Ashore inTallinn, Estonia - 06/30/19
30 June 2019 | Gulf of Finland
Helen
Woke up after 8:30. Showered and got dressed. Decided to have breakfast in the dining room on Deck 6. We sat with two couples from New Zealand, one that we had dined with before. Enjoyed our breakfast and the company. Also, enjoyed the water view as our table was right in front of a window. Just before we finished, our ship reached the dock. There were two other ships beside us in separate slips. There were also several other ships in town. They have a few very large ferry boats at a separate dock. Lots of tourists for this small capital city. After eating, we went back to our cabin and watched the lines being secured and the ramps lowered in place. We had to take our passports to shore as well as our ship's card. We didn't take anything else. Mark just wore his shorts with a light long sleeved shirt. I wore jeans and a sweater. It was an easy ramp out to the dock from Deck 4. Then we had about a 2 mile walk to the old city area of Tallinn. We could have paid for a shuttle bus ride, but chose to get some exercise. This was a walled in city with 20 turrets from back in the 13th century. There was also a moat that was around 1-2 kilometers surrounding the city. We enjoyed a free tour of one of the turrets, climbing up three stone flights. They had some artwork to sell on the top floor. Walked around the town. The next turret cost 6 Euros. The bottom floor housed many pieces of armor from the olden days, which we were able to try on and take pictures of ourselves. Most interesting pieces. I could not even lift up the chain male creation. We did find a metal helmut that had male on the back of it, to protect your neck. Then they had a wide assortment of swords, knives, spears and cross bows. We really enjoyed trying on the pieces. We did not get into the full body armor. There were at least 4 more floors to this turret. Nice view at the top. Lots of historical information on each floor. We found the town center and there were lots of cafes and shops that were open today. We enjoyed part of a walking tour, when we got to a very large house that converted most of their property into an open air theater. The city also had a market place selling everything from jewelry to wooden carvings, to wool accessories and sweaters, and lots of other souvenirs. It was a nice long walk thru the city. We had a map of the city but it was difficult to find the street names. Eventually, we found our way back to where we first entered the city. We passed many different tour groups of tourists from all the other ships in town. Many people enjoyed the cafes along the narrow streets. Again, some very beautiful buildings, lots of them with very ornate carvings on the doorways and windows. It got hotter with temperatures reaching 75 degrees today. After walking up a long hill, I was hot and tired. We stopped for a bottle of water and shared a cup of their local ice cream with Baileys flavoring. It was yummy. Also, enjoyed some free wifi, plus a free restroom. We continued walking thru the downtown and checked out several shops. On the way back to the ship, we met up with Greg & Maxine, our dinner mates. We shared the walk back. It was just after 3 pm. We stopped to check out the duty free shop before re-boarding our ship. We headed to Deck 14, Lido, for a late lunch. I ate a lot of vegetables, knowing that we were meeting our dinner mates for pizza at 6 pm. Headed back to our cabin and Mark was instantly asleep. I posted some pictures to Facebook and joined Mark for a short nap. Headed up to Deck 8, to the Corniche Cafe. Ian and Beverly were already seated. Greg and Maxine arrived soon after. We enjoyed our pizza dinner. Lots of laughs too. Our ship dropped the lines and departed just as we were finishing dinner. We stopped at the Princess Theater for the juggler/comedian show. It was a little disappointing so we left. Headed back to our cabin to watch our ship leave the port of Tallinn. Lots of other boats on the water. Most of them look like freighters. Saw several sail boats as well. Watched the F1 highlights from Austria using our ship wifi. Lewis Hamilton came in 5th as his car was overheating and tires were shot. The sun is shining brightly on the water. We have slower speed as the distance to Helsinki is just over 100 miles. The seas have a slight chop, but basically flat waters. We arrive in Helsinki by 7 am tomorrow. We plan to head to shore and do our own touring. Thanks for all the emails and messages. Enjoy this last day of June!