Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 16

Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to travel around the Baltic states as the entry date on my Russian visa was fast approaching. The area’s quite compact though and it’s extremely easy to get around. Buying the train ticket from Minsk to Vilnius was a bit of an ordeal but the surprisingly friendly staff and a Russian phrasebook got me through. It’s only about 4 hours from the heart of Europe’s last communist dictatorship to the edge of the EU. The border crossing was relatively easy and unlike the last one did not involve me standing shirtless in the middle of a packed train carriage. Vilnius is a small city but the old town area is the largest Baroque old town in Europe. It’s literally impossible to walk for 5 minutes without passing a church. You ... read more

Well dear blog readers, we have to admit that we knew nothing of Tallin, Estonia before today! ;-) We were so surprised at how much we loved it. Talllin is on the Baltic Sea and has an “Old City” behind walls and a new city with skyscrapers. We walked through the old city with a guide taking us on a tour of places where Peter the Great had impact on Tallin. Peter was 6'7" and could speak their language which helped a great deal as they could communicate. Tallin has had many ruling countries and only recently got it’s own money back…..now so many people here do not want to give it up for the Euro, but that is coming in a couple of years, despite the resistance. We also visited Peter the Great’s small home ... read more

Sunday July 4 - I work up this morning covered in red welts. Good news - it's not bed bugs. Bad news - it seems there are mosquites in the dorm and they are eating me alive. And I must be allergic or something to this particularly beasty. It hurts and they are everywhere, including one on my forehead. Lovely. Today was my bike ride through Lahemaa National Park. I had to be there by 9am so I thought I'd get up nice and early at 7:30. No need to worry as I woke up at 6am and then couldn't sleep as the four Spanish guys from the next room got up then, had breakfast, blah blah blah. The problem is that the wall my room shares with the kitchen area is only have a wall, ... read more

Geo: 59.4392, 24.7586The ship docked in Tallinn, Eastonia around 9:00 am this morning and, after eating breakfast at Parrot Cay we went to meet our shore excursion. Today we did a cycling and Old Town tour. We started out on a 30 minute bus ride to Rocco al Mare park for a 2 mile bike ride. We began our ride on a path on the outside of the park that took us about 20 minutes. Then we entered Rocco al Mare. It is what they called an "open air park". I would equate it to Williamburg, This is the Place State Park or Jamestown Settlement. They have created an Eastonian Village of the 18th century. We rode our bikes around to the various buildings for about 2 hours before stopping for pancakes and jam and a ... read more

Excerpted from my book; OUR SUMMER IN ESTONIA: AMAZON.COM A famous practitioner of sauna culture was the Cold War Finnish President, Urho Kerkkonen. He would assemble his Soviet counterparts in the sauna at his estate and not let them out until agreement was reached on the items being discussed. A famous story surrounds the visit of Dean Rusk, at the time US Secretary of State. Rusk had previously removed from the agenda a visit to the President’s sauna. Perhaps it was not his sort of activity. Kerkkonen, being the host, persisted, and besides, it was his sauna time of the day. He showed Rusk around his estate and they ended up at the sauna. They, along with their ambassadors, sat for while. The heat came on and Kerkkonen took off his jacket. Naturally, Rusk did the ... read more