Monday 16 June 2014

Tallinn and Copenhagen

After leaving St. Petersburg (which, incidentally, is three hours ahead of us) we sailed to Tallinn, in Estonia, arriving on May the 25th. The good weather held and we had another hot day exploring ashore. This time we didn't do an organised trip but availed of the shuttle bus to take us from the port to the old town. We were given a map on the bus and then we were on our own. We noticed a shopping centre across the street with a nice looking coffee shop so we headed straight over there for a cappuccino.



Coffee break over, we started off to find the sights of the old town. But everywhere we looked we were surrounded by modern shops and offices. We stopped and examined the map, back-tracked, re-tracked and stopped again to consult the map. I complained to the husband that we should have been left closer to the old town by the shuttle bus. Now, I am totally useless at reading maps but finally I saw where we were and how we should proceed to get to where we wanted to be. And, of course, it was right beside the spot we had been dropped off by the shuttle bus.

Tallinn is another lovely place to visit. Here are a few photos of the old town. There were lots of nice buildings and market stalls.






A lot of the shops had almost life-sized stuffed dolls sitting at the entrance.


We even spotted Johnny Depp! Well, his wax impression standing outside the House of Wax Figures.


We bought a hand made cast iron bell at this market stall. That's them at the very left hand side of the stall.


I also bought some linen in a lovely wee shop. A lot of the market stalls were selling tea towels, table runners, bags and so on made from exactly the same linen but a lot more expensive.


There were lots of stalls selling knitted and crocheted items. I liked this blanket; just noticed, though, that there's a red end not sewn in!


The flower market was amazing. So many beautiful flowers in every colour you can think of. This is just a very small selection.


After seeing all we could in the old town we headed back to our ship on the shuttle bus. There were four cruise ships docked one beside the other; it was an impressive sight. Ours is the second from the right. The photo was taken from the shuttle bus. The second photo gives you more of an idea of scale.



As we were sailing away from Estonia we had a thunder storm; it was over quickly; the only rain (actually hail) we had during the two weeks.


It took us until the 27th of May to sail to Copenhagen. This time we did a guided walking trip to see the main sights. There was plenty to see, especially as we were on foot. We stopped for a break and refreshments; coffee and, of course, Danish pastries. As you can see, there weren't many left!


I'll just let you scroll down through the photos to get an idea of what Copenhagen is like. The Little Mermaid is first in this group of photos.










We were taken to see the four royal palaces which are located in a large open court yard. Members of the public are welcome to walk about and sometimes catch a glimpse of one or other of the royal family. There are guards but they let you take pictures and look round so long as you don't touch the palace walls.







Our trip in Copenhagen ended with a canal boat ride. It was very hard to take photos from the boat and really the only one worth showing you is of the Danish royal yacht. The canal boat guide told us he'd seen a swan earlier in the day and that she had swanlings with her. He couldn't remember the correct word but he made a good attempt!!


Unfortunately that was our cruise over, apart from sailing back to Southampton. We really enjoyed it and can't wait to do another one, though it won't be for a while yet! Here are a few photos of my desserts and some of our cabin steward's towel art.






I did this block, made up of two-round Granny squares, to remind me of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg.


It has taken me such a long time to do these posts about our cruise but now I can get back to some sort of normality. Here's something I did earlier today - picked some of our strawberries. Can't wait to eat them later.


Well, I hope you enjoyed the final installment of the cruise posts. Come back again soon for some more mundane stuff!

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