We Finnish with Finland and End Our Adventure Taking Stock in Stockholm (Groan!)

Welcome back to the West!

Parliament House

Overnight we sailed from St. Petersburg and arrived in Helsinki, Finland, early the next morning. Sitting on a peninsula in the Gulf of Finland, this southern Finnish capital, like Tallinn, is the country’s most important center for politics, education, finance, culture, and research. Like other Baltic countries, Finland has a history of winning and losing wars with neighboring powers resulting in a checkered history of governance.

National Museum of Finland

About 20% (1.2 million) of Finland’s total population (5.5 million) reside in the Helsinki urban area making it the most populous area in the country. Finland, a European Union member nation, is officially bilingual with 84% Finnish speaking and 6% Swedish speaking citizens. Helsinki has consistently ranked near the top as one of the world’s most livable cities.

Sibelius Monument

Again, we had a morning shore excursion, since we were only going to be in port until mid-afternoon. We finished breakfast and started to get ready to leave the ship when it started to rain. While today’s excursion was a panoramic bus ride around the city, and the buses usually don’t leak water, the rain makes it difficult to take pictures of landmarks from inside the bus and photo stops are sloppy.

Bust of Sibelius

By the time we exited the ship it was storming. Fighting the wind and rain, we made it to our bus and escaped the weather. As we left the terminal and our guide started to tells us some Helsinki history as she pointed out various local landmarks. Unlike most of the other Baltic capitals, the Helsinki architecture is primarily neoclassical and Art Noveau grace.

Colorful Childrn's Hospital

We learned that Helsinki’s neoclassical buildings are often used as a backdrop for Soviet Union scenes in many Cold War era Hollywood movies (e.g. The Kremlin Letter, Reds, and Gorky Park). We passed the neoclassical/modernism Parliament House which seemed to conjure up some memory of a movie scene, and next passed the National Museum of Finland, with a totally different architectural style.

At the market

The rain eased just as we came to our first photo stop—The Sibelius Monument—in honor of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Dedicated in 1967, the monument received mixed reviews for its abstractness with no reference to the composer, and for representing organ pipes even though Sibelius composed no organ music.

Helsinki Cathedral

To quell the uproar, a bust of Sibelius was added later. We drove past a colorful Children’s Hospital on our way to Senate Square.
The buildings and landmarks demarcating the square represent political, religious, academic, and commercial powers in central Helsinki, and make up the oldest part of the central district—the Government Palace, Helsinki Cathedral, the main building of the University of Helsinki, and the Sederholm House which dates back to 1757.

University of Helsinki building

A statue of Russian Emperor Alexander II would seem to be contradictory, but this liberal emperor did much to increase Finland’s autonomy from Russia.

Helsinki's heavy icebreakers

We were given one hour to peruse the market that was set up in the square. Jane was able to make a few purchases until it was time to return to the bus. Leaving the central district, we followed a coastal route back to the cruise terminal. We saw some quaint coastal houses and passed by Finland’s heavy icebreaker fleet that keeps shipping lanes open in the winter.

A coastal retreat

We learned that icebreaker shipbuilding is a major industry in Helsinki.

Back at the ship we attended a Beatles/ABBA musical presentation (something for the old folks!) and had a late dinner before retiring. Tomorrow we would arrive at our last port of call, Stockholm, Sweden.

Sailing through the archipelago

Early the next morning, we picked up our pilot and entered the Stockholm Archipelago—a group of approximately 24,000 islands and inlets that extend about 37 miles east of Stockholm. A number of towns and villages are peppered throughout the group; and the island landscape is being shaped by post-glacial rebound.

It took about one and one-half hours to navigate the islands and reach the Stockholm harbor. We spotted several retreats with boats, docks, and water toys that the Swedes use for summer vacations. The islands reminded us of the 1,000 islands area in the St. Lawrence River between the U.S. and Canada.

Squeezing through the islands

We had a free morning as our shore excursion didn’t go out until 1400. Being the last day on the ship, we spent most of the morning packing our suitcases, and hoping that all of the souvenirs that Jane bought wouldn’t put us over the weight limit.

