Terrific Tallinn

We enjoyed our visit to Tallinn, Estonia during our family Baltic Cruise 10 years ago , but this time our excursion to this quaint medieval capital was far more comprehensive.

We left the ship at 9 am to join a motor coach with local guide for a six-hour tour of Tallinn. "Old Town" is a very picturesque fairytale village of steeples, towers, red-tiled roofs, cobblestone lanes and blind alleys. It is the best preserved medieval city in Northern Europe. Estonian, the local language, is closest to Finnish, but is in the same family as Hungarian. The nearby other Baltic countries of Latvia, and Lithuania use a completely different type of language... no wonder these three countries have had their issues! Throughout the tour, we were reminded of the various times in history when Estonia was a free country, as it is now. It bounced around from being controlled by the Danes, the Germans, the Soviets, and finally in 1991 truly free when the Soviet Union dissolved.

The Estonian people are very friendly and hospitable, with an attractive Scandinavian demeanor. They are really into folk singing and dancing. Our tour group had coffee in the "Blackhead's Fraternity House," a 15th century building that was the home of guild workers who were not able to find wives! We were treated to authentic Estonian folk dancing, and Ronna and other guests of our cruise got pulled into dance with the "pros." Ronna was "thrilled?" to be waltzing, clapping & getting very dizzy at the rough early hour of 10 am! And is so excited that Bill was able to catch it all on film -- not.

We had lunch at Peppersack, a typical restaurant with tourist-driven Estonian cuisine... we ate chicken salad with yogurt, pork cutlets with dill gravy, sauerkraut and pickles.

Several old monasteries have been converted to craft shops, featuring locally made linens, leather goods, hand-blown glass and amber jewelry. We bought some really beautiful glass candlestick holders for Dillon.

We're now back on the ship and getting ready to sail away to our three-day visit to St. Petersburg.

Best one-liner we heard so far: A women on our cruise from Memphis said at dinner last night.... "I hope my husband makes enough money someday so that he can afford a mistress."