A few photos of Helsinki.
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Just a few photos from St Petersburg
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A few photos of Tallinn, Estonia.
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A few photos from our stop in Warnemunde, Germany.
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Here’s a few photos from Copenhagen.
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We knew going in that Stockholm presented challenges to cruise passengers. The chief problem was lack of reliable information regarding how to get from the dock to the city. We heard all sorts of inconsistent things. The most conservative version was that you must take the public transport system, which accepts only Swedish coins, and there is no place to get Swedish coins.

All this was made worse by our schedule: we arrived at 7 a.m., long before businesses are open, and we had to be back on board by 3:30.
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Let’s see, it’s Wednesday, so this must be Finland.
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I don’t know a better expression to describe Russia than “messed up.” This country is just messed up.
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We stepped ashore in Estonia, about which I confess I knew nothing except that it’s generally spoken in the same sentence with Lithuania and Latvia. The capital, Tallinn, thoughtfully features an Old City with your standard Hanseatic stone buildings and cobbled streets. It’s lovely. With our Rick Steves guide book we strolled through the streets, up the steep lane into the upper town, and back down to the main town square.

Everywhere we were greeted by smiling, charming Estonian girls wanting to sell us post cards and trinkets. They were ever so pretty, and ever so pleasant.

Hoist the mizzenmast! Unfurl the yardarms! Throw a half-hitch round that feldspar! Reef the fantail! Lower the bilge!

Ah, this is sailing as it was meant to be: on a colossal luxury liner through seas as flat as glass.

Today the compass points north-northeast as we sail from Germany to Estonia. Mal de mer? Bah! Landlubbers! Now that I have me sea legs I can step lively around the ship, finally learning the locations of all the restaurants Danby has been guiding me to.

For the first time I saw the sun set over the ocean. I watched for the elusive green flash, and think I saw it. A patch of sky turned green at any rate.

Our cabin number is 10011, which is perfectly appropriate for a computer guy. (That’s 19 in binary.)

Tonight we danced a bit as the band played Glenn Miller tunes.

Tomorrow it’s up bright and early and we begin a five-day stretch of the remaining cities on our tour.