Tallinn, Estonia - Wednesday, May 23, 2018

And we are off to the Port of Call Races. The first in this five day round is Tallinn, Estonia. 

These were our views from the Breakaway that morning. The second picture shows water from the side thrusters on the ship used to gently get us up to the dock. 

This days shore excursion was called "Gothic Treasures - A Walking Journey". It began with a bus tour around the outside of the wall of the Old Town. 

This was followed by a walk through the Old Town. It really had three levels, Upper Old Town, Middle Old Town and Lower Old Town. First we had to walk from where the bus could let us off to the Upper Old Town. Totally enjoyed the accordion player. Papa used to play an accordion when I was younger. Loved that instrument. We passed Alexander Nevsky Church and the Parliament Building. 

Then we entered the Upper part of Old Town. Amazing cannon towers and a tall wall surround this area. 

This courtyard is called the Danish King's Garden. In the Danish King's Garden, there are three monk statues. The story is this area is haunted by three monks. So the city embraced the story and put three statues of monks in the courtyard.

There are two ways down from this point. The Long Leg Road and the Short Leg Road. Our guide took us down the Short Leg Road. Later we would see where the Long Leg Road joined again. 

Now we would travel more cobblestone streets to get to the next stopping point.

That stopping point was St. Nicholas Church. This church is now a museum. This is in the Middle Old Town. The statue of a man walking is St. Christopher. The picture below St. Christopher is a headstone embedded in the floor. St Nicholas Church had two huge altarpieces. These actually have hinges on the ends with additional panels of painting on them. These could be closed so something different showed or opened for a different painting. 

Now we were off to trudge more cobblestone streets to Lower Old Town.

We reached the Town Square. It was set with many kinds of vendors selling their wares. The building in the center of the third picture is Town Hall. The building with the spire in the fourth picture is the Holy Spirit Church. This sixth picture has real apples hanging from a window grate. Not sure if there was meaning to that but it was cool to me. The picture under that is a pharmacy that has been around forever and operated the entire time. The two flags are for Estonia (on the left) and Tallinn (on the right). This picture of me with an interesting version of a mannequin was fun. There were several of these types of mannequins on the streets sporting clothing sold in the store. 

And we exited the Old City Wall. This is a view from outside the wall.  

The final portion of our tour was a bus ride to Rocca al Mare Open Air Museum. These wonderful people have taken real homes from outlying areas and created a rural Estonian community as it would have been 200 years ago. Oh that we had more time to roam this place. We only saw a few of the buildings. I was enchanted by the variety of fences using material they would have cleared from the land. 

This is the first group of buildings we visited. The pictures will show a building and then, maybe, inside of the building. The teepee-like wooden pole building Claude is peeking in would have been an outdoor kitchen. Also, note the door Claude is standing beside. It is believed the people would have been much shorter than us. This group of buildings had a functioning garden. Note the fence for the garden and last picture of the fence around the perimeter of the group of buildings.

We walked down a dirt road to the second cluster of buildings. 

The third thing we saw was a windmill. On the way we passed a horse drawn cart. The water behind the windmill is the Baltic Sea. As we walked back to our bus, there was one more version of fencing.

As we walked back to the Breakaway, Claude paused so I could take a picture of him pushing the ship away from the harbor. I mean really, this just had to be done.

As the Breakaway left port, I took one last picture of this beautiful spot on the earth, Tallinn, Estonia. It was like walking through a fairy tale.

After dinner we found our next towel animal. A mouse!! Oh my goodness.

We enjoyed some time on our balcony watching the sun go down over the Baltic Sea. Love this.

Now to rest while the Breakaway gets us to St. Petersburg, Russia.