Tallinn Estonia day trip Monday Sept. 7:
Tallinn Estonia has an interesting history of being ruled by several different countries as shown below.
Kingdom of Sweden 1561-1710
Tsardom of Russia (Muscovy) 1710-1721
Russian Empire 1721-1917
Russian Republic 1917
Russian Soviet Republic 1917-1918
Republic of Estonia 1918
German Empire German occupation 1918
Republic of Estonia 1918-1940
Soviet Union Soviet occupation 1940-1941
Nazi Germany German occupation 1941-1944
Republic of Estonia 1944
Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic Soviet occupation 1944-1990
Republic of Estonia (in transition) 1990-1991
Republic of Estonia 1991-onwards
Took the tram over to a stop near the cruise dock and departed at 10:30AM headed to Tallinn on the Tallink Sila cruise ship. This ship was newer and much nicer than the Vikingline ship from Stockholm. The ship has several restaurants and bars along with its own Burger King. The trip takes about 2 hours. On the ship I ran into a women that I recognized from last evening who was also at the Niski pizza place I ate at. She was on a 3 month European adventure with her husband and a close friend. She just completed a month long German immersion language class and that is something I need to investigate to become more fluent in German. I lucked out today with beautiful sunny weather along with a light breeze.
Signed up for a 2 hour walking tour using Get Your Guide which started at 1pm and it provided a good overview of the old historic lower town along with the upper town which provided some great views of the city. Met a family from Seattle Washington on the tour, they had just flown into Helsinki that day.
After the tour I rested my feet in the beautiful town square with a cold beer and then went to a brew pub called "Hell Hunt" which translated means something like Gentle Wolf. Had a roasted pork loin along with a super tasty potato gratin and some homemade fries. The hand crafted IPA beer was very good as well.
Wandered around a bit more then took an Uber back to the cruise ship dock at 5:30PM where, surprise surprise, I stumbled upon the Koch brew pub in the Kochi Aidad center where I was forced against my will to drink their good beer in a nice venue. A thunderstorm was rolling thru so I hightailed it into the cruise terminal for my ship ride back to Helsinki. A very good day for me. Tomorrow I leave Finland and fly to Oslo Norway.