Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The next day cruise lines cancelled their cruises to the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. Map showing Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic and Black Seas -
The Black Sea cruises were no longer going to Odessa, which is a major port on the south coast of Ukraine. Then in mid May cruises to Romania and Bulgaria were also cancelled, as the whole Black Sea was declared a war zone.
Meanwhile cruises in the Baltic were not going to St. Petersburg. This Russian port city lies at the eastern end of the Baltic.
In late July 2022 I booked a Baltic cruise for August - it had originally been scheduled to go to St Petersburg, but of course that was off the itinerary. On the 16 night cruise we saw a lot of naval war ships from different countries, lots of helicopters, 2 Russian submarines and a military drone. So we were constantly reminded there was a war on in the area.
After we left Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden, we entered the Great Belt strait, which connects the Baltic Sea to the North Sea. It goes between the major islands of Zealand and Funen in Denmark. Zealand is the island Copenhagen is on, and Odense is on Funen (Fyn). And the Great Belt Bridge connects the 2 islands, carrying the E20 highway.
We were due to sail under the bridge shortly before 7 am one morning and I had set my alarm to get up in time. The captain also made an announcement shortly before our arrival. The bridge is the third largest suspension bridge in the world and the longest outside of Asia. It is 6790 m long, and with a connecting bridge, the total length is 13.4 km . The height is 254 m which makes it the highest point in Denmark! The clearance below is 65 m, which didn't leave much room for us to pass under! I think there was about 10 m to spare! See youtube video about Arcadia passing under the bridge.
A couple of hours later, some passengers saw a submarine being escorted by naval ships. I missed that, but later that day, I saw another submarine. I googled it later on, and read that "According to information published by Tass on July 20, 2022, Danish warships are escorting the Russian 140 m long nuclear-powered submarine Severodvinsk sailing through the kingdom’s territorial waters to the Baltic Sea for its participation in Russia’s Navy Day celebrations in St. Petersburg". Denmark is one of several NATO member states whose navies do not deploy submarines.
We saw the subs on 5 Aug when they were being escorted back from the St. Petersburg Navy Day parade on 31 July. I think the one in the morning was Severodvinsk.
I think the submarine I saw on 5th evening was the Vepr. See paragraph under Refurbishment on Wikipedia.
Severodvinsk on Wikipedia and mention of the July 2022 sailing under History.
The 2 subs are based at the Kola Peninsula in extreme northwest Russia.
Our next port of call was Stockholm on 7th. We were berthed opposite an American warship, USS Arlington (24), which had just arrived. This is an amphibious transport dock ship and was carrying 4 helicopters.
She is currently (20 Aug) in Riga, Latvia.
On 11 Aug we sailed from Tallinn in Estonia to Riga. That evening I was watching the sunset from the starboard side when a large (military?) drone headed straight for our ship, checked us out and flew off. It was flying very fast but I managed to get some blurred photos -
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