Portugal, Spain and Baltic Cruise: Baltic Cruise

Wednesday 1st August was a travel day - flying out of Funchal (Madeira) to Zurich then dashing through the airport to connect with another plane to Stockholm. We arrived at the hotel after 8pm but soon were able to locate our 6 travelling companions in the lounge & joined them for awhile.

On Thursday afternoon we were picked up by APT and taken on a tour of Stockholm before being taken to the ship. Part of the tour included a visit to the Wasa ship - 17th century ship that sunk 20 mins after setting sail. We had seen this last year and the others had seen it the day before (from our recommendation) but we enjoyed another quick look at it. We also did a walk around the old city and enjoyed a light lunch there while listening to a classical pianist play in front of the cafe.

Finally we settled on the ship - no more packing and unpacking suitcases for 2 weeks! Jim & Fi, Anne Susie & dad & I are in cabins on the lowest deck. Jim is boasting because they have 4 portholes in their cabin and we, Anne & Susie only have 3! John & Jenny are on a higher deck and have a large window. Jim & Fi are appropriately next to the ship's hospital. Last night at the Captain's dinner we met the ship's doctor - a stern looking Russian called Vladimir - think we will try not get sick!!

Thursday we docked at Mariehamn which is the capital of Åland, an autonomous group of islands under Finnish sovereignty who actually identify more with Sweden & speak Swedish. We enjoyed a guided tour of the island and in the afternoon had a special trip on the Zodiacs (rubber dinghies) of some of the waterways.

We set sail in the evening again and arrived in Turku - on the Finnish mainland - at 7.30am on Friday. Turku was the former capital of Finland but when the country was under Russian rule, they moved the capital to Helsinki (in 1812) to be closer to Russia than Turku which is closer to Sweden. Once again we had a tour of the city, Lutheran Cathedral and Turku Castle which has a history going back to 1280's and then a lovely afternoon spent at the botanic gardens and a forest walk along the water's edge looking at some of the big summer houses built there.

What I found interesting is the connection between Hungary, Estonia, Finland and Lapland. Apparently they were originally all settled by the same tribes and have considerable similarities in their language and genetics. This differs quite a lot from the Germanic languages. The Finns believe in being very prompt, obeying the rules and seem to work fairly hard. They say they have a policeman in their head who tells them not to cross the road unless it's a green light! That sounds like me too!