Tallin, the capital of Estonia dates from the 13th century when it became the northern-most member of the Hanseatic League. It was known as Reval until 1917 when Estonia became independent and changed the city's name to Tallinn. The city has a population of over 400,000 and abougt 35 percent of the people of Estonia live there.

We took a shuttle from the ship to the city center. From there we took a hop-on bus around the city, up to the old fortress and to the Russian Orthodox cathedral. Then we walked back down to the central city to get the shuttle back to the ship.

We stopped at a central market where local produce and crafts were being sold. A lot of amber is found locally and Laura got a really beautiful silver and amber bracelet. The day turned out to be much colder than we had been led to expect so Laura bought a wool shawl to keep warm.

We had lunch at an Indian restaurant that had really good food and of course tried the local beer which was good but a little light for my taste.