Baltic

Last year we spoke with Zoe at Century Travel about doing another cruise. We explained that we were not impressed with the last P&O ship were on and that we would like a smaller ship. She came up with a cruise around the baltic states on a Silversea ship called the "Silver Spirit". It holds about 600 passengers and about the same number of crew. While it is more expensive than others, being at the top end of the luxury scale the price included everything including all food (except 2 special restaurants), drinks (except the special wines) and gratuities. It was also on offer at the time and included one free excurion each port day, a cabin upgrade and $500 onboard credit each. We liked the itinerary very much and the small passenger list swung it for us.

We had to embark in Copenhagen, from there we would go to Ronne on the Danish island on Borholm then on to Gdansk in Polond. After Gdansk we would go on to Klaipeda in Lithuania, followed by Riga in Latvia, Tallinn in Estonia, Helsinki in Finland and disembark at Stockholm on Sweden. We decided to spend several days in Copenhagen before the start of the trip.

We took a leisurely drive to Larnaca to catch an Air Vienna flight to Vienna then an onward flight to Copenhagen. We'd had an e-mail asking us to arrive 3 hours early because of all the evacuation and ongoing flights into and out of Israel. The desk staff howevere didn't know anything about this and we had to stand aside for 45 minutes before we could check-in. Our main worry was that there were only 50 minutes between our flight landing in Vienna and the next flight taking off for Copenhagen. But Vienna is famous for its short transit times. It panned out like this:

• our plane landed 5 minutes late and did not dock at the terminal - down to 45 minutes;
• the bus waited 5 minues to fill up with passengers - down to 40 minutes;
• the bus drove to an area quite a way away from our departure gate - down to 35 minutes;
• we struggled off the bus with a case and backpacks, up a 2 flights of stairs to a small passport control area - down to 30 minutes;
• we eventaully got through passport control and followed the signs for the transfer bus - down to 25 minutes;
• we got the transfer bus that took us to the main terminal, exited, went up some more stairs and headed towards the "F" gates - down to 20 minutes;
• we got to the "F" gates and had to run/walk/hobble for ages to get to our gate "F34" - down to 15 minutes;
• the barrier wouldn't accept out boarding passes but luckily an attendant was there and she let us though - down to 10 minutes;
• down some more stairs we had to wait for yet another bus to drive us to the airplane. We were the last to board with less than 5 minutes left before the takeoff time.

Easy-peasy and our cases made it too!

Once we landed at Copenhagen and had picked up our luggage we went to train station and Neil used the DOT app to find the next train and buy the tickets. Unfortunate the app showed that the next train was cancelled, as was the one after that and the next. It appeared There was a train drivers' strike and no trains were running. So we decided to take the metro, though this involved a change whereas the train didn't. Of course everyone else was forced to use the metro so it was quite chaotic. A metro employee took pity on us and showed us which train to take and where to change.

The first part of the journey was OK, but then we had to change platforms on different levels - not so easy with 4 cases. The metro train arrived, a lot of people got off and just as Sue was loading her first case onto the train the doors closed, trapping the case and banging quite hard on Sue's leg. Alarms sounded and a guy came, yanked the case out of the door, didn't say a word to either of us and vanished. We were very wary of getting on the next train but eventually we arrived at Copenhagen main metro station. Then it was up more stairs/escalators/lifts to get outside.

Once outside Neil got up Google Maps and said, "don't worry only 6 minutes walk to the hotel". That of course didn't account for the backpacks and 4 cases, the cobblestones and the inclined cobblestone ramp we had to wheel the cases up, nor the mad cyclsts. At the bottom of the ramp Sue had to rest and an English couple stopped to ask if the husband could help. He very kindly took Sue's case and strode off to the hotel - they were staying close to there. We nearly got skewered by a bus with horns on it. Apparently Copenhell, Denmark's biggest rock and heavy metal festival was in central Copenhagen that weekend and the buses going to it indicated the destination HELL, sported the number 666 and a pair of devil's horne. We had originally planned to go out for a meal that night but we were both so shattered by that time we just had a snack and an early night.

