Tallinn, Estonia

After a lovely smooth-sailin' day at sea, we arrived in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

We took a coach from the port and began our walking tour of the city. 

We began with a visit to Alexandr Nevsky Cathedral, a Russian orthodox church.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was very ornate and impressive.  It was our first time seeing a cathedral of this style.

Outside the cathedral was one of Matt's favourite cars - a Rols Royce Phantom. 

He says if he had one of these cars he would use it to take me to our private box at the opera. Sounds like a deal.  Of course, for what it would cost to buy a Phantom, we could probably buy our own opera house.

Across the street from the cathedral is the Estonian Parliament building.  Estonians like to vote in young Prime Ministers - the two most recent have been in their 30s/40s.  They like young politicians because they have a more progressive agenda and are untainted by the communist era.

We got a rooftop view of the city,

then we hiked down the steep cobbled lane named Pikk Jalg ("Long Leg").  There is a nice long legged boot/drain pipe to mark the beginning of this famous road.

Down through the Medieval gate

and out past St. Nicholas Church (Lutheran). 

Then onto the Town Square. 

The Medieval Town Hall of Tallinn is the oldest surviving Medieval hall in Europe.

In keeping with the Medieval theme of this building, there is a Medieval restaurant at the back of the town hall where one can buy authentic soup, ale, and pies for only 1 Euro each.  Another tasty bargain lunch! Amy and I had carrot pie - it was lovely.  They also have elk, beef, and apple pies. Grandpa said the elk pie was delicious.  Great little place for lunch, I highly recommend it if you're ever in the old-city part of Tallinn.

Also very interesting was the 15th-century Apothecary. It is the oldest pharmacy/chemist still in operation and stocks all kinds of interesting items from dried herbs to snake oil. A very pretty building too.

More of Medieval Tallinn:

From the town centre, we walked through the outer gates of the city,

and back to the coach.  We then drove to the Open Air Museum where we got to see exhibits of rural life in Estonia from the past several centuries.  Each area of the museum displayed houses and items from everyday life during each of the last four centuries.

The home below would have housed several generations of the same family and was the oldest, most primitive home at the museum (16th century).  No chimneys - they liked it quite smokey.  Kept the lice away.

Nice little storage shed...

Chicken coop - loved this style of fence.  Want to copy it on my homestead someday...

The girls enjoyed climbing around and exploring the beautiful terrain.

Amy found a rather large beetle that she carried around most the afternoon.  It was her 'nature buddy.'

A 19th century Estonian farmhouse.  Very cute and cozy.

Of course we managed to get some shopping done amongst all our sight-seeing.  The Baltic countries are well-known for their amber jewelry but the little girls were much more impressed with the Viking Hats.  The ones they are wearing in this photo are pretty authentic - made with real leather and animal horns. Pricey too.  At 50+ Euros each we talked them into having a picture taken instead of buying one...

While Grandma was choosing the perfect amber necklace/earring set, the girls played with Auntie and Uncle.  We had so much fun touring around with family.  It really is the best way to travel.

On the drive back to the port we saw Tallinn's famous flower market which is open 24 hours a day.

We also passed "Fat Margaret" Tower, or "Large Marge" as the locals call it,

and more of the Medieval city wall.

Our tour guide, Anna, told us that the Estonian language is very similar to Finnish.  This makes Estonia a popular travel destination for the Fins during the summer months.  That, and it's only 50 miles across the Baltic Sea from Finland... 

Estonia is a very beautiful country and we found the people to be very friendly. Would love to go back someday.