Friday, July 6, 2012

Europe, 25-26 May 2012 - At Sea & Tallinn


The Glassy Sea

Friday 25 May, was a sea day. That's normally pretty quiet and not much of note to talk about. But the sea was a bit unusual. This cruise has been very smooth, with virtually no rough seas. Today was exceptional, as we had never seen such smooth water. It literally reminded me of the line from an old hymn about the "glassy sea." Extremely smooth and glassy looking.
Fabergé Ornament


The other interesting event was Karen won a raffle. The prize was a Christmas ornament hand made by Sarah Fabergé, from the family that makes the fantastic decorative eggs, and other things. 



On Saturday we landed at another well preserved medieval city, Tallinn, Estonia. A more modern city has grown up around the old walled medieval city. We walked from the cruise terminal through the newer city in to the old city.
The first landmark we came to was Fat Margaret, a 1529 round tower on the medieval wall.

Inside the wall, the first church we saw was St Olav, but it wasn't open that early. From there we walked along Lai Strasse, passing many medieval houses and other buildings. That brought us to the Town Hall Square, a typical center of the city.

In our usual quest to see medieval churches, our next stop was Holy Spirit Church, perhaps the oldest building in Tallinn. It was not originally a church, but a 14th century Alms House. As is the unfortunate case in many European cities, especially Eastern Europe, it is no longer an active church.
 


From there we walked through an outdoor market area and arrived at St Nicholas. We did not pay the admission to go inside to see a major piece of art, the painting, Toten Tanz.

View from St Olav Tower
Brotherhood of Blackheads
We walked along Pikk Strasse on the way back to St Olav. Along the way we passed the most photographed door in Tallinn at the Brotherhood of Blackheads. While Karen shopped the area, Dick climbed another church tower. When St Olav church was built, the people of Tallinn wanted to have a significant landmark, so they built the tallest church tower in Europe. At least it was at the time.


Steps of St Olav Tower

Next we walked along an art street, Lange Strasse, to the upper old town. In that area is the Russian Orthodox church, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. Across the square, the Estonian Parliament meets at Toompea Castle. Nearby is the Dome Church, the oldest church in Tallinn and perhaps in Estonia. There was a sign outside which said, we thought, there was to be an organ recital at 1:00 PM. So we walked a little way to a Greek(!) restaurant for lunch, which was good. After lunch we returned to the church, but they knew nothing of an organ recital. Oh, well.

Alexander Nevsky
We then headed to a city viewpoint, Kohtu Viewpoint. It did provide a good overview of the city. On the way down from the viewpoint, we passed a public archery field on our way to Kick in de Kök. And from there to Freedom Square before returning to the Old Town.

Coffee and Pastries 
Tallinn skyline from ship
At Master's Courtyard, we stopped for coffee and pastries at a chocolate shop. Not sure how we passed on the chocolate. We then followed St Catherine's Passage, a very narrow shopping alley. That brought us to another section of the city wall, which we walked along, mostly next to not on. Karen bought a typical Eastern European knit shawl and Dick visited another church, this one Orthodox. Then it was time to head back to the ship after another fine port day in another new (to us) city.

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