Part 3 Tallinn, Warnemunde, Copenhagen & Skagen

Tallinn, Estonia

Our ship made a very short stop in Tallinn Estonia where we took a shuttle bus to the Old Town. That part was built on a high rise of land and was at one time surrounded by a wall for protection. The streets of the Old Town are paved with Cobblestones which made it  difficult to walk on especially for ladies wearing high-heeled shoes.

                           
Tallinn founded in 1154, is the capital of Estonia. The Old Town has not changed in the past 600 years; however, the main part of town is thoroughly modern. Tallinn has become a very important trading centre in the Baltic. Much of Estonia's history and development has been a result of occupation, first by Demark (1219-1346) who developed the streets of Tallinn, then by Sweden (1561-1710) who advanced its trade and next by Russia (1710-1918) influencing its architecture. It became an independent democracy in 1918. World War II saw the country occupied by Germany and later at war's end it was part of Russia until the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Some of the attractions are the Kadriorg Palace built by Peter the Great in 1718,Toompea Castle built in1773 which houses the parliament, Alexander Nevski Cathedral with onion domes built in 1773, Niguliste Church (St Nicholas Church) built in 1230 honouring the patron saint of seaman.

When talking to our shuttle bus driver, I asked if the Estonian language was similar to that of Finnish. He said it may sound like Finnish but "No" is a distinct language. He said some words in Estonian are spelt the same way but mean something different. For example, the word "poulin" (like chicken in French) means "marriage" in Estonian, but in Finn it means "trouble".


Warnemunde, Germany

After a full day at sea where one could rest, our next port-o'-call was Warnemunde, Germany. This is a small town of about 15,000 souls but is minutes away from a larger centre like Rostock with a population of 200,000. Both Rostock and Warnemunde are considered one of the country's main shipping centers. The sandy beaches of Warnemunde stretching two miles in length are the largest on the German Baltic Coast and are a popular tourist destination.

Warnemunde is the jumping off place for cruise passengers to travel to Berlin. The trip to Berlin is three hours both ways. To say the least, we were not up to rushing off there and getting back to the ship in the short time that we were docked in Warnemunde. Some folks took a train to Rostock instead of bussing it to Berlin and back. I wish we had done that too. Instead we walked around the downtown area of the little city and browsed around the various shops there. I bought a brown woven belt. I needed one, so I bought one.

We didn't stay on shore very long as it appeared that it might rain...it didn't.


Copenhagen, Denmark

The next city visited was Copenhagen, with a population of one million making it the largest city in Scandinavia. It is the home of the "Little Mermaid" as depicted in the story by Hans Christian Andersen. The Little Mermaid Statue has been sitting on a rock in the harbour for 100 years now and according to the story must remain there for 300 years before she becomes human, therefore; she will be an attraction for 200 more years.


Instead of walking into the city we purchased day passes for the "Hop-on-Hop-off" bus which gives one a good tour (one and a half hours) all around the city downtown. The route passed the Admiral Hotel that I had stayed at some 35 years ago which is close to the Royal Palace where we got off to view the 12 o'clock changing of the guard. My expectations might have been too high as I was hoping to see something like the pomp and circumstance of the British production. It didn't happen.

After the changing of the guard we again hopped on the bus to the site of the Little Mermaid. It was hard to get near the statue as the huge crowd was trying to do the same. I was surprised the statue was so close to shore as all the pictures gives one the impression that it is somewhat out in the harbour further. Another thing that surprised me was the lack of toilet facilities especially when this is a such popular tourist site. Fortunately our bus was still nearby which took us to our ship pronto.

 Map of the Tivoli Gardens and Theme Park

 After lunch on our ship, we again took the Hop-on-Hop-off bus to Tivoli Gardens. This is a famous garden located at the center of the city. It is not only a garden but also a theme park where located are such rides as a ferries wheel, classic carousel, dragon boat, roller coaster, etc. In fact there are 28 different rides. There are also 38 eateries plus 23 candy and ice cream parlours. There is a pantomime theatre, open air stage featuring all kinds of music, concert hall, aquarium, as well as other attractions. We only saw part of the park as it is so extensive that it would take a full day to take in all that was offered. It is said that Walt Disney got the idea of Disneyland after visiting the Tivoli.

After leaving the Tivoli, I got a bit mixed up as to the directions back to catch the Hop-on-Hop-off bus. Estelle said she knew the way but, I being chauvinistic wouldn't believe that she knew her way back and therefore continued to study my map of Copenhagen. Finally in disgust she marched off so I followed her thinking that she would get lost but low-and-behold she was right all the time.

We had to hurry back to our ship as we didn't want to miss "White Night" where all the passengers dressed up in white and dined on deck around the pool. This was another fun night where the crew put on a barbeque. Everything one can imagine that was so delicious to eat was served. I went for the barbequed lobster tails. I passed on the steak and multitude of desserts even though everything looked delicious.

Skagen, Denmark

Following Copenhagen was the cruise up the east coast to the top of Denmark to the small town of Skagen (pronounced Skane). The main industry in the town is fishing but supplemented by the tourist industry. Many artists are attracted here by the rare light and landscape. There is a very long sand spit stretching out into the sea that changes in shape and size. The most northerly end of this spit is called Grenen at the very tip of Denmark.

According to archaeologists, Skagen had human occupation in and around 12,000 years ago. The Romans apparently occupied this area 2000 years ago as well. Skagen was only reachable by sea until the completion of the railway in the 1870s and from there it became a popular spot for artists because of the shifting sand dunes that made for a changing landscape.

Getting back to the town of Skagen, the streets are all well kept and clean. The house exteriors apparently in the old days were all white washed but now they are all painted a creamy yellow. Obviously a mistake was made in the paint shipment to Skagen, instead of whitewash, the shipment was a creamy yellow paint. The creamy colour gives the town something very unique.

While exploring the city, a concert band performed in the city square and gave a very professional concert. The band had a good balance, that is; it had the right number of tenor, bass and alto sections.  Many bands have the tenor and bass sections but are short of the middle section which includes the French horns, trombones and alto horns. I love the tone of the French horn. Our visit to Skagen ended with us taking the shuttle bus back to our ship. But before that, I again made the wrong turn and had to be corrected by Estelle to get to our bus stop.