2013 0807 Tallinn, Estonia: We docked around 6:30, I think. Got up a bit late due to not setting the alarm, change in time, etc. After our usual breakfast, we left the ship and boarded a shuttle bus into Tallinn to the base of the Old Town. Well, I got lost right away. The Cook book I was using assumed we’d enter the old town through a certain gate, but the bus let us out in the newer part of town and I got turned around until I could find where we were on the map. And I got turned around a lot for a couple of hours, but we saw the main sites both in the upper and lower old town.
The pictures will do a better job than I can dealing with the historic buildings and area. It is as it was other than the hundreds of tourist groups being led around up and down. Lots of boats in port and lots of groups in all languages everywhere except down some of the side streets. In the Town Hall Square, there are several restaurants with outdoor seating under tents. Young men and women in costume basically hawk the wares of their restaurant to the tourists passing by.
We started by getting lost trying to get to the Upper Old Town area and the old walls and castle up there. On the way, I got a boulder lodged under a lens and had some fun trying to clear my eye. Up at the top, I found us on the map and we walked to a view of the Lower Old Town. Then I asked a tour guide how we could return to down there without retracing our route up. She obliged and we made our way down a steep cobble stone street into the lower portion and walked to Town Hall Square. Besides all the places to eat, the middle of the square is an open-air market with booth after booth of souvenirs. We did go into several stores that sold Baltic amber. Lovely stuff. Reminds me of Kauri sap we got in 2005 in NZ. Didn’t by anything anywhere.
Looked at a couple of menus in the square and decided on a place. The food and service were excellent. Then we wandered around the square for a while and returned downhill to the newer part of town where we could get the 1:15 shuttle. So, we spent four hours wandering and it was quite sufficient. We didn’t go into any of the churches or museums. Guess we were satiated after St. P.
Had tea, of course. The fois gras sandwich and the scone/clotted cream/jam should hold me to dinner, which is all the way at 8:00 in the Polo Grill.
Spent the hours between tea and dinner reading while Marian played word games. Sat for a while on the balcony, but it got too cold so came inside to read until my eyelids started to close.
Nice dinner in Polo Grill. Saw Carol and Ken West there … sat at table along the windows behind us. Great sunset over the water as we finished dinner.
The pictures will do a better job than I can dealing with the historic buildings and area. It is as it was other than the hundreds of tourist groups being led around up and down. Lots of boats in port and lots of groups in all languages everywhere except down some of the side streets. In the Town Hall Square, there are several restaurants with outdoor seating under tents. Young men and women in costume basically hawk the wares of their restaurant to the tourists passing by.
We started by getting lost trying to get to the Upper Old Town area and the old walls and castle up there. On the way, I got a boulder lodged under a lens and had some fun trying to clear my eye. Up at the top, I found us on the map and we walked to a view of the Lower Old Town. Then I asked a tour guide how we could return to down there without retracing our route up. She obliged and we made our way down a steep cobble stone street into the lower portion and walked to Town Hall Square. Besides all the places to eat, the middle of the square is an open-air market with booth after booth of souvenirs. We did go into several stores that sold Baltic amber. Lovely stuff. Reminds me of Kauri sap we got in 2005 in NZ. Didn’t by anything anywhere.
Looked at a couple of menus in the square and decided on a place. The food and service were excellent. Then we wandered around the square for a while and returned downhill to the newer part of town where we could get the 1:15 shuttle. So, we spent four hours wandering and it was quite sufficient. We didn’t go into any of the churches or museums. Guess we were satiated after St. P.
Had tea, of course. The fois gras sandwich and the scone/clotted cream/jam should hold me to dinner, which is all the way at 8:00 in the Polo Grill.
Spent the hours between tea and dinner reading while Marian played word games. Sat for a while on the balcony, but it got too cold so came inside to read until my eyelids started to close.
Nice dinner in Polo Grill. Saw Carol and Ken West there … sat at table along the windows behind us. Great sunset over the water as we finished dinner.
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