Iconic Cities of the Baltic

Arrival day in Helsinki, where the included hotel night begins the package. Gustav I of Sweden founded the city in 1550, and Tsar Alexander I made it the capital of Finland in 1812. Carl Ludvig Engel then designed the neoclassical Senate Square, where the white cathedral crowns a wide flight of steps. Eliel Saarinen’s granite railway station shows the Finnish take on Art Nouveau.

Helsinki’s harbourside holds the red-brick Uspenski Cathedral, the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe. Offshore, the island fortress of Suomenlinna dates to 1748, when Sweden began building it to guard the coast. Guests board Le Champlain and sail in the early evening.

Tallinn joined the Hanseatic League in the late 13th century, and merchant wealth still shows in the old town’s Gothic town hall and guild houses. Danish forces took Toompea hill in 1219, and Danes say their flag fell from the sky during the battle. Medieval walls and towers still wrap the lower town, with the Viru Gate as its main entrance.

Le Champlain threads through the Stockholm archipelago and reaches the Swedish capital in the afternoon. Gamla Stan, the old town, grew on a small island at the heart of the city, and tradition credits Birger Jarl with founding it around 1252. On its main square, Stortorget, King Christian II of Denmark had Swedish nobles executed in 1520. That Stockholm Bloodbath fed the revolt that ended Danish rule.

A full day opens up the Djurgården waterfront. The Vasa Museum houses a warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, and salvage crews raised it in 1961. Nearby, Skansen opened in 1891 and claims the title of the world’s first open-air museum.

Guests spend the morning ashore in Visby, which grew rich as a Baltic trading hub in the Middle Ages. A 13th-century ring wall still circles the old town. Danish king Valdemar IV conquered Gotland in 1361, and the ruins of several medieval churches still stand among the lanes. UNESCO listed Visby as a World Heritage Site in 1995.

Gdansk grew rich as a Hanseatic port, and the Main Town shows it, from the Long Market with its 17th-century Neptune Fountain to Mariacka Street, where amber workshops still line the cobbles. St Mary’s Church, one of the largest brick churches in the world, rises above the rooftops. The Gdansk Shipyard is where the Solidarity movement began in the strikes of August 1980.

Gudhjem clings to a rocky slope on Bornholm’s northern coast, and its half-timbered houses step down to a small harbour. The smokehouses are known for the island’s smoked herring, served on rye with egg yolk and radishes as Sol over Gudhjem. Inland, Østerlars Church dates to around 1160 and is the largest of Bornholm’s four medieval round churches. The ruins of Hammershus form the largest medieval fortress in northern Europe.

Le Champlain arrives in Copenhagen and guests disembark, then check in to the included hotel for the final night. Nyhavn’s harbour front dates to the 1670s, when Christian V had the canal dug to bring ships close to the city centre. Hans Christian Andersen lived at several addresses along it.

The package ends after check-out from the included Copenhagen hotel.