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Today it is Tallinn, Estonia, a place that we had never heard about prior to this trip and, quite frankly, we couldn’t have found on a map. That being said, Tallinn turned out to be one of the most interesting places we have ever visited. On a gloriously beautiful day, with incredible blue skies and white puffy clouds, we went on a walking tour of this walled city.
We started walking to town but it turned out to be farther than we thought so flagged down a bicycle “taxi” and had an enjoyable 10 minute trip to the entrance to the old part of the city. There were pretty large crowds today but it wasn’t really an issue. The locals said this was the first nice day of the summer so we felt quite lucky to be there on this day.
It is a beautiful old, walled, medieval city, which luckily survived World War II completely intact. The city is well preserved and is a UNESCO protected area. There was a modest-sized cobblestone town center surrounded by churches, a town hall and various other medieval looking buildings.
In the large center square area there were dozens of vendors set up selling local wares. Everything was nice, organized and clean.
We found a wine shop and bought a bottle of vodka and some local herbaceous liqueur (for use on the ship). We were getting hungry so we started looking around for a place to eat, of which there were many, but given that we don’t eat bread/wheat, cheese/dairy, pasta/grains, etc., it was harder than expected! We ended up finding a sunny spot in a Greek sidewalk café and enjoyed a lunch of chicken kabobs, a Greek salad and white wine.
After lunch we continue up the hill above town to the viewing platforms. The streets are old and cobblestone, so it was important to look down when walking to avoid tripping! An appropriate number of photos later, we walked down around the perimeter of the walled area and back to where we thought we could catch a shuttle to the boat, unfortunately we went the wrong way and ended up walking the whole way back. A bit more walking than we expected, but it was a beautiful day so we just called it “exercise”.
Tallinn historically was an important port for trade between Russia and Scandinavia; it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and the Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. Danish rule of Tallinn and Northern Estonia started in 1219. Since then Estonia has gone through periods of occupation and independence including German, Russia and most recently Nazi Germany and then Russia again. In August 1991 Estonia became an independent democratic state.
It was a great port and one that was easy to see independently. Off to St. Petersburg tonight!
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Marlene Shirley - Sounds like you are having a wonderful time. So glad the weather has been nice. I cannot imagine taking in all the sights you have seen around the world. I love going places like the glass factory that you visited. So interesting and impressive. How fun to take the bicycle taxi ride. Every place you have visited sounds delightful. Grateful for the safety of the man that could have gone off the cliff. Too scary. Have to run, I am baby sitting while Keri Beth is away at girls camp for our church and Marlie is calling me from the bath tub. Continue to have a wonderful time and hope you are having a great birthday today.
Love, Marlene