Sunday 19th May Tallinn, Estonia

We had booked a panoramic drive tour of Tallinn but this excursion wasn’t due to depart until 2.30pm so we spent a relaxing, lazy morning on the ship. The weather was nothing short of perfect and we spent time out on the deck admiring the scenery and the calm waters. I had read that Tallinn was one of the best places to visit in the Baltic and it was so true. Honestly I could spend a week in Tallinn and still not be satisfied. Our excursion opened our eyes to both the fantastic history of this place, its beauty and the terrible struggles it has been through to retain the Estonian culture for hundreds of years. Our guide Peter, was an American who had married an Estonian and had lived in Tallinn for the past 7 years and his knowledge was immense. I made copious notes on my phone and will try to summarise them without boring you too much. Our first stop was to view the old town of Tallinn, a medieval fort with a moat and towers, 22 of which are still standing today and dating back to 1200s. Estonia has a population of only 1.4 million people. Originally, a Germanic city, Tallinn has endured 800 years of occupation but have still been able to keep their language and culture alive. The fort built in mediaeval times along with moat and 22 towers still exist today. Over the centuries, the Germans, Danes, Swedes, Russians have all occupied Estonia but the culture has managed to survive through their folk songs, music, language and traditions. The first time Estonia was finally independent was in 1918 but after WW2 both the Nazis and then the Soviets moved in. We visited the fort and then drove to the Summer palace for the Czars of Russia built by Peter the Great in the 1700’s. For Estonians, a song festival started in the 1880’s has had a significant importance to the country and has been the backbone to the culture surviving. A huge amphitheatre was built in the 1960’s which can accommodate 30,000 singers and 300,000 spectators. In 1988, the Russian regime had banned many of the Estonian folk songs and a crowd of 300,000 Estonians peacefully defied the ban by singing banned songs.  Also 2 million Estonians formed a human chain across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to mark a peaceful protest against the Soviet occupation. After visiting the amphitheatre we were taken to a very sombre memorial, to all the Estonian people who have died or disappeared during the “Soviet rule of terror”. It is estimated 75,000 Estonian people died or were murdered during the Soviet occupation. The first to be executed were 800 Estonian National Guard. At the memorial there was a huge wall with 800 artistic bullet holes in it. Each bullet hole had the photo of a young man from the National Guard. Huge walls contained the names of some of the 75,000 Estonian people who died and didn’t return to Estonia. These people were sent to Russian slave camps where they were worked to death, starved, sent to Siberia or were executed. The family of the wife of our guide had 12 older family members who were taken and killed by the Soviets after WW2.  It was very heart wenching. The rest of our tour took us past some of the beautiful parks around Tallinn and also to see some of the impressive architecture around the city. Our guide also explained that the Baltic Sea has frozen over, 30 times with the last one being in 1967.