Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 3

This morning we will take a ferry across the Gulf of Finland to end this tour where it began, in Helsinki, Finland. Right now we are in gorgeous Tallinn, Estonia, the last of the three capital cities of the Baltic States. Heading in to this trip, fifteen days sounded like almost enough time to explore this part of the world, but, as usual, and of course, it is not. I especially need to go back to Lithuania, to see more of that little country and to try to find the town that is named after my family (or vice versa). My last name was made up by my father; unfortunately he - or someone else - chose a confusing to spell, abrupt name that sounds as if we are German, but we are not German at ... read more

We spent our last day in Tallinn on a medieval walking tour of the lower part of Tallin with our two tour guides dressed in medieval garb. The tour took us around some of the most important medieval sites around old town Tallin and gave us a great insight into the towns history and boom to bust fortunes. One great story was of the Danish Conquerer who constructed the first castle overlooking Tallinn who was captured in his sleep, killed due to debts he owed and body placed in the St Catherines church cellar where it was forgotten. More than 100 years later, someone opened the cellar and found his perfectly preserved body and so Tallin’s first tourist attraction was born - people would travel from all around Europe to view his body and poke his ... read more

After our high paced tour of St Petersburg, it was good to relax in our Princess Anastasia cabin for 18 hours as we travelled to Helsinki (arriving at 7:30 am) and then onto Tallinn in Estonia arriving at 12:00 pm. We had priority exit so we were whisked through Estonian customs at 12:30 pm and walked with our luggage around 1 km through the twisted cobblestoned streets of Old Town Tallinn. After checking into our Hotel on Munga Sreet we wen exploring the medieval town of Tallin. Old Town Tallinn remains untouched with most of the buildings dating back to 14th and 15th centuries. Many parts of the original Old town wall are still standing but there is only a 320 meter section that people can walk on top of with the remainder of the wall ... read more

16th July Tallinn Capital of Estonia, it’s post independence renaissance has bred new life to this city. The old town has a beautiful tableau of gabled roofs and turrets. The spoiler was the four other cruise ships in, offloading some 12000 passengers plus us into the cobbled streets. Again a few pics to give a flavour of the city. We had a great lunch with local beer in restaurant/cafe and we didn’t hear an English voice. Magical!!!... read more

Bonjour à tous, 0 km en voiture, mais 11,5 à pied, dont des centaines de marches d’escalier. Si toutes les journées étaient aussi agréables que celle-ci, ce serait merveilleux. Peut être en faut il des mauvaises, pour apprécier encore plus les bonnes. Souvenez vous lorsqu’un soir j’étais à Malmö, je vous avais dis que je savais plus où donner des yeux tellement il y avait de jolies femmes à regarder, et bien aujourd’hui, même chose mais avec tous les types d’architecture qui sont concentrés dans cette ville. Et pour augmenter le plaisir, les jeux de couleurs. C’est environ dix siècles d’histoire réunis dans les murs d’enceinte. Je ne pense pas ce soir faire un blog très long, je vais plus privilégier les photos qui seront plus éloquentes moi. La dernière fois que j’ai eu du plaisir ... read more