The last two days of our trip have been interesting. I will start with yesterday when we toured Tallinn. Bill and I had been there about ten years ago, and oh my, it was such a nicer place to visit back then. Yesterday there were 7 large cruise ships in the harbor. Our ship, the Whisper was the smallest. Let me just say Tallinn in the old city was a zoo. While the looks of the Old Town have not changed, the hordes of tourists have, in my opinion, ruined the quaint ambiance the city used to have before it became the new "in vogue" stop for every cruise ship. Our guide , while a nice young man, was like a "guide robot" speaking very quickly and determined to stay "on script". It has been our least favorite tour.
We did drive up to a beautiful park and walk down past another of Catherine's Palaces and we also saw the current residence of the 62 year old President. The President is chosen by the 101 members of Parliament. This President is retiring in August and marrying a woman who was a state department official and who is now pregnant at age 32. Tallinn is a very old city having been established in the 11th century. They do have a very modern 4 lane highway going out of town to the countryside having been built a few years ago with money from the EU. Estonia could not have afforded to invest such money in highways where high speeds are allowed and racing occurs --up to 150mph.
We were not given a lot of information we could understand. In fact, four of us did not even go on the walk in Old Town. The reports were that it was very difficult walking and extremely crowded plus the weather was threatening rain.
We docked this morning in Stockholm which is a series of islands connected by bridges. Ther are 14 islands with four main ones being the "center" of Stockholm. We had a terrific guide today who drove us all around. We got a little "taste" of what the city is like. These days it is crowded but clean and the impression is excellent. We did get the impression from our guide that the people are quite worried about the huge influx of Muslim refugees. There is no work for them. They are currently allowed everything the citizens are allowed --free healthcare, housing, 80% of your income paid to you if you have a child and stay home for one year. The Swedes have one or two children but the Muslim families have substantially more children. They are fearful of Isis and believe Sweden will be attacked and that it is just a matter of time. The government has realized that it cannot keep taking in and supporting 165,000 refugees a year. The Swedes pay 60% of their income for taxes. But the Immigrants aren't working and are not paying into the system. The government just announced restrictions on immigration and we saw many young people protesting this decision outside a government building. Difficult times are on the horizon....
We have to get off the ship tomorrow morning but we spend tomorrow night in the city before we all fly home. We hope to get out tomorrow and see some more of the city sights.
But the crown jewel for us today was the tour of the Vasa Museum. It contains the most perfectly preserved warship (64cannons) that was built on the orders of Adolphus Gustavus in 1628. The King was in Poland fighting a war and ordered the biggest ever sailing ship to be built. It was meant to intimidate by its mere size. When he saw the ship under construction, he decided it did not have enough guns and ordered one more deck to be added with more cannons. The men building the ship did not have the courage to tell him it would make the ship quite unstable so they followed his orders. Its maiden voyage lasted 20 minutes before turning over and slowly sinking to the bottom. Many men on board went down with the ship. The water was quite cold. What preserved the ship was that in sank in the mud and went down in brackish water. Stockholm is between a lake and the sea and the area where she went down is where the fresh water meets the sea. Salt water will destroy timber much more quickly because of a kind of worm that exists in salt water. So the mud and the lack of salt water preserved the ship amazingly! You will be amazed when you see the photos. At least, we were amazed. The ship was finally raised from the water and mud in 1961. Quite a feat but an archeological treasure trove! The political history of this part of the world might have changed if the Vasa had ever made it out of the harbor! Enjoy the photos!
Tallinn photos are first.
The President's resident. The one who is 62, retiring in August and marrying the pregnant 32 year old state department official.
Three year old class walking to a large playground.
Skyline of old city.
Trip to see a tiny castle. Nothing inside except a small bar.
Gene and Tom stopped for a beer...
Catherine's palace and gardens...
Inside Old Town
Nice view from above...
Just a few of the tourists in port yesterday. The residents have 20 hours of sunshine in the summer but only six hours of daylight in the winter!
Now the Stockholm photos...
The Vasa ship.
This is how the carved figures on the ship were painted.
A side view model of the inside of the ship.
Portrait of the King who ordered the Vasa built.
On the way to a former Swedish Prince's home who was, it turned out, a great artist. Quite a few of his paintings are in galleries and worth a lot of money.
Former home of the King's brother.
View from the Prince's house.
Yep, that's us and our wonderful guide, Mr. Nordstrom!
They smelled like lilacs, but they aren't. We have no idea what kind of flower it was.
On the grounds of the Prince's home.
Modern art we glimpsed from our moving car.
Gene is a great navigator! He's keeping track on his map of everywhere we go. Tomorrow he will be our guide ! Lol! He's marking the spot on his map!
Stockholm is a great city. We have all very much enjoyed our short tour of the city today!
