Tallinn, Estonia

It is Saturday, May 17 and we are in Tallinn, Estonia

The seas have been unbelievably calm on this cruise

Entering the harbor in Tallinn

Always nice to have the locals greet us with music

With every port we go to, we hear we are the largest ship
to ever dock there.

Among medieval cities, there’s none nearly as well-preserved as Tallinn.  Its mostly intact city wall includes 26 watchtowers, each topped by a pointy red roof. Tallinn’s Nordic Lutheran culture and language connect it with Scandinavia, but two centuries of tsarist Russian rule and 45 years as part of the Soviet Union have blended in a distinctly Russian flavor.

We have tours throughout the Baltic with the company, Alla Tours.  This is a tour company headquartered in St. Petersburg, Russia, which offers tours in other Baltic cities as well.  By booking multi-cities, we obtained discounts on the prices.  Today is our second Alla Tour, the first being back in Copenhagen on May 12.  Our guide is Karina and we started our tour with a bus ride from the port to the Old city of Tallinn.  No audio earphones were given so hearing the soft-spoken Karina among all the other tour groups around us is difficult.

Follow the "Alla Tours" sign

We exit the bus at Tall Herman Tower and begin our walking tour on the top of Toompea Hill.  It is considered to be the birthplace of Tallinn and is the highest point in Old Town.

This tallest tower of the castle wall is a powerful symbol here.  For 50 years, while Estonian flags were hidden in cellars, the Soviet flag flew from Tall Herman.  As the USSR was unraveling, Estonians proudly and defiantly replaced the red Soviet flag here with their own black, white, and blue flag.

The pink palace is an 18th century Russian addition onto the medieval Toompea Castle.  Today it is the Estonian Parliament building.

Next we visited the magnificent Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, filled with golden icons and mosaics.  This is the largest and most ornate cathedral in Estonia.  It was built in 1885 during the Russian domination.  Because of this, the Estonian people never liked it and in 1924 it was almost torn down.  We were able to go inside but no photos were allowed.  This gave us a little taste of what the churches will be like in St. Petersburg.

We stopped at an overlook for a picturesque panorama of the Lower Town with its tall gothic spires and the red tiled roofs.

Amber is starting to show up in all the stores.  The Baltic region has the largest known deposit of amber dating back 44 million years ago.  And now it (authentic and fake) has turned into jewelry.

We continued on Tallinn's medieval cobblestone streets to visit the Gothic Dome Church, also known as St. Mary's Cathedral. Estonia is mostly Lutheran, but few Tallinners go to church.  Most churches double as concert venues or museums, but this one is still used for worship.  It was built in the 13th century during Danish rule and then rebuilt after a 1684 fire.  Once the church of Tallinn’s wealthy German-speaking aristocracy, the walls inside are lined with more than a hundred family crests and coats of arms carved by local masters as memorials to the deceased.

We descend to the Lower town along the Pikk Jalg (Long Leg) street.  It is a steep walk on cobblestones. 

Many artists set up their artwork on the wall in hopes of a sale.

We have a short stop the Holy Spirit Church, a landmark in Estonian history. The first written record of the Estonian language was written in this church.

On our way we view the Great Guild House, once the epitome of wealth.  In Tallinn the German big shots were part of the Great Guild.  The interior now houses a museum.

Town Hall square was the marketplace through the centuries.  Once, it held criminals chained to pillories for public humiliation and knights showing off in chivalrous tournaments.

The Raeapteek Pharmacy dates from 1422.  It has weird concoctions inside and will still sell you what you think you may need.

Katarina’s Gateway – the handicraft street holding medieval guild traditions.  We stepped into a glass store and watched a glassblower at work.

Katarina's Gateway 

Then it was on to the old wall, called the "Sweater Wall",  where local women sell their knitwear.

Sweater Wall

After the tour finished, we wandered Old Tallinn on own, first stopping by a restaurant so Terry could sample a local beer.  

Our waiters

Our receipt--currency in Estonia is the Euro

We then backtracked through the town to follow Rick Steves’ self-guided walk and see some things we missed with our tour.

Fat Margaret Tower (so-called for its thick walls) guarded the entry gate of the town in medieval times.

The Gate to enter the Old Town

Just inside the gate these buildings nicknamed “Three Sisters” are textbook examples of a merchant home/warehouse/office from the 15th century Hanseatic Golden Age. 

The merchants were a wealthy class.  This carved door evokes the wealth of Tallinn's merchant class.

Pikk Street was the medieval merchants’ main drag, leading from the harbor up into town.  It is lined with interesting buildings.  Some were used as the local headquarters of the KGB, while Estonia was under Soviet rule.  Locals knew that the road of suffering started here, as Tallinn’s troublemakers were sent to Siberian gulags.

