry just looking at the picture). These are lamb dumplings served with a garlic oil and sour cream. So delicious! 

We also tried sea buckhorn juice. I had never heard of sea buckhorn, but the juice was refreshing.

Another stop was to a chocolate shop! They had some common flavors, but also some very unique ones. We all tried chocolate with reindeer moss. They also had flavors like spruce and kama flour (more on that in a little bit).

There were a few medieval style restaurants in Tallinn. We visited this one that had some cool ambience inside. We tried a soup and sausage roll. It felt like we stepped back in time.

Another stop brought us to a pharmacy, which may seem strange. They have been making marzipan forever! We were able to sample some. According to their website, this marzipan is "a good cure for alleviating the ache of love and promoting brain activity." 

Our next stop was to sample kama. I was at a table with three other people who sampled their kama before I had a bite and they had me worried. They did not seem like big fans. Upon trying it, it just made me think of yogurt. To be fair, yogurt in Europe is a little different than yogurt in the US and I have grown more accustomed to European yogurt. It tends to be more sour tasting. Kama has an interesting texture from the grains. I don't know if this is something I would order on my own, but I'm glad to have tried it.

The café where we tasted kama is also known for marzipan, although we did not try any of theirs. I loved the display case filled with the painted marzipan figures. They are too cute to eat!

We walked through a food hall and tried some delicious lemonades! Charles had the kind in the orange can and it tasted like apple pie. Mine was an apple lemonade, but did not have the cinnamon spice flavor.

These mini pancakes were so yummy! Charles had condensed milk on his and I chose Nutella.

For the last stop our guide gave our group the choice between ice cream or local brewery. We chose brewery! This part of town was covered in really cool street art, too. Charles and I enjoyed a refreshing cider while enjoying the sunny afternoon.

We thought about booking a street art tour in Tallinn, but there were no tours offered the day we visited. I would love to return to Tallinn to go on that tour, though! There were so many cool pieces!

Visby, Sweden

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Baltic cruises would stop in St. Petersburg. To replace this stop, they added Visby to the itinerary. When planning ahead, there were no excursion options available through the cruise for Visby so we planned to walk around the town and see the sights for ourselves. Once onboard, excursion options opened up but we decided to stick to our own plan. 

Visby is right on the water, of course. Most of the town is hidden behind the old town walls, but when you get on the other side of the wall you can have this beautiful view. We walked along the water for a bit.

Visby also has a great botanical garden that is free to visit. Coming in June provided us the chance to see tons of different flowers in bloom!

The other gem that Visby had to offer was church ruins. I don't know why, but I love church ruins. 

And being in Sweden meant we just had to make a fika stop before getting back on the ship! We enjoyed cake and coffee from a little café with outdoor seating. I had carrot cake, but Charles made the best choice with this slice of chocolate cake. 

Kotka, Finland

The next stop on our NCL cruise was Kotka, Finland. Never heard of it? Neither had I. For this stop, we booked an excursion through the cruise for a hike in Valkmusa National Park. The excursion was rated as a three, one of the highest difficulty ratings for excursions. We have been on cruises before, so we knew their rating of a three was probably a little dramatic and we were proven correct.

The hike was about a mile and a half round trip, if I remember correctly. It was mostly on the wooden boardwalk that you can see in the picture above. We had a guide, but because of the limited space he did not have a chance to offer much information on the park or the area. Charles and I hike (or walk in the woods) fairly often, so it was weird to hike with about 50 other people. It took a little of the peacefulness of being in nature away, but it was still nice to get out and spend some time among the trees.

This is the trail that we used for the excursion. It was an easy loop with a lookout tower at one point. 

Helsinki, Finland

The first stop on our Norwegian Cruise Lines Baltic cruise was Helsinki, Finland. We did not book any excursions through the cruise line, but opted to explore on our own. It was easy enough to grab a taxi right off the boat (although a bit more expensive than finding our own through Bolt or another ride share app). Charles pre-purchased a day pass for public transportation which included the ferry to the nearby Suomenlinna Island. This is where we headed to first.

The island has a suggested route called the Blue Route to see all the highlights of the island. Just looking out over the water was one of my favorite parts!

It was a warm and sunny day, so we spent some time by the water. We dipped our feet in to cool off. The water was a little shockingly chilly at first, but it felt so great after walking around the island.

Some things on the island and around Helsinki were closed or operating on reduced hours in observation of Midsummer. Before planning this trip, I was unaware of this holiday. It is observed throughout Scandinavia and celebrates the summer solstice. Our guide in Stockholm suggested that it is such a big celebration because it is the longest day of the year. This part of the world experiences such short days during winter that it's worth celebrating the long period of sunshine during the summertime. 

There were some museums and shops on the island that we did not experience due to the Midsummer holiday. We stopped by one museum for a light lunch and to snag some souvenirs, but did not tour the museum itself.

After riding the ferry back to Helsinki, we visited a couple of churches. This is the Uspenski Cathedral. It was a little bit of a walk up some stairs to get to it. The inside had some beautiful Orthodox-style art, but was quite small. We sat down for a bit to take in the interior, but did not walk around too much because we did not want to disturb the people worshipping. 

Then we headed over to the Helsinki Cathedral. We had seen it on the Helsinki Travel Man episode. The stairs look quite intimidating, but we hiked up to peek inside. However, the interior was a huge letdown! After seeing so many beautiful churches throughout Europe, this one felt cold and sparse. 

After descending the stairs, we stopped for some ice cream and then hailed a cab back to the ship. 

Stockholm Museums

While visiting Stockholm, we checked out two vastly different museums. Both were equally cool to visit, so I highly recommend if you're in town!

The first was the Stockholm Toy Museum. Charles and I have visited a couple other toy museums (Basel, Switzerland, Kansas City, and Nuremberg, Germany). It makes for a fun trip down memory lane. The Stockholm Toy Museum was unique because of the building--it was a cave! 

I loved the way they displayed the toy cars in a car!

One of my favorite things is doll house displays. However, what the heck is a skeleton doing in the closet of this one???

The other museum was not really on my radar until I was chatting with my Dad. I called him on Father's Day for a quick chat and he mentioned the Vasa Museum and recommended that we go. When Dad gives a recommendation, you listen! 

The Vasa Museum features the world's only preserved 17th century ship. On our Old Town walking tour, we learned that the museum is managed by a guy from South Carolina. Small world! He had learned about the Vasa when he was growing up and was so fascinated by it that he became an expert in it. 

The whole museum is built around this ship that they recovered from the ocean. It sank immediately upon its maiden voyage and lay submerged in the water for hundreds of years.