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Sailing through Scandinavia - A Long Review with Lots of Pictures!


jstducky

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Appreciate your review, all of the interesting pictures, etc. Just looked at your St. Petersburg pictures. Brought back nice memories from our late July 2008 visit there. Keep up the good work and sharing.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 102,165 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

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Thank you for the great review. We LOVE the food photos. Because it sounds like you missed the churches , I will post some photos.

 

Church on the Spilled Blood

 

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The mosaic ceiling

 

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Peter and Paul Cathedral at Peterhof

 

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Saint Isaac's Cathedral

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Saint Isaac's Iconostasis

 

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Thanks for the photos!

 

It's too bad we missed the Church on the Spilled Blood and St. Isaac's Cathedral.

 

Luckily, I had seen both when I was there in 2007. I had wished that my husband was able to see it this time around, but unfortunately we were there on a Wednesday when both were closed. Oh well!

 

Thanks for these though, the photos are stunning!

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Maybe i misunderstood your post about Copenhagen but it didn´t sound like it went well :confused:

 

No, no, not at all.

 

We actually didn't do anything in Copenhagen on our way to the cruise ship other than transit through the airport, to the train, to the S-train and walked to the ship.

 

I was surprised at how packed the train was. But, then again, it was Pride weekend, so perhaps everyone was headed into town because of that?

 

When I was in Copenhagen for the first time in 2007, it wasn't nearly that busy!

 

Our only complaint was that the distance from the train station at Nordhavn to the ship was far. But then again, it was worse because we had luggage that was heavy, etc. And it happened to be hot and humid that day, which made it worse for us. But that's our fault, really.

 

We end up doing a night in Copenhagen post cruise and we both really enjoyed it!

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It's too bad we missed the Church on the Spilled Blood and St. Isaac's Cathedral. Luckily, I had seen both when I was there in 2007. I had wished that my husband was able to see it this time around, but unfortunately we were there on a Wednesday when both were closed. Oh well!

 

Here are a few more visuals from those two super great cathedrals. These two sites are very different, but each is extremely impressive. Show these to your husband and push for a future follow-up trip there. Also, if you can arrange it, doing a day-trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow can be very important to get a better picture for the fuller sampling of Russian history, architecture, life, style, etc. Need to see more of my pictures from these two places?

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 102,165 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

 

 

Here is a wider shot of the Spilled Blood Church interior in St. Petersburg. Its exterior design is more traditionally "Russian" or Orthodox than St. Isaac. Spilled Blood or the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ was built on the site along a canal where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 and its building was dedicated to his memory. Construction began in 1883 and was completed in 1907. This city's architecture is predominantly Baroque and Neoclassical, but this church harkens back to medieval Russian architecture in the spirit of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The Church contains over 7500 square metres of mosaics, among the most for any church in the world. It suffered much damage during the Russian Revolution and World War II, but was reopened in 1997, after 27 years of restoration. The results are beautiful!!:

 

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On the ceilings of the Church of Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, here are two different examples of its highly-detailed designs:

 

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Here is an overall view of the size and scale of St. Isaac's interior in St. Petersburg. It is the largest Russian Orthodox cathedral in this historic city and was dedicated to Saint Isaac of Dalmatia, a patron saint of Peter the Great. The cathedral took 40 years to construct, 1818 to 1858, under direction of a French architect. During Soviet rule, it was nearly destroyed and was made into a Museum of Scientific Atheism. It has been restored to its religious beauty/role. The cathedral's main dome tops out at 333 feet and is plated with pure gold.:

 

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A more detailed look at St. Isaac's ceilings and interior dome in the heart of St. Petersburg.:

 

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Some of the details at St. Isaac's around the sides at this grand and historic church:

 

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Gorgeous photos Terry! Thank you!

 

I absolutely loved both of these Cathedrals when I visited. I thought that the section inside the Church of the Spilled Blood that contained the original cobbles where the Tsar was assassinated was fascinating!

