The Aurora, a cruiser built more than a 100 years ago, is moored on the Neva River in front of the Naval Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. A blank shot fired by the Aurora in 1917 signalled the start of the Bolshevik Revolution. (DOUG ENGLISH/QMI Agency)

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The summer weather can be cool and wet and the major attractions can't hold a candle to those in, say, the Mediterranean or the Middle East.

But the Baltic Sea is increasingly popular with cruise enthusiasts looking for an alternative to such traditional destinations as the Caribbean and Alaska.

It's also a comfortable way to visit St. Petersburg, in Russia, something my wife had yearned to do for years. So that's why a couple who rarely cruise sailed there for more than two weeks in August.

Swan Hellenic's Minerva was our choice of ship for two reasons: It stops longer in St. Petersburg than many of its rivals and it's a fraction their size, holding 365 passengers at most.

We sailed from Dover, England, set foot in five countries and were kept by rough weather from a sixth, had four full days and parts of others at sea, transited the Kiel Canal, and finished 1,425 nautical miles later back near those famous White Cliffs.

St. Petersburg is unquestionably the Baltic's main attraction. More than half a dozen cruise ships were already there when we docked.

Most of their thousands of passengers wanted to visit one thing above anything else - the fabled Hermitage museum.

So we made like sardines, chivvied along by the grim-faced matrons, the "babushkas,'' who seem to rule the place. Notable paintings were pointed out as we went by, but rarely was there time for much more than a glimpse.

My advice is to spend your precious time on the decor instead - on gleaming parquet floors, Carrara marble by the ton, gilded bronze, majestic vases of lapis lazuli, malachite, and jasper, twinkling chandeliers, and enough gold leaf to rival Versailles. As my wife remarked: "No wonder there was a revolution.''

It was less hectic next day at Peter the Great's summer palace and gardens, partly because we were let in ahead of the general public.

Taking a sightseeing boat along some of St. Petersburg's canals and onto the fast-flowing Neva River provided a different perspective.

We motored past old palaces and mansions, all decorated in pastel colours on Peter the Great's orders, the guide told us, because the city got so few sunny days. On the other side of the Neva, we swung close to the naval cruiser Aurora, built in 1900 and permanently moored by the Naval Academy.

Other ports of call included:

 

• Tallin, Estonia's capital. The charming and well-preserved Old Town is a good spot to get away from the guided tours and poke around on your own.

   

   

•  Warnemunde, Germany. A sobering departure from normal shore-excursion fare is the pre-trial prison once used by the East German secret service, the Stasi, and now a documentation and memorial site. I was fascinated by the copies of "denunciations,'' often by friends, neighbours and even family members, and photos of people incarcerated there, and frustrated by the fact that the only information in English is a pamphlet.

   

   

• Bornholm, Denmark: Maybe it was the return of sunshine, or the bucolic surroundings, but a coach tour of this tranquil little island was a hit. Plans to shop for pottery in an old fishing village were thwarted by a sudden need to sample Bornholm "soft ice,'' ice cream cones to which you have the option of adding toppings such as whipped cream and jam.

   

   

• Rothskilde, Denmark. The remains of five Viking ships, recovered there in the 1960s, are housed in a museum. A surprise was seeing a book on Canadian birch bark canoes at a stand where a woman was making bark items. She told me birch bark objects as old as 2,500 years have been unearthed.

   

   

  Mail can be sent to Doug English, c/o London Free Press, P.O. Box 2280, London, Ont. N6A 4G1; faxes to 519-667-4528.