The second day we left the hotel to walk along the river bank, where the world and his wife appeared to be sunning themselves. We crossed via a footbridge and found a bakery for breakfast. The bakery sold a rhubarb Danish pastry that Neil absolutely adored. After fortifying ourselves we soldiered on the Church of our Saviour, which has a fantastic spire that resembles a helter-skelter. Because of high demand you can now only ascend the tower if you have booked some time prior via the internet. Then we carried on to visit Christiana Freetown. It is a commune founded in 1971 by squatters on an abandoned military base. Its main selling street, Pusher Street, was famous for its open illegal trade of cannabis until 2024, when it was shut down in a collaborative effort between police and the majority of the inhabitants, with the street being physically dug up. At the main entrance it informs you that you are entering this free area and on exit it informs you that you are now entering the EU!

Christiana is brilliant, almost every building is painted with the most gorgeous colors, images and graffiti. We arrived early, when there was almost no-one about. By the time we left, several hours later, it was getting a little crowded. There are areas where notices request you not to take photographs and we tried not to photograph any residents but nevertheless we took loads of interesting shots. We didn't feel threatened and families with young children were touring the area. We did see some evidence of drugs, in the form of cannabis plants growing in pots by the side of the road!

After "re-entering the EU" we went back to the bakery we were at earlier and Neil had another rhubarb Danish pastry (what else would he have?). We walked around looking at various interesting archictural sites before making our way back to the hotel for a snooze before dinner. We decided to go to an Spanish tapas restaurant called El Tapeo de Cervantes, which served the best tapas we have tasted since we were in Madrid many years ago. The staff were extremely pleasant and effecient. they were a mix of nationalities, Argentinian, Urugyan, Spanish and once they heard about Sue's parents living in Spain and our somewhat feeble attempts to converse in Spanish, they couldn't do enough for us. This was a special end to a fantastic though tiring day.

We had just settled down to sleep when there was the sound of a huge explosion outside. Looking at the windows of the building opposite we could see reflections of fireworks. This kept up for about 15 minutes. Apparently on Saturdays Tivoli, that we were to visit on Sunday and which was only a couple of hundred metres up the road, put on a firework show at the end of the day - oh happy days!

Today is the day we'd booked a harbour and canals social cruise with Hey Captain. It was a small boat with just 12 passengers and a laid back university graduate as the captain. It was great. Everyone introduced themselves and the captain encouraged people to talk about their experiences as well as provided useful information on the locations we visited. We thoroughly enjoyed this.

Prior to arriving at the boat quay we had our obligatory Danish pastry breafast and did some sightseeing around the Nyhavn area. This is a very pretty location and if you've ever seen a travel brochure of Copenhagen you will have seen the multicoloured houses along the quay and the various boats plying the canal and tied up there. It is well worth a visit.

After the cruise we did a bit more sight-seeing, including a walk down Strøget, Copenhagen's main shopping street and one of Europe's longest pedestrian streets with a wealth of shops, from budget-friendly chains to some of the world's most expensive brands. This was interesting, but tiring as lots of people were around today, it being the last day of the mini-heatwave then being experienced in the city. then we caught the metro back to the Central Station.

Leaving the station we crossed the road and entered Tivoli, the amusement park that first opened on 15 August 1843. It contains quite a few interesting rides, has some lovely grounds, with a resident peacock and some restaurants, both down- and up-market. We went on several rides but Neil's stomach felt very queezy after one of them, the Monsoon, and that put a bit of a dampener on it. We had a gorgeous meal in one of the restaurants and then made our way back to the hotel feeling very tired.

We were up early again for breakfast at the excellent Rug Bakery near the station, after which we made our way to the pick-up point for our day's journey to the Forest Tower and Mons Klint. There we met with about 10 other people and were ferried in a nice minivan to these attractions.

The driver, who was originally from India, kept us well informed on the way and eventually we arrived at Camp Adventure, where the Forest Tower is situated. This is in a wood used mainly for ziplining and is one of the most intriguing structures we've ever come across. It is quite a substantial spiral and instead of steps leading to the top it is a gently sloping inclined plane measuring about 650 metres in length. It is very easy to ascend and descend. The views as you ascend and from the top are great and it was well worth the extra cost over and above the cost of the trip. Camp adventure also caters for "glamping" and there are several high-class yurts that can be rented, they come with a communal sauna - this is Scandinavia after all.

