While small, the city punches above its weight. When we arrived, we grabbed the tram just outside the port after buying tickets on our mobiles (it's the home of Skype, they're very connected people!) and went out to Kadrioru park to see the palace and gardens. It's worth the short 1EUR tram ride as the grounds are beautiful. Unfortunately being Monday KUMU was closed but the reviews are very positive for this site too. We then trammed back to the old town and took a Traveller Tallinn Free Walking tour and had yet another fun and informative guide who gave us a great tour of the old town.

Wanting to relax a bit, we booked a Cosy Finland visit for lunch with a local Finnish family. Ahead of time we arranged a custom visit and were paired with a couple to visit their home. Our hosts were very welcoming and the meal delicious and we got to learn much more about present day Finnish culture. Before lunch though, we had lots of time to take the tram downtown (there are two separate tram stations right next to the port) and walk around the city. It's a very small, very walkable town. Make sure to get down to the old port bright and early to catch the food/artisans' market.

Our docking experience was quite poor and we got off the ship over an hour late. I hope for future cruisers that this was an isolated experience of a new ship in a new port (the port itself is relatively new technology). Once off we were supposed to have a free bus transfer but none of the NCL staff had any idea what we were talking about. We finally found one supervisor who told us just to take the train and we would be reimbursed (which we surprisingly were - at a price higher than the train tickets). The train station is a 20min or so walk from the port along a well marked, blue line. There is however only one ticket machine so if you can, you might want to buy your tickets on your mobile. However, since the ticket line was so long, the very kind train staff told everyone just to get on and buy their tickets when they got to Stockholm. The ticket inspector didn't give anyone any trouble either. For Stockholm, we had also planned a Free Tour but had changed our mind and just ended up walking around to see the sites. There is more than enough to do and after being in tiny Helsinki the day before, we were a bit overwhelmed how much there was to see.