 

And I love the stained glass of Jesus inside St. Isaac's Cathedral.

 

I am sure one day my husband and I will be back. After I visited in 2007 and thought, "I can't believe I'm in Russia. This is a once in a life time opportunity," I couldn't believe I found myself there again 2 weeks ago. And then I heard others on our trip proclaim the same thing, "I can't believe I'm actually in Russia!" And I thought to myself, I can't believe I've come back for a second time!

 

When (not if, but when) I go back again, I will definitely have to travel to Moscow. I would love to see Red Square!!!

 

 

But for now, my husband and I are planning an entirely different cruise for next year - Asia!

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Gorgeous photos Terry! Thank you! I absolutely loved both of these Cathedrals when I visited.

When (not if, but when) I go back again, I will definitely have to travel to Moscow. I would love to see Red Square!!!

But for now, my husband and I are planning an entirely different cruise for next year - Asia!

 

Yes, Red Square and Moscow are very special, historic and unique. Asia sounds great. Where are you planning to go? That's on our future, to-do listing. Looking forward to our Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Celebrity Solstice sailing, departing Sydney, doing 14 days on this ship, finishing in Auckland. Plus, doing some pre-cruise options for Kangaroo Island near Adelaide and then the Great Barrier Reef before departing from Sidney’s scenic harbor. And, probably post-cruise in Queenstown and stopping in Tahiti on the way home to break up that long, long flight back.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 102,165 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

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After Peterhof, we headed back to St. Petersburg. Luckily, traffic was light so the drive wasn’t that long. Before arriving back into the heart of the city, Dimitri dropped us off at the metro station for our subway ride. We were all surprised and delighted when Luba explained to us that we were allowed to take photographs inside the terminal, but that we just couldn’t use flash. Luba gave us each our own subway token and lead us through the terminal, explaining the subway system’s history as we went along. We were riding the red line, which was built in 1955. Luba explained to us that all the stations in St. Petersburg are built so deep underground because of the fact that the soil underneath the city is so marshy, it couldn’t support the construction of a subway line. In order to find stable ground, the subways needed to be built very deep underground. She even said that the deepest subway terminal requires an escalator ride of more than 2 minutes just to reach the terminal. We saw a map of the city’s subway lines and Luba explained to us how the system worked. The terminal we started off in was completely decorated floor-to-ceiling in gray/white marble. It was stunning how clean, bright, and beautiful the station was. We rode the subway for one stop, emerging into a station that was even more beautiful than the one we got on at. Inside this terminal we saw some beautiful decorations, including old Soviet hammer and sickle symbols. Upon exiting the subway station, we saw the beautiful and grand Narva Triumphal Arch built in 1814 to celebrate the Russian’s victory over Napoleon. And Dimitri was right there to pick us up!

 

 

 

Entrance to the Metro station - looks more like something you'd find in Greece rather than in Russia!

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Drop the Metro token into the turnstyle and you're in!

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The Metro in St. Petersburg is one of the deepest in the world. This is what the ride down the escalator looks like

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Inside the Metro there is a map that indicates all of the different subway lines that run through St. Petersburg

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On the wall there is a line map that indicates which direction the train is going and what the stops are. This way you can easily determine if you are headed in the right direction (as long as you know where you're going)

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The train quickly approaches!

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The stations themselves are adorned so beautifully with floor to ceiling marble. Reminders of the Soviet era are seen in the hammer and sickle decorations.

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Carvings that celebrate war victories.

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As we exit the Narvskaya station of the Metro, we are met by the Narval Triumphal Arch celebrating victory over Napoleon

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The crowded train from the airport could also have been because of the track repairs and laying of new tracks just outside the central train station.

 

The airport train normally goes in a 10 minute interval but because of this they only did a 20 minute interval.

 

Yes, on our post cruise stay, we noticed that a lot of the city is under construction right now. City Hall Square and Kongens Nytorv are all closed up and boarded up!

