Today was a beautiful sea day. Lots of sunshine and tiny bit cool in the wind. We decided to try out one of the ships hot tubs. There's one next to the pool on the pool deck and there's also one on the bow, a lovely secluded sundeck that we had almost to ourselves.

Today we are docked in Copenhagen. Fortunately we're close enough to walk everywhere we want to go. Adrian's never been here and I haven't visited Copenhagen since 1985 - imagine 41 years ago! We walked the waterfront, the beautiful streets and visited Tivoli Gardens - a nostalgic stop for me and the inspiration for the Disney theme parks.
Copenhagen is a beautiful, walkable and sustainable city. I so love the architecture and art of these European cities.

What a night - Just before our wine tasting event the captain announced a change in itinerary for today. We were originally supposed to anchor off the island of Bornholm and tender into port. Unfortunately we were about to encounter some rough weather leaving Gdansk and the ship had arranged for us to dock in Ronne instead. The storm provided some lovely rocking, just enough to rock us to sleep and we happily arrived dockside this morning. We also received a plate of cookies from the chef and a souvenir gift from Gdansk.
Bornholm, Denmark is a scenic island in the Baltic Sea, known as the "Sunshine Island " for it's sunny climate and beautiful natural landscapes. Since we were docked we could easily walk the 1.5km into the "Old Town". Once again we were in a beautiful area with cobbled streets, lots of pedestrian only areas, filled with shops and outdoor restaurants. We had a lovely day walking the town and the seashore. We had a wonderful late breakfast and enjoyed the sunny weather over our four hours in town. 
Tomorrow we're in Copenhagen - this is the end of the first leg of our cruise - so many passengers will depart and others will join. We just get to carry on. This next leg takes us from Cpengahen to Dundee, Scotland via Norway. Excited to see Norway - all new for me.
​

We spent today exploring Old Town Gdansk. What a beautiful port city, amazing architecture. We took way too many pictures of buildings for you to enjoy! We had a lovely brunch on shore and managed to enjoy a beer at exactly the right time to be under cover when we had a short rainstorm. Like the other Baltic Countries amber is the big thing here. We went down a couple of streets that were like outdoor amber malls. Vendor after vendor selling various types of jewelry all made with amber.
The attention to detail in these cities continues to amaze me - even the downspouts are function pieces of art.
Tonight we decided to do a wine pairing with dinner. We got to try three new very good red wines. Our table mates were all American. All in all it was fine. I do have to share my "Close Encounter of the American Kind" from the deck BBQ though. I forgot to include this anecdote in that days blog.
For the BBQ we chose a table for 6 on the top deck and the four of us, Adrian, me and our friends Steve and Mary had a lovely meal. Steve had left us and the three of us were tucking into dessert when the steward added two new folks to our table. Adrian immediately welcomed them to our table and the conversation began, as they usually do on these ships, with where are you from. When I answered Jim's question with we're from Nova Scotia, I got that "look" that usually means I don't know anything about where that is. For context Jim is from Philadelphia (not Mars). After the loom I got the next question - with a sincerely quizzical expression Jim said oh - Where can you travel to from there? I admit I didn't quite understand the question so I answered with anywhere in the world. After all we were sitting on the deck of a ship in Helsinki. I followed that with we have an international airport. He then asked where we had to go through to get anywhere. I answered, Toronto, Montreal and Newark. Well finally, once I said we could get to Newark he seemed to understand that we weren't from some third world country. It was an equally funny and sad exchange!!! 

Late this morning we docked in Liepaja, Latvia. We encountered a few swells this morning on our way here - lovely to wake to the gentle rocking of the ship. We got to dock instead of anchor and tender in - huge bonus. Liepaja is Latvia's third-largest city, located on the Baltic Sea coast, and is known as the "City where the wind was born." Population around 70,000 and a history dating back to the 13th century.
We did our usual kind of tour - took ships shuttle to the Town Centre, found a great place for lunch and then walked to see the highlights. It's a small city with a nice blend of historical structures and more modern buildings. Today's Sunday so most of the shops were closed, not as much to see as some other placed.
Tonight we had dinner in Candles - this is essentially the breakfast and lunch spot opn the ship that they transform into a specialty restaurant at night. It can be quite lovely when the weather allows you to eat outdoors. Sadly tonight we were inside, because it was cold and windy. Very noisy and hard to hear. We consoled ourselves by attending the Chocolate Fountain event for dessert after dinner. 

