Parthemores in Poland

Now that we’re finally home after several weeks of traveling (and about to leave again), it’s time to catch up on the blog.  I call this “just in time” blogging :)

In mid-July, Eric’s parents came to visit, but instead of coming to Poznań, we met them in Stockholm.  For this trip, we rounded out their Baltic adventures by visiting Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Sweden.  Most of our traveling was on the ferry lines, which worked out really well. 

In fact, the first thing we did after meeting them in Stockholm was get on the ferry to Tallinn.  This gave us the opportunity to see the Swedish coastline up close and to check out all the cute little houses. 

The ferries had multiple restaurants, stores, bars, a theater and even a casino.  On one boat, it appeared that the casino also served as the children’s playroom.

(I’m not sure if you can read the sign, but it states in three languages that children under 18 are not allowed in the casino.  This little boy wasn’t the only offender.  I counted more kids than adults at one point.)

We spent two nights in Tallinn, Estonia, which is a well-preserved medieval town that was once part of the Hanseatic league.  They like to play this up quite a bit, and many of the restaurants and museums feature people in costumes.  It was kind of Disneyworld-ish at times.  Here’s the main square with the market vendors selling all kinds of souvenirs and baked goods:

Around the city, there is still a lot of the old wall still remaining. 

Later, we took a walk along the top of one section.

We also check out the naval mine museum, which had all sorts of (hopefully) disarmed mines from several different countries.  The tour guide was this old guy who knew just enough English to give us the basics.  He would stand in front of the mine and say something like, “German.  Second War,” and then rap on it with his pointer and make the explosion noise.  One of them was very deformed, because “parachute no open.” 

One of the more popular souvenirs was anything made of wool:  hats, mittens, sweaters, socks.  It was funny to see people trying on sweaters in the 90 degree heat.  You can see some of the selection behind me.

On our way to Helsinki, we saw the boat from our cruise last year pulling into port.  Tallinn is a popular cruise ship and we saw tours from several different boats during our two-day visit.

We quickly learned the following about Helsinki:  it is not a major vacation destination.  It was a nice city and I really wouldn’t mind living there.  Just don’t make it the focal point of your European vacation. 

We naturally checked out Helsinki’s #1 Tourist Attraction, the Suomenlinna Fortress.  The southern part of this island complex was used for coastal defense, and it still has a bunch of the old coastal artillery, along with the ammunition bunkers. 

It is also the home of the Finnish Naval Academy.  These prohibitive signs prevented us from making any comparisons with the US version:

The island was pretty neat, but it happened to be very cold and windy that day.  I really wished I had bought a wool sweater in Estonia.

The culinary highlight of the trip was the salmon soup.  Eric and I also had reindeer, but it kind of tasted like a kebab.

After another ferry ride and a few hours in the car, we arrived in Riga, Latvia.  We all agreed that Riga was a beautiful city, especially all the splendid Art Nouveau buildings.

Here’s another travel tip:  Don’t go to Riga on a Monday.  Absolutely everything (minus the restaurants) is closed.  Fortunately, there’s still plenty of cool stuff to see:

The last leg of our trip was to the uber-expensive city of Stockholm.  Based on a friend’s suggestion, our first stop was the Vasa Museum, which turned out to be awesome.  (Thanks, Paul!)

This giant warship sank in 1628, after sailing less than a mile.  The icy-cold and brackish waters of the Stockholm harbor preserved it until 1961, when it was finally hoisted to the surface and had a museum built around it.  The museum not only features the ship, but information about the preservation and the various other items that were salvaged from the wreck. 

(Here is their website if you want to check it out.  The large, dark interiors + puny flash = our photos not coming out so well.)  We highly recommend this museum, but be prepared to stand in line for tickets.

Our second day was mostly spent wandering around the city.  We also visited the Royal Castle, where we toured the royal apartments, the treasury, and watched the changing of the guard. 

Some interesting facts: 

1) The military band that played at the changing of the guard ceremony included an ABBA song in their repertoire. 

2) One of the rooms in the palace was refurbished with modern Swedish furniture as a gift to the king, to celebrate some anniversary of his coronation.  I’m gonna guess they went with high-end stuff, but it was really hard to tell it wasn’t from IKEA.

(Admit it, when you hear “Sweden,” you immediately think “ABBA,” “IKEA” and “Volvo.”  Bonus points for “Swedish Chef.”)

Other funny story:  When I was checking in for one of the ferries, the Latvian cashier double checked our names by saying “Ann, Eric, Kay…and one more Eric.” 

So here are Eric and One More Eric with their boat, the Saint Eric.