Tallinn, Estonia

Have spent the day in Tallinn- 2 hour ferry ride to get there.
Have had a big day out and need to get to bed, so check back later for the full blog please.

Okay, here we go again...
Alarm went off at 5.15 and we were out the hotel door at 6.10 to ge5 to the ferry to take us to Tallinn for the day. 2 hour trip and generally smooth seas all the way. OUr group was booked in for the buffet breakfast and had tables allocated which was great, so after a good breakfast we were able to stay put at our tables and chat and pass the time. On arrival in Tallinn we were met by our local guide Richard who was a really nice young man and certainly knew his stuff. Our first stop was the Sing Festival Grounds which has a fabulous beginning of 150 years ago where Estonians would gather and sing their protests. They have been invaded by nearly all their neighbouring countries and under Russian rule, it was illegal to fly their own flag which is blue, black and white horizontal stripes (Power fans would love it). They have really only had their independence for about 27 years. They hold their song festival every five years and through massedchoirs, can have over 130,000 singers in the amphitheatre over the 4 days. This year is their 150 year celebration. I think Richard said it would be held in May. Imagine Woodstock without hippies and as many drugs.

You can certainly tell the different ‘rulers’ influence in the architecture of the buildings. Unfortunately for photo ops there are so many trees everywhere that it made it hard to get good shots.

Time to head out in the snow now for some Sunday souvenir shopping so you will have to check back again later for even more..
...Okay, am back again for my third attempt.
Skies are grey and sometimes so a bit hard to get good photos out of the coach window, but there were some really lovely buildings and churches. Estonians are apparently the least religious people in the Slavic countries, but traditionally they are Lutheran Protestant.

We stopped at the Russian Orthodox Church (which ended our coach tour and commenced our walking tour) which was very impressive, especially as they make up only about 1% of the population, but it is built in the upper area where the ruling class tended to live, so they could look down on the serfs who were the local Estonians. Fabulous panorama view for here too, along with being right st the Parliament House which explained why we passed so many embassies along the winding cobblestone roadways.

There were a number of shops in the upper town, but Richard had warned us to wait until we got into the old lower town to buy anything, especially Amber as Estonia had the largest Amber deposits in Europe. ( I think I’ve got that fact right).

After our guided tour of the old town, Richard left us to our own devices for a few hours where we then were to meet meet Kelli again who being fromTallinn had left us after we got off the ferry so she could go home and do her laundry! SB and I were feeling a bit peckish and decided we wanted soup. Captn D and Foggy were just wanting coffee so we went our separate ways and we decided to go into an old house that had a 14th century theme, and food to fit the time period. It was obviously touristy, but absolutely excellent!

We both had the mushroom soup which came is a three legged bowl with a handle so we had to drink this creamy, chunky mushroom soup straight out of the bowl. It was delicious! We also shared a herb bread that was accompanied by a grilled cheese spread with the cheese spread served on a plate so that we had to break it off with the wooden two pronged fork that came with our pottery bowl full of ‘weapons’ which ofcourse was our cutlery. Had a cheeky little NZ Sav Blanc with it too, just to wash it all down. The servers were all dressed in olde world costumes and when our delightful waitress came with the bill I got out my credit card and she said “Oh, you’ll need the payment thingy contraption, as whoever and wherever possible she would use medieval words and reminded us that they don’t usually have those thingies in the 14th century.
So we were well fed and well looked after. Time to wander on our own and check out this lovely little place that very much had an old village feel.

We were on the hunt for some little Christmas houses that SB had her heart set on. Never did find them but we wandered into one store and I saw a beige cotton and linen cardigan that had appliqué involving actual amber beads down the two front panels. Unfortunately they had it in my size so after removing half a dozen top layers, I tried it on, it fitted, SB said it looked great and so the die was cast. The store had a 20% off all woollen clothing sale, so I cheekily asked if ther3 was a discount on my non woollen cardigan. Very kindly, I as offered a 10% discount so I very much felt like my dear dad’s daughter with my purchase that I was happy to pay full price for! SB spotted a maroon woollen jacket that was really, really nice so tried that on, and maybe I encouraged her a bit much, but what the heck, she bought it and we are looking forward to winter in Adelaide when w3 will ge5 a chance to show off our purchases. Although Estonia is considerably cheaper than Finland, which is why there are something like 17 ferries a day between the two countries, we didn’t actually want anything else and there wasn’t anything essentially Estonian that would remind us of our time here so we didn’t end up buying much else.
Time to meet the group and back on the coach. Kelli was there as well, back to the coach and then it was time to get on the ferry, but not before SB had to buy an icecream at the ferry terminal. When we got back to Helsinki after sailing through sheets of ice, we all got on our waiting coach which took us straight to our restaurant for a farewell dinner as our tour has now come to an end. Never did find out the name of the restaurant but it was delightful and the meal was first class. Entree was a seafood medley which were just a couple mouthfuls of salmon and tiny prawns, but very yummy. Our main was a meat in a fine red jus on a bed of mashed potato with baby green beans. The meat was so tender I could have used a spoon to cut it. I have never tasted such an excellent cut. I finally had to ask a waiter what the meat was as none of us at our table could identify it. I knew it wasn’t reindeer and was bob smacked when told it was lamb! Apparently they slow cook it for 16 hours at 60 degrees. Bloody beautiful! Dessert was crime brûlée with a citrus gelato and a few cranberries. I didn’t eat the icecream or berries as I didn’t want them to spoil the taste of the crime brûlée.

All too soon it was time to get back on the coach and head back to our hotel. Kelli was leaving us now as she heading back to the ferry terminal to catch the 10.30 ferry home. She wasn’t supposed to leave until the next morn8ng to make sure those leaving for home first thing, all got away ok. As far as tour guides and escorts go, she was excellent on the ship taking us to lots of things we wouldn’t have otherwise known about or seen in the different ports, but I wouldn’t rate her as highly for the land portion of the tour. It was almost as though she had had enough and was impatient with people and not at all good about getting everyone together to give us the same information at the one time, but instead drip fed different min8 groups or couples and then gave different tim8ngs and info. Anyway, we all survived, didn’t miss out on anything and didn’t get lost or left behind. So all’s we’ll thatends well. Time to head up to our room and collapse into bed, hence no blog completed at the time, but now you are up to date.