Then it was back on the minivan for the trip to the island of Mons and its cliff. To get from the top of the cliff, where the buses park to the bottom of the cliff there is a set of steps. A set of 400 steps down and the same 400 coming back up. Sue very sensibly decided that she would not be able to the return journey as she is still recovering from back surgery she had at the end of last year. So Neil said he would nobly step up (or should I say down then up) to visit the beach and take some photos, while Sue explored the paths around the top of the cliff.

Going down was not the problem, even if Neil did get overtaken by a little old Chinese granny while he was dabating taking a photo - he caught her up 5 minutes later, but only because she had to stop to tie her shoelace. Walking around on the seashore was also not a problem, except for trying to take pictures that didn't have little old Chinese grannies photo-bombing in the background. No, the main problem was that as soon as Neil put his hand on the bannister to start back up the heavens opened and a thunderstorm caused it to teem down. Neil was soaked through before he put his foot on the first step. It took Neil about half an hour to get back to the top, but at least he beat the little old Chinese granny to it by 30 seconds.

On arriving at the top and scouring the area for an AED (automated external defibrillitator) without any luck, who should Neil see coming through the downpour like a slighly older Darryl Hannah mermaid (Splash 1984) rising from the waters of Cape Cod, than Sue. We decided to head for the Mons Klint Geocenter to warm up, get something to eat and try to dry out - some hope. We then made our way back to Copenhagen.

That night we decided to go to a restaurant serving typical Danish fayre, although the restaurant, chosen on recommendation fron the hotel receptionist, was decked out as a wild west saloon! Neil had a stew while Sue had salted fried pork, which two English ladies next to us also had. These were "all-you-can-eat", a sentiment which the young men on the table next to us relished, but not the ladies. After that it was back to the hotel for our last night in Copenhagen.

This was our last day so we checked out but left our baggage at the hotel to pick up later. We then took the metro to get to the district where our next item, Ikono was located. While waiting for it to open we walked around the area and saw the Round Tower. It was built in the 17^th century as an observatory. Quirckily there have been bicycle and motorbike races down it, a car drove up it in 1902 and in 1989, Thomas Olsen went up and down the Round Tower on a unicycle in 1 minute and 48.7 seconds!

After seeing the round tower we did a bit of souvenir shopping before Ikonos opened. Ikonos is an "immersive experience", similar to Planet Labs that we visited while in Tokyo, but not as sophosticated. Nevertheless it was an interesting way to spend an hour. Sue tried out the ball pool, a metre-deep pool filled with plastic balls. There were kids in there and adults too, one swimming across the pool. Sue got in and covered herself in balls, the only problem being when she tried to get out - she couldn't stand up, every time she tried the balls would shift and she'd be flat on her back again. One of the little girls was in hysterics watching her and Sue was laughing, which didn't help. Neil tried to help but wouldn't go in the pool - we didn't want both of us to be stuck and miss the boat! In the end a member of staff had to wade in and hoist her out - not too elegantly!

We next visited the Torvehallern Food Market. This was absolutely amazing. the foods and implements on sale were fantastic. If our neighbourhood had one of these we'd visit it every day. After walkng around the stalls we had a small smørrebrød lunch before making our way back to the metro to pick up our bags from the hotel.

Back at the hotel we asked the receptionist to book us a taxi and waited outside for it. After 20 minutes it still hadn't appeared and an Uber parked nearby said he'd take us to the ship for €30. I gave him the location, Langeliniekaj, and made sure he knew the location. The traffic was very busy and after half an hour he got to the quay and asked which of the two ships there was ours. We replied "Neither of them!". The guy had taken us to Oceankaj, the northernmost port of Copenhagen. After some discussion we had him turn around, go back the way he came, almost to the city centre, and take the turning to Langeliniekaj. Eventually we got there and dropped our bags off at the quay with the Silversea staff before registering and finally boarding the Silver Spirit.

When we got to our suite our butler, Ramesh from India, was waiting for us. He introduced to Shein from Myanmar who would be housekeeping for us and then proceded to show us around the suite, asking about any preferences we had and pouring us a glass of champagne each. Sue explained our primal need for tea first thing in the morning and while he offered to make it for us we said that a jug of skimmed milk for the fridge would be sufficient for us to do that ourselves. After some more information and offer to unpack for us, which we declined, he left us to ourselves, suggesting we might like a small caviar snack later on. We unpacked, watched the safety video, went to our assigned muster station to report and then set off to explore the ship, floor by floo,r starting on the 11^th. Sue went off to check out the swimming pool, lovely, and jacuzzis, relaxing, while Neil tried a Danish pastry, but without rhubarb unfortunately.

