Coasting the Baltic

GO DRIVE:Instead of an expensive cruise, DONand BARBARA O'NEILLscrapped their car for a new Mini and spent four weeks touring Scandinavia and the Baltic States

MANY PEOPLE mark their retirement by booking a cruise. My wife, Barbara, and I had been studying the brochures and websites of the cruise lines for years. However, with a dramatically changed national economy and cancelled retirement plans, we made a hard choice: forget the cruise, scrap the banger and take a long drive in the new car.

This was how we ended up departing from our home in north Tipperary last May, eager to put our new Mini Cooper Countryman through its paces on a four-week land cruise around the Baltic Sea, visiting Denmark and Sweden before returning via Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany.

The ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip, which included nine other mini cruises on ferries and tour boats, and this compensated handsomely for the cancelled sea cruise. The added flexibility of the car made the trip into a loosely planned voyage of surprising discovery.

Denmark

We took the overnight ferry from Harwich (near London) and arrived at the port of Esbjerg on Denmark’s west coast.

Esbjerg to Copenhagen is about the same distance as Clifden to Dublin. However, you cross two major bridges and pay a toll of about €30 to reach Copenhagen. I promise never again to complain about the €1.80 tolls in Ireland.

Our list of things to do in Copenhagen (see panel far right) shows that you can pack a lot into two days.

We then drove up the coast to Helsingor, which allowed us to visit the Louisiana Museum before taking a ferry from Helsingor to Helsingborg, Sweden.

Sweden

We broke our journey onwards about half way from Helsingborg to Stockholm at Jonkoping on one of Sweden’s largest lakes.

Next morning we followed the lakeshore northwards through endless forest before finally arriving at Stockholm and joining the conference which was the original purpose of our trip. It was well attended by architects needing the Continuing Professional Education points that are now mandatory and consisted of five days of lectures and tours showing off the new fully insulated green city where everyone lives in warm apartments and uses only bikes or public transportation.

When we asked at a bakery near our city centre hotel if it was okay to park on their street, the bakers replied: “We don’t know. None of us has a car!”

For us the conference highlight was a delicious perch dinner on a boat which toured the harbour in a brilliant, almost-midsummer, Swedish sunset.

Estonia and Tallinn

The overnight car ferry from Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia, cost us €190 and was as near as we could hope to get to the luxury of a cruise ship. Our spacious cabin had TV and a double bed, putting all previous ferries in the shade.

The ship’s slow departure from Stockholm to the open Baltic, winding its way between hundreds of tiny islands with their distinctive timber-framed holiday homes, was unforgettable.

The first thing of note on our arrival in Tallinn was that we were back in the eurozone. Estonia achieved independence in 1991 and joined the euro club in January 2011. Perhaps because of a property crash at about the same time as ours, its hotels offer enviable value.

We had booked a double room for two days at the Hotel Metropol which had an en suite bathroom and sauna for less than €70 a night. It included free Wi-Fi and well supervised car-parking. You can spoil yourself with a four-star hotel room in any capital of the Baltic states for about €70 a night.

We explored Tallinn’s old town for a couple of days. On our journey south we visited the seaside resort of Parnu and saw fine examples of the property boom, but no ghost estates.

Latvia and Riga

We followed the road south into Latvia passing through coastal woods screening a string of unspoiled beaches populated only by foraging cranes.

Soon we reached Riga, one of the oldest Baltic Hanseatic League port cities and at one time gateway to a hinterland which stretched as far south as the Black Sea.

“Riga cherishes its past”, boasted the message of its badly sign-posted city museum. It contrasted sharply with its equivalent in Tallinn which gave the impression that the displays had not been changed since the Soviet era.

Latvia did not seem as comfortable in its new EU skin as Estonia.

But, by way of compensation, it had more street life. We enjoyed an open air folk concert and found a park with a café which retained a nostalgic ambience and proletarian beer prices. The thing to experience in Riga is the town itself.

Lithuania and Vilnius

Although far inland, we were glad we had included Vilnius on our journey.

Our hotel was between the old town and the central station, which has a new shopping centre and plenty of underground car-parking where we could leave the car for a couple of days while we explored the city on foot and by bus.

Like Prague, Vilnius has extensive, fine Baroque buildings at its core with new development kept to the periphery. We could have spent more time exploring but limited ourselves to the centre and a nearby wonderful enclave of Slavic timber houses.

