Baltic Bliss

Kalmar is well known for Swedish crystal, handmade in one of the 15 glassworks in the Kingdom of Crystal, among which Orrefors and Kosta Boda are the most prominent. In Orrefors factory shop, purchase (tax free) firsts and seconds from the Orrefors collection and watch master craftsmen in action as they create crystal masterpieces right in front of you.

Poland also offers crystal. Cruise passengers will want to make for Swietojanska Street, Gdnyia’s main shopping street, for a selection of crystal in shops and galleries.

The Baltic Cruising Region is rich with castles and royal palaces. Visitors can still see the changing of the guard in Copenhagen’s Amalienborg Palace, residence of Queen (changing of the guard daily at noon); and in Stockholm, where the main guard has been at Kungliga Slottet since 1523. Today, military units and bands from all over the Sweden participate.
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Tallinn’s Old Town is lined with dozens of souvenir, antique and specialty stores, not to mention clothing and footwear. Within Old Town, the main shopping streets are Viru, Müürivahe, Suur-Karja, Vaike-Karja and Kullassepa.

Kalmar’s picturesque 17th and 18th century stone buildings offer a wide range of shopping. Almost all streets in the shopping area are walking streets, with Storgatan and Kaggensgatan being the main ones.

Find Swedish handicraft such as woodwork, pottery, jewelry and textile craft as well as Swedish and international delicacies at Gerdas Te & Kaffehandel. Souvenirs from Kalmar can be found at the Tourist Information Center, Kalmar Castle and Kalmar County Museum.

Maritime and ship museums are a part of the living history in the sea-faring nations of the Baltic Cruising Region. Visitors enthralled by Stockholm’s Vasa Museum (pictured) will also want to see Oslo’s ship museums: The Polarship Fram Museum, featuring the entire original Arctic exploration ship FRAM, built in 1892, exhibited with its original interior and objects; Kon-Tiki Museum, containing the original vessel and objects from Thor Heyerdahl’s many exhibitions, including famous Kon-Tiki raft from 1947 and the papyrus raft RA II from 1970; and The Viking Ship Museum, featuring the restored Oseberg, Gokstad and Tune ships as well as other findings from royal burial mounds around the Oslo Fjord.

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One of Sweden’s oldest cities, Kalmar’s port activities date back more than 1,000 years. In the Middle Ages, the port played an important role with its strategic location on the Kalmarsund trade route. Trade with the Hanseatic League was robust, imbuing Kalmar with Germanic atmosphere.

The Port of Kalmar is situated in a sheltered position, adjacent to the shipping lane in Kalmar Sound. The port can be approached from either north or south. On the northern approach cruise passengers see Borgholm Castle before passing under Öland’s bridge – one of the longest bridges in Europe. Arriving from the south, Kalmar Castle (pictured) greets cruise passengers.

Smaller and medium sized cruise ships moor at the quay in the middle of the town, while larger cruise ships anchor just south of the port and must tender passengers ashore. The quay and tender landing are situated within walking distance to shops and cafés. Walking distance to the Old Town, Kalmar Castle and the town park is ten minutes.

Kalmar is situated in the county of Småland, in southeastern Sweden. One port, three destinations (Kalmar, Öland and Orrefors), Kalmar offers visitors a rich historical heritage as well as world-class art and design, including handmade Swedish crystal from Orrefors Glassworks. The southern part of Öland (pictured) is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Excursions include Orrefors Glass Museum & Exhibition Hall, where visitors enjoy watching craftsmen transform glowing melt into crystal masterpieces and have the chance to purchase crystal products in the tax-free shop; Himmelsberga Museum, an Öland village preserved as a folklore museum; Paradisverkstaden, a ceramics center; Vida Museum; Borgholm Castle; Palace of Solliden, an Italian-style white palace, built by Queen Victoria of Sweden in 1903-06, still used as a summer residence by the Swedish Royal Family; the Village of Eketorp, an ancient settlement that has been reconstructed within the original ring wall; and Ottenby, on the south of the island of Öland, one of the top areas for bird watching in Sweden (Visit the tourist exhibition center Ottenby Naturum to learn more about the wildlife and culture of the area.)

Take your desktop globe for a spin or pull out your atlas and cast your eyes on Europe. Look north, not south, to find the cruising region known as the Baltics.

Even experienced travelers sometimes confuse the Baltic with the Balkans. The two regions could not be more different. The Balkans fought long and drawn-out wars for most of the 1990s, The Baltics, on the other hand, remained peaceful, stable, safe and clean — just as they are today.

One of the world’s most popular and fastest-growing cruise destinations, the Baltic cruising region refers to the Baltic Sea, which stretches from southern Denmark to near the Arctic Circle. Along its shores are some of the world’s most fabled cities — Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, to name a few. All share a common climate, with the cruise season running from May through September, and a common history.

Cruise passengers set foot in lands once inhabited by kings and queens (who still exist in some of the Baltic countries), of Viking warriors and German merchants, of Tsars and seafaring wanderers. In many cities visitors see reminders of a time long ago: medieval town walls, cobblestone streets, castles, palaces and museums that house age-old artifacts.

The past decades have brought great change in the Baltics. Former Soviet-bloc countries in the Baltic region now embrace cruise passengers, and even though English is typically spoken as a second language in many of the port destinations, cruise passengers will hear a variety of tongues spoken as they stroll city streets.

Copenhagen and Stockholm, the Baltic Cruising Region’s primary turnaround ports (where most cruises begin or end), not only are conveniently connected to the rest of the world but also conveniently connected between the airports and the city centers and cruise terminals. Infrastructure is among the best in the world, and Copenhagen boasts not only the world’s best airport (according to one survey of travelers) but also Europe’s cheapest and fastest airport-to-city-center connections.

You might say that with all that is has going for it, the Baltics were “tailor-made for cruises.” Cruise passengers certainly think so. Year after year, they return in record numbers to cruise one of the world’s greatest destinations.