 

I must say, and I mentioned this on my review of Copenhagen post-cruise (hopefully it will post in the next few days) that I did feel like Copenhagen was busier this time around then when I visited 5 years ago. That's not a bad thing. Just an observation.

 

For example, 5 years ago when I went to visit The Little Mermaid, my mom and I were the only 2 people there and we spent 20 minutes there. In fact, we had trouble finding locals who could give us correct instructions as to how to find the statue. This year, when I went with my husband, we walked there from the Indiakaj bus stop and kept seeing large tour buses go by us! In the 20 minutes we spent in the area, we saw about 20 large tour buses go by. We couldn't even take a picture of the statue without all sorts of people in the picture as they were crawling everywhere!

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As a bit of a surprise, we even made a quick photo stop at the Grand Choral Synagogue, then drove by the Nicholas statue and saw St. Isaac’s Cathedral before heading over to the Hermitage. We were told that St. Isaac's Cathedral is the 4th largest in the world - behind St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, The Duomo in Florence and St. Paul's Cathedral in London. I've been to all 4 (even though I didn't get to go inside St. Isaac's on this trip) and I can attest to all 4 of them being spectacular in their own way.

 

At the Hermitage we were met by a man who gave Luba our entrance tickets for the museum. And doing as the Russian’s do, Luba snuck us in the on the side of the long line to get into the Hermitage and we were in within seconds!

 

We had a whirlwind 2.5 hours of walking through the Hermitage and seeing as much as humanly possible! We walked through the Winter Palace, the Small Hermitage, the Old Hermitage, and the New Winter Palace (I don’t know how we didn’t get lost!). We saw the small throne room, the large throne room, the French impressionists, the Dutch/Flemish arts, the Spanish artists, on and on. Luba pointed out the highlight pieces as we continued to wind our way through the museum. It was amazing how much knowledge she had about each painting, why it was significant, how many paintings by each artists existed in the collection, etc. Our feet were all killing us by the end, and yet she probably could have kept going for hours if we weren’t constrained by time! Johnny on the spot, as soon as we exited the Hermitage and crossed the street, Dimitri was right there to collect us all.

 

 

 

 

Driving by St. Isaac's Cathedral

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The grand staircase entrance into the Winter Palace

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Gorgeous plaster statues help to create an aura of greatness and beauty to the Winter Palace

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Like many things in St. Petersburg, what you see is a replica and not always the original of what the item is, due to the war and other factors. In this case, the darker chandelier (the one that's off) is an original, the others are replicas.

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Everything inside the Winter Palace/Hermitage is gilded and glowing and spectacular. To think this used to be a residence and now is a world-class art museum

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We saw the small throne room -- not sure how it could be called small!

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And then there was the large throne room prominently displaying the Imperial Eagle

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Gorgeous tile mosaic floor. Most rooms had amazing parkay flooring with such intricate designs. Amazing!

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Every inch of space was used for artwork. Even the ceilings and domes were painted

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And in case you ever forgot that you were in a Russian Imperial Palace, all you had to do was look up. On the ceiling above you is the Imperial Eagle.

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Even having been there before, the second time still is amazing. It's stunning to walk through rooms filled with painters and artists you've heard of, Cezanne, Monet, Picasso, Da Vinci, etc. And having done this tour before, I knew beforehand that my feet would be killing me with all of the walking, and yet here I was at the beginning of the tour and my feet were killing me! It's room after room, after room, after room of art, artifacts, paintings, sculptures, etc. It's mind boggling to think about how much art is housed at the Hermitage. And it's an honor to be able to walk through and admire all of it.

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We drove across the Neva River and made a quick stop at the spit of Vasilievsky island, the largest island on the Neva delta, which has the best views of the St. Petersburg waterfront with the Winter Palace on one side and Peter and Paul Fortress on the other side. The two tall Rostral Columns also sit on Vasilievsky island, which apparently is a popular spot for wedding parties to take wedding photos.

