Tallinn, Estonia

I mentioned in my previous blog that I lost all the pictures I had taken of the end of Stockholm, all of Tallinn, and the morning of St. Petersburg.  Thankfully, since we were traveling with friends I was able to get pictures of some of the things we saw.  So all of the pictures on this blog belong to Jeremy Moll.  He also has a better lens and eye than I do so they're probably better than my usual shots.  :)  Plus, he's more selective (so there's not as many pics), and we're not in any of them because we toured Tallinn as separately (kind of by accident).  

We started our tour of Tallinn by entering through this gate.  The huge rotunda on the left in known as "Fat Margaret Tower".  It dates from the 1500s.  Once inside we headed straight up this road where Danish, Swedish, and German merchants had their businesses. 

It's funny--Jeremy and I had many of almost exactly the same pictures.  Naturally, those are the ones I asked for to make this blog.  When we went through this gate, I took a picture of Mike and the boys right where that couple is posing for a picture. 

LOVED this beautiful clock on the side of the church building.  It wasn't in the guide books, but Jeremy and Rachel noticed and admired it as well. 

This in the Town Hall Square. 

According to the little Tallinn map we were using, this was called "Cats Well".  Oddly enough, there was a cat there when we came upon it.  The name came about because medieval Tallinners believed there was a ghost living in the well that could only be appeased by the occasional feline sacrifice tossed down the well.  I'm not sure what that might have done to their water supply...  I took this picture, but from the opposite side of the well. 

This was a very narrow street at the end of which was a LARGE, studded oak door.  It is one of the two gates in the wall separating the upper from the lower cities.  This passage is still the ritual meeting point of the mayor and prime minister whenever there is an important agreement between town and country.

 

This is the Russian Cathedral built in 1900.  It is beautiful both inside and out, but to Estonians it was a Russian "slap in the face" of their national identity. 

I took this EXACT picture!  However, what Jeremy didn't get that we did was a picture of Jonas and Ezra posing with Shrek and Donkey just to the side of the cathedral.  We paid a Euro for the privilege of taking that picture!

Although we made it up to the top of the city, somehow we missed this look out point.  But I got it from Jeremy anyway as it is a beautiful view of the Old City. 

This is the Viru Gate.  If you go in the gate and follow the wall to the right, there is an amazing portion of the old city wall. 

So minus the Shrek and Donkey picture with the boys, and a picture I took of the traditional Estonian cheesecake we tried at a coffee shop near the cathedral, the inside of the Russian cathedral, and a couple of other pics I was sorely missing, this was basically Tallinn in a nutshell.  It wasn't as noteworthy as our other ports, but it was a really cute town, easy to walk, and get a good feel for midieval Estonia in just a few hours.

Stockhom, Sweden

Upon arrival in Sweden, we boared a much, MUCH smaller boat for our "Hop on, Hop off" boat tour.

 Jonas and Evan peer out the window as our tour boat zipped past our massive cruise ship.

This citadel was built in the 1600s but then blown up by mistake.  It was rebuilt in 1845.

Our first stop was the Vasa Museum.  The Vasa was a Swedish war ship.  It took two years to build and was to be the most poweful war ship of its time.  It was built with functionality of course, but also with intricate beauty.  However, 1300 meters (less than a mile) into its maiden voyage, the ship sank.  It did not have enough balast to support the two gundecks of very heavy and very many cannons. 

It lay there in the harbor for 333 years before it was raised to the surface in 1961.  After 17 years of conservation it is now in the museum.  This is the ornate stern of Vasa.

Here's how they believe the stern looked when she sailed based on paint residue on the wood.  Beautiful!

The was a recreation of the inside of the ship.  Ezra and Jonas are manning the cannons.

After the Vasa Museum, we walked to Skansen: the oldest open-air museum in the world.  But first, Jonas had to make a Swedish phone call.

The gang preparing to enter Skansen.  "This is the place to visit historic Sweden in miniature. 150 farms and dwellings from different parts of the country were disassembled and transported here."  It also has native animals and a children's zoo.  It was huge.  We simply did not have time to see it all.

This might have been the weirdest thing we saw.  It was a little gazebo with this "Nappstation" box o' binkies.  There were no signs in English, so we were a little confused on what was supposed to happen here.  Free pacifiers so one could snuggle up on a wooden bench and take a Swedish snooze?  A cool way for parents to try to get their children to lose the paci?  I don't know...

Jonas near the "Nappstation".

This is the wooden Seglora Church built in 1729 was moved here in 1916 from a parish in Vastergotland.

