Baltic Bliss

Countries bordering the Baltic Sea Region offer varied shopping venues. Many of the town and city shopping areas, for example, are for pedestrians only, and shoppers may browse at their leisure while strolling along wide streets free of traffic. Other cities offer shopping within well-preserved medieval walls and along charming cobblestone streets in the old sections of town. Continue Reading »

During the past few decades the number of St. Petersburg shops, supermarkets and commercial centers increased dramatically. Shops tend to gravitate to Nevski Prospect, including Gostiny Dvor, a department store; Passage, across the street from Gostiny Dvor, for clothing, footwear, utensils, electronics and perfumes.

When in St. Petersburg, be sure to take time to walk along Nevsky Prospect. The famed street is to St. Petersburg what the Champs Elysses is to Paris, or Broadway to New York. Ask your guide to take you to a cafe for a coffee, Russian beer or Soviet champagne (technically, sparkling wine). “Walk along Nevsky Prospect, have a cup of coffee, watch people pass by, and you understand all of Russia,” says Timophey Beliaev, of the Corinthia Nevaskij Palace Hotel, situated on Nevsky Prospect. Continue Reading »

In the Baltic Sea Region, visitors will find refined city lifestyles and rural country charm. From opera and ballet in St. Petersburg to open-air museums presenting farm and peasant life, the Baltics spans the gamut of cultural offerings.

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Within walking distance of Stockholm’s Vasa Museum is the world’s oldest open-air museum, Skansen, featuring a zoo with wild and domestic Nordic animals, and 150 cultural and historic buildings from throughout Sweden. Skansen, more than 100 years old, is a large living heritage exhibit well worth a visit.

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Enjoy live performances throughout the Baltic Cruising region. St. Petersburg may well be the most popular performance port. It is a city full of theaters. The Mariinsky Theater (formerly the Kirov Academic Opera and Ballet Theater) is one of Russia’s largest and oldest music theaters, famous the world over for opera and ballet.

The great Swedish film and theater director Ingmar Bergman began his career as a director at Malmo’s opera house, opened in 1944. Today, the opera house presents opera and musicals.

Riga’s National Opera dates back to the 18th century when the first musical performances were staged in the Duchy of Kurzeme. In 1760, traveling opera troupes began performing regularly in Riga.

Copenhagen’s Opera House ranks among the world’s most modern. The main stage of the opera seats an audience of approximately 1400, and Takkelloftet, the experimental stage, seats an audience of 200.

Founded by Peter the Great in 1703, St. Petersburg is situated at the mouth of the Neva River. The city became one of Russia’s largest cruise ship ports and the country’s only gateway to the Baltic Sea, which is why St. Petersburg is called the Marine Capital of Russia. The city is characterized by so many rivers and canals that St. Petersburg often is called the Venice of the North.

Ships pass forts, cathedrals, palaces and other attractions on the transit to the berth in the center of the city.

Situated on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, in the estuary of the Neva River and on the islands of the Neva Delta, St. Petersburg is the world’s largest megapolis situated so far north.

One of the younger cities in the Baltic region, Russia’s second largest city is just over 300 years old (founded in 1703). During its history, St. Petersburg accumulated all the grandeur of the Russian Imperial Court.

Located on 44 islands formed by the Neva River and 90 more rivers and canals. St. Petersburg is known as the Venice of the North.

Because many cruise ships overnight (some for two nights) in St. Petersburg, excursions often include overland adventures and flights to Moscow — the capital of Russia — and other destinations.

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.

Finding Bliss in the Baltic

SOMEWHERE IN THE BALTIC SEA, July 1 — It is near midnight, or at least that it is what my watch tells me. The sun and sky suggest otherwise. The bright orange orb hovers over the watery horizon, casting a reddish-yellow glow on a cloudless sky.

My (then) wife and I stand on our stateroom balcony waiting for the sun to dip below the horizon. Our body clocks are out of sync, six times zones east of our home (we’ll lose two more hours as the clock moves forward one hour on each of the first two nights of our cruise from Copenhagen).

The sun seems that it will never set, even as the clock ticks — and ticks.

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If you’re planning a cruise in the Baltic Sea, you’re likely old enough to remember such events as the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), U.S. President Ronald Reagan and congressional conservatives characterizing Russia as the Evil Empire (1982) and the Cold War, which lasted until late 1991. Thus, visiting St. Petersburg for the first time may hold a mix of emotions for you — the intrigue of seeing one of the world’s greatest cities combined with apprehension of visiting a former enemy state.

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