 

Our final stop of the day was at Peter and Paul Fortress. By this time, we were all tired, but we pushed through! Luba explained to us the history of Peter and Paul Fortress and how the city of St. Petersburg was essentially born at this very sight. The Fortress is now well known as the burial spot for Roman tsars and royalty and the Romanov family. Inside the church, you can see the ceremonial caskets for Peter the Great, Anna, Elizabeth, Peter III, Alexander II and Nikolai I as well as all as the memorial to the Romanov family members and their servants who were assassinated.

 

 

 

The Rostral Columns

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Peter and Paul Fortress

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The spectacular interior of the cathedral. The chandeliers were spectacular as were the colors.

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The pulpit of the cathedral

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Ceremonial caskets honoring the various Czars and royal family members. The caskets for the Czars are marked with the double-headed imperial eagle on the corners

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The room that honors the Romanov family and their household servants who were assassinated

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What a long, but incredibly enjoyable and delightful day spent in St. Petersburg and with Luba. We were all extremely satisfied with SPB Tours and I would certainly recommend them to anyone traveling to St. Petersburg. The tour was worth every single penny we paid.

 

As we were already on an 11-hour tour, I knew that we would be exhausted by the time we came back to the ship, so we never discussed booking a night tour of any sort. I know on my first trip to St. Petersburg, I had wanted to do everything (since I thought I might never be back), so we booked a ballet performance of Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theater. We were exhaused by the time we got to the show, and while we enjoyed the performance and the theater was gorgeous, we all admitted we snoozed through parts of the performance. So, this time I didn't even bother.

 

And, since we knew we'd be back to the ship too late for our normal dining time, we made reservations in advance for Chops Grille for dinner.

 

 

 

 

Returning to the Marine Facade, here's a view of a few of the ships in town. What you don't see is the MSC Poesia, who are docked exactly opposite us on the other side of the facility. They left St. Petersburg shortly after we returned to the ship. The other ships you see in this photo remained in St. Petersburg through the night.

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We discovered a swan towel animal on the bed when we returned to our room

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Chops Grille Starters Menu

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Chops Grille Entree and Sides Menu

Chops Grille Starters Menu

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San Francisco-style sourdough served to every table. Accompanied by cream cheese spread mixed with red peppers, or whipped butter

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Dungeness Crab and Shrimp Cake

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Cheese 'N Onion Soup

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Chops Signature Salad

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18 oz Porterhouse steak

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The four sauces that are brought out to the table after the steaks are delivered: cabernet reduction, green peppercorn, bernaise sauce and chimichurri

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12 oz. New York Steak with green peppercorn and chimichurri sauce. The chimichurri was the recommendation of the waitress who insisted I try it. She was right, it was fantastic!

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Tallinn

 

Luckily, traveling from St. Petersburg to Tallinn for our final port stop, we gained back one of the two hours of time we had lost traveling to the previous 2 ports. I think everyone on the ship needed it! It was quieter than usual around the ship in the morning before our arrival in Tallinn.

 

My husband and I had figured that we’d take it easy in Tallinn. We knew that after having just been to Stockholm, Helsinki, and a long day in St. Petersburg, we’d be tired. So, our plan was to just get into the medieval city and wander around. We didn’t want to be tied down to any plans.

 

However, shortly before we departed on our cruise, I had seen someone on Cruise Critic mention a tour of the Bastion Passages which sounded fascinating. After getting in touch, via email, with the Kiek in de Kok museum, we were able to reserve spots on the 2 pm English guided tour. After booking the Bastion Passages tour, I had planned to purchase the 6-hour Tallinn Card for our visit because the Bastion Passages tour would be covered under the card. I figured it would be easiest to get to the pier and purchase the card because it wasn’t really necessary to order it in advance.

The night before in the Cruise Compass, we had seen that there was an 80% chance of rain for our day in Tallinn, so we prepared ourselves with rain jackets and umbrellas. We had been lucky so far on the cruise with 0 rain at all in any of the cities. We were hoping our luck would hold out for one more day. Although, if there was to be rain on the cruise, this would have been the port I would have preferred it to rain over all the other port days. Of course, when we woke up in the morning and looked out on our balcony, we could see that it was wet, and the rain was coming down!

