Day 7 – Tallinn, Estonia – Tuesday, September 4, 2012

When starting this cruise, I had high expectations for some ports of call, such as St. Petersburg, and low expectations for Aarhus and Tallinn, mainly because I knew nothing about them. So far my low expectation towns have been the highlights of the trip. (See Day 4 for Aarhus post.)

Estonia is one of those Baltic countries, along with Latvia and Lithuania, that we knew little about except they were unwilling Soviet satellite countries. Estonia has only 1.3 million people, of which 450,000 live in its capital, Tallinn, making it the same size as Cleveland in terms of the city, but of course we have over two million in our metropolitan area, so it's not really comparable.

Estonia has a lot in common with Finland, including a similar language (which means it is impossible to learn). Like Finland, it has been alternately dominated by much larger neighbors Russia and Sweden in olden days. They both got their independence in 1920 after WWI and were prosperous in 1940, but Estonia fell prey to the Soviet during and after WWII. In 1989 there was an amazing peaceful protest by two million Baltic citizens, forming a human chain from Vilnius in Lithuania to the south all the way to Tallinn, an unbroken “Baltic Chain” of 360 miles, singing patriotic songs! Our guide Liina said she was 9 years old at the time and was afraid to take part because violent reaction by the Soviet occupiers was feared. But her mother and father both were there and in retrospect she wishes she had been, too. (There was no violence, as the Soviet Union was already falling apart.) They got their independence in 1990 and have done quite well, joining the EU and installing the Euro last year. Check out www.singingrevolution.com for more of this amazing story.

Toompea Castle with "Tall Tower"

But enough history. The Tallinn PR folks have come up with the slogan, “A Medieval Gem,” and for once the PR people are right. The Old Town is divided into two parts, upper and lower. The upper town was the stronghold of the Estonian people and the heights made it difficult to capture. So the Toompea Castle (+ an 18^th century Russian addition) is still the seat of the Estonian parliament, dominated by high walls and the “tall tower.” Also on the upper town is the Dome Church, an odd mixture of Catholic-like structure and trappings, but it is Lutheran today.

Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral

Practically next door is the Russian Orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, obviously of great importance to the Russian population, which is about 20% of the population, a deliberate attempt by the Soviets to dilute the Estonian culture, Here's a little trivia for you, a new revelation to me. The so-called “onion domes” of Orthodox churches are actually representations of flames, as if permanent lit candles to God. Behind the Nevsky is a fantastic viewpoint overlooking the entire lower city and a view of our Emerald Princess at the dock, taller than any building in the old city, although they do have some skyscrapers in the newer part of the city.

That was the morning excursion, but Karen and I came back in the afternoon to walk around the lower old town, just a delightful city largely preserved the way it was in the 1500's or so. The buildings are colorful and quaint, and the cobblestone streets give you a great foot massage! If you tour Scandinavia, don't miss Tallinn!

Lower town from viewpoint

That night we saw a show with the ship's resident string quartet, which we had seen playing classical music several times, really good! This particular show was a bit different, but very entertaining. They were dressed in stunning gypsy outfits and playing gypsy music quite well, backed up by the ship's show band. The most amusing and yet amazing song was a very fast-fingered song (don't know the name, but you would recognize it), When they finished the lead violinist got a volunteer to come up and “play” the violin, which consisted of the volunteer holding the bow firmly in a vertical position while the violinist moved the violin up and down, strings against the bow while fingering the difficult song. It was a wow! feat.

Typical quaint street

Tomorrow – St. Petersburg.