COPENHAGEN -- The sightseeing boat was half way down the cafe-lined canal when the pilot started back toward the pier. ''We have to pick up more people,'' the guide said. As we neared the mooring, we started screaming.

''It's Sam!'' In a city of a million people, the late-comers turned out to be companions on our 10-day Baltic cruise.

That free-wheeling ability to come-and-go-as-you-please had convinced our motley crew of 12 that a cruise vacation just might work.

It's not as if we're best friends since childhood, after all. We just met at Einstein's.

Here's how it happened: Often, The Husband and I would hit our neighborhood Einstein's bagel joint on Saturday mornings. He ran into former neighbors, who stop there most weeks. Eventually we sat and chatted. The group grew.

Three years later, a dozen-plus of us, ages 42 to 74, spend the Saturday coffee hour debating the state of the world -- political opinions vary wildly -- and sharing the struggles of child-rearing, aging parents and cranky feet. There's no set meeting time, no obligation. As a group, we rarely gather otherwise.

The Baltic cruise was ringleader John's idea, broached a full year before the sailing date. There were demurs: Bad economy, been there before, didn't like cruising. Eventually, only one regular couple bowed out.

Now here we were, wandering amid pastel row houses and the Danish royal treasury, chowing down on $20 burgers and $10 beers -- the exchange rate is vicious -- and visiting the temp-and-attitudinally cool Icebar before we joined ''the hole gang'' on our voyage to the capitals of northern Europe.

ALL ONBOARD

We sailed aboard the Crown Princess. Our 10-night itinerary would take us to Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Talinn, Gdansk and Warnemude (about 2 ½ hours from Berlin), then back to Copenhagen.

Before our trip, we'd traded research on ports and devised a plan. In most cities, we'd each wander at will. In the two most complicated ports, St. Petersburg and Berlin, we maximized our time and group-buying power by arranging private tours in advance. In Gdansk we opted for a ship-arranged walking tour. By night, we'd meet for dinner and trade tales from the day.

And except for a few minor mishaps -- Neha's turned ankle, my own lost luggage (reacquired before we boarded the ship), John's overnight bout with stomach distress (in these norovirus-prone times, he was quarantined for a day) and a bad sound system on our Gdansk tour -- things went according to plan.

In Stockholm, we split up, some taking off for the Vasa Museum, with its intact 17th century war ship, others for the colorful ''old town'' of Gamla Stan and the fantastic interiors of the City Hall, home to the annual Nobel Prize dinner.

In Helsinki, Donna and John -- recently released from his sick bed -- took a city tour with a guide they raved about. Determined to try the local cuisine, Bob and Lori set out for a reindeer lunch, where they ran into Judith and Bernard. Others hit arts sites -- the remarkable underground Rock Church, the Kiasma contemporary art museum and Wikstrom's striking Deco statues gracing the entrance to the Eliel Saarinen-designed train station. Neha invested $100 in a fox hat.

Talinn proved a medieval treasure box of long views across terracotta roofs and a sky pierced by spires. In our few hours in port, we scurried into Europe's oldest Gothic town hall, bargained for sweaters and shawls, slipped beneath the fanciful domes of the imposing Alexander Nevsky Church.

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