The KGB building

We then met the bus to take us back to the ship and enjoyed a nice sail-away with our friends, Gwen and Jerry as we said goodbye to Estonia.

Next up…..our most anticipated stop:  St. Petersburg, Russia

Warnemunde, Germany

It is Thursday, May 15:  Warnemunde, Germany

Sailing into the port of Warnemunde

We see our friend Linda as we get our morning coffee and bid her safe travels as she leaves the ship today and heads back to Chicago.  We will make plans to get together this July as she and her husband will be in Colorado working on their cabin in the mountains.

Many people will make a 3 hour (each way) trip to Berlin today.  We opted not to take on a long day of travel for a short time in Berlin.  Our tour today is with Friends of Dave Tour and we will explore the towns near the port of Warnemunde.  We met our cruise critic friends joining us and walked off the ship as a group.  Dave was waiting for us with a sign.  He was interested in knowing not only our names, but where we are from—a very personable guy and he had us laughing from the very start.  While visiting he sets each of us up with an audio device.  These make it so nice as everyone can walk at their own pace and hear everything the guide says.

We walked through the older part of Warnemunde and Dave told us all about it.  Warnemunde is very clean and the shops along the waterfront looked like they would be fun to explore, but it was too early and they were not open.  Dave encouraged us to take time after the tour to enjoy the town before returning to the ship.  The lighthouse was built in 1897 and is still in use.  Speculation is that this lighthouse was used in some of the advertising for Leonardo deCaprio’s film, Shutter Island.

Warnemunde is a beach resort town

We boarded a nice van that held our group of 18 comfortably and then traveled toward the town of Wismar.  As we travelled along, Dave told us all about the Hanseatic (merchant trading) history of the area.

Travelling along the autobahn

Dave kept us laughing

Wismar is 90 percent intact with its medieval buildings.  There is a renovation going on that is removing the layer of plaster put on the buildings in later years to restore them to their original brick from medieval times. 

Most buildings had the plaster exterior over the old bricks

Our first stop was at the Nicolai Church.  It was built in the 1500’s and at that time was the tallest structure in the world.

Immediately inside the door of the church hangs the Jesse Tree, which is the family tree of Jesus.

The Jesse Tree - Family tree of Jesus

With Jesus at the very top

Inside Nicolai church

The organ

Long ago, many people were buried in churches.  There are tombs under the floor.  Evidently only the rich were able to afford a tomb in the church and for a time after the burial, there would be an unpleasant odor arising from them.  Thus came the term we know today as “the stinking rich”.

The ruin of St. Mary church, built in the early 13^th century and once the main parish church of Wismar is the only remainder of the original brick gothic edifice.  It suffered heavy damages in World War II and the deliberate demolition of the nave in 1960 under East German Communist government.

Holes are from shrapnel

Typical street in Wismar

Cobblestones are difficult to walk on and make the legs very tired.

Lunch was in Brauhaus am Lohberg.  Dave had given us a menu while enroute from Warnemunde so we could choose our meals.  

We had the Mecklenburg goulash, which was excellent, and the ribs, which were called Rippenbrauten and were stuffed with dried apples, prunes, and apricots.  It was good but the goulash was better. And Terry enjoyed the local beer brewed there….the Classic Mum Beer.

Our friends Gwen and Jerry....and that's Dave photobombing

The goulash

The ribs

After lunch we had a brief walk through the town square and then met up with our bus driver and traveled to the town of Schwerin in the state of Mecklenburg

.  

Schwerin is the only capital of Europe that was rebuilt entirely in the 19^th century. For centuries the palace was the home of the grand dukes of the Mecklenburg state and it is absolutely beautiful.  

Internet photo of the area

Today the palace is used for parliament

We all voted not to go inside but to just tour the beautiful grounds and hear Dave tell us all about it.  Catherine the Great, the famous Russian empress of the mid-18^th century, came from the Mecklenburg area.

We then walked over to a beautiful square that had lots of shopping.  

Before being let loose to explore the shops, Dave took us to a local bakery and we got to choose a slice of cake for our afternoon snack.  They were all declared delicious!

As we headed toward our bus for the drive back to the ship, Dave stopped by this house.  It was the Jewish synagogue in the 1930’s.  

On November 9, 1938, the building was set on fire and the Jews were taken and sent to camps.  Around the corner and down the streets there are little gold square plaques with the names of those taken during the holocaust.  The artist purposefully placed the plaques on the sidewalk so that one would have to bow their head in reverence to read the inscription.

Dave was a wonderful tour guide, and the first guide that I ever have had the urge to give a hug as we departed.  In fact, everyone on our tour did just that!

Our cruise critic friends