Island opposite our pier

Packing done, we had lunch and waited to meet our guide and group on the pier. This was going to be another bus tour making photo opportunities more difficult. Inside the bus, one has to focus on the subject of a shot as it whizzes by, and this often results in tuning out what the guide is saying about the subject.

Stockholm and the "Last Romantics"

Also, the picture quality almost always leaves something to be desired.

As we rode through the streets of Stockholm, we learned that Sweden’s capital is spread over 14 islands in the extensive Baltic Sea archipelago, and an extensive network of bridges and ferries are used to transit the city.   Stockholm is host to the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies.

Town Hall

Stockholm’s population is just under 1 million inhabitants, the most populous among the Nordic countries, and is Sweden’s cultural, political, and economic center.

At the Town Hall

Our first stop was the city’s oldest section, Gamal stan (Old Town), located on the original small islands of the city’s earliest settlements.  Along the way we passed several marinas (Swedes love their boats!), and were told that a significant number of people still lived on their boats, and are referred to as the “Last Romantics.”

We stopped at the Town Hall and had time for some photos. We could see the spire of the Riddarholmskyrkan, Sweden’s oldest building from the 13^th century.

In recent history, parts of Stockholm have undergone modernization, so a mix of old and new architecture exist together. This was exemplified by the modernistic building across from the Town Hall.

Modern building across Town Hall

In our opinion, this style mixing made Stockholm’s old sections less charming than some of the other cities we visited.

Spire of Riddarholmskyrkan

We passed the Stockholm Palace which was erected after a fire destroyed the original medieval castle in 1697, and we caught a glimpse of the spire of the Storkyrkan Cathedral, the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Stockholm, next to the palace. We passed the pop group ABBA museum so quickly that we couldn’t get a photo. Our whirlwind tour ended back at the cruise terminal. After boarding the ship we attended a farewell party, had dinner, organized our
bags for tomorrow’s disembarkation, and turned in.We really enjoyed our Nordic cruise and thought it to be one of the better trips we have taken.

Stockholm Palace

The next morning we were up and off to breakfast early, so we could vacate our room by 0800.

Spire of  Storkyrkan Cathedral

The problem was our flight wasn’t until 1630 and our transfer and disembarkation was scheduled for 1230. So we waited. And waited. The passengers for the reverse cruise were starting to arrive around 1100 and there was a small group of us still waiting to leave. What was irritating was that we had upgraded seats and could be spending our time in the airline lounge instead of one of the ship’s public areas. We did get one last lunch from the cruise line, before finally departing.

Streetshot of Stockholm

Baroque Stockholm building

At 1230 our bus arrived and we rode about 50 minutes to the airport. After checking in, we waited at the gate and perused the adjacent shopping mall. Our flight finally started boarding. We were on a non-stop flight from Stockholm to Chicago and left on time. Arriving in Chicago, we cleared immigration, retrieved our bags, and breezed through customs, re-checked our bags, and checked in for our flight to New Orleans (Global Entry is so nice!). As we boarded our plane, we were thinking that this was going to be one of the smoothest flights “across the pond” that we had experienced.

A view of Stockholm

We departed about 20 minutes late, but still expected to arrive in New Orleans before midnight and home by 0100. After our 2-hour-10- minute flight the captain came on the intercom and told us we were in a holding pattern over New Orleans. Seems a storm cell was parked over the city that was preventing us from landing.

Another of Stockholm's islands

The captain mentioned that if this pattern lasted much long, we may have to return to Baton Rouge to refuel. Capt. Larry looked at his watch and realized that we were on time given the 20 minute delay in our departure. Ten minutes later the captain apologized and said we would be returning to Baton Rouge to refuel. We landed and waited on the tarmac, while a fuel truck got a load of fuel to bring out to us. There was another plane waiting in the same condition. We found it not very encouraging that these planes fly from stop to stop with apparently less than a one-half hour’s fuel reserve.

Södermalm district

We made it back to New Orleans, got our baggage, and made it home by 0300. We were just glad it was over!