Northern Europe and the Baltic Capitals Cruise Travel Journal

We left St. Petersburg in the late afternoon and sailed for Helsinki. However, our luck with the weather ran out. We had had 14 days of perfect weather--sunny and between 65 and 75 degrees. Even normally gray St. Petersburg was gloriously sunny. As we left the Neva River and got into the Gulf of Finland, we picked up a very strong tail wind. The wind was so strong the next morning that Helsinki closed their port, so we had another sea day.

I don't think I heard a single complaint about the change in plans. The weather had been so spectacular that missing one port was a worthy exchange.

Since we didn't get to port into Helsinki, we arrived a couple of hours early in Stockholm. We thoroughly enjoyed sailing up the fjord into Stockholm. The fjord was filled with small cabins and boats. We entered the fjord about 6 am, cruised for 4 hours and arrived in Stockholm at 10 am. Stockholm was our final port of call on this cruise to the "Jewels of the Baltic".

Stockholm is famous for its waterways, and it is the home of 53 bridges! Some locals even fish for salmon right in the center of the city, thanks to a decree from Queen Christina. The city of over 1 million people stands on 14 islands in Lake Mälaren, with islets stretching all the way to the Baltic sea. The city was founded more than seven hundred years ago, but did not become the capital of Sweden until the middle of the 17th century.

The old city of Stockholm dates back to the 13th century, and it and the ancient Royal Warship the Vasa are the two biggest attractions of the city. We managed to do both on our day in the city.

More on Stockholm, Sweden

• Stockholm City Hall Photo Gallery
• Stockholm Ice Bar
• Vasa Museum, Skansen Open Air Museum, and Nordic Museum
• Stockholm Photo Gallery
• Stockholm's Gamla Stan (Old Town) Tour

The next day, we left Stockholm at noon to fly non-stop to JFK Airport in New York. We were supposed to have a long layover (4-5 hours) in New York, but our flight was on time and we zipped through customs. I checked the departure schedule and Delta had an earlier flight to Atlanta. Luckily we got onto the flight, but after pushing back from the gate, the plane sat on the runway in New York for over an hour because of bad weather between New York and Atlanta. We still got home almost 2 hours earlier that we expected. What a nice ending to a wonderful cruise to northern Europe. I highly recommend this part of the world as a summertime cruise destination.