The summer weather can be iffy but the Baltic Sea is increasingly popular with cruisers looking for alternatives to such traditional destinations as the Mediterranean and Alaska. It's also a comfortable way to visit St. Petersburg, Russia, something my wife had yearned to do for years. So that's why a couple who don't usually cruise sailed there for more than two weeks in August.

Swan Hellenic's Minerva was our choice of ship for two reasons: It stops in St. Petersburg for more than two days -- longer than some of its rivals -- and it's a managable size, holding 365 passengers. But many cruise ships, large and small, sail this itinerrary.

We sailed from Dover, England, set foot in five countries (bad weather prevented us from visiting Visby, Sweden) 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 passengers wanted to visit one thing -- the fabled Hermitage museum.

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

My advice is to focus on the decor -- gazing at 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 said: "No wonder there was a revolution!''

It was less hectic the 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 the Neva River provided a fresh perspective. We motored past palaces and mansions, all decorated in pastel colours on Peter the Great's orders, the guide said, because the city gets so few sunny days. We alos swung close to the naval cruiser Aurora, built in 1900 and permanently moored by the Naval Academy.

Other ports included:

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

- Warnemunde, Germany. A sobering departure from 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.

- Bornholm, Denmark: Maybe it was the return of sunshine but a coach tour of this tranquil 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," 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 '60s, 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.

By DOUG ENGLISH