Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Baltic Cruise

Lawyer34

By Lawyer34,
in Northern Europe & Baltic Sea

Recommended Posts

Lawyer34

Lawyer34

Posted
Posted

Just recently got back from 10 day Baltic Cruise on Westerdam. It was terrific.

Tallinn, Estonia--bought the Tallinn Card at the port which included a bus tour, walking tour, and bike tour--great deal. The bike tour was the 4 of us travelling together with a young Estonian man who was a delight. Showed us the sights outside the old town and gave us insight into the people and their thinking. St. Petersburg was very impressive--took Red October guide in a van with 8 of us. The guide was pleasant, knowledgeable in both art and history, and spoke excellent english. The highlights were Catherine's Palace, the Hermitage, a canal ride, Church of Spilled Blood, Church where the Czars were buried, and Peterhof. (their version of Versailles, which I enjoyed the grounds at Peterhof more--the fountains were incredible as well as the setting on the sea). At night they took us to a Russian restaurant--although I like the idea of sampling the food, the restaurant experience, because we were rushed for a night time performance, and it was a prixe fixed meal, was lacking. We saw a cassock folk show--very "touristy", but fun. I would have liked to walk around the City a little more to get a flavor of it--our guide did take us to an unscheduled stop to a Russian market which was fascinating--tubs of caviar, rows of meats with a cow head, cheeses, fruits, vegetables--and they give you samples (except for the caviar) as we were told the Russians always must taste before they buy.

 

Helsinki, we were on our own--we took the hop on hop off bus, rode around the city once (about an hour) then hopped off and walked. Its a lovely park like city. The modern art museum was very special--great exhibits, english audioguides--very bizarre too, so be ready for something out of this world. The church built into a rock was fun, the main esplanade, was picturesque and a pleasure to walk down. Lunch at a local place, serve yourself, was very good. We took a cab back to the ship, as it was far from the town, and the ship was docked in an obscure place. The bus passed the Sibelius park and sculpture, which looked really interesting, but it was a little out of the way, and my friends didn't want to go back out there, nor did we have the time.

Stockholm--my wife woke me at about 4:30am, as we sailed through the archipellago--what a sight. Thousands of little islands with one house or many, or just trees. All sizes and shapes, a sight to behold. In port, we took the ship's shuttle into town. Grabbed the 10 am (first tour) of the City Hall--not to be missed, a really interesting building with murals and ceilings that are architecturally and artistically compelling. This is where the Nobel prizes banquet is held, and it is an awesome experience. A short ferry ride over to Vasa, the reconstructed Viking ship is worth a few hours---there is a film to orient you first, then you get to go up multiple floors to see different sections of the ship and get an idea of what it was like. A walk down the main shopping pedestrian street was a good bet too. They stopped at the flea market, open air shopping, near the waterfront, which at a diversity of items, from clothes to artwork, to jewelry and glassware. It was some pretty nice stuff. Also, some take out eateries with interesting foods, especially, fish.We walked back from the town to the ship, which I would not recommend because it wasn't very interesting and it was relatively long (45 minutes).

 

 

 

Visby we took the ship's bike tour. We should have rented bikes ourselves and just rode out to the countryside--great scenery, wildflowers and vistas overlooking the ocean. A pleasant easy going island. The main town, pedestrian only street was fun too.

 

Warmenunde --we elected to go the 2 hours plus to Berlin, which was well worth it. Six of us took a guided tour, van to Berlin where we picked up our guide--who was wonderful--great english and knowledge about every fact, even the number of trees and dogs in Berlin. Berlin Stadtfuhrungen sightseeing www.berlin-stadtfuehrung.de He also had pictures of what things were years ago, so we could compare Checkpoint Charlie with what it was like at the height of the Cold War vs. what it was today. Its a young vibrant city. Great place to go.

Aarhus, Denmark, was our last stop. A charming town we did on our own. Had a lovely lunch on the canals. I went to the re-constructed village, which my fellow travellers thought was a little hoky, but I enjoyed it. The shopping was fun, looking at the Danish Designs.

 

I can strongly recommend this cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
elin

elin

Posted
Posted

Thanks Lawyer34! (gee sounds like something out of George Orwell's 1984 :) )

Nice of you to post the review. We leave in about a week!

Definitely puts me in the mood!

Elin

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...