This morning we remained docked in Finland until 12:30pm when we set sail for Liepaja, Latvia. We had perfect views for our sail away from the Veranda Restaurant where we had lunch. Adrian and I decided to try a wine tasting event and managed to while away the afternoon while trying four great red wines.
The theme for today could have been simply "drinking". Our wine tasting was followed by a get together for everyone doing the full 80 day cruise - all 12 of us! That cocktail party finished just in time for the "Yacht Club Party" where the ship recognizes past travellers with more free drinks and a gift for the longest cruiser(s) onboard - this leg a couple with a total of 365 days on Windstar. 

Today we arrived in Helsinki and started our day by joining the ships Chef at the local market. We were very lucky that our ship was small enough to be able to dock a stones throw away from the old town and the waterfront market.
Just a few steps from the ship was a lovely open air fruit, vegetable and craft market and some places to eat as well. A tiny bit further on was a gorgeous historic building that houses the indoor market. Beautiful exterior with even more exquisite interior. Chef provided us with a umber of tastings throughout the trip including, raspberries, cherries, three different kinds of smoked salmon, a wonderful rye bread as well as some reindeer salami and some bear sausage, finished off with a Finnish sweet. It was a great way to start the day.
From the waterfront Adrian and I spent the rest of the day walking to see the sights. Walking to the cathedral, the Temppeliaukio or "Rock Church" literally carved into solid granite and then we carried on to the Sibelius Monument, a famour landmark dedicated to the composer, Jean Sibelius. This unique sculpture, made of hundreds of steel pipes is a symbol of nations cultural heritage. 
This evening we joined everyone for Windstar's deck BBQ a highlight of every cruise. This meal is served outside in the pool area and the deck above. Lots of great food and excellent weather to boot!

Got a couple great photos before bed last night - sunset never really ends here!
Sunsets followed by our amazing day in Tallinn. Another beautiful European city, great food, architecture and highly walkable again. We arrived at 12:30 pm and headed into Old Town for lunch. After lunch we explored all the cobbled streets and walkways. Pay particular attention to the quiet but effective wall of resistance in front of the Russian embassy. 
​We were back onboard for the Captain's Welcome cocktail party - first chance for free drinks!!

below - in front of the Russian embassy

The ship on the right is the Star Legend, the one we're on!!

Today we boarded the Star Legend for the first leg of our cruise. This is our first time on this all suite ship -our first French balcony - about 1 foot deep. Here are a few pictures of the ship - I just realized I am missing quite a few areas, oh well many days left to fix that. Don't miss the shot of Adrian ready to watch the England vs Argentina game in his Windstar robe. Tomorrow our first stop, Tallinn, Estonia. Excited, this is by far the nicest stateroom we have had.

Walk in closet!!!

We checked a piece of luggage this trip and wouldn't you know it didn't make it to Stockholm with us yesterday. Fortunately it arrived around midnight last night. I was very excited to see it, even though I had finally just gotten to sleep. As usual we're struggling a bit with jet lag - we're 5 hour ahead of Mahone Bay, which makes getting up early a challenge. We managed to get up by 10 am this morning - 5am NS time. Hoping to actually get to breakfast tomorrow, which is included in our hotel stay!
By the time we finally pulled ourselves together it was lunchtime - so we headed to the waterfront for lunch and booked a cruise tour of the archipelago. We had some time to walk around before our boat tour. Our tour was on a gorgeous reconditioned wooden boat. Lovely boat, great weather and spectacular scenery. We both definitely want to come back, this is an amazingly livable city, lots of outside space, waterfront walks that go on for miles, all kinds of boating and outdoor cafes.
This is a great map of the old town. Our hotel was in Gamla Stan and our cruise took us out beyond this inner Old Town. Sweden has the most islands of any country in the world, over 11,000 most of them quite small. The city has lots of bridges making walking around and exploring some the islands quite easy. 
We had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurants with our friends Mary and Steve.