Tallinn, Estonia

After a day and a half at sea, we landed in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

We had incredible weather and it's a super charming town - especially the "Old Town".

Our first stop was "The Sweater Wall" because there were a few ships in port that day and we wanted the best pick of sweaters while everyone else was off learning about its history and all that jazz. PRIORITIES!
It's right along the old city wall - about 10 different kiosks with more sweaters and knitted goods than you know what to do with.

Estonia is known for their cloth goods - linens, knit, etc.
I loved the colors of thread/yarn in this store.

They definitely play up the Medieval theme.
Sugared nuts anyone?
It was in the low 70s right there and this gal was ccccold.
Notice her beautiful long sweater.

We started to see the Matryoshka dolls in full force. People on the ship warned us to be careful about stuff not being hand-painted, etc. But then they wanted to charge us an arm and a leg for it. Estonia was a good place to buy these. We had little time in Russia to shop.

Notice on the right hand side all of the, ahem, varieties.
Shrek was just out to make a few Euros.

Absolutely loved the quaint, cobblestone streets, the interesting colors and architecture.
So charming.

Even their drain spouts caught our eyes.

St. Mary's Church.
Drat the scaffolding.
They are supposed to do that in the off-season!

The Estonian flag

Stairway to heaven?

Amazing flower market right outside the old city walls.

As we were walking down the steps near the old town wall, we saw this little babushka selling her hand-knit booties. She was so adorable and so my mom and I both bought a pair.
Surprisingly, Max fits into the pair I bought.

It's little things like this that make such great memories to me. And I have a hard time believing that you can experience these things with a huge tour group.
Definitely to each their own but I'm really happy with the methods we chose.