So far on this trip, the weather had been kind to us ranging from the 'white cloud' scenario to ‘sun lounging’ weather whilst we were in Helsinki.We tend not to let the weather spoil the moment and although I concede that there are more pleasant environmental climates than ‘pissing down’, it would be nice to get off the ship and explore the capital city of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein known as Kiel. The most famous event...

Next stop on leaving Stockholm was Visby. This walled city only has a population of about 23,000 and is situated on the west coast of the island of Gotland that lies off the east coast of Sweden.Visby is not what you'd call on the 'tourist trail’. The ferry from Nynäshamn takes about 3 hours so Visby is not somewhere you’d normally go for a day trip!The MSC Opera had only paid for ½ a day mooring in Visby. The ship dropped anchor at 8:00am a...

The day we arrived in Stockholm was going to be a long one. We were due to dock at 8:30 at Stadgårdsterminalen on Södermalm. We got up at 5:30 to marvel at our approach through the archipelago (skärgården) If that wasn't early enough, the clock moved again!! This time it went back an hour. OK, an extra hour in bed but why do we have to mess with the time? They didn’t have this in the Viking days as they were sailing to invade Finland and Russia. Ola...