Tallinn and My Whites
Tallinn, the capitol city of Estonia, is quite a tiny little town situated on the northern coast of the country on the Gulf of Finland . . . Joe and I had read it was a small hamlet, easily traversed . . . except for its sometimes steep cobblestone streets. We looked forward to enjoying a leisurely day meandering through the charming Hanseatic town, we had already visited Lubek in Germany which apparently was the governing city of the region.
Now, we’ve had really great luck with the weather on this trip . . . sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60’s and low 70’s, just the way we like it . . . but it isn’t a vacation for us until it really rains on us . . . happens EVERY summer vacation. We awoke in Tallinn to a gloomy and drizzly morning. The wind gusts were unpredictable, sweeping north to south then east to west . . . my poor, cheap little umbrella didn’t have a chance at all . . . embarrassingly enough, it flipped inside out. The town was a 10 minute walk from the port, but with the gusty winds whipping little droplets of rain at us, it felt like a much longer (and wetter) walk.
The tour books were correct in saying that the town was easy to navigate (it was also overrun with cruise ship tourists, many from our own ship) . . . we saw the very intact Medieval wall that surrounds the Old Town, Raekoja plats (town hall square) with a Town Hall which is apparently the oldest in Europe, and Oleviste Church. We even stopped into the museum that traces Tallinn’s development up until the 1940’s which is housed in a medieval merchant’s home . . . all of this, however, was in the Lower Town. We had to make our way up narrow sidewalks and cobblestone streets . . . WET COBBLESTONE . . . to get to the Upper Town. It was a harrowing walk with large sedans zipping by, elderly people with walkers taking up most of the space on the sidewalks and small Italian children skipping through the crowds screaming and laughing. The Upper Town had a great view of the Lower Town and included a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and the Toompea Palace, built for Tsarina Catherine but now where the parliament meets.
All of this “touring” was completed in less than two hours . . . yup, one of the quickest trips through a town. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves . . . at one point we just stood around, people watching, just to kill some time. But because of the cold and the rain, we called it a day 2 ½ hours into our excursion and headed back to the ship for some quiet time in the spa’s therapy pools, heating chairs . . . oh, and I did do some laundry . . . got to wash all my whites.
--Christine
Now, we’ve had really great luck with the weather on this trip . . . sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60’s and low 70’s, just the way we like it . . . but it isn’t a vacation for us until it really rains on us . . . happens EVERY summer vacation. We awoke in Tallinn to a gloomy and drizzly morning. The wind gusts were unpredictable, sweeping north to south then east to west . . . my poor, cheap little umbrella didn’t have a chance at all . . . embarrassingly enough, it flipped inside out. The town was a 10 minute walk from the port, but with the gusty winds whipping little droplets of rain at us, it felt like a much longer (and wetter) walk.
The tour books were correct in saying that the town was easy to navigate (it was also overrun with cruise ship tourists, many from our own ship) . . . we saw the very intact Medieval wall that surrounds the Old Town, Raekoja plats (town hall square) with a Town Hall which is apparently the oldest in Europe, and Oleviste Church. We even stopped into the museum that traces Tallinn’s development up until the 1940’s which is housed in a medieval merchant’s home . . . all of this, however, was in the Lower Town. We had to make our way up narrow sidewalks and cobblestone streets . . . WET COBBLESTONE . . . to get to the Upper Town. It was a harrowing walk with large sedans zipping by, elderly people with walkers taking up most of the space on the sidewalks and small Italian children skipping through the crowds screaming and laughing. The Upper Town had a great view of the Lower Town and included a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and the Toompea Palace, built for Tsarina Catherine but now where the parliament meets.
All of this “touring” was completed in less than two hours . . . yup, one of the quickest trips through a town. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves . . . at one point we just stood around, people watching, just to kill some time. But because of the cold and the rain, we called it a day 2 ½ hours into our excursion and headed back to the ship for some quiet time in the spa’s therapy pools, heating chairs . . . oh, and I did do some laundry . . . got to wash all my whites.
--Christine
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