Had a quick lunch before putting on the yellow polo (required escort threads) and made it down to the coach bus for the walking tour. I herded 13 guests as we wound our way through the amazingly well preserved medieval town of Tallinn. 17th century cobblestone, churches of all faiths, gift shops of amber stone, linens, Scandinavian sweaters. Tallinn was ruled by basically ever major power through the ages. Romans, Danes, Germans, Russians... Yet all powers helped preserve the integrity of this unesco site. It was pretty amazing considering all the wars and turmoil and terrible architecture (thanks for the memories Soviet Union!) that has occurred on this soil. Speaking of the USSR, one of the tours for guests this afternoon was a "Back to the USSR" tour. Instead of a comfy coach bus, this tour bus was probably 50 years old and no shit, stalled in front of the other buses. A guy in soviet uniform stormed out and ordered the male guest to get out and push it along so they could jump start it! It was all tongue and cheek and part of the tour, but we all had a good laugh. It's good that Estonians have a sense of humor about the whole thing I guess. It's like "Hey, you oppressed us for 50 years but it's cool! PS. We still hate you."
We walked around the old part of town and then down into the lower part of the old city. Had coffee in a 15th century building (with free wifi of course) and listened to 15/16th tunes courtesy of a three piece band playing authentic instruments. It was a scene out of Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure or the Holy Grail.
Back to the boat for some exercise, dinner and then music starts at 6.
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