"The Hällestad belfry is originally from the Hällestad parish in northern Östergötland. More than 40 meters high, it is one of Sweden's highest bell towers. The belfry was built in 1732-33."

I believe this was The Oktorp Farmstead.  "It comes from Halland and was moved to Skansen in 1896. The Oktorp Farmstead was the first farm to be erected there in its entirety. It shows what a farmstead in the flat countryside in Halland looked like in the 1870s, when the Lundqvist family, Åke and Christina and their daughter Hanna, aunt Beata, grandmother Ingeborg and their two farm-hands lived there."  The lady is showing Rachel pictures of the family.  She said the ceiling was so low in order to keep the heat in. 

I also really liked the school.  For some reason I didn't get any pictures there.  The school master had an attached residence where he and his family stayed.  They also said that since the salary was so meager that teachers often kept bees and relied on the income from their honey.  There were hives around the school in Skansen. 

We made our way back to the tour boat and "hopped on".  This is the National Museum.  Our guide said it is often mistaken for the royal palace.

Ezra and a royal guard outside the palace.

This was a teeny statue in a garden that for some reason everyone makes a big fuss about.  You're supposed to rub his head for luck.  Ezra did that, but then he tried to take some of the money lying there, much to the crowd's disapproval (we didn't let him take the money, although I don't think the "luck" would have been adversely affected). 

Mike and the boys in front of the Nobel Museum.

The heart of the Old Town/Gamla Stan.

The Stockholm Cathedral is the oldest church in Gamla Stan.

Under the light on the wall of the house is a medallion with a Phoenix on it.  During the middle ages, cities were plagued by fires.  If I remember correctly, the guide book said that if a home had this Phoenix, the owners had invested in fire insurance. 

This was some Viking art on street corner.

Tyska kyrkan (German Church).

The gang in front of a bank and looking at a crazy statue of some dude.  Jonas insisted I take his picture with "that man".  I didn't include the picture here.

The Royal Palace.

Some interesting architecture.

Here is where my pictures end.  A sad thing happened to my memory card at some point and I lost all of my pictures from the end of Stockholm (what was in this blog was basically it from the city tour, but I had some amazing pictures of the sunset/moonrise over the Swedish archipelago on our way out of the country on the ship), all of Talinn, Estonia, and the morning of St. Petersburg, Russia.  So very, very sad considering we'll probably never make it to those places again.  We are thankful for the memories and experiences, but those are a little harder to share with you.  I'll share a few things from Talinn on the next blog.

Hamburg, Germany and Cruisin'

Mike ate sandwiches every day for 3 months (not really, but almost...) while he was gone this last Spring so we could save money to go on a Baltic Sea cruise.  It was to be our last hurrah before our European adventures come to an end.  We booked the cruise for a great price, but there was NO room available (even the biggest and best suite) for 2 adults and 3 kids.  It was pay double for 2 rooms, or leave someone behind.  It was a hard decision, but after talking with some friends who adore Judith we decided to leave her in their capable and loving hands for the week.  Thanks Paul and Jana!

We knew we were doing the right thing but a Mommy (and Daddy and brothers!) misses this sweet face!  I took this picture when we dropped her off so I would have it to look at during the week. 

     

This was a picture Jana sent me on Day 2.  Judith was having a blast!

We drove about 4 1/2 hours to Hamburg, Germany.  This is the beautiful town hall.

Hamburg was alive with some kind of street festival.  Directly behind Jeremy (left) and down some steps Jonas and I sat by the river and listened to an ensemble of German sailors singing several traditional songs.

This was a 3D map of the city.  Pretty cool.

Mike and Jeremy had their hearts set on a steakhouse for dinner.  I'm sure it would have been delicious, but shortly after our arrival at the restaurant, we realized that our party of 4 adults and 4 wild and crazy kiddos wasn't exactly steakhouse appropriate.  We opted for street fare at the festival.  Here's Jonas chowing down on some fish and chips, and some awesome potatoe pancakes with applesauce.  Mmm.

The boys with the town hall in the background.

Mike and the boys in front of St. Petri Church.  It is one of the oldest in Hamburg--built in the 1200s



On our walk back to the car, we saw this amazing sidewalk art. 

The next morning we headed downtown again for some Starbucks and breakfast before we drove an hour further north to the Port of Kiel where we would board our ship.

On the ship!!  This is our muster drill.

Hanging out in cabin 11196!

Our first formal night.  Mike ordered some smoked salmon?

My carrot/spinach pyramid with cream sauce was AWESOME.

Jonas and Evan.

Formal night!  We're fancy.

My hansdome boys.  Just missin' my baby girl.

Love this picture of us!



We'll be in Stockholm by morning!