cruise 3
So there we are in Tallinn, Estonia We get off at 8am and walk into the the old medieval town. Well the walls are medieval but the buildings are newer say 17oo's and 1800 to now build in the older style. But it is done with an eye to beauty and form. Everywhere you see Baltic Amber and Russian matryoshka (stacking dolls), but know that it is not from Estonia. They are know for their furs, wool and linen, so I bought a large linen crochet/tied table cloth, a house protection witch, and Arasin bought himself a long sleeve t-shirt with a wolfs head and the 'Helm of Awe Rune Circle' or the aegishjalmur on it. We had spent the day walking around and sharing the wonderful sights of the sites, at the puppet theater they had an outside window full of steampunk/clockworks that you could call a number and it would turn on. A local young man called the number for us and we got the joy of seeing it all work. For our city tour we did a walking tour put on by 3 women who divided us all up into 3 smaller groups (the people who walked up took a number and at the end of the tour you paid what you thought it was worth). This was one of the best tours we went on, she told us about the history of Estonia and how it came under Russian "protection" and how they were one of the first to get freedom from Russia. It seems that the Estonians love music and singing and have festivals where you hear the latest singers and composers work. Well in the 90's at one of these festivals in Tallinn over 100thousand people sang their anthem, for over 1.5 hours. The Russians could not arrest that many people and as they were not fighting they got away with it. So they did it every festival that was big and got away with it, till they got their freedom. Well back onto the ship and away we go to Amsterdam after a day at sea.
Amsterdam was on Friday and having been there before we chose to take advantage of the offer to get a free education on Diamonds and how they are cut and graded. Lots of interesting info and then went over to the Botanical gardens for a walk around amid beautiful plants and trees. A bio-dome of 3 different climates, a butterfly house, bug eating plants, and lots of other stuff. The walk back to the ship was nice (hot as heck with high humidity) but the sights were really nice.
Another night on board and then we were in Dover and being picked up by Amy to go get the car from her house and head home.
Amsterdam was on Friday and having been there before we chose to take advantage of the offer to get a free education on Diamonds and how they are cut and graded. Lots of interesting info and then went over to the Botanical gardens for a walk around amid beautiful plants and trees. A bio-dome of 3 different climates, a butterfly house, bug eating plants, and lots of other stuff. The walk back to the ship was nice (hot as heck with high humidity) but the sights were really nice.
Another night on board and then we were in Dover and being picked up by Amy to go get the car from her house and head home.