Hezu

Former "soldier's home", perhaps a mess would be an ok translation in English. A place where off duty soldiers can socilize and have something to eat (fresh doughnuts are traditionally top sellers in these). I think currently there is no activity in that building. And Örö certainly has lots of signs of its military history, starting from the days when Grand Duchy of Finland was part of the Russian empire. I think one of the most fashinating signs of this history is that the main roads bear names Pitkä ikävä and Lyhyt ikävä, which translate as Long misery and Short misery, which you might understand if you have to walk (or march) these pebble stone roads for longer periods of time...

Oops, I meant to say the daylights hours decrease, not increase, as you get further in south...

Be prepared for lot of daylight hours and short nights in these northern latitudes: For example, in Helsinki today sunrise was at 4:01 and sunset at 22:35 and further north you get (and closer to summer solstice) shorter the nights will be. And sure, once you head south the night time will again slightly increase, but not significantly.

I can tell that at least in Finland this June has started with cool (or maybe even cold) weather, although the weather forecasts are predicting bit warmer weather in the near future. Obviously no reliable forecast extends into the dates when your cruise is going to take place.

After seeing this thread I got curious about this ship and more importantly how it is supposed to handle the stops at the smaller island, which do not have port facilities that could handle a large cruise ship and did some searching and found out for example that it will call at Hernesaari harbour early today. And that port facility is not visible in your picture, which shows Eteläsatama ("South Harbour") and more specifically the Katajanokka quay. That occasionally gets some cruise ships, but since the route there is thru narrow Kustaanmiekka strait between Vallisaari and Suomenlinna it is only suitable for smaller ships, bigger ones must head to Hernesaari, which has more space. And last, as seen on that picture the cruise berths on Katajanokka are currently occupied, USCGC Eagle is visiting Helsinki and it is accompanied by Finnish Border Guard's offshore patrol vessel Turva. Barque Eagle is expected to leave sometime today, so keep eyes open while in and near Helsinki.

I didn't remember the exact height, but I knew it was tall and I have seen it (from a distance) when I have been in the vicinity.

I think you probably won't see that much into Russian territory despite the eastern-most stop is near the Finnish-Russian border, although at least the silhouette of island Gogland in middle of eastern Finnish Gulf should be visible while sailing to/from Ulko-Tammio.

For me the names are mostly familiar, although the only ones I have actually visited are Örö and obviously Helsinki, where I currently reside. Although I have to say the spelling those names on that map is somewhat dubious (granted I can understand the lack of Scandinavian letters), the most odd one is clearly "Ulko Island", which should actually say Ulko-Tammio (the prefix "Ulko" means outer, there happens to be other island called Sisä-Tammio, "Inner Tammio" and those names tell something about those islands' relative distance to the mainland). Another weird spelling is "Gotska Island", which is less ambigous, but probably most often you see the name written as Gotska Sandön. The rest are more understandable, albeit there is umlauts missing in Örö, Valsörarna, Örnsköldvik and slash in Christiansø. And in most of those names, the base word is ö or ø, which means island in Swedish/Danish.

Note that quite a few people visit Iceland to make a land-based trips around the country, cruise passengers are just a small portion of tourists visiting Iceland.

And cards are widely accepted also in Finland and Estonia, so probably you won't need much cash even in those countries. On the other hand, if the Baltic cruise includes stop in Germany, there for some odd reason many places won't accept credit cards, but obviously euros in cash are accepted.

If it is sunny, it is rarely a bad idea to use sunscreen. And even if you don't bring sunscreen, it should be fairly easy to find from local stores in the cities you visit.

Are you fixed on those Panasonics? I guess those might be ok, but I think the best compact superzoom currently on the market is still Sony RX10 IV, which I believe has superior autofocus capabilities in addition to very versatile 24-600 mm equivalent lens. Granted, it might not be the cheapest option nor the smallest one, but still far more compact than an ILC and telephoto lens with comparable reach.

It is certainly worth noting that Hamburg is quite far away from Kiel and traveling between these two will take over an hour in each direction.

Ouch, I can sort relate with this, some years ago in mid-May I fell on bike and fractured my upper arm, survived without surgery, but sadly had to cancel a trip to Iceland that would been in early June. The arm started to feel normal only couple months later. If lifting heavy camera+lens combinations continues to be a problem when you travel, I suggest to seriously take a look at getting Sony RX10 IV. The feeling of the controls and EVF might be tad inferior compared to your ILCs and the smaller sensor might be less suitable for low light situations, but that camera packs a versatile lens (field of view comparable to 24-600 mm in full frame terms) and very respectable AF in reasonably small and light compact form.

