By the time we got up we had arrived in Estonia. Today was overcast, 20C and threatening rain. After breakfast we had a forced walk around the ship as our cabin was been cleaned. This time we took the indoor route, turns out it is much longer than the outdoor one we used the other day.
Our trip today was a quick one into the capital of Estonia, Tallinn. The Estonian language was totally new to us and resembled nothing we had heard before. Fortunately our tour guide spoke very clear English. If the rest of the Estonians are anything like him they are a fiercely independent race, strong on tradition and have a universal hatred of the Russians! Estonia gained it’s freedom from Russia, like many other Baltic states in 1991.
Estonia, in size is larger than the Netherlands, Belgium, Latvia and a number of other countries yet it has a population of only 1.3 million. This equates to about 70 people per sq/km
We headed off through the newer part of town, which is quite modern, to our first stop, a memorial to the victims of communism. The memorial is a walk between 2 black walls adorned with the names of all Estonians who died at the hands of the Russians.
At the end of the walk you emerged into the garden of Peace
From here you could walk along the outside of the wall which had further significance. One portion of the wall had small metal sculptures on it.
At first I wasn’t sure what they were, but closer up revealed some bees, which play a large role in Estonian folklore.
Further along were a number of sculptured bullet holes. If you looked into the holes, each one contained a photo of an Estonian Officer killed by the communists. In all there were 842 killed, approximately 1/3 of all officers in the Estonian military.
From here we headed off to a happier place, a site where they hold the National Song festival which is a very large part of their culture. Approximately 20,00 singers and choirs participate with an audience of more than 100,000. It was while we looking down at the amphitheater stage that Lyn asked me if I recognized some one just in front of us. It was couple we had met some years ago who stayed in the same resort as us down in Alabama. For you Anchors Aweigh people it ws Frank and Kathy. We are also chasing another couple from there, Stan & Sally, around the Baltic on a different ship.
Below is the stage, ignore the bus in the bottom right corner, they were giving driving lessons to new drivers.
Below shows what the area looked like during a performance.
Next we moved on to the old part of Tallinn, I’ll just post some pictures with captions.
The last photo is worse than usual as photography was not allowed, so I quickly looked at my phone and accidently took a picture
Apologies if this is less coherent than usual, apparently it’s not a good idea to drink B52’s before writing the blog!!