Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Baltics Cruise July/August 2014 - Tallin, Estonia.

So on to Tallin in Estonia.
If we haven't organised a tour we take the hop on hop off bus, and that is what we did here. We usually do the full route first to decide where we want to get on and off.


This is the Russalka Memorial to those who lost their lives in the Gulf of Finland in 1902 on the Russian naval vessel of that name.
We decided not to get off here as we wanted to spend more time in the Old Town later.


The United Methodist Church.


The Parliament building.


By now we had arrived at the old part of the city so got off at the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church which was built in 1900. We decided to walk past there for now and have a closer look on the way back.


A little further on we came to St. Mary's Cathedral on Toompea Hill. This is the oldest church in Tallin and was built in 1240.



Inside there are many family crests on the wall.


Apparently there was a lot of one upmanship back then, and the families tried to have a bigger crest than their neighbours.


The organ is the largest in Estonia and has over 5,000 pipes.





Coming out of the church we had a good view of the Old Town.





A view of the other side of St. Mary's Cathedral.


We walked on and came to the back of Alexander Nevsky church.


Time was going on so we walked part way down the hill to catch the next hop on hop off bus.

 Heading back to the ship, we got a good view of the Old Town wall.

Fat Margaret Tower (Paks Margareeta) was built in the 14th century as a coastal defence. It now is home to the maritime museum.




St. Olaf's church.
We boarded our ship for our next port of call which was to be St. Petersburg, Russia.

Monday, July 17, 2017

Baltics Cruise July/August 2014 - Gothenburg, Sweden.

After leaving Norway we continued on to Gothenburg in Sweden.
We had a walk around one of the many parks.....

and then around part of the city.

We saw the open top bus so decided to get on it to see more.

Big Harbour Canal and Christina Church.

Statue of King Gustavus Adolfus 1611-1632

View from one of the hills.

One of the many marinas around the city.

When we left Gothenburg we sailed out through one of the many archipelagos of Sweden.

The swans weren't bothered about being passed by the ship.

The scenery was so peaceful and beautiful that we stayed on the balcony to watch it as we passed by.




From there it was off to our next port of Tallin in Estonia.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Baltics Cruise July/August 2014 Oslo, Norway

My good intentions of updating more often have gone out of the window. So much has happened since my last post, Flynn going to the Bridge, my cancer returning, but life goes on so I will really try harder to catch up.

Our next cruise was roundtrip from Southampton to the Baltic countries.
The following photos are the approach to Oslo, Norway.





Arriving in Oslo port.

Akershus Fortress The ship docked right next to the fortress and we were able to take a very short walk through it into the city

Eidsvolls Plass a sheltered and relaxing square.

Eidsvolls Plass

National Theatre, Oslo.


Leaving Oslo and heading for Gothenburg, Sweden.