On foot of a reference in the Rough Guide, we went in search of the Jewish Quarter. Behind a building with a plaque confirming there had once been such a quarter we found a deserted, sunken, weed overgrown expanse of collapsed cellars. We were looking at a part of the city untouched since 1944.

Northern Poland, Sopot and Gdansk

We had booked our next stay in the seaside resort of Sopot in Poland but were unsure which route to take to get there.

Before leaving our hotel in Lithuania, we asked if you can drive through the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad but were told that while it’s the shortest route, the roads are bad and you need a visa.

So we took the longer route and discovered the Polish lakelands village of Mikolajki where we found a wonderful old world hotel and decided to stay.

Next morning we took a lake cruise before setting off for the coast, stopping only when we reached Malbork Castle, one of the highlights of our tour. Malbork was originally called Marienburg and from about 1200 was the seat of the crusading order of the Teutonic Knights, a strange mixture of monk soldiers.

You can see how they lived here in security and comfort – the chapel had a form of underfloor central heating. It’s a far cry from the austerity of Skellig Michel.

We had chosen Sopot as a base for our stay in Poland because of its reputation as the favourite Prussian seaside resort of the kaisers.

Although only 20 minutes train ride from Gdansk and its shipyards, it could not be more different with its wooded walks alongside sandy beaches.

However, this comes at a price and restaurant and hotel charges are closer to German than Baltic state levels.

We had booked a hotel in Sopot’s lively pedestrian zone half way between beach and train station, and parked the car for three relaxing days, exploring the area by train and on rented bicycles.

Gdansk took a beating in the second World War and few traces of its former self remain.

Of course, there are harbour cruises where you can see the shipyards where Lech Walesa led a strike and started the Solidarity movement which later replaced communism.

We enjoyed Sopot so much we only left ourselves one day to get to a long-arranged meeting in Dusseldorf. However, we covered the 1,050km in time, thanks to generous speed limits on Germany’s autobahns. The new car obliged, with cruising speeds of almost 200km/h.

We had two final sea cruises – across the English Channel and the Irish Sea.

By the time we got home we had driven almost 5,000km and found we had bonded with our new car just as strongly as in the 1970s with our long gone VW pop-top bus.

Baltic sights  

Denmark/Sweden

Tivoli Gardens and Amusement Park ( tivoli.dk) Located in central Copenhagen it deservedly gets some five million visitors annually.

Copenhagen cycling ( bycyklen.dk) For the equivalent of €1, which you get back on return, you can cycle around this bike-friendly city.

Copenhagen cruises ( canaltours.com)From Nyhavn in the city centre, a cruise around the city costs about €10 for two hours.

Louisiana Museum ( louisiana.dk) Located in northern Zealand, its contemporary art galleries are in a beautiful garden setting just south of Helsingor. The museum is showing works by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Helsingor ( helsingorby.dk) The Elsinore of Shakespeare's Hamlet, its well restored castle and museum are worth a visit.

Stockholm ( destination-stockholm.com)Forget the car and navigate the city and its islands on the integrated public transport system.

Uppsala (ukk.se) A walkable old town to the north of Stockholm with a university and great new concert hall.

Baltic States

Tallinn city museum (linnamuuseum.ee) A great place to get your historical bearings. Its depictions of life in the Soviet Union should convert even the most Euro-sceptic.

Tallinn bus tour (citytour.ee) Get your bearings around the city and see some of its sights.

KUMU museum Tallinn (ekm.ee)The art museum of Estonia has a major new modern art gallery.

Rundale Palace (

rundale.net

) One of the most outstanding monuments of Baroque and Rococo art in Latvia and restored at vast expense.

Trakai History Museum (trakaimuziejus.lt)Near Kaunus in Lithuania, the museum is one of the country's most famous mediaeval castles.

Poland, Sopot/Gdansk

Mikolajki ( wagabunda-mikolajki.pl) Explore northern Poland's beautiful lakelands by boat from about €5 an hour.

Malbork ( zamek.malbork.pl) World heritage site originally called Marienburg and seat of the crusading order of the Teutonic Knights, now lovingly restored.

Sopot ( sopot.net) Explore an old world seaside resort and eat well.

Gdansk

(inyourpocket.com/poland/gdansk)

Explore the coastal area and the old town, and try the boat tour of the harbour.

Oliwa Cathedral, Gdansk (archikatedraoliwa.pl) Experience the acoustics of one of the city's finest churches by listening to its 7,000-pipe organ.