Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tallinn Estonia

We'll make one last snide reference to poor old St. Petersburg simply by noting that our stop at Tallinn was literally a breath of fresh air. Even their tourist office has a slick site. It was a pleasant 15-minute walk on a lovely day from the dock into the center of the walled Old Town.

We bought postcards for grandkids, enjoyed a cappucino in a sidewalk cafe, and just wandered around the place for a couple of hours. No crowds, no tour guide, no on and off the bus in the rain... No, we're not being fair to St. Petersburg but Tallinn is a place we'd be happy to visit again.

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Here's Brian writing postcards to grandkids.

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Lots of art for sale...

It was interesting to see the old women lined up outside the church to accept donations from the exiting parishoners.

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Apparently the Estonian language is related fairly closely to Finnish. This photo, however, must have been taken in Gdansk, Poland, our next stop, because an Estonian reader has pointed out very politely in a comment below that the sign is in Polish! Now that we look carefully, at the bottom of the photo we can now even notice the word "Gdansk." We'll leave it right here as a reminder not to get so far behind on posting our photos next time.

Looking down beyond the walls toward the sea...

3 comments:

  1. Looks like a neat place!
    Riley LOVES all her postcards, by the way! Thanks!

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  2. I am glad that you liked Tallinn.

    You are right that Estonian language is similar to Finnish. They are both finno-ugric languagesbut the second picture from the bottom can't be taken in Tallinn, because the text on the wall is written in Polish. :)

    Best regards,

    Mark

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  3. Thanks Mark! Our next stop was Gdansk, and we obviously got a picture mixed up. We'll move it over to the Gdansk post right away! We loved Tallinn and would like to return there someday to spend time. The people were terrific, and you're very kind to point out this silly mistake so politely!
    Kathy and Brian

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