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This morning we get to sleep in a little later as our ship won't dock in Tallinn, Estonia until 10am. We have no planned tour other than to walk around the old town. Tallinn is the capital and largest city in Estonia. Tallinn's Old Town is one of the best preserved and intact medieval cities in Europe and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This sounds good and after breakfast, we head out from the ship toward town. The ship is here for only 6 hours, a short time for such an interesting site. We ask about a shuttle to old town but the tour guide says it's unnecessary because it's only 15 minutes away. We've heard that 15 minute story before. In Karen footsteps, that's about an hour or more. There's a HOHO bus for €15 that will take us around town and drop us off at the old town entrance and bring us back when we're done. That's OK since we'll never be able to walk to and from the town and all around inside the town too so we purchase tickets.
The bus takes us around for a half hour before we hit the gates to the medieval city about noon. Up a slight hill we go, past a Russian influenced church and stop at a pay toilet. We spend 20 minutes and €.20 but we double up going in so it's half the price. Next is a visit to a souvenir shop but Karen just looks. It's now 1pm and Karen starts to freak out about returning to the ship. The all aboard time is 4pm, giving us three hours to return. I start to walk down a cobble stone street toward the town square but she's not having it. "Why are you going down there? There's nothing to see", she says. "I want to see what's there", I explain.
"It's just more cobbled streets" to which I reply, "Yes. That's why we're here". Then she attempts to validate her position noting that the cruise ship is leaving soon and we need to get back. Fine. We leave the old town to catch the bus. As we approach the bus stop, our HOHO bus pulls up. I'm within striking distance but Mom, shuffling behind, will never make it and the bus pulls away. Next bus 45 minutes. We sit on the lawn and wait.
Right on time, the next bus pulls up, We board and within 15 minutes are back at the cruise port, 1 1/2 hours before boarding time. It's a shame we didn't get to see more of the old town of Tallinn as many fellow cruisers are commenting on its beauty. We return to our stateroom and watch the news of the gunman in Orlando, Florida.
At 5:30pm we go to the Canaletto Restaurant for our free Italian dinner, courtesy of Costco. We've eaten her before on other ships and it's excellent. After, we watch Martin, a British comedian, performing at 8pm in the theater. He's pretty good. After the show, we return to our room since we need to be up early tomorrow. We're going to St Petersburg, Russia.
Karen is not excited about our Russian visit even though it's part of her heritage. She's afraid something will happen. We'll have to see.
Weather: Partly cloudy, 54°F
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