Fri April 25, 2025
Hi Folks! We finally made it to the Baltic Sea! We had another glorious sunny sea day cruising the Baltic Sea en route to Helsinki, Finland. Or should I say Russia’s neighbor. So that’s why it’s so chilly out!
We did our normal sea day routine of sleeping in and skipping breakfast. But we tried to get our brains educated by the enrichment speakers. But of course that was after a nice hearty lunch! And we sat at our same window table looking out over the sea. Creatures of habit!
We started off with the speaker topic entitled “Secret Intelligence in the Falklands: Satellites, Sigint (Signals Intelligence) and Special Forces”. He talked about the Falklands war of 1982 which occurred between April 2-June 15. It’s known by Argentina as Malvinas and lies in the ocean 400 miles off the coast of Argentina.
He shared how much of the intelligence the British obtained was from both a US Navy ship stationed at Galette Island off the coast of Panama as well as spies at the US Embassy in Buenos Aires. The British ship the HMS Endurance in Cumberland Bay in South Georgia Island also intercepted messages for intelligence. And even the locals helped since the caretaker of the
Cape Pembroke lighthouse operator sent intelligence to Great Britain!
Later we listened to the talk on Helsinki and Tallinn (we missed it since we slept in!) and learned about all the cool places to visit at both cities as well as how they were both tied to Russia in the past. Did you know Finland has been rated the happiest country in the world for the last 7 years? And that Helsinki is the northernmost city to ever hold the summer Olympics which happened in 1952? Good trivia questions!
Tallinn, the Capitol of Estonia, is a lot older than Helsinki and more medieval looking. In 1987, Estonia went thru what was called “The Singing Revolution”. They formed a human chain thru several countries with 50% of the population participating and they were all singing! In 1991 they gained their independence from Russia. They are continuing to take down Russian statues around the country.
We then got ready early for formal night since we wanted to see the piano player from the other night with a pre-dinner show at 6:15 PM. He once again made those piano keys sing with his high energy show!
After the show we went to dinner at the Italian Specialty restaurant La Terrazza. We once again started off with their delicious charcuterie board and bread (this time I got a pic!). Then for the first starter we both got the Beef Carpaccio and for my second I got the Seafood Stew. For our mains we both got the Veal Saltimbocca. For dessert I got the Tiramisu with some accompanied little chocolates. Everything was very tasty!
After dinner we chilled for a little bit and then went to Silver Note to listen to Esther and Andre play jazz.
Tomorrow we are in Helsinki, Finland! Can’t wait! TGIF to all!
The Wandering Italian 