A cruise doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the blog does it? It’s not the budget-friendly travel we usually talk about. Well, our grandparents hoped to join us on the trip at some point, but they weren’t up for backpacking, so we found a wonderful cruise that let them take it easy, as well as let us all see many cities along the Baltic Sea. It ended up being a really great way to relax, to not think about how to get food and shelter, and begin to process the trip while we were approaching the end of our journey. Not only that, but we kids got to hang out with other kids our age from all over the world!

Copenhagen, Denmark

We embarked on the cruise from Copenhagen, but first had a couple of days there to check out the city. Soon after we arrived in the city, we were reunited with my grandparents with lots of hugs and some decent Turkish food, then parted ways for the evening to let them recover from their jet-lag. The next day, we went on the wonderful free city walking tour, listening to jokes about the Swedes and learning about the history of the city. The tour ended at a market that served Danish open-faced sandwiches, ice cream, and coffee which were all delicious.

Those who were tired, went back to our hostel, others took a canal boat tour of the city, and Dad and I went to the King’s Garden to learn more about the city bees, go in the butterfly garden and just enjoy walking around in the heavenly weather. That evening, we ate hearty salads and went on a few rides at beautiful Tivoli Gardens (a park that opened in 1843). The environment of the park is really cool, there were many families out, some just walking around and some enjoying the rides.

We boarded the cruise ship for the first time on the following day. This ship is one of the few at the moment to use the medallion system (you wear it on a lanyard and use it to get into your room, pay, track each other). Thankfully, my grandparents ordered ours ahead of time which made check-in an extremely painless process. Our first evening on the cruise was full of curiosity, lots of buffet food, and trying to find other kids (this cruise was angled more towards the baby boomers) .

Nynashamn, Sweden

We did our first Hop on Hop Off tour in the port city of Nynashamn. We decided not to take the excursion to Stockholm and just enjoy this small town. We went to a chocolate shop where we tasted decadent truffles with unique flavors. In fact, this shop provides the chocolates for the annual Nobel Prize award dinner ceremony. For lunch we found Nynas Rokeri and Fiskhall, a delicious smoked fish house right on the water. As it began to rain, we headed for the 60s and 70s museum which my grandfather was really looking forward to. A worker let us in even though it was closed that day! The museum was full of shelves and shelves of plastic Tupperware, antique motorcycles, mannequins dressed in bell bottoms, and games from that time period.

Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki was a smaller city compared to others that we would visit on this cruise, which made it more appealing for our travel-weary family. We took the Hop on Hop off bus, with much success. We ate lunch at a healthy cafe with friendly staff off the main tourist track, walked around the interesting Rock Church, went inside the Helsinki Cathedral which had a style that I hadn’t seen before, the neoclassical style. I found the minimalist colors and designs with slight flourishes along the edges quite appealing compared to the romantic style we had seen in the rest of Europe. We would return to Helsinki later after the cruise and discover even more wonderful things–it’s a great city!

St. Petersburg, Russia

Russia is one country we never thought we would go to on this trip. The visa process is intimidating, lengthy and expensive. But, you tell us if we take an excursion with the  cruise that they’ll handle everything? Great, we’re in! The first morning, the cruise ship was already practically empty. Most of the passengers had headed off at the crack of dawn to Moscow (which is like 8 hours away?!) for the day, but we stayed in the port city St. Petersburg. After getting through customs with all family members accounted for, we met with our private driver and tour guide. Our guide told us that we were there in St. Petersburg two out of the 60 days of sunshine they get every year! She avoided politics, but stated that in the Soviet times, people had money, but there was nothing in the stores. She said today is the opposite. We also saw one of the few remaining statues of Lenin, a Tartar Temple, and sampled Russian vodka at a souvenir shop. Because of that, there were people laid out on every available patch of grass sunbathing. After visiting more beautiful churches with similar design to the one we saw in Helsinki, seeing the formidable yet gorgeous Church of Spilled Blood, and learning lots about the city, we were dropped back off at the cruise ship. 

On our second day in St. Petersburg, a bus tour arranged by the cruise took us around. Hearing similar historical facts in a different way from the day before helped us really understand some of the history of St. Petersburg. It was interesting to hear a different tour guide’s perspective. Included with the bus tour was a boat tour through the canals in the St. Petersburg which was a nice way to see the city from a different perspective.

Tallinn, Estonia

A hot and sunny day welcomed us to Estonia. Once again, a Hop on Hop off bus toured us around the walled city of Tallinn. Hop on Hop offs are financially reasonable ways for 8 people to see a lot of the city without walking all over creation! The cobble stone streets and cute houses reminded us of Rothenburg, Germany. Because of Rick Steve’s podcast on Estonia, we were interested in trying a regional dish, garlic-y fried rye bread served with a dipping sauce. It’s very heavy but tasty and we found versions of it in other countries later in our travels. We kids spotted signs for a medieval torture museum and some strange curiosity in us drew is in– which we immediately regretted–too gruesome, thank you very much!

Warnemunde, Germany

I wasn’t feeling well, so Dad and I stayed on the cruise ship all morning while the rest of the family went to Rostock by train. In particular, they wanted to see the famous astrological clock in an old church. Meanwhile, after my long nap, I felt much better so Dad and I went out to the seaside town of Warnemunde. The sunlight was so warm, music was playing, families were out. It was a simple, perfect afternoon. We just walked around the cute town, enjoyed a refreshing beer and ice-cream with freshly picked strawberries and whipped cream. Everything just tasted fresh and fantastic. The afternoon was made even better when the store owner warmed up to us after he found out we wanted to practice our German. He was genuinely surprised to learn that we were Americans who spoke German so well. We talked quite a bit until he had to close up shop (it’s 5 o’clock! Time for all the shops to close).

Oslo, Norway

We only had a half a day in Oslo, so we took a ferry from our port over to see the Viking Ship Museum and the Kon-Tiki Museum. It was cool to see the full Viking ships, which had been buried in clay as a grave and therefore preserved for almost a thousand years. On display are three ships as well as many artifacts. My parents had read the book about Thor Heyerdahl’s epic 1947 voyage on the papyrus raft, the Kon-tiki, and were especially excited to see the real thing.

On Board

With a ship full of 3,000 guests, it was rare to see the same person twice, but there was always plenty to do. Kids/teen clubs, music trivia nights, karaoke, live entertainment (we got to meet the magician Zee Zeus and the singer from London’s Lion King, Phillip Browne, pictured below), photography class–we did it all, and we did make some friends we’ll be staying in touch with. It was the kids’ first time in months doing normal kid things and getting some freedom. It was also the first time in nine months the six of us weren’t within a few feet of each other for the whole day. It was a good break for us!

We learned that visiting countries from a cruise ship is kind of like a teaser, a taste test. You don’t get the full experience of understanding of the culture or traditions. You may get all the top bucket list items checked off but you can’t dig deeper and find out what the locals do for fun, not just the tourists. However, it was a great way for us to relax, let the planning be done by someone else and just chill, get pampered for over a week. And we created some wonderful memories with my grandparents.

Next up–Lithuania!