Day 9 – Tallinn Estonia

The distance from St. Petersburg to Tallinn is only 156 nautical miles. We left Russia at 6PM and arrived in Tallinn at 7AM. What a beautiful city to see. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and one of the oldest cities on the Baltic dating back to 1154. This tour was going to be a walking tour of the city. Our guide on this tour was excellent – very knowledgeable and informative. We drove from the dock up to the new town where the nobles lived. She told us most the city’s progress occurred while it was occupied by various other countries. The Danes occupied it from 1219 – 1346, the Swedes from 1561 – 1710, and Russia from 1710 – 1918. On February 24, 1918, Estonia declared itself an independent country. However, the very next day German troops occupied Estonia and refused to recognize this independence and remained there until 1944. In 1944, Russia was in charge and made life challenging for its people. In fact, our guide told us that the bombing the city suffered was explained in the history books as being caused by the Nazis. However, after the Russians left in 1994, the older generation told the truth about the bombings – it had really been the Soviets. The history books were then rewritten explaining what really happened. Estonia was once again a free country.

In the Old Town it has remained mostly unchanged for over 600 years. Building can be found dating back to medieval times. The roads are cobblestone and it is a charming place to walk through. After walking though most of the New Town and Old Town, we were given time to shop or snack. A place had been recommended for snacks – the Peppersack. We decided to start there. They have wonderful pastries as we found out. Mom says they are the best she has ever eaten – even better than in South St. Louis which she insists has the best pastries. After a relaxing break at the Peppersack, we ventured down the streets to see what shops had to offer. Mom found a beautiful sweater handmade from Linen. We were sailing early this day so our tour was relatively a short one – about 4 hours. We left for Copenhagen at 2PM and should arrive there on Thursday at 7AM.

More from our last stop later – Copenhagen home to Hans Christian Anderson and the Little Mermaid!