May 31, 2014 Tallinn, Estonia

Today our port of call was Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn was first inhabited in the 10th century and was chosen for its favorable geographical position – a hillside in the immediate vicinity of the port, which has remained on the East-West trading route of the Baltic.
We met our SPB tour guide, Nikola, to start our 10am tour in the rain which continued off and on all day. He provided great historical background, as well as information about the current politics of Estonia. It was interesting to learn how progressive the country is regarding technology. Over 98.6% of the country has access to the internet and elections are now held online. Over 46% of the country voted in the last election. The President is only 34 years old and he is well liked by most of the country. He said there isn’t much corruption in the government, perhaps because the country’s entire population is only 1.3 million! It was fun to learn that the inventors of Skype were two young men from Estonia who ended up selling their idea to Microsoft!







The country has been invaded numerous times with control changing from Estonian to Danish, to German Teutonic, to Swedish, to Russian. It gained independence in 1918, but was lost again when the Russian Empire conquered the country again in 1940, then Germany again in 1941. Estonia has finally regained freedom after the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991. It was interesting to see five different types of architecture in the old town square representing all of the cultures.




Our tour took us by the Parliament building (was the former Toompea Castle), Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, St. Nicholas Church, the Merchant Guild’s building, several shopping areas and even to the 1980 Olympic village. It was interesting to learn that the Soviet Government built a church in the Olympic Village for the games, since religion had basically been outlawed during the second Soviet regime. After the Olympics were over the church was converted to a fitness center. Now there is a small chapel in the upper level!



We had a lunch break near the Old Town Hall square at a Hansa Restaurant. We were served meat pies and apple pies. YUMMY! Tobey and I had hot tea while most others had coffee.

After lunch Nikola arranged for us to go to the top of the Radisson Sky Hotel – 24th floor – and have a great look out over the city.

We ended the tour after visiting the current home of the President (outside only), but it was amazing that we were able to be right next to the building and there were only two guards at the door – a much different culture than in the USA. The buildings had been the home of Peter the Great in 1724.

Back on the ship about 5 pm, we changed into swimsuits and went to Deck 14 to sit in the hot tub and watch as our ship left port. The water could have been warmer, but it was a fun way to say goodbye to Tallinn. We shared our dinner table with two couples from Germany and one from New York. Another enjoyable evening! It is 10 pm and the sun is shining brightly – seems more like 5 or 6 pm! We have to move our clocks ahead an hour before arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia in the morning, so we will be off to bed soon. More again when we have internet!