Tallinn, Estonia – Cruise
Sunday 1st July 2018
After our massive days in St Petersburg, we just had an early night because we were so shattered. We were meeting our tour guide in Tallinn at 8:00 am so no time to sleep in. Up early for breakfast and to get organised before getting off the ship. Surprisingly, there were no massive queues to get out and we were through the port fairly quickly. We met the Alla Tours person and got onto the transfer bus to our meeting point very quickly. It was SO cold. Two of our St Petersburg group were with us on the tour. The town that we were driving through looked so pretty. The tour guide who met us at the port got onto the bus and welcomed us to summer!
We got to the top of this hill and the bus pulled over. We were then split into two groups. This was a walking tour, so I’m glad we started at the top of the hill and not the bottom!
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
This was the site that greeted us at the top of the hill! Wow! However, there was scaffolding on the front! Again! I would presume that it is way too cold in winter to do any repairs to the churches, so they have such a short window to get things done that they have to do it in the warmer weather. I’m not so sure that today would qualify as warmer weather though! Don’t be fooled by that blue sky the wind was so freezing.
We started with a talk about the history of Estonia. Our tour guide was Julia (we think) and she was quite young, but enthusiastic about her city. Both of the tour guides were quick to tell us that Tallinn was in the list of places to go for Lonely Planet and we can certainly see why.
We then went walking through the streets of the town up here in the Upper Town. There were many old buildings with a lot of history. Tallinn has been under many countries rule. It was independent during 1918 – 1940 until it then again came under Soviet rule until 1991, when Tallinn regained independence. Due to all of the different countries influences, there are many different building styles.
After this interesting walk, we then went to a viewing platform looking out over Tallinn’s Lower Town. It was amazing – but SO cold!
The view was amazing, but so cold so we couldn’t sit out there and enjoy it. We headed into the closest souvenir shop. Julia had arranged to meet us in 15 minutes. She was then explaining different things to us as we walked around to the next viewing platform.
As we were walking down to the next stop, I had massive problems with one of my legs with a massive cramp. It hurt so much to walk. Phil managed to source a bottle of water so I could take some Voltaren and Panadol. I managed to soldier on. Although my ability to take in what our guide was saying had diminished significantly.
Our walking tour concluded and we did some shopping. This city is so beautiful, yet modern too (although we didn’t make it to the modern area).
Coming out of the Port area they had some information displayed. Skype was developed in Tallinn and the people developing languages for Game of Thrones used Estonian as one of the languages to develop the Dothraki dialect.
An early afternoon back to our ship so that we could relax, which we needed! We have tickets tonight to see Rock of Ages onboard the ship. I can’t wait.
Bel and Phil's Adventures 
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