Tallinn Estonia

On our way from Rostock (Germany)to Tallin (Estonia) we experienced the most beautiful sunset at dinner. It was just lucky we were on the port side of the ship at the right time of day. We were amazed to see the jet trails turn orange like the sunset.

This morning at 10 am we docked at Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, to find there were at least 4 other cruise ships in town. This brings at least 10,000 visitors into the city each day so we were a bit apprehensive about how easy it would be to get around. We had this situation in Alaska at nearly every port, but this is the first time on this cruise.

 

We had purchased our Hop on Hop off bus ticket before we left Australia and we were thinking there is no way we will get a top deck seat as we left our cabin.

 

We left the ship about 11 am and walked down the pier with the people from the P&O Ship Arcadia that was docked next to us. We were lucky to find the Red bus at the end of the pier with hardly anyone on it. So we easily got seats upstairs. The bus left 10 minutes later to start the first loop. The narration was excellent but provided so much information it as difficult to take it all in.

Tallinn dates back to the 11th Century and 70% of the city wall that was originally built is still intact despite many battles through the ages. The was also a moat around the wall that added to the defences and it is now used for ice skating in winter and fishing in summer.

 

The towers near the wall and the city gates originally had no tops on them as the soldiers would protect the city from the towers, Now the towers have red tiled cone roofs which are quite distinctive. It was difficult to get photos as there are lots of treed right at the bus top deck level. So I have a small selection but not many.

 

We got off the bus at Toompea Hill to see more of the Lindanise Castle and the Old Town. This seemed to be where most of the 10,000 visitors were congregating. There were buses and tour groups everywhere.

Today Tallinn is a leader in e – politics where they use technology for parliamentary meetings’s instead of the usual massive number of days to travel and sit in parliament together. The narration said many countries are now coming to see how effective this  and determine if they also could use this format. Imagine question time without the ability to name and shame!

Well we were not interrupted by the 10,000 other tourists and found is quite easy to navigate the buses and make our way back to the ship when we ere ready. Not sure if the locals would feel the same way!