Cruising?

Stockholm (Sweden) to Tallinn (Estonia)

At 5:30pm we were taking an overnight ferry to Estonia, meaning we still had almost a full day left in Stockholm, so we decided to have a second try at a walking tour of the old town (Gamla Stan). We were a little concerned that we'd hear some stories for the third time (for example, we'd already heard two versions of how the current princess had married her personal trainer), but we realised we hadn't really seen the old town properly and today was our last chance.

This tour was a marked improvement over the one we'd left yesterday, even though the good weather had disappeared and we were walking in the rain and cold for much of it. Our tour finished just as some sort of military horse procession was beginning, it was interesting but also seemed quite an antiquated tradition given how modern the rest of Sweden appeared to be.    

When it was time we took a train to the ferry port to board the Baltic Queen for our overnight trip to Tallinn, Estonia. We didn’t need to use maps to find our way, as once we left the train we just followed all the people with luggage to the ship.

Not being cruise people this was definitely the biggest ship we’ve been on, and were a little concerned it wasn't for us, however we justified it by saying this was a "ferry trip" and not a "cruise". We aren't fans at all of cruise ships and the way they flood towns with hordes of day trippers then suck them all back at the end of the day, getting in the way of "real" travellers like us!  

We had booked a nice cabin with a double bed and a port hole, we were about an hour early for the 5:30pm departure so we settled in on an outside deck with a drink while waiting to set sail. 

This trip was an unexpected delight. Sweden is made up of about 270,000 islands and we probably passed by hundreds of them on our way out to the Baltic Sea. The water was like glass and the weather had cleared, so we were enjoying a beautiful cruise on idyllic waters, passing by pretty islands with all types and sizes of houses on them. 

We checked out each floor (deck) of the ship, we really are cruise naïve as we were amazed by how big the ship was, all the different sections, how many restaurants, shops and people there were (we later learnt that there were 2,300 people on board, and that the ship wasn't full!).

We had a lovely dinner in one of the restaurants, watching the islands slip by. We were served by a friendly Estonian lady with fabulous English who said that she learnt it from watching television, with one of her favourite shows being "Home and Away". We of course said we had never watched it and she offered to sing the theme song for us!