Sunday, July 12, 2015
We are back in Tallinn today. We were both slow getting up
this morning. It is the latest we have been up on this trip. Even though Clay
is sick, he was still up earlier than I was. It may have just been so he could
cough up a half pound of snot. I found it all over the soles of my feet after
my shower! I heard him coughing and tried to just sleep through it but I didn’t
realize he was exploding in the bathroom until much later. I am certain there
is no way for me to avoid the same fate.
It was after 8am and the ship cleared announcement before we
got into Terrace for breakfast. We still couldn’t find a 2-top. We waited and
one got cleared at the back door. They had blintzs today and since it was
Sunday I had 3. It is only supposed to be in the 50sF today and rainy. Since we
had been here before and the weather was so bad and Clay feels bad and I am
exhausted, we were in no hurry to get ashore. We talked about what we wanted to
do here and after breakfast went to check with the tourism lady in the atrium.
We asked her about the KGB Museum at the Viru Hotel. She said she worked there
and we could only go with a reservation at 11:30am but she could call and see
if we could go. She spoke to someone and spelled out our last name more than
once to get us reservations. She told us where to go about 10 minutes early to
pay for and pickup our tickets. We set off and got on the next shuttle bus. It
is just a little more than a comfortable walking distance, so we were glad for
the bus. Plus it was raining! Today we saw Segways where they were supposed to
be by the big balloon on the pier. They weren’t there before but they didn’t
appear to have any raingear so it was just as well. There were 3 cruise ships
and 3 ferries in port this morning and everything was crowded. On the bus ride
in, I saw a poster for the Old Masters exhibition at the Old Town Hall that I
had forgotten about. I knew we wanted to do this. It was great and out of the rain
and we needed to kill a couple of hours before our 11:30am KGB tour. The price
was 14 Euros each and it was spectacular to see all these paintings displayed
in a building from the same time frame. Art Rules runs until 5 October 2015. When
we came out of the town hall, the church bells were ringing and a market had
been set up on the square. We wandered the stalls. We tasted and Clay bought a
small smoked cheese and an elk sausage. There was still some time to kill so we
browsed a few shops on our way down to Viru Hotel. When we got to the tour desk
in the lobby, the woman did not have our reservation and she told us the tour
was already oversold. I got a little upset but she agreed to sell us tickets
and take us on the tour anyway. I am glad we went as it was very interesting. I
recommend it. The tour lasted an hour and had the best views over Tallinn.
Afterwards, we walked back up past the Town Hall to return to the Beer House
for lunch because we enjoyed it so much the first time. I had the goulash in
bread bowl again. Clay went another way. He ordered crispy fried pig’s ears
followed by lamb sausages. I tried a bite of the pig’s ears since he said they
were good, but I was grossed out and had to spit it out. My goulash and bread
bowl were as good as remembered. On the walk back to the shuttle bus, we went
down the wool street along the medieval wall and I found a linen/cotton blend
sweater with amber decorations. I tried it on and bought it for 55 Euros. We
missed the next shuttle bus and lined up for the next one. We waited 10 minutes
or so. When the next one came, 2 came at once. When we got back, one of the
cruise ships had already left. Marina left on time at the new shortened
schedule of 4pm. We watched a movie on TV this afternoon. We have dinner
reservations at 6:30pm tonight at Red Ginger. I am certain we will not go to
the JAR show tonight, Backstage Pass as we saw it with this cast during our
last cruise segment onboard Marina.
Tomorrow we should be in Riga, Latvia from 10am to 6pm. We
have an Alla Tour here. This is a new port and a new country for us.
