This day began with our getting up much earlier than needed! I woke up at 6 and got my shower, the alarm went off at 6:30 and when Bob got in the shower, I turned on the tv to discover that it was really an hour earlier--we had forgotten to re-set the clock the night before! So we had an early, leisurely breakfast and had time to read before our tour at 9 a.m. They predicted the temp for the day in Tallinn, Estonia would be 68 degrees, but as you can see in this photo, it was overcast and it got colder all morning and we really got chilled. Our first stop on the tour was the "Old Town" with amazing history. The earliest settlement was in 1124 and the city has been under rule of Denmark, Sweden & Russia and was independent from 1919 to 1940. In 1941 it was occupied by German forces and taken by the USSR in 1944 & remained until they regained independence in 1991. The photo is of the Aleksandr Nevski Khram which is a 19th century Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It was very beautiful.
Twenty of the 46 original towers built in the Middle Ages are still standing, the oldest in northern Europe. There are narrow cobbled streets and gabled roofs in the beautiful 1/2 square mile of the Old City. And it was quite hilly.
This is a closer view of one of the towers which we walked past. We found a nice little watercolor showing the towers & wall of the old city to frame & hang on our travel wall.
This is a view of the old city from our ship showing the steeple of the medieval Town Hall (14th & 15th century) on the left in the photo and the Russian Orthodox Cathedral towards the center next to one of the towers.
The closest major city to Tallinn is Helsinki, Finland which is only 85 km across the Gulf of Finland. This is one of the shuttles or ferries which crosses the gulf and it is used by the citizen a great deal. Our guide told us that many people board in the evening to cross over to shop in Helsinki the next morning.
This day began with our getting up much earlier than needed! I woke up at 6 and got my shower, the alarm went off at 6:30 and when Bob got in the shower, I turned on the tv to discover that it was really an hour earlier--we had forgotten to re-set the clock the night before! So we had an early, leisurely breakfast and had time to read before our tour at 9 a.m. They predicted the temp for the day in Tallinn, Estonia would be 68 degrees, but as you can see in this photo, it was overcast and it got colder all morning and we really got chilled. Our first stop on the tour was the "Old Town" with amazing history. The earliest settlement was in 1124 and the city has been under rule of Denmark, Sweden & Russia and was independent from 1919 to 1940. In 1941 it was occupied by German forces and taken by the USSR in 1944 & remained until they regained independence in 1991. The photo is of the Aleksandr Nevski Khram which is a 19th century Russian Orthodox Cathedral. It was very beautiful.
Twenty of the 46 original towers built in the Middle Ages are still standing, the oldest in northern Europe. There are narrow cobbled streets and gabled roofs in the beautiful 1/2 square mile of the Old City. And it was quite hilly.
This is a closer view of one of the towers which we walked past. We found a nice little watercolor showing the towers & wall of the old city to frame & hang on our travel wall.
This is a view of the old city from our ship showing the steeple of the medieval Town Hall (14th & 15th century) on the left in the photo and the Russian Orthodox Cathedral towards the center next to one of the towers.
The closest major city to Tallinn is Helsinki, Finland which is only 85 km across the Gulf of Finland. This is one of the shuttles or ferries which crosses the gulf and it is used by the citizen a great deal. Our guide told us that many people board in the evening to cross over to shop in Helsinki the next morning.
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