Tallin, Estonia

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Tallin, Estonia – August 25


The day was sunny but cool. We had a light breakfast at the Terrace Cafe buffet and got to the Lounge for our 8:30 excursion. Our guide was Katrin, who has a Master's in Ecological Studies but is working as an accountant. We took a bus to the walled Old Town which consists of an Upper Town with narrow cobblestone streets and a Lower Town with wider cobblestone streets.

The wealthy lived in Upper Town and it is the site of Parliament; embassies; the Dome Church which dates to the 1200s, is Lutheran and is decorated with wooden coats of arms for the families who worshipped there; the Russian Orthodox Church, which was having the 9am service and was gorgeous inside; and tons of amber shops. We walked through the streets as Katrin discussed the various countries which had an influence on Estonia (Sweden, Germany, and most of all, of course, Russia) as they ruled it and we arrived at a viewpoint where we could see the Lower Town, home of the "lesser" citizens.

There was a gate between the two towns which closed at 9pm, so the two populations could not mix. We reversed our walk and went down a very steep cobblestone hill, while Katrin told us about the Singing Festival where, every 5 years, groups from all over Estonia come to compete singing folk songs and at the end 20,000 singers are on stage for the finale. She has sung in it twice and says it is worth coming to. In the Lower Town, we saw the Grand Merchants Guild; the Blackhead Guild (single men among the merchants only); a church with a clock from 1420; the City Hall which is the oldest municipal building in Europe; the Dominican Monastery which was closed before the reformation when the Lutherans banished Catholicism (same as the Dome Church in the Upper Town.) We had time to look in shops at the local handicrafts, especially the knits and linens. Tallin was very clean and attractive and the people seemed happy and friendly, more like Scandinavia than St. Petersburg. We would go back.


We headed back to the ship and had a light soup & salad lunch then relaxed with our Kindles for the afternoon. We were starting our second rotation through the specialty restaurants and had arranged with Sebastien, the maitre d' in Jacques, to wait for the corner table in Norman and Anton's section. Rob had the escargots (again) and the roast blackfoot chicken. Daryl had the terrine of foie gras and the duck. It was a good day to the last dop of wine!