Actually the flight restrictions over Russia and Ukraina do not affect most Europe<->Singapore flights as much as it affects flights between Europe and Korea, Japan and northern parts of China, which have to take much longer detour whereas Singapore flights still follow roughly similar route as earlier, just tad more southern flight path.

Majority of cruise ships dock in Helsinki at Hernesaari (Ärtholmen in Swedish) and the distance between the quays there and the nearest tram stop is something like a kilometre, so not exactly something I would call nearby, although for a able bodied persons not impossible distance to walk. Few smaller cruise ships (+ Silja Line and Viking Line cruise ferries) do call at South Harbour (fi: Eteläsatama, sv: Södra hamnen) and from there the distances to the nearest tram stops are much shorter.

Just for sake of clarity: the main international airport serving Reykjavík area is Keflavík Airport, which is something like 50 km from the city centre, which probably explains why the taxi fares are quite expensive. There is also another airport, Reykjavík Airport, that is next to the city centre and taxi fares between the cruise terminal and that airport are more tolerable, although since that airport offers only flights to elsewhere in Iceland and some destinations in Greenland, for most people that won't offer any help. For connections between central Reykjavík and Keflavík, the more cost-effective transport method is probably bus.

If you want to take just a part of the HOHO bus route, you probably could use regular public transportation to travel to the opposite direction. Most HOHO bus stops should have bus or tram stops or a metro station in the vicinity. Of course, for these you will need a different ticket. For more information about public transportation (routes, ticket prices etc.) in Helsinki region, please check out HSL website.

My personal experience on cruising around Svalbard is quite limited as I have only taken a short (three nights) cruise on Hurtigruten's MS Polarstjernen, which is a fairly small ship (especially as it is rather old and thus her cabins tend to be much smaller than on more modern ships) and I think that particular cruise was not even fully booked. Fewer passangers is obviously an advantage if the cruise includes landings on smaller boats as otherwise the process of getting people on the boats and back to the ship would take longer time and there might be crowding on the beach. And there are certainly smaller ships sailing around Svalbard, I believe the smallest ones are M/S Origo, M/S Malmö and M/S Freya. These sister ships take only something like 14 passangers and primarily they are used for photo expeditions around Svalbard. There are also other bit larger expedition ships, eg. MV Polar Pioneer, that has something like 25 cabins in total.

The most commonly used cruise port in Helsinki is Hernesaari, which sadly is currently without any nearby tram or bus stops, closest one is something like kilometer away from the quays. And that is for tram line 6. Although if you want to ride around on tram 2, you could for example take tram number 6 to either Fredrikinkatu or Erottaja stops on Bulevardi, go to the stop on the other side of the street, hop on the next tram on line 3, which will eventually change into tram number 2 at Olympiaterminaali stop (and also the other way around for trams that are going to the opposite direction). But in general, the public transport in Helsinki should be able to get you on most locations around the city quite easily, for more details on routes, prices and possible announcements on interuptions, please check out HSL website. The route planner there can be useful tool if you want to know how to get from certain location to some destination. The route planner is also included in HSL mobile app. It is possible to purchase tickets with this app. And all HSL area tickets include unlimited changes between busses, trams, local trains and Suomenlinna ferry as long as the ticket is valid (for single tickets minimum of 80 minutes).

I think there is (or at least in summer will be) vendors offering fruits, berries and vegetables. And I presume that at least some of the cafe tents would offer Karelian pasties (or "rice pasties" as the Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) definition of Karelian pasty has quite strict regulations on how one should prepare these). But certainly significant portion of the offerings will be more geared towards tourists rather than locals doing their grocery shopping.

Also worth a note that the transfer speeds of memory cards have been increasing all the time and it is rarely a bad idea to have a faster card instead of slower one.

Traditionally the Market Square has been a food market and with sort of farmers' market type repertoire, but in recent times the focus has somewhat shifted towards more touristy offerings and these days many booths offer souveniers and prepared food and drinks to be consumed on the spot or as take away portions. Some sign of this process was news that on Easter Saturday the last fish monger on the market will cease trading there. If you want to see an open air flea market that you could find in Hietalahti market, but it will be open only on Saturdays and Sundays 10-15. There are also some other indoor flea markets or second hand stores around Helsinki that have longer opening hours.

I presume the quoted times are sunrise and sunset times. It is worth remembering that around dusk and dawn there will be twilight illuminating sky even if the sun is below the horizon.

I think you have most bases covered with that choice of lenses (and cameras). At most, I would consider adding some fast prime(s) in case you want to shoot in dark conditions (eg. indoors), although that f/2.8 wide angle zoom might cover such situations at least partially if you don't need longer focal lengths.