11th of August 2026 - Arrival in Stockholm

Today we left our ship and transferred to an hotel in Stockholm.  We walked from the hotel to Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s medieval Old Town.  Gamla Stan is an island district of cobbled lanes and 13^th century narrow alleyways forming the historic heart of Sweden’s capital.

 

We found a delightful restaurant in Gamla Stan to have a delicious Swedish version of duck confit.  The cocktails, a Stockholm version of a Moscow Mule, were good too.

 

After our meal we walked back to our hotel past the Royal Palace (Kungliga slottet), Sweden’s official royal residence and one of Europe’s largest functioning palaces and along the waterfront.

10th of August 2026 - Helsinki

Helsinki is the modern Nordic capital of Finland where Baltic seaside calm meets sleek Scandinavian design.  Our visit here was mostly a coach tour showing us the cities highlights.

The statue is of Paavo Nurmi, Finland’s legendary long‑distance runner known as the “Flying Finn”.  Active in the 1920s, Paavo Nurmi won nine Olympic gold medals and set 22 official world records.

We visited the Sibelius Monument, which is a tribute to Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, set in a quiet park near the sea in Töölö.  It consists of over 600 hollow steel pipes clustered like an abstract wave or forest, capturing the spirit of Sibelius’s music and Finland’s northern landscapes.  Beside it stands a realistic bronze portrait of the composer.

The Rock Church (Temppeliaukio Church), one of Helsinki’s most distinctive landmarks, was carved directly into solid natural bedrock in the 1960s.  Its circular interior, rough stone walls and copper domed roof create a cave like acoustic space that’s used for concerts as well as worship.  The church, filled with natural light from the skylight ring, blends modern architecture with Finnish geology.

The bronze statue of Tsar Alexander II, standing at the centre of Senate Square was unveiled in 1894.  The statue shows the emperor elevated on a tall pedestal surrounded by allegorical figures representing law, culture, peace and light.  The monument reflects a period when Finland enjoyed autonomy within the Russian Empire.

The white Lutheran Cathedral above Senate Square is Helsinki Cathedral.

Sailing out of Helsinki we had a good view of Finland’s longest and tallest bridge, the Kruunuvuorensilta, which dominates the Helsinki skyline.  It opened in April 2026 and is unusual because it is built exclusively for trams, pedestrians, and cyclists with no car traffic.

Several inhabited islands with houses sit right off Helsinki’s coastline.  These islands are typically connected to mainland utilities by subsea cables and underwater pipes or have robust standalone systems.

9th of August 2026 - Tallinn

The capital city of Estonia is Tallinn and is located on a bay in northern Estonia on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea.

Our first visit was to Tallinn’s amphitheatre, the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds (Tallinna Lauluväljak), which is one of Estonia’s most important cultural landmarks and the heart of the country’s massive choral tradition.

The trees around the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds form a green belt that frames the amphitheatre and creates a natural approach to the site. They include the historic oak alley planted in 1969 which acts as a symbolic entrance route and memorial corridor linked to Estonia’s Song Festival tradition.

 

We then visited Toompea Hill, the historic limestone plateau at the heart of Tallinn, which is Estonia’s traditional seat of power.  It rises above Tallinn's beautifully preserved UNESCO-listed medieval Old Town with cobbled lanes, Gothic spires and sturdy stone walls.

The Orthodox church in Tallinn’s Old Town is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a late 19th century Russian Orthodox landmark.  It was built in 1900 during the Russian Empire period and features onion domes, black cupolas and a richly decorated façade with mosaics and icons.

8th of August 2026 - Riga

Our ship the Silver Dawn docked at Riga this morning.  I wish that there were smaller ships to go on for some of my sea cruises however there are few options for the itineraries I wish to follow.

Latvia’s capital and largest city Riga was founded in 1201 and is set on the Daugava River near the Gulf of Riga.  It grew as a major Hanseatic League trading hub and today is known for its UNESCO listed historic centre especially its exceptional Art Nouveau architecture and medieval Old Town.  Riga is affectionately known as the Baltic Berlin.

Riga has one of the largest collections of Art Nouveau buildings in the world with at least 800 buildings. This is due to Riga experiencing a financial and demographic at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries when Art Nouveau was at the height of its popularity.

We visited the the Splendid Palace, an art nouveau theatre, to watch the "Dzintariņš", a Latvian children's folk dance ensemble that participate in various festivals both in Latvia and abroad.  The ensemble has about 250 members aged 2 to 18 years.

Flow (Straume) is the first Latvian film ever to win an Academy Award taking the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.  It is a dialogue free story about a cat navigating a flooded, dreamlike world meeting other animals as they drift through shifting landscapes.  Naturally Latvians are very proud of winning an Oscar and the statue of a cat outside Splendid Palace commemorates this achievement.

The Latvian Riflemen Monument in Riga’s Old Town was built in 1971 and commemorates the Latvian riflemen who fought in World War I and later joined the Bolsheviks.  This is a reminder of Latvia’s complex Soviet past.

We ended our visit to Riga with a walk around the historic old town.