This year’s summer trip is a visit to the Baltic states of Europe.
I had initially thought a visit to Ireland would make a good summer vacay this year. But Lisa came up with something more adventurous – travelling through the Baltics. I looked into car rentals, and where we could go. Then I remembered that for our trip to Iceland a few years ago, Lisa had gone with a company that made all the driving and hotel arrangements for us. I thought maybe there was something similar for Europe.
So I ended up booking our trip through a tour company called Baltic Holidays. They are based in Lithuania, but the founder lives in Manchester. I told him a bit about the kind of touring Lisa and I like (cultural sites, history, non-hiking), the level of hotels we would like to stay at, and our time frames. He put together a suggested itinerary, and with a few tweaks, we landed on a vacation. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland are our destinations! Our adventure starts in Krakow, we drive up through the Baltic states and take a ferry across the Gulf of Finland to end our road trip in Helsinki.
As in the past, I plan to post regularly while we tour (maybe not every day) and you can follow along with us. Trip begins below.
Day 1 – Toronto to Krakow
July 14/15, 2026
Lufthansa flight 471 to Frankfurt with a connecting flight (LH1364) to Krakow. Interestingly, the YYZ-FRA flight is the same one I took on my solo trip to Nuremberg last September so that I could fly a 747 for the first time. Now I’ve had two 747 flights.
YYZ-FRA was uneventful flight. Left right on time, and our seats in premium economy were not bad. Just behind business class, row 27, two seats next to the window (2-4-2 setup in this jumbo). It was the last row of premium economy, and nothing really separated it from the pleb’s back in economy – other than a short curtain that hung down about a quarter of the way from the ceiling. But the seats were wide and fully reclined. Unfortunately, nothing could be done about the small child sitting right behind us who was making high pitched squealing noises the whole flight. We got only a little shut-eye on the overnight flight (and the kid finally fell asleep about half hour before we landed!).
Arrived in FRA right on time at 10am, or a little before. We were most worried about our connection to Krakow here. Because Frankfurt is where we arrived in Schengen zone, that is where we had to deal with immigration and the new EES (EU Entry/Exit System) system. Lots of horror stories about this new system for non-EU citizens that requires biometrics (photograph and fingerprints), and leading to super long wait times for entry and exit in Schengen countries. We had a two hour window between our scheduled arrival in Frankfurt and our scheduled departure for Krakow – normally plenty of time.
But we needn’t have worried. Other than the wait for the shuttle that took us from our arrival terminal to our departure terminal, the biometric photos/prints took no more time than using the machines we all have to use when we return to Canada, and the immigration line took 10 minutes at most. We were at our new gate with at least 45 minutes before our flight to Krakow departed (and actually left a little late). That flight too was uneventful and we arrived in Krakow just before noon. Very tired, but on time.
As part of our pre-booked tour, a driver was there to greet us once we picked up our bags from the luggage carousel. Pretty hard to miss the guy (Alexander) holding up the DARRYL JAMES SEAL sign in the arrivals hall.
Arrived at our hotel (Indigo Hotel – Wawel Castle) after about a half hour drive from the airport, with a short from-the-car tour of downtown Krakow. Both of us were quite exhausted and jet-lagged, so we had a short (ok, maybe not that short) power nap before heading out for a quick walk around the environs of the hotel area. That included a walk around Wawel Castle and a stroll along the banks of the Vistula river. Stopped for a drink and light dinner at one of the river boats docked along the riverside, and then back to the hotel. We’ll have an early night tonight, hopefully sleep off some of this jetlag, and be ready for our first real day of Baltic holiday tomorrow.
