August 2 - Tallinn, Estonia

August 2 – Tallinn, Estonia
We are a dinghy. This morning as I opened the curtains to look at the sights of Tallinn, all I see is what I called “The Mother Ship” - the Carnival Splendor (see picture upper left). This huge, gaudy mother of all cruise ships is docked right next to us, and I have no view of the city. If I go to the other side of the ship I see the former Soviet Union prison – some view... Our ship, the Crystal Symphony can hold about 900 guests. To give an idea of size difference, I use lifeboats as a guideline. The Crystal Symphony has 6 regular sized and 1 smaller sized lifeboats on each side. The Celebrity Splendor has 13 on each side. The upper right view shows to two vessels, side by side (we're on the left, obviously).
Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, and the people make no bones about their distaste of life under Communism. Much of the old town is preserved from the Middle Ages – 2/3 of the original outer wall remains intact. See the picture lower right.
We took a tour that combined a walkthrough of the old Soviet prison and a walking tour of the old town. The prison was in complete disrepair, but was unbelievably still in use in 2002. It currently has parts reopened for tours. I can't imagine that six years of abandonment would cause it to look as bad as it did. It makes any U.S. prison look like high-end condos. You did not ever want to be in a Soviet prison – bad, bad, bad.
There was a festival going on in the town square (picture lower left). Lots of tourists, lots of little shops and medieval buildings with quite a history. I'm glad our next cruise will take us back there so we can explore on our own.
Now it's on to Stockholm where the first cruise ends and the second cruise begins.