August 13, 2026–Scandinavian Serenade, Part 4:  Liepaja, Latvia to Visiby, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia

We are still hopping around from one country to another in the Baltic Sea.  On Monday it was Liepaja, Latvia, Tuesday it was Visiby, Sweden, and yesterday it was Helsinki, Finland.  Today, Tallinn, Estonia.

Latvia is one of the Eastern European countries that a lot of us didn’t study in high school or college history because it was part of the USSR until 1991.  Stalin’s Soviet Red Army occupied it from 1940-1941, then the Nazis from 1941-1944.  After the war, the Soviets reoccupied the country from 1944 until 1991, which is when the USSR collapsed and Latvia became an independent democracy.  

While we were in Latvia we went on a tour of the Karosta Prison and the city.  The Karosta prison was a creepy place and I could not wait to get out of there.  Dark, windowless, dank and claustrophobic.  It was used as a military prison for Tsarist Russia in the early 1900’s, by the Soviets during The Stalin Era and Cold War, and by the Nazis during WWII.  Some five thousand prisoners were tortured and executed there.  I hated the place.  Strangely enough, you can book an immersive “hotel” experience at Karosta Prison which includes spending the night in a former jail cell and being treated like a prisoner by actors dressed up as Soviet era military guards.  And I mean being interrogated, sleeping on an iron bunk bed or a bare bench, and enduring disruptive bed checks throughout the nine hours you are locked in your concrete cell.  With just a shared latrine and no TV, WiFi, or showers.  Sign me up!

So far, we haven’t seen much of Sweden.  In my last post I mentioned that it was too rainy and windy for a boat ride in the harbor of Lysekil, Sweden.  And Tuesday morning when arrived in Visiby, Sweden the weather was even worse.  We were at port, but the ship was being hit by so much wind and wave action that we were only there about thirty minutes when the captain came on and said it wasn’t safe to stay.  So, instead we had an unexciting day at sea.

Helsinki is on the Gulf of Finland, so yesterday our tour was a ferry ride around the harbor area.  It’s a beautiful place, but even in August it is windy and cool.  Finland is considered the coldest Nordic country, so I cannot imagine enduring winters there. Absolutely gorgeous place, though.

One thing that fascinated me in Helsinki were the icebreakers, which are basically ships that plow channels through the ice in the harbors to keep shipping lanes open in the long winters.  They are also used for research and rescue in arctic areas. Finland is the world leader in icebreaker manufacturing, having built 60% of all icebreakers in the world and designed 80% of them.  

Last night we went up on the pool deck to watch the solar eclipse. It wasn’t a total eclipse, about 85%, and it happened at nine PM, which is pretty strange. We only had iPhones, so no significant pictures. About ten years ago I saw a total solar eclipse in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. I was looking at it through my special glasses, standing beside a small lake, and when I took the glasses off I noticed a pretty good sized alligator on the bank right beside me. So freaky. But I digress.

Today we were in Tallinn, Estonia.  Estonia’s history is similar to Latvia’s history, and like Latvia, they have only been independent since 1991 when then Soviet Union collapsed.  We went on a tour of Kadriorg Park and Palace, which was built by Czar Peter the Great.  

So we are on the Regent cruise line, which is advertised as a luxury cruise line.  One of the blurbs I read said that the china in the dining room is Versace.  That is true—it is Versace, but they don’t let you eat your dinner on the Versace plates.  When your order is taken, the Versace is whisked away and dinner is brought on Crate and Barrel everyday dish ware, or its equivalent.   Kind of a bait and switch, right?

We see Rosalind a lot on the ship, usually at one of the help or concierge desks either complaining about something or demanding a special service.  Regent should stop advertising the luxury cruise line stuff because it makes people have too high of expectations.  We were on a Regent cruise several years ago and a lady was at the desk asking for a supply of Coca Cola that had been specifically bottled in Mexico.  Really.  I think Rosalind is kind of like that.  And it seems like she has broken up with her new boyfriend, or maybe he was tired of her incessant “enough about you, now back to me “ chatter.  I told Doug that he has probably locked himself in his room for a few days just to avoid her.  

We are in Stockholm tomorrow.