The suite was much larger than any we had had on previous ships with a large balcony, which suited Sue as she likes to sit there with her cup of tea as the ship comes in to dock. You see quite a few interesting sights that way. We chose the starboard side as that was facing land most of the time we were sailing and, being mostly east facing, the side the sunrise could generally be seen. There was plenty of storage space for our clothes and so on and sufficient plugs for our phones, ipad and surface-pro. And of course the was a kettle for tea making! the bed was large and very comfortable and the bathroom was gorgeous with an amazing shower.

That evening we were booked into the Silver Note restaurant. A sumptuous, intimate setting with a lively ambience, the perfect place to dine, dance, and dream the night away. Small-plate, tapas-style dishes of mouthwatering international cuisine perfectly compliment the rich, exciting entertainment as the smooth sounds of jazz and blues fill the air. As you can guess, that description comes from the brochure, but it does sum up the restaurant. We had a perfect meal there and met up with a very nice couple from the Stockport area, Eileen and Glenn. Afterwards the four of us retired to the Atlantide bar for a few nightcaps before retiring shortly after midnight.

The weather today was not very nice - it was blowing a hooley and the ship was not docking on time. Eventually the Captain made an announcement that because of the wind it was going to be very difficult getting into the harbour. The windspeed was due to increase and even if we got in without damaging anything we would likely be trapped there for at least a day. Consequently it was decide to give Ronne a miss. This was unfortunate, as we had been really looking forward to the "Baltic Sea Glass" tour, but when you are dealing with nature you have to respect it and it was almost certainly the correct decision. So it was more exploring, time around the pool, eating and drinking and joining in some of the activities, like putting, where Neil had 2 putts and had a hole in one with each one.

We decided to investigate the health and fitness centre, where we met with Blessing, a wellness coach. He took us round and showed us the various equipment and facilities then said he was taking some clients for a session and would we like to come, which we did. He explained how much of the leg, back and neck pain that many people experience is due to bad posture caused by the feet not supporting the body correctly. Each foot should of course support half of the body's weight and 25% of that should be supported equally by the four arches in the foot. He got all ten of us to walk over a type if inkpad that took an imprint of our feet. He showed what a "perfect" imprint should look like then examined ours. Sue's in particular showed several pressure points that should not be there and explained very well the types of pain that she must be suffering just by studying these. He did this for acouple of other gusets too, who were surprised by the accuracy of his descriptions. Using Sue as a guinea-pig he first tried an experiment to show how unbalanced she was. Then he placed some inserts into her shoes and the imbalance vanished and it was obvious to all, especially Neil that her posture had been corrected. We, and one of the others bought the set of inserts and Blessing said that if they didn't work out over the next few days to return them and he'd refund the money. In fact Sue went back 4 days later to say that she was astounded by how much better she was now walking, with much less pain!

That night we ate at Indochine and the food was great. We then went to a show and the singers were really good, as were the cocktails we drank afterwards.

We had a hearty breakfast, the best we'd had on any cruise and in any hotel we'd ever stayed in (maybe with the exception of the Sunday Brunch at the Hotel Makena on Maui). We spent some time around the pool before getting ready for our afternoon trip which was "Highlights of Gdansk". The ship had docked next to Westerplatte which used to house a small garrison of 200 Polish troops, On 1 September 1939 the Germans sent 4000 troops to take it, using the ruse of the people wanting Hitler to free Danzig (as Gdansk was once called). The commander of the German forces had been assured it would take only 10 minutes to conquer the area, though he thought it would take a more conservative hour ot two. The Polish troops were asked to hold out against naval and aerial bombardments and infantry assaults for 12 hours, but actually managed 1 week before their ammunition ran out. This act initiated World War II. With the 1980 Gdańsk Agreement, signed in the Gdańsk Shipyard by Lech Wałęsa, it is the birthplace of the Polish Solidarity movement, which contributed majorly to the Fall of Communism by 1989 and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.

