Tallinn trip

Today I took a 90-minute ferry ride across the Baltic Sea to Tallinn, Estonia, about 40 miles south of Helsinki. It has one of the best-preserved medieval cities in northern Europe, my seasick medicine (Bonine) worked fine, and the weather is perfect. Estonia is one of the three Baltic States (along with Latvia and Lithuania) that broke away from the Soviet Union in 1991. St. Petersburg is to the east and Stockholm, Sweden, to the west.

Here is my ship, operated by the Nordic Jet Line, in Helsinki harbor. The lowest level is filled with cars, the mid-level is the main cabin area, and the top is the control level. Round-trip fare is 56 Euros.

The ship has comfortable seating, a cafe, and duty-free shops. No passports are required, as both Finland and Estonia are in the Shengen Zone ("Fortress Europe"). On the trip back, we had to walk past a police officer with a large dog, perhaps sniffing for drugs.

The harbor in Tallinn is filled with ferries, cruise ships, and a few historic vessels like this one.

The walk from the terminals south to the Old Town area is a few short blocks. This gas station along the way is advertising 18.55 EKK (Estonian Crowns) per liter. That's about $7.40 per gallon!

I checked the Yahoo currency converter, and the dollar has been steadily losing value against even the Estonian Crown this past year. We can't even hold our own against Estonia, a tiny country of 1.3 million people! I didn't bother converting any currency for the day. The cafes all take Euros and credit cards, so it didn't seem worth the trouble.

As I approched the first medieval tower protecting the ancient city, I saw two tram lines go by. They don't run in the historic city, but have several routes into the more modern town.

In a park outside the entrance to the medieval city is a huge black broken arc, with a platform with engraved names. I learned with a little Googling that this memorial is dedicated to the 852 people who died when the ferry "Estonia" sank in 1994 en route to Stockholm. It's been blamed on improperly closed doors on the level for cars. Gulp!

Here is the guardhouse you first see as you enter the medieval city.

Here is the gated entrance showing Pikk street inside.

I took 256 pictures in just this one day, so I'll split up these entries into manageable sizes. I'm glad I added a memory stick and brought an extra battery for my digital camera.

NOTE: Click on any image in this blog to see it full-size.