A Baltic Cruise

---

A Baltic Cruise

The "ferry" with 2500 people aboard, mostly Finns, was a surprise. Promptness is very important. When it is scheduled to leave at 8:15pm, it leaves. I check my watch, 8:15pm and we are speeding out of Stockholm, past hundreds of thousands of islands, all night long. We always seem to be near land as we journey 11 hours to Finland. How many islands are in the Archipelago Sea? Of course the largest is the Aland Islands forming an autonomous region that's part of Finland. But if you include all the smaller "islands" including rocks and dry land sticking out of the water, maybe 50,000, maybe 400,000. Who knows?



Our cabin, with private bath & shower is comfortable enough on Deck 6 with an ocean view. Not that there is time to sleep. There is a sauna, pool, whirlpool, nightclub, bar, disco with a live band playing Finnish pop that you can’t help but love. Many are dining well at the multiple restaurants. The Finns know how to party and live well. I force myself to go to sleep at 1:00 am. I set my clock 1 hour ahead, as we lose an hour when we hit Finland. I peer out a window and see the sun at Midnight, an image I am not likely to forget for the rest of my days.



Breakfast at 6:30am is a letdown. There’s plenty of food, but the quality is nowhere near that of land-locked accommodations. We rush to view our entry into Turku, Finland, also a letdown. Despite Turku Castle, which dates from 1280 AD, I didn’t find Turku all that medieval. Its Center Market is a greenmarket no different from its U.S. counterparts. Nokia is just 50 km from here. The handicraft museum was quaint but small potatoes.



We continue into the Finnish countryside with a visit to Hattula Church (in Hattula, of course), a 14^th century church with a bell tower separate and lower from the actual church, a practice instituted when the bell tower, the tallest building in town, was repeatedly struck by lightning, thereby burning down the church!

Over the last 100 years, Finland had lost parts of its country’s territory to the East. The Finns are a good looking, fair people, trustworthy and hard working.

Finally we arrive in Lahti, a Finnish town of 100,000 people, that’s been around since the turn of the century. Lahti, right at the Arctic Circle, looks like an American small town near an interstate highway. Not much to do, but the hotel, Hotel Salpaus, has a sauna and swimming pool, so I am entertained for the evening. To cool off, I swim 82 laps in the icy pool. I warm up in the sauna afterwards.



Breakfast the next morning is a genuine surprise. A hearty Finn must have been up at 5:30 am to set up to prepare us customized omelets. I am impressed. Breakfast is a Scandinavian feast and comforts us considerably.



The Finnish countryside is continuous forests, woods and farmhouses. All these farmhouses are painted rust red with white trim, a vestige from the days when rust was the only paint color available.



I make sure I have a good night’s sleep in Lahti to prepare for the stressful border crossing into Russia.

---

Photos

Baltic Cruise 1
Archipelago Sea, probably 50,000 "islands" if you count the smaller rocks jutting out of the water.

Baltic Cruise
Leaving Stockholm Sweden for Turku, Finland;
Archipelago Sea