Our first port is Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Estonia is the smallest of the 3 Baltic States. With a population of only 1.5 million, it is a land of plains, marshes and forests. They speak a Finnish type language and gained their independence from Russia in 1991. Tallinn with a population of 400,000 is the capital and thought to be one of the prettiest cities in the Baltic. It once was one of the largest towns in Europe known as Revel.
We walk into the old town. It’s only 10 minutes away. We enter a maze of cobble stone streets through a massive 14th century stone gate. We find St Olav Lutheran Church. Very sparse inside with upright wooden pews with doors for entry. There is a tower you can climb but we have no Euros so we pass on this.
The town square is a delightful, filled with vendors stalls and restaurants and ringed with 3 story colourful buildings and lots of flowers in planters. We wander around and into the shops. Finding a WC is always a challenge. We can’t seem to find any public ones and are refused entry to a restaurant WC because they demand a 1 Euro fee! Finally we stop to have tea at another place and everything works out with a credit card.
We head back to the ship doing a little shopping on the way. Our friends Judy and Bruce have had some sad news. Their nephew was killed in a car accident in Vancouver a few days ago. It’s very tragic. They decide after much thought that they must leave the cruise early in a few days to return for his funeral to be held in St. John’s, Nfld. We really feel their pain and understand their decision. We would do the same thing. So sad, so sudden.
At the captain’s party, we meet the Italian captain and senior officers. After a fun time there, we eat some great sea food in the dining room and call it a night. Tomorrow in St Petersburg will be a big day.
mattersofthemoment 