Baltic mini-cruise (Stockholm and Tallinn) - Part 2

I don't apologize for my travel preferences, I do spend a lot of my travels sitting in cafes, drinking coffee 

Coffee and delicious muffin in Stockholm

and watching the locals get on with their daily lives. It fascinates me and yes I also love to travel on ships, this trip on the Baltic has not put me off, I may not travel Tallink again but I will travel on the Baltic, the sea and the cities around it are too interesting and beautiful to avoid.

A day in Tallinn is probably all you need. The city has two distinct areas, the lovely old quarter which is well preserved, cobbled streets and pretty (but be warned, cobbles are dangerous when wet). The old quarter is easy to navigate if you have a map, I asked directions from a few locals and they all shrugged. I found my way around eventually and explored. The new part of the city is strange, lots of modern buildings, shopping centres and new hotels but not many people around and not a lot of character. The shopping centre was ok and the local department store was better value than the tacky tourist shops in the old quarter.

I am not sure what the cost of living and standard of living comparisons say about Tallinn and the rest of Estonia but it seemed a lot cheaper than Stockholm and the ferry and the city had lots of modern roads and new cars and there were no beggars on the streets etc.

It rained most of the time I spent in Tallinn so I headed back to the ferry after 5 hours of wandering as I was just looking at old buildings and tempted to buy things I didn't need.  I did have to buy something in the old quarter of course. My two nieces are big fans of these Russian Dolls that my mam owns, so they now have one each.

And so we headed back to Stockholm.  I arrived back in Stockholm the following morning and the journey from the open sea through the archipelago is beautiful!My photos below barely do it justice!

The Stockholm Archipelago

Viking Line ferry waiting to pass us

Sunrise over the archipelago

A little car ferry crossing the archipelego

Stockholm is a beautiful city and yes it is expensive, I knew it would be and budgeted for that,  I lucked out with the weather, warm and sunny the whole time I was there so I ditched my coat and wandered around, got lost on one of the islands, Skeppsholmen, when I should have been on Djurgården. The island was not the location of the Vasa Museum but I did find a street food fair taking place so had my lunch their before walking to the other island, the correct one.

Food market on Skeppsholmen

I finally made it over the Vasa Museum on Djurgården and it is so impressive. To compare the Vasa to the Mary Rose is like comparing a house to a pile of lego pieces.  Mary Rose is impressive but Vasa is 98% intact, a 17th century warship and the museum contains many of the artifacts found around the wreck. 

The ship is impressive.  It is now the most visited museum in Sweden and understandably so. After a few hours here I walked back to the very centre of Stockholm around Norrmalm and the location of my hotel, the city's central station and most of its biggest stores (Ahlens and NK). 

Gamla Stan (Old Town)

My visit to Stockholm was brief and I am keen to go again, I only saw a small part of the centre and what I saw impressed me. Continuing the nautical theme of my trip, I had dinner on a boat on the Sunday night. Friends who live in the city took me to a boat named "Patricia" for dinner and the walk 

to the boat, the views and the dinner were all lovely. As I missed the chance to visit the ABBA Museum this time, I am sure to be back. And here is the song they played in Patricia that reminds me of this visit, Petra Marklund (September) Händerna mot himlen:

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To travel is to live - Hans Christian Anderson!

September 27, 2015