Gdansk was great, much of it was detroyed by the end of World War II and the options for rebuilding were either to go for Russian Brutilism Architecture or to recreate the Art Nouveau building as they were before. They made the right decision. The buildings are so interesting and it was a joy to walk around the city taking our time and viewing the sights. Unfortunately the guide's English left a lot to be desired and it was difficult to make out what she was saying most of the time, but that didn't detract from the gorgeous architecture.

That night we ate at La Terrazza. We both had the most wonderful meal and Neil's steak was probably the best he'd ever eaten, you could cut it with a fork.

We docked in Klaipeda, Lithuania and after another hearty breakfast we joined the "Mystic Lithuania, Curonian Spit by Ferry" tour. Over 60% of the city was destroyed by the end of World War II and only about 50 civilians were there when the Russian red Army captured it in January 1945. A lot of the architecture is modern but there are still some interesting buildings to see. After a short walk around the city we boarded a ferry that crosses the Nemen river to the curonian spit, an elongated sand dune peninsula, 100 km long by 0.5 to 4 km wide, which dates back to prehistoric times. the lower half is actually part of the Russian enclave of Kallingrad.

We travelled down the spit to the town of Juodkrantė which is the site of Raganu Kalnas the Hill of Witches. There is a 1.5 km trail around the hill and all the way round are weird wood sculptures mostly related to witches. Between 1979 and 1981 fifty woodcraftsmen and blacksmiths created 71 sculptures. These are absolutely amazing, even when viewed with the rain pouring down as it was at the time unfortunately. To see pictures and descriptions of all of the sculptures (well worth it) see the website link above.

We then travelled further down the spit, past a cormorant "rookery" with 3,500 of the birds. Luckily the windows were closed as we've heard it tends to smell somewhat strongly of regurgitated fish! We arrived at the national park, a UN Heritage Site. The Nagliai nature reserve protects the Dead dunes. Dead (Mirusios) or Gray (Pilkosios) dunes are large sand hills built by strong winds, with ravines and erosions. There are four villages and two cemeteries that have been swallowed by the shifting sands over the years. We took a trail from the road to the cliffs overlooking the lagoon that is about 1 km long, most of which is over soft sand with inclines and declines through the dunes. Neil honestly did not believe that Sue would be able to make made the 2 km round journey, but she did. Prior to her new inserts there is no way she would have been able to do it.

Prior to dining out that evening our butler suggested some caviar and champagne wouldn't go amiss - a very good observation.

We moored in Riga at 8am and had a healthy breakfast as we were doing the "Riga by Land and Sea" tour at 9:30. Our guide for the tour was very good. he had spent some time working in the US and his english was perfectly understandable. He was very scathing about the soviet times before Latvia gained independence. His point was that communist economics do not work. Everyone was poor in those times. Doctors and engineers earned less than manual labourers and on top of that had to pay back their supposedly free tuition fees. Almost everyone drank to excess as there was nothing else to do and crime was rampant, though never reported in the state-run papers.

We had a walking tour around the town, many of the houses being similar to those we saw in Gdansk. There was one house we entered, now a small museum, where we saw the most fantastic spiral staircase. It was only when we went outside and about to move off before we saw that Neil wasn't with us. The guide couldn't find him but eventually he wandered out having attached himself to the wrong tour group and gone round the museum, which wasn't planned.

We made our way to the canal and boarded a small wooden motor boat built tin 1907. We then had a lovely trip round the harbour looking at various sites, including the Silver Spirit, before it was time to get back to our ship. This was a very pleasant way to finish the tour. We dined in The Grill this evening - the rib-eye steak was very tasty.

Tallinn is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Northern Europe. We decided to go on the "Medieval Pharmacy Tradition" tour. This started with a walking tour of the town followed by a trip to Raeapteek a pharmacy that is the oldest continuously functioning medieval pharmacy in Europe. It is famous for its house wine Claret, marzipan, tinctures, ointments, oils and herbal teas. This was fascinating. After the pharmacy we went along St Catherine's passage, though several of the workshops there were closed it being a Sunday.

