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Tallinn, Estonia

Posted on March 9th, 2010 in Estonia, Europe by robjkentjr

We stayed in Tallinn for three nights in a beautiful and friendly hostel right in the middle of old town.  Despite us walking around the entire time, we hardly saw all the highlights this town has to offer.
On the left, is the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral in the Old Town.  It was built in typical Russian Revival style around 1894.
A quaint, scenic tourist spot would be complete without a McDonald’s.
One of the main market streets deserted just a bit past sundown.
This is the Pühavaimu Church, which is the city’s oldest church and clock.
The Tallinn Town hall built in 1402 is the center of Christmas activities and the second best market we went to.  Rasa is still bitter she did not buy those woolen socks we saw.
This is the Olde Hansa Restaurant in the city center.  One of the most authentic meals of bear sausages and local salmon we had on the trip.
Here we are toasting with our grog and mead by the liter.
This was the city that inspired us to plan a return trip in 2012 to experience all the Christmas markets with our mothers, even though they are not so keen on the idea of a Baltic winter.  Our next destination is a day trip from the port here to Helsinki, Finland, which turned out to be not at all like an African border crossing by ferry.

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Riga, Latvia

Posted on February 28th, 2010 in Europe, Latvia by robjkentjr

The biggest reason we chose Riga to kick off our Europe tour was the crazy ticket price of $100 from Morocco.  We were actually flying to Lithuania but for kicks got off the plane in Riga and were not disappointed with this cosmopolitan city.
This is St. Peter’s Church in the heart of old Riga.  It was built in 1209 AD and has the flashy new Double Coffee right next to it.
The train track bridge across the Daugava River.  These are the actual colors of the shot: orange sky reflecting the sodium lights and blue lights along the side of the bridge.
This was the very modern mall built around the old façade of an existing building.  It enclosed about four square blocks with four floors of shops.
We call this the pork-a-ladium.  It is now a market that was built in the old zeppelin hangers.
Rasa enjoying her lasanu and garlic baked rye bread that we bought at the market.
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral across the city by the Esplanade stop.
A colorful cobblestone alleyway in old town Riga.
All together, we spent four nights here and loved every minute of it.  We hopped on a cheap EuroLines Bus to Tallinn, Estonia and after a 4-hour ride we were sampling bear meat and mead in the Christmas Market.

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