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. 

Cruising: Victoria, B.C. (or so we thought)

Our last day of the cruise had finally arrived. We were supposed to stop in Victoria, British Columbia. I was pretty excited to check out the Miniature Museum and go on a Ghost Tour. However, as we were cruising along the captain came on over the speakers and announced that our ship had a technical difficulty that did not allow the ship to proceed at full speed. In other words, we would not make it to Victoria with enough time to get off the ship. Bummer!

While on the ship this last day, we filled our time with Bingo, game shows, reading and eating (of course). 

I'm currently reading Monuments Men

A couple down the hall from us were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary on this trip! Isn't that wonderful to see?

No winning Bingo cards today

Charles played in the Yes or No game show and won! He had to go 3 minutes without saying yes or no and without shaking his head. It looked pretty hard.

The ship still had to stop at the Victoria port, as per their agreement, so we did get to see the coastline. Maybe one day we will return.

Cruising: Ketchikan

Our last port before returning to Seattle ended up being Ketchikan, AK. It was a little rainy that day, but not horrible. We did not book any excursions in advance, but planned to check out the Lumberjack Show and purchase our tickets off the boat. However, when we walked over to buy tickets they were sold out. Instead, we took a trolley tour of the town.

Salmon capital of the world!

We saw a ton of bald eagles while on this tour! The one on the right is a bald eagle, but it is a juvenile so it hasn't turned white yet.

Lots of kelp on the shore during low tide

More eagles waiting for some lunch

It's hard to see, but there is a little crab between the rocks.

One of the totem poles we saw

After the tour, we walked around their downtown area, bought some souvenirs and took some pictures. We were not in Ketchikan for very long.

Creek Street has an interesting history of brothels for the fishermen and miners back in the day

Then it was back on the boat to head toward Victoria, British Columbia.

Cruising: Glacier Bay

Our next day at sea was spent cruising through Glacier Bay National Park. Our ship arrived in the bay super early that morning and some park rangers boarded to be on deck pointing out all the interesting things about the park. We slept in a little, but still saw some nice scenery.

We saw one of the glacier calve a couple times. I did not know at the time of viewing this happening that it was not an everyday occurrence. But later, during a seminar, we learned it was a spectacular showing.

We have a bunch of pictures of this ice calving. It's neat to view them like a flip book to see the action.

I was hoping to see some wildlife in the bay. We did see some harbor seals and sea otter. Although they were very far away and I could barely see them even with binoculars.

Oh, and we saw a ton of seagulls hoping to snatch food off of the passengers' balconies.

As we were leaving the bay, we were told we might see some humpback whales. But we did not see any. Oh well!

 

It was just a little chilly

The park ranger boat pulling up alongside the cruise ship so the rangers can climb down and go back

 

Cruising: Skagway & Haines

Our next stop for the cruise was Skagway. We walked off the boat to a gorgeous, sunny day! I was so happy. On the agenda for our day was kayaking. I have never in my life been kayaking before and it always made me nervous. I have no idea why. I have been canoeing several times and really enjoyed it. Maybe a kayak did not seem as stable.

First we took a ferry ride to Haines, AK. We met our guides and they drove us to the lake for kayaking. We geared up and loaded into kayaks. We had a tandem kayak with me in back steering. We were the last to get loaded which was nice that we did not have to wait very long to get out on the open water.

Lots of fishing boats

 

Our guides were fantastic! They were super friendly. We had a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go kayaking again sometime.

After paddling around for a while, we had a picnic type lunch of sandwiches, chips and cookies before heading back on the ferry to Skagway. In Skagway, we walked around the town to see the billion jewelry stores and other souvenir shops that pop up in any cruise port.