We spent the morning riding and walking around greater Tallinn. We drove around the newer parts and walked the old town's cobblestoned streets. The city has a lot of green parkland which makes it a pretty place.
What follows are several gleanings from the interpretation provided by this morning's local guide. A former part of the Hanseatic League, Estonia has only been independent between the two world wars and since 1991. Depending upon whom you talk to, major influences here have been Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Now the Estonians are trying to become themselves, living in their own traditions.
One thing that seems unusual is that there are numbers of Baptists and Methodists here, in addition the usual Lutherans, Orthodox, and Roman Catholics. For most Europeans today, religion plays a relatively minor role in life. I've seen no evidence that Estonia is different in this regard.
Our guide said Estonians have relatively positive memories of the pre-Communist Russian Empire. Apparently the Tsars liked this area and treated it relatively well. If anything, the Emperor protected ordinary Estonians from their local warlords. The guide was quoting what he'd heard his great grandmother say about the pre-1917 era. A young man, I suspect he cannot personally remember when Estonia was anything but independent.
A number of outstanding officers in the Russian, and later Soviet navies were Estonians of whom they remain proud. One such was Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen after whom a Russian base on King George Island in the Antarctic is named. The other DrC and I saw Bellingshausen base and the Russian Orthodox Church there earlier this year when we visited nearby Frei Base (Chilean), to medevac an injured passenger out to a hospital.
