Spirit of Adventure blog

What a medley of ports we have seen in the past week here on Spirit of Adventure – I think it’s fair to say that everyone is pleasantly exhausted from exploring!

Estonia, then Finland, followed by further visit to Sweden have all acted as kind destination hosts last week. And we still have some more Danish ports yet to hit…(well, not literally, I hope).

Firstly the medieval city of Tallinn is always spectacular to roam around. There is even an oldy-worldy restaurant serving bowls of bear stew as a delicacy (an obvious pit-stop for a wandering Captain, I might add).

Off we then went north to Kotka, a small ex-fortified town built by the Russians originally to protect St Petersburg. Nearby Hamina, visited by our excursions, is one of the oldest Finnish seaports and a crossroads of ancient trade routes. Its historic town centre is crammed with old timber houses – presumably posing a rather haphazard fire risk.

Next was the Finnish capital - Helsinki of course. Our berth was fairly central here which meant it was possible to walk or cycle around the city, which is always a pleasant thing to do (well, in summer anyway).

I took a bicycle and circumnavigated the city limits in the warm sunshine before stopping at one of the city’s markets with hunger pangs, for lunch. A reindeer kebab caught my eye, and was indeed a very satisfying snack. A word of warning to those unfamiliar with Helsinki’s wildlife: here exists possibly the boldest variety of seagull known to mankind and one must hold on dearly to their food in the open air should they want it all to themselves.

Visby, perched on the western side of the Swedish island of Gotland, was our next stop. Winds with drizzle served as an unusual welcome today, however the weather quickly bucked up its ideas (and presumably returned to Scotland) leaving us with an afternoon of sunshine and warmth.

Docked just a short distance away from this UNESCO World Heritage city provided fantastic opportunities for exploration as well as pure historical pleasure.

Off to Denmark tomorrow, to a funny sounding little place called Gudhjem… 

Kind Regards
Captain Kim Tanner