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.