Welcome to Estonia and Giveaway Continues!

Thanks again to everyone for their comments. Reading them all made my day!! Please keep posting comments not only because you are all so nice—but also to enter my giveaway. (And by the way, I purchased the souvenir today that will be included in the give-away!!

Thanks also to my daughter Camille who is posting for me. I write and email it to her and she posts it-- since it takes forever to upload pictures onto the internet here on the boat. Thanks Camille!! You are a sweetheart!!

So here we are in the country you have all been waiting to learn about . . . Estonia!! :)We really did not know what to expect when docking here, but we have really enjoyed it.

Estonia was one of the Baltic States belonging to the Soviet Union until 1991 when it gained its independence. They now have an elected president and an “e-parliament” meaning it does most of its business via the internet. The official language is Estonian, although only about 1 million of its 1.4 million residents speak it. The language is from the same family as Finnish—which basically means it is very hard. One other interesting fact is that it is one of the few Soviet dominated countries that maintained its Protestant religion during domination.

Our first view of Talinn—where we docked—was of what was once a medieval town.

But from up above you can see a good mix of both modern and ancient.

We decided to get on the “Hop On, Hop Off “ bus for a tour or the city. And yes we really are in the picture below, you just have to look hard to find us (me and my three daughters as my husband took the picture).

When we “hopped off” we enjoyed walking the cobblestone roads and admiring the variety in the architecture. We saw quaint little churches to large Russian Orthodox cathedrals.

Kristen was thrilled to find a man who was the tall, strong and silent type, but alas, she had to leave him behind.

And I loved this picture of the man sitting outside his store reading the newspaper.

I have yet to write about Sweden but will do so sometime, and tomorrow we are off to St. Petersburg, Russia—and will be there on the anniversary of the day the last Russian Tsar , Nicholas II and his family were murdered. Should be interesting.