 

Once the ship docked and was cleared just after 10 am, and we walked outside to discover that the rain was still coming down, we made a decision then to purchase tickets on the shuttle into town (even though Tallinn is completely walkable without the use of the shuttle). I had known from my previous experience in the city that if you walk from the ship to town, you’d end up walking to Fat Margaret and directly into Toompea (the upper Old Town). However, with the shuttle, they take you a little further, and drop you a couple of blocks away from the Viru Gate (flower market, sweater wall area) and the entrance into the lower Old Town. But with the rain coming down, and not wanting to get soaked and having to spend 6 hours walking around the city with wet clothes, we opted to purchase the shuttle tickets and forgo purchasing the Tallinn Card. Shuttle tickets were purchased with cash (either Euros or Dollars – though Euros were the better deal) right on the pier, and the shuttle was waiting right at the end of the pier. It was quick and easy.

 

When the shuttle reached the drop off point, we were greeted by a Tallinn tourism official who gave us instructions, directions to the Old Town, and a map, and we were sent on our way. The official also said she hoped we all brought an umbrella as the skies were sure to open up! As we approached the flower market and saw the Viru Gate just ahead of us, the skies really did open up and it poured rain! We were glad then that we had taken the shuttle and decided to save ourselves, our clothes, and our feet the walk in to town. We ended up ducking into a beautiful shop just before reaching Town Hall that had the most amazing hand crafted Tallinn merchandise and gourmet food. We probably could have spent hours browsing through the shops goods. Not too long after we emerged from the shop, the rain turned to drizzle, and then stopped. It did drizzle again on and off through the day, but luckily it never poured again!

 

 

 

Thursday - Cruise day 6

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Fountain near the Viru Gate - taken while it was raining!

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Town Hall and Town Hall square is considered the central point and gathering spot for lower Old Town. Being a Northern European medieval town, the focus of the towns is generally on Town Halls or City Halls, the way churches and cathedrals would dominate the squares in Southern European cities. Like most Town Hall’s, this one had a tower, and since we’d climbed the Stockholm City Hall Tower and gone up the Olympic Stadium tower in Helsinki, we had to climb this Town Hall tower. At only 118 steps, we thought this would be a piece of cake. Yeah, right! It is so medieval that the steps are uneven in height and get pretty steep towards the top, almost to the point where you feel like you’re on hands and knees crawling and climbing. Also, the spiral of the stairs is so tight and narrow that there’s practically no room for someone going upstairs and someone coming downstairs to pass each other in the stairwell. Finally, the top of the tower is the belfry, and the platform up there really can’t hold more than 4 adults comfortably at one time! It’s tiny. But, the views from the top of the tower are pretty as you can look down upon the square below you, out towards the ocean and see the cruise ships and the passenger ferries, or up towards Toompea and the rest of the upper Old Town. You can get some great photos of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral from here. The climb down this medieval tower is actually almost as hard as the climb up.

 

 

 

 

Tallinn Town Hall

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Town Hall Tower

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View from the tower looking towards Toompea (Upper Old Town)

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Looking down upon Town Hall Square

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Looking towards the rest of Lower Old Town

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Looking out towards the harbor

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We wandered through the side streets leading away from Town Hall square and came upon the Church of the Holy Ghost. While the church requires a tiny entrance fee, once inside, we felt that the cost was well worth it. The church has some beautiful stained glass, as well as as really old wooden pews and railings for second floor seating that runs along both sides of the church. Also, there’s a fantastic wood carved pulpit and a gorgeous altar.

 

 

 

A panoramic look at Tallinn Town Hall Square

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Church of the Holy Ghost

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Beautiful stained glass inside the Church of the Holy Ghost

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Interior of the Church of the Holy Ghost

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Pulpit inside the Church of the Holy Ghost

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