Sweden: Stockholm Gamla Stan

Stockholm, Sweden, we discovered, is a city of many islands. The oldest part is Gamla Stan where the residence for Swedish royalty remains today. This is the historic harbor.

Above is the plaza outside the Nobel Peace Prize museum. We stopped for a moment to check out the amazing book store. The narrow cobblestone streets in this part of town are peaceful and picturesque.

This historic Lutheran Church is beautiful inside and out.

The royal buildings have the changing of the guard daily, usually along with a band concert for the tourists on hand.

Seagulls enjoyed the attention of cruise passengers of our ship. We also passed a few bread crumbs their way.

Sweden: the fjords

Our cruise ship announced that we would be slowly working our way through the "fjords of Sweden" starting about 3 AM to approach Stockholm. We thought, "Oh boy, will that be anything like the pictures we see of the fjords of Norway?" Well, apparently not.

It reminded me, instead, of my homestate of Minnesota on those 100,000 lakes it is famous for, with their rocky shores, cabins and great fishing.

After coming in to Stockholm we headed back out in the evening.







And at last we were out to sea again.

Finland: Helsinki by the harbor

Helsinki, Finland was the most modern city on our Baltic tour. It does not have the rich, ancient heritage of the other cities we stopped at. It had a fresh, crisp atmosphere on the sea.

The Russian Orthodox Church.

The Lutheran Cathedral

The Waterfront Market.

Reindeer run wild in Finland so it is a tourist item.

There are many ferries in the Baltic connecting the countries.

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We always made sure we made it in good time to our ship. We enjoyed looking at the port from a high point on the ship.

Russia: St. Petersburg quick tour

St. Petersburg was the highlight of our Baltic cruise. Perhaps for the architecture and art. Perhaps for the mystery of post-communism and efforts to rebuild. Perhaps for the glittering echos of the Czar, Peter the Great.

The day began sunny.

Canals are lovely.

We were entertained for lunch in a grand hall by traditional Russian music.

Buildings are so ornate.

By mid-afternoon the rain started pouring. It limited what we saw and slowed our tour due to heavier than usual traffic jams.

Opportunity was given to shop. Amber, Vodka and hand carved dolls were popular.

We returned late to our ship because of the rain.

On board Russian singers and dancers treated us.

We pulled out of the harbor after midnight. Because it is close to the Arctic Circle, in June it hints of daylight almost around the clock.