Baltic Wonderland

Tallinn, the capital of Estonia is a thriving town with a medieval upper part that's been around for centuries and was one of the important towns in the Hanseatic League (a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe.) Since independence from Russia in 1991 it has established itself as a centre for start-ups and is the birthplace of SKYPE and an important centre for the IT industry.

Today we travelled to The Hermitage Museum. It was the winter palace for Catherine the Great. The complex is made up of 5 buildings but we only walked through 4 of them. Our guide was excellent telling us about the beautiful floors, walls, ceilings, chandeliers and paintings found throughout these buildings. Today was St Petersburg day so there were lots of celebrations going on. After lunch we did some shopping and then returned to the boat.

Cold in St Petersburg but not wet. Apparently they only have 32 fine days a year here, with 120 snow days and the rest are wet. We went on a bus trip around St Petersburg city and saw many very large buildings. There are no houses here, just apartments to live in. There are many Kruschov apartments or once communal houses. Many people have summer houses in the country. The buildings are huge. There are many palaces and over 100 museums. We saw ice breakers to cut through the ice of the Baltic Sea. One of them was over 100 years old. We saw the Church of the Spilt Blood. There is a lot of history of Catherine the Great and the next ruler Peter the Great. So beautiful. We saw the St Peter and Paul domes. We stopped at St Isaacs Square. We saw the Aurora submarine which was over 100 years old. We also saw the KGB building as well as a new building called Das Strom. It is to do with natural gas. Last night we went out to a folk concert. It was very cheerful and colourful. A vibrant ...

Helsinki was cold but not raining. We went on an excursion which didnt leave until 1.00 so a bit of a sleep in. First we went on a boat across the harbour. Many Finnish people live along the harbour. There are many islands through here. And of course many saunas. They love them. Then we had a quick walk through the markets before we caught our bus to travel around Helsinki. Some magnificent buildings were seen. There were a number of ice breakers in the harbour, used to break the ice when the Baltic Sea freezes in winter. We saw a sculpture dedicated to Sibelius, a Finnish composer of Finlandia.

Bloody cold but a great tour guide explaining the influence  of the composer Sibelius in helping to establish a national  identity through music.

Today started quite pleasant but soon developed into rain and cold. Stockholm is a lovely town built on a number of islands. The roads are very narrow and dont look wide enough to cater for buses. We got on a hop on hop off bus and travelled around the town area. First stop was the Vassa museum where an old ship, the Vassa, had been found and brought to the surface after 400 years. It was on its maiden voyage when it sank. Water filled the canon holes and 20 minutes later it was gone. So sad. The next stop was the Abba Museum. So much fun here for Abba fans, with lots of memorabilia, singing and dancing. We continued around the town and returned to our ship which was about an hour from Stockholm.