We left the tour group after this and made our way up to the old town. We passed St. Olav's church and eventually found ourselves slap bang in front of the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral. A most impressive and colourful building with outstandind cuppolas. We wandered around for a bit before making our way to the shuttle bus stop. Unfortunately a small misunderstanding between Neil and Google maps meant that we ended up going about a kilometre out of our way. But still better than Glenn and Eileen who missed the stop completely and had to walk the whole way back to the ship. On arriving back at the ship we were both feeling tired out but Neil got the shock of his life when one of the Silversea staff came up to him and asked if he'd like the assistance of the wheelchair he was pushing! The last time he was in a wheelchair was when he had his hip replacement and the hospital staff insisted on pushing him the 5 metres from the hospital entrance to our car. Mind you Neil did admit that a wheelchair might come in handy after his 3 times weekly 10 km walk around our golf course.

Back in the room Neil was feeling a bit under the weather and so went to bed at about 4pm. He decided to give dinner a miss and slept until 8am the next day, so Sue had to go the La Dame restaurant on her own. Robin, the maitre d', was sorry to hear that Neil would not be accompanying her so he arranged for another lady on her own to share Sue's table. She was a golfer so they got on like a house on fire.

Today was the last full day of the cruise and we chose to go on the "Fortress Island" tour. We had a short tour of the city, including a drive-by of the Sibelius monument, which consists of more than 600 hollow steel pipes welded together in a wave-like pattern. The monument weighs 24 tonnes and measures 8.5 by 10.5 by 6.5 metres. The sculptor's aim was to capture the essence of the music of Sibelius and he has done it perfectly. Unfortunately the guide had a problem in that she could either walk or talk, but not apparently do both concurrently, so we spent a lot of time stood still. After the short tour we passed by a small market and took the ferry to Suomenlinna Island, the whole of which is a fortress garrison. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site whose history is very interesting.

When we returned via the ferry we spent some time at the market buying hats ready for one of our next cruises. We caught the shuttle bus back to the ship and Neil vanished for 15 minutes. He'd been to the Health and Fitness centre to see Blessing about getting a second pair of inserts for Sue's shoes, which would make it much easier for her to wear them in open-toed sandals. Blessing offered a discount of 40%, so Neil got a pair. We finished packing ready for disembarcation the next day. We ate in Seichin, the restaurant that features dishes based on the Japanese philosophy of using natural, seasonal flavors enhanced by classic, traditional cooking techniques utilizing the freshest possible ingredients while the chefs perform their arts at "La Table du Chef", the center stage cooking area that forms part of the dining experience.

We had our last breakfast onboard and disembarced about 9am. We were so sad to leave. The cruise had been great, the amenities fantastic and the staff just couldn't do enough for you - a wonderful holiday. We took a taxi to Bryggagartan near the Central Station which is where we were supposed to be storing our luggage for a few hours while we toured the old city (Gamla Stan). The taxi driver dropped us off at number 10 which is the address LuggageHero had given us, only to find that it wasn't a storage location. It was a building that held some company to do with Disney and a pedriatric centre. I asked at the hotel next door and they said they often got queries like ours but didn't know anything. After going up and down the street several times and starting to feel a bit of panic coming on Sue found a luggage place around the corner. However they said they were not affiliated to LuggageHero but would store our 4 cases for €20, so we gratefully took them up on their offer. After we returned home we found that LuggageHero had charged our credit card for the no-storage. We contacted them and they offered to refund us if we could provide proof we tried to leave the cases e.g. a photo. We didn't have any proof, but in the end they relented and refunded us.

We took a walk to Gamla Stan and used the SmartGuide app to point out interesting features along the way. The app was very good, it took us to the little iron boy, a statue so small that without the app we'd have missed it even had we been just a metre or so away from it. We had a nice snack in a bakery near the Nobel Prize museum and walked through Mårten Trotzigs Gränd, Stockholm's narrowest street.

After a bit more sightseeing we walked back, retrieved our cases and took the Arlanda Express direct to the airport. After some hassle printing and affixing luggage labels and trying to get through security with a boarding pass that hadn't printed correctly we finally boarded the Norwegian airlines flight direct to Larnaca. there we picked our car up from the car park and drove home. A bit of an anticlimax after all we had done and seen. A gantastic hoiday only marred by the problem with the luggage storage and that fact the